Great Wisdom Temple, Hat Yai

The Great Wisdom Temple was one of the most rewarding stops of my whole sightseeing trip in Hat Yai. Rewarding in a sense that I was pretty happy with most of the pictures taken there. It was only a brief 20 minute stop since we were due to check-in at the Lee Garden Plaza Hotel at 2pm and we wanted to have a quick look around Songkla on the same day.

I was greeted with two of this situated at both sides of the arch as we enter the temple

I did not have time to get to know the history of the temple since I was pretty much busy snapping pictures with the limited time I had but from what I was told, the temple is actually a learning center for Buddhist teaching.

Most Thai believes that all man must become a monk when they reach the age of 20 (or when they feel that they are at a right age). This act is said to enable their mothers to be blessed and move on to heaven. However the duration of which they remain as a monk may vary from a few weeks to even years (the former being the most common). This revelation explains why monks are a very respectable group of people in Thailand.

The 8 storey pagoda stands out prominently as you enter the Buddhist Park

The temple itself consist of a couple of administrative buildings and the main Buddhist Park situating an 8 storey pagoda and various statues scattered prominently all over the park. I was pretty impressed with the set up and the fact that they have a computer lab on a separate building. Monks nowadays are really tech savvy.

One of the statues at the Buddhist Park

The laughing Buddha chilling out at the park

The last 3 pictures is my favourite among all the pictures taken here. The first one being the fire symbol located at the top of the arch (at the entrance) and the Buddhist burial ground of some sort which I took in a rush since everyone was already rushing towards the bus.

The fire carrying lotus

Love this pic, feels so serene

Buddhist monk statues

To those going to Hat Yai, the Great Wisdom Temple is certainly one of the places you would want to see.

The Infamous Hat Yai Bazaar

Update: Thanks to Sz, I finally found out that the bazaar is called Hat Yai Plaza

A trip to Hat Yai would not be complete if you have not visited the "infamous" Hat Yai Bazaar. I have no idea what this bazaar is called (anyone can tell me?) but just tell the Tut Tut driver that you want to go to the market/bazaar and they will drop you off here.

Oh yeah, for those coming to Hat Yai, the current rate for Tut Tut is 20 bhat per person if your traveling within town. You should not be paying anything more then that.

The bazaar consist of narrow alleyways packed with rows after rows of stalls selling items ranging from local food products, clothing's, kitchenware to bags and shoes. You can find many fake branded items here cheap and of reasonable quality.

Be sure to bargain when your here. A good start off point would be 50% lower then the asking price. Do not hesitate to bargain lower or you will be paying a lot more then what the item is worth.

I bought a collar shirt at 150 baht, the offer price was 480 baht (I tend to bargain shamelessly).

To say that the bazaar is a huge maze is no understatement. I lost my way a few times trying to locate the shop that I wanted to go back to a few times.

This picture is taken from the shop I got my 3 pairs of shoes for RM130
Its called the "2nd row shoe shop". Stupid me forgot to take a picture of the signboard.

To be continued......

Hat Yai Trip : Part 1

Say hello to my bus. I said my bus because we chartered the 26 seater bus for this trip. We wanted free and easy so it made sense chartering a bus for the trip. I got a pleasant surprise when Lily told me the price would include a local guide that would be joining us when we reach Sadao (the thai side of the border that we shall be passing through).

The bus we chartered

I must say, despite the looks, the seat was really comfortable

We started our journey at around 1am and reached Bukit Kayu Hitam which is the transit point to Thailand at around 6am. Since we were pretty early, there was hardly any queue. While queuing to have my border pass stamped, I happily took a few pictures only to be stopped later on by an immigration officer. Apparently we are not allowed to take pictures. I was a bit puzzled to be honest since I don't see why we are not allowed to do so.

It was after this shot that I heard a shout "hei! tak boleh ambil gambar disini!!"

And what do you do the first thing you are at the immigration centre? Duty free shop!

I ended up not buying any booze since I could not bring them back tax free due to my short stay there.

Once we pass the Thai immigration point, we met Ah Sun, our Thai tour guide. He is a middle aged Thai Chinese that speaks fluent Cantonese.

We were asked what we wanted to have for breakfast and out of a sudden Lily shouted Bah Kut Teh. I was wondering to myself, "why Bah Kut Teh, I want TOM YAM!". Anyways, Bah Kut Teh it was for our breakfast. That's what I like about personalized tour like this, we decide what to do and the guide just brings us there.

The "no name" Bah Kut Teh shop

As you shall be seeing later on in my blog, I realised that many coffee shops type eateries do not have signboards in Hat Yai. But instead you see banners of all sorts hung all over.

I am not sure if it was due to hunger but the Bah Kut Teh was excellent. Its very mild compared to our Bah Kut Teh's back home in the sense that you don't have as much herbal taste in them. They come in a choice of 2 type of rice, plain white rice or "wu tau" race (yam rice). We also had "Mui Choi Kao Yoke" and Curry Fish. The curry fish was really good and somehow the taste reminisce "Rempah Nanas" (an Indonesian curry fish dish).

Bah Kut Teh

Yam Rice

"Mui Choi Kao Yoke" - That's Cantonese by the way, not Thai

Curry Fish that costs us RM80. They use the expensive "bawal" fish (Tau Tai). So after hearing that I wasn't too shocked from the bill given to us

Thai Teh Ais, taste the same as the one in Malaysia =))

To be continued...............