Short Trip to Hatyai

*just typing this out at the end of 2023. I had this trip on 2018 (guess, too long ago). The reason I did this was due to the fact that I was doing cabbage fermenting and I forgot the steps. So I read back my own blog for the steps, although I am not earning from this blog, it helps to preserve my memory. I checked back all the photos taken during the trip and it was fun. Getting older and I might forgetting more details. So, here it is. 

Although Thailand is next to Malaysia. It's not the first foreign country I visited. One reason was I didn't start to travel until I started work due to economy issue. And by the time I have some money to travel, a lot of my friends have visited Thailand, especially Hatyai. So, I didn't manage to find someone who is willing to travel with me to Thailand. And I have never travel with night train before, so I wanted to use night train to go to Hatyai, many were skeptical with this thought. But, finally two of my friends decided to accompany me for the night train trip. 

I was so excited and once the train ticket is available, I bought the tickets immediately (Kuala Lumpur --> Padang Besar). Well, after me and my friends boarded the train, I only realized that I bought the opposite direction seat. So, the train was moving backwards from our seat orientation. Ahh, reminder to all, please check the seat orientation before booking, or else it is not a pleasant experience. Another incident was, after we were seated, a guy came to me and said that it was his seat, I was like "cannot be, I triple checked the date and seat number!" I took out my ticket printout, check seat number, same; check day, same. Finally the month, that guy actually booked a month later on the same day. Ahh, it really made me anxious for nothing. 

On this long distance train, power plug is available. It is located between and under the seats. I did some research before I boarded so I knew that the power plug is available, it took me awhile to find the plug though. It is hidden inside a white cover. 

the all important power socket

Well, the thought of night train is romantic at first. However, me and my friends had trouble sleeping, it was so cold and bright. And I didn't know that it was  not a express train, it stopped at so many stations. My fault for didn't check that fact first. However, in 2023, I think I read somewhere that KTM is having a special night train to southern Thailand. The night train I took was years ago. 

Anyway, we reached Padang Besar really early and we took a "private taxi" to the border for immigration check and then into Hatyai. When we reached our hotel, it was still too early (maybe before 8am), but all of us were so tired and sleepy and we asked the receptionist whether we could check in early to sleep and of course the answer is no. Our initial itinerary was to go eat breakfast at a famous breakfast stall, we couldn't stand the sleepiness, so we just slept on the sofas in the lobby area. I guessed due to this, the receptionist woke us up and told us to just check in. We checked in and slept until almost 10 to 11am, then only we went out for the breakfast.  I think we had Bak Kut Teh, well not bad but not so special for me. 

I don't remember must for the rest of the trip, I just remembered that my friends bought so many kid's clothes from the stalls, we visited stalls after stalls. Especially the Frozen themed dresses, sandals, etc for their daughter and nieces. I am still not a fan of that kind of dress. For the boy's clothes, normal with characters from transformer, dinosaurs, etc. Apart from kids' clothing, shoes, we also shopped for dried longan (I regretted this, it is space consuming and heavy and the price is not really that expensive in Malaysia), a packet of pickled vegetable which was sweet (recommended by a few aunties that we were on the same train with, my mother couldn't accept this, our usual flavour was salty), a very expensive and small dried sea cucumber packet (this my mom said still ok, good buy). And we went to the Tesco in Hatyai, we bought Thai instant noodle, seaweed junk food, dried fruits, Pocky, etc. All these are not that difficult to get in Malaysia nowadays, even if we can't get it in physical stores, we can get it easily online. 

I only remembered we went to various Pasar Malam and Pasar Pagi. And in most of the markets, we were pretty sure that most of the visitors there were Malaysians, we went on a school holiday. We only visited 2 tourist attractions I think. Too long ago. We went to a temple with big Guanyin statue and a temple with sleeping buddha. Ah, we also went to the river site market. I looked back at my photos, most of the times we were there, it was raining. However, it was still a fun trip because I was with my friends, I don't really get the appeal of traveling alone, yes, you could make new friends when you are alone, but it will be very awkward if you meet with someone not aligned with your religious or political views, unless what you discussed was something like food or travels? Food is dangerous topic too, Malaysians are too defending when food is involved. 

Taking about food, I had a very delicious roasted pork when I was in Hatyai, no wonder my relatives brought roasted pork all the way from Hatyai. The Thai dishes generally are ok for me. I went to Tianjin for work trip on June this year, I can only say Asean foods are more suitable to my palate. 

Transportation wise, I think tuk-tuk is so over rated. It's not covered, so you have to endure the emissions from the vehicles on the road, and they charged as they like. I think it's better to take Grab. I went to Hatyai a year after that bringing my mother, and I took Grab, it is reasonable priced, the drivers we met were more polite, the road trip became more pleasant. 

I missed traveling with friends, but with job commitments and my friends' family and job commitments, it will be a long long time before I travel with friends again. And a year after this trip, I brought my mom to Hatyai using flight of course, no more night train, and somehow she was not enjoying the trip. I guessed it is due to my bad planning. Anyway, I made a decision, if I am going to bring my family members for trip again, it will be with tour companies. No more DIY!