1,350.9km of goodness! Part Two ~

Now that we've passed through the Thai Immigration, we had arrived at Sadao, Thailand. Bustling town with fresh smell of hawker road stall food and general lawlessness. You could see many people doing their trading at this border town. We had asked our van driver on the duration to arrive at Haadyai. [ BTW, we had hired the van for RM 80.00. ]. He smiled and told us that it would take about one hour or so. Our destination was Asian Hotel at Niphat Uthit 3 Road, Haadyai. I was thinking, " No kidding. It's that far,huh?". Anyway, along the journey, I could see that the scenery were no different from the ones in Malaysia- full of rubber trees and industrial lots all in the Thai signage/language. Anyway, when the driver told us that we would arrive at our hotel in time, I wasn't aware that he was speeding all the way along the highway. I tell you, he was really testing the van to its maximum speed capacity and he was practically sounding his horn every five minutes to ask the traffic in front of him to clear the route. Steven later confided that he thought he has lost his life when he sat at the front seat of the van and the driver was grinning all the way to our hotel!
A little over the hour, we arrived at our hotel, Asian Hotel~ nice, clean and cosy hotel at the heart of Haadyai. [ Baht 800 per night w/o breakfast or Baht 880 per night with breakfast! ]Yunno, I have heard of the notoriety of Haadyai many times before but I thank God that we really had a good time in Haadyai. The people were met especially the tuk-tuk drivers near our hotel were friendly and ever smiling. I guess, the tuk tuk rides were really memorable times because Steven would always call out "toot-toot" from the back and it would make a lot of Thai motorist to laugh and smile. That's Steven speciality! The six of us [ Steven, Wan Sin, S.Ling, S.Yuen and JWee ] really had a great time whenever we sat in the tuk-tuk. Generally, the locals here are quite stingy in smiles except when in humour or when you are paying for your goods! I guess, you see some good genuine smiles sometimes.

One friend used to tell me that if I don't eat the braised pork leg, my stay in Haadyai would be incomplete and unfulfilled! So, we went in search of the braised pork leg rice in Haadyai. I guess, the best we've had was the one stall near a lot of goldsmith shops where it serves good braised pork leg, pork gearbox soup [ very tasty & super duper good ] and roasted pork [ siew yok ]. The queue is long and yunno know it's where the best braised prk leg is served! The best staple food I've ever had. Street food is abundance in Haadyai. Simple sidewalk stall manned by this Thai lady near our hotel selling sweet pancakes/crepe was our favourite tea time special. You've got to taste it to know it. [ Can't describe it - Baht 30 for 8 pieces of crepes/pancakes ] Then, there's our market food stall breakfast at Prachatipat Road where the road is terribly small in size but the hawkers food were in abundance. We had so much food such as phadthai - Thailand version of char kueh teow, Thai bee hoon noddle soup and fried chicken Thai style. I guess, the most memorable for me was when we sat down at a small drink stall sipping our tea and coffee. Surprisingly, the tea and coffee tasted much better than the coffee shop nearby.

Then, it's off to the supermarkets [ Odean, Central, Le Garden, Robinson and many others ] for some shopping. The ladies went berserk on brassiere hunting and rightly so as they are quite cheap especially with sales on. However, we were actually more into sidewalk stalls and we practically bargained like mad in our shopping time. Our best shopping place was the night market near the city bus terminal along Chotwithiyakul 3 Road which was quite a way out from the hustle and bustle of the busier streets in Haadyai. The place is mostly frequented by the locals. If the locals are gathering there, then, the items in sale would have been cheaper, right? Rightly so, we got our best bargains from this place and it was really worth it. We bought 2 three quarter Dickers pants for JWee for Baht 150 [ That's RM 7.50 per pants! ] As for me, I got 3 origigi [ instead of original ] branded jerseys and it cost me Baht 180 each. That to me was a great bargain. Ah! Yes! It was at this place that I had fried grasshopper/locust as night snack together with Wan Sin, JWee and Steven. The taste ~ salty, crispy and not too bad! [ No wonder John the Baptist could survive on these! ] But I didn't have the stomach for the grub and the worm that were on sale. Looked too soft for me, actually.The next best thing to do after a tiring day of walk and shopping is to have a foot massage. All of us actually walked into Sawass Dee foot massage centre to have a foot massage for an hour. The price - Baht 200 each for an hour! It is located in front of Mc Donalds of Lee Garden Plaza where the hub of activity is as it is frequent by foreigners and tourist alike. To be honest, I almost peed in my pants because of the pain that was inflicted during the massage session. Don't get me wrong. The massage was really good but I couldn't stand some of the pain to my leg calves and knees, actually as I had had injuries during my hockey games days. All in all it was a good massage and no hanky panky,actually. What I really wanted was a full body massage as it would be a nice finale to my visit to Haadyai. Anyway, we couldn't find any decent body massage parlour or we don't know where to go and so, we just scrapped the idea and moved on. It was really a fun time in Haadyai. I guess, I would miss the sights and colours of the morning market especially the flowers stands and I would miss the braised pork leg of Haadyai. We really had a great time of fellowship, talking, laughing and having a good time together.

People used tell me that in Haadyai, there are 3 things you must do as Haadyai is famous for it namely " char boar ", " pai sin" and shopping. I'll give it a miss for the first two but the shopping is fine with me. Anyway, my experience here in Haadyai had been braised with lots of fun, garnished with laughter and served with great fellowship.
Again, as we arrived at the border, we were told by the van driver to put in RM 1 for goodwill appreciation for the officer on duty! Niamah! Out of not so good will, we did just that! We want no trouble and so, we just slipped it in our papers and get out of there as fast as we could. Then, as we exited the Malaysia Immigration, we had to pay RM 3.50 toll charges for the ride from the Malaysia immigration post to the no man's land area! Wah! This one is really too much, man! Super duper cut throat! Anyway, it was nice to be back in Malaysia ; breathing Malaysian air and enjoying Malaysian not so corrupt system-loh!

Taiping is up next!