Well okay then.....a long weekend in southern Thailand! It had been at least days since we’d flown back from our Easter break in England but who are we to spend a 3-day weekend at home?
We took the night train up to Padang Besar, on the border, in style – yep our first ever experience of first class train travel. At RM200 for a private double berth with sink it certainly can’t be classed as outrageous extravagance. Immigration was the fastest we’d ever experienced on entering Thailand but the times we’d been told for the connecting train were somewhat optimistic. Despite hanging around the border station for longer than necessary we still reached Hat Yai in good time and were checking into the Novotel well before noon. This business style 4* hotel was plonked right in the centre of town and a great deal at RM150 a night.
Hat Yai has definitely shaken off its sleazy image and if there are any girly bars left we certainly didn’t stumble across them. The bulk of the visitors are businessmen and Malaysians on a shopping spree. We didn’t have any set plans so decided to simply wander around town and take in the Thainess of it all. Actually we did have one aim for the weekend namely; to indulge in as much of the local cuisine as possible. Following our recent venture out of Asia we were in need of a rice and spice fix. The wats are beautiful and always worth popping in for a nosey and photo or two – we found one set in lovely gardens. Then we headed down towards one of the canals that dictate the town’s layout and happened upon a street market. Unfortunately they were shutting up shop but some of the locals were delighted to see a couple of farangs (white folk) wandering through their suburb. We then followed the canal back to town and had a quick look to see what shopping options were available. It quickly became clear that the shops were not going to be offering western tourist style wares. So that left us with finding a local food and beverage outlet with a good people watching spot. The highlight was watching the traffic police getting soaked in a tropical downpour while ‘improving’ the flow of the vehicles.
The next morning we strolled down to the local songtheaw rank and were quickly pointed in the direction of the necessary vehicle. Songkhla is on the coast and less than an hour travelling by public transport. The centre of Songkhla was busy as there was an extensive Sunday market in full swing. Not surprisingly we sniffed out the food stalls and ticked off a few more tasty bites from the wish list. Even though it was off season there were quite a few tourists around with it being the Labour Day long weekend break. The beach area was much nicer than we’d expected with the sands extending for a few kilometres, quite wide and pine tree lined. Even the water looked reasonably inviting despite there being a number of large ships and tankers on the horizon.
We were too early to check in but just in time to find a scrumptious bowl of soup in one of the many beach side restaurants. The first challenge was to find a place open and track down a menu displaying what we fancied. Got the first bit ticked off but on entering and leaving a couple of places decided to skip the menu part and just ask for a bowl of tom yum kung and another of tom kha gai. The waitress flicked through the menu several times so she could check our order but couldn’t find either dish listed. We repeated what we’d like and since she clearly knew what we wanted scuttled off to the kitchen to place our order. You can’t beat ordering things off the menu as you know it’ll be made to the locals’ palate i.e. spicy and most delicious. You’d think a bowl of soup would make a light lunch but the portions were enormous so it was time to check in a find somewhere to lounge around.
We’d booked into Pavilion Beach Hotel and even though it was not as well appointed as the Novotel in town it was still excellent value at about 20 quid B&B. We decided to go and find a quiet spot on the beach before taking advantage of the hotel’s lovely little pool. Only an hour or so earlier the beach had been relatively quiet but it was now jammed packed as far as the eye could see. Luckily the pool was empty so we pulled up a couple of loungers and whiled away the afternoon taking a dip and dipping into our novels. I’ll bet you can’t believe me and Steve can actually manage to do so little of a weekend!
Early kick off was looming so we got ready and headed back into town assuming there would be a couple of local’s places showing the football. Wrong. By the time we got back to the strip of bars along the front I’d missed a big chunk of my game. Never mind - Liverpool were winning, we’d finally found the footy, they had cool beer in the fridge and City would be up next. All the results went in our favour and we retired with smiles on our faces.
That nicely concludes the weekend. The next morning we partook in the free but not very tasty breakfast, jumped in a taxi to the airport and flew back to KL. Would we go back? Would we recommend a trip? It’s certainly not somewhere I’d go out of my way to visit but if, like us, you’ve lived in the area for a while and fancy seeing somewhere different then why not?
