Day 11: Hat Yai, Tuesday 18th June 2024
Fine / Stormy / Fine, 32°
NZ$1 = THB22
THB1 = NZ$0.04
Up at 8am, downstairs for breakfast at 8:30am. Back to the room, sent our e-visa’s from Cambodia to the reception to print, picked those up, and headed out at 9:45am. The tourist visa for Cambodia ( T-Visa ) can be bought online before arrival, or on arrival, so we had applied online a few days ago for these; $USD36 each for 1 month single entry and they came through after 3 days. We just needed to print them out for our arrival in Siem Reap.
Got a Grab to Songkhla ( 31km, THB383 / $17 ) out on the coast. Arrived at 10:45am and walked through the old town with it’s ‘shop houses’ ( shop at the front then a courtyard then a house at the back ). This area feels like it is starting to develop into a cool district with some cafes etc scattered around but it has many empty shops and buildings. And it is not fair to compare different towns but after walking around the Old Town of George Town this seemed a little unexciting.
We then walked the 1.5kms to the beach ( at the Gulf of Thailand ) passing a lot of government buildings, schools and some large and small temple complexes, arriving at 11:30am. The heat and lack of shade was starting to take it’s toll so we grabbed a drink and sat at a 7Eleven for a while ( most 7Elevens have a small seating area ), then walked along the beach front north to Samila Beach. The beach seemed quite busy for a Tuesday and there was some nice shade along the walk. When we got to Samila Beach we looked at the mermaid statue then wandered through the little food market along the pedestrian roadway. There were horses giving rides on the beach and there were a lots of people around. We walked to the end of the roadway to look at a park with a waterfall, then found some shade.
We ordered a Grab back to the hotel at 12:30 ( THB380/$17 ), arriving at 1:20pm, grabbed some light snacks for lunch at the 7Eleven across the road then back to our room to chill at 1:45pm. The weather had turned stormy again so we were in no hurry to go anywhere.
Headed out again at 5:45pm and got a Grab to ASEAN Night Market ( 15 minutes away, THB85/$4 ). This market has a lot fo stalls on the ground floor of a couple of large shed buidlings ( mainly clothes and bags etc, and what seems like many shops selling the same items ) and a large ‘food court’ upstairs with lots of different foods from Indian, Thai, Korean etc. There we about 30 different stalls in this area and tables and chairs around the outside. We had tea from some of the vendors ( 1 pad thai, 1 selection of different fried chicken, 1 banana / nutella crepe: THB175/$8 in total ); very tasty, and nice to sit upstairs as the sun set with a nice breeze blowing through. We walked around the market itself ( didn’t buy anything ) then back to hotel via Grab ( THB80/$4 ) at 7:30pm.
Rested, booked bus/hotel in Hua Hin for 26 June. ( Bus : Bangkok to Hua Hin with Sombat Tours ( 26 June, $33 for 2 people, return on 28 June, $33 for 2 people ) , Hotel :BTC Boutique Resort, 26 June to 28 June, $294 for villa with pool incl bfast )