One those days, I truly miss the presence of my "family" - Vive & Sathy plus Errol, Jessica, Josephine and Jocelyn as well. I really wished they could have joined us for this trip. It would have been more epic and fun. Anyway, the other families that was with my family for the trip had made the trip a truly fun-filled and memorable one. So, thank you to LGin, Steven & WSin, Jason & Shirley, Bryan & Timothy.
We started out the morning of our trip by having a good breakfast in Penang together with Vive & Sathy. Then we bid farewell to Vive & Sathy with a heavy heart before proceeding towards Bukit Kayu Hitam and the Malaysian-Thai border. This was our yearly trip for the past 3 years after serving at Tabernacle of Praise - Christmas with the Community event. That day, there wasn't a crowd at "no man's land" and it was easy getting a van. I thanked God that we got a good and comfortable van. As we got to the Thai border and immigration, I must say that some things just don't change and surprisingly, there wasn't any hassle at all. As we boarded our van and got our way to Haadyai town, we were on good mood and looking forward for a good trip. Along they way, Steven made reservations at one of the restaurants that we missed out last year but this time, we managed to get a dinner reservation. I know that we are going to have one great dinner that night.
We arrived at Asian Hotel, our accommodation for two nights at about 2.00pm on Christmas eve. As our rooms were not ready, we decided to put our bags at the front office of the hotel while we proceeded out for lunch at I-Restaurant, located at the back section of the hotel. Ahhh! Our usual suspects of fried pork leg, tom yum , slice fish cakes, vegetables, other foods plus sugar cane drinks filled our stomachs. There was plenty of silence due to the niceness of the food. With belly filled and the tantalising prospect of a great collapse on a comfortable bed, we immediately made plans for a walkabout for some shopping at the nearby Robinson Departmental Store, Odeon Departmental Store and later to Central Shopping Complex. Yup, the walkabout made us all alive and chirpy like birds on a tree. We didn't want to waste an ounce of sunlight available so that we can cover as much places as possible. However, food was gently on our mind and menu ; as always. The eating never stops and it was fun all the way. The 7 Eleven store was such a convenient place to get drinks and whatever we wanted. It was our all time favourite shop during our stay at Haadyai.
As evening neared, we boarded the tuk-tuk to our restaurant destination. I know for certain that we are going to have real food fun at this restaurant and I was not dissappointed. Food comprising of fried pork leg, paku salad with eggs and prawns, fish cake with special peanut & cucumber sauce, BBQ ribs, BBQ char siew, Mango salad, Thai Green Curry made our day a heavenly day for food. For dessert, we had black glutinous rice with banana, glutinous rice with sweet potato, white glutinous rice with banana, lin yong and red beans. It was truly a meal of great taste and great finese preparation.
Dinner was the most satisfying meal ever and bill was simply at 1900baht for 4 plates of paku salad, one plate of fried pork leg and 2 plates each of the rest of the dishes - That's 15 plates of dishes in total!!! Simply marvelous. I could have sworn that the tuk-tuk had tilted to one side during our trip back from the restaurant. I didn't hear though if the tuk-tuk driver could have sworn in the Thai language at the weight he had to bear while driving the over weight tuk-tuk. It was a good adventure going to the fringe of Haadyai town for our meals. Still not finished for the night, we had pork porridge for supper which was superb before we "raided " the 7-Eleven store for our black soya bean drink and interesting stuff sold there.
The other fun was the tea time where we headed out to the nearby market for street food which included fried pork loins, BBQ pork satay, delightful pancakes, home-made sausages, prawn fritters, cobs of boiled corns ( this is a vege,ok? ), fried spicy chicken and plain pandan-flavoured glutinous rice. Yup, we didn't miss our pork burger and spinach pie from McDonalds, Haadyai either. One friend even remarked that many pigs will have to be slaughtered during our stay there! I say, bring on the pork pieces anytime!! Hahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.........!
Anyway, one of the most moving moments I had was during my very early morning walk to the market. You see, I do wake up quite early and so, I had taken the liberty to get breakfast for the family and also, enjoy the early morning sights when most people would be warmly-snuggled and tucked in the comfort of their bed. In one of my walks in the morning, I saw a row of monks lined up along the street leading to the market and they held prayers before proceeding to the various intersections of the roads to accept alms for the day. They just stood at one corner two by two , received their alms ( usually in the form of sweet cakes, non-meat food stuff and garland of flowers ) and offering prayers. One that caught my eye and stuck in my mind's vision was this elderly couple who gave alms to one of the monks and then, the couple went on their knees on the tarred road to receive their prayers. My God, the tarred road is a roughly tarred road and I can't imagine how much dirt had been collected from the same road. Such was the people's devotion towards their monks and their God. For the monks, I have not seen them taking any cash nor baht ( Thai currency ) as alms. It is always food stuff and non-meat stuff.
As I sat at one roadside drinks stall sipping my 10baht kopi-o, I saw the Thais blessing their monks and I took some photographs because I found it to be interesting indeed. Such devotion ; such acts of hospitality! I realised too that when you put your palms together, say "Sawadeekaa /Sawadeekap" or plain "Kaap" to wish them or to thank the people or asked them about food or do enquiries as they serve you, they would smile and serve you better. I believe that if we respect the cultures of these people, they would not be hostile or even be rude to us. I am thankful that the people I have met at the market had been smiling and always been courteous to me. Even the Thai lady who was selling the "yu char kueh" thought I was a Thai when I put my palms together to greet her with the only Thai line I know that is " Sawadeekaa". When she spoke to me in Teochew, I was relieved and I bought 20baht worth of mini butterfly like shaped yu car kueh and she seemed to give me a lot of yu char kueh!!! She smiled, I smiled. The universal language of " Hello and thank you", I guess. Like I said, I am always intrigued by the Thai people. I guess, I still have many things to learn. One thing I intend to do is to learn the Thai language one day when I have the time for it. Probably from my colleague who could speak Thai. I believe that if I could master the language, I could communicate better and get a whole lot of things done while in Haadyai. Will put this in my "Things To Do List 2013".
All in all , it was a fun, good and stupendously wonderful trip as far as the food and fellowship are concerned. The golden question that had been asked to me as I land my foot on Malaysian soil : Will I be back to Haadyai? Your guess is as good as mine............................ Cheers & Happy New Year , everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment