2019 Drive to Thailand – Hey Hat Yai!

Chue Chang Temple … one of the many beautiful temples all over the city

We hardly ever come to Hat Yai, preferring to bypass it in favour of other rest stops. We always hear how it is a boring place with nothing much to see or do. This year, we made a decision to spend 2 nights here on the journey back home to Singapore.

Driving in the Hatyai City Centre

My first impression was that this was a city of contrasts. It is definitely an up and coming city with an increasing number of “middle-rise” developments in the city centre. At the same time, you can find plenty of old style shop-houses, with plenty of “kampung spirit”, people living their doors open, with their living rooms in full view of the people passing by. Very interesting life!

There is also plenty of yummy food all over town. We especially loved the chicken rice at Betong Chicken Rice. Even though the online reviews are mixed, I “dabaoed” the Chicken Rice and Roast Pork back for my wife and kids and they loved it! Considering the very reasonable price we paid, the food tasted really good, and it left my family wanting to go back for more!

We also enjoyed the Hatyai Dimsum. Good that we could just go up and just point to the dishes that we wanted. No need to speak Thai! The food tasted different from the normal Dimsum which we are accustomed to. It was delicious, with nice sauce to acccompany the food!

As we only had two nights here, really not much time to explore a lot of the city and to eat enough of the food!

Hatyai is also a great place to get a massage or foot reflex. After browsing through some reviews, I decided to try the one at DD Thai Ancient Massage. My normal experience of foot reflexology in Thailand is that it is not as good as those you can find in Malaysia or Singapore. At DD, the standards are comparable! Not bad at all, worth coming back again next time!

The only thing I disliked about our stay in Hatyai was our stay at P – Residence , which is a budget hotel type of accommodation. The online reviews were decent, but we felt that with the amount we paid, we could have found a much better accommodation that what we experienced. The room was a good size, but on the old side. The WIFI wasn’t that great, and parking is a bit of a problem, with only roadside space available just outside the hotel. You have to mount the side walk to park as close to the building wall as possible, so that other vehicles still have room to access the small alleyway. I think for an overnight stay, this place is still okay, but if you intend to stick around for a few days, then you definitely should look elsewhere.

All in all, we didn’t get to do much here, but it was nice to have the chance to explore a new place. Definitely worth coming back again to take a closer look!

Part 16 – Kuala Lumpur Jam Packed…