Hatyai

After arriving into Thailand on the evening on Monday, I headed towards the city of Hatyai the next morning. When disembarking the ferry in Satun I ended up in a random town about 12km north of the jetty, and I could tell it didn't get many tourists as barely anyone spoke English and all the signs were in Thai. I think most backpackers who go from Langkawi to Satun then go straight up Krabi/Phuket the same day as that's where the tour operators in Langkawi were trying to sell me tickets to. It was an experience though and the locals in Satun were really friendly even if communication was difficult.

After getting this minibus from Satun to Hatyai, I just felt like having a nice and chilled out afternoon in bed on the WiFi. My bed however had Disney Princess sheets, although I did have the whole dorm to myself! Hatyai itself is actually one the largest cities in Thailand, it just lacks tourism after the recent bombings and terrorism related events in the city and surrounding areas in Southern Thailand in recent years, where over 6000 people have died since 2004. Come evening I went out to a couple of local night markets, and I particularly liked the handicrafts which looked really authentic unlike some of the tacky things you see elsewhere. Some of the street food looked a little suspect however, in a 'what the hell is that?' respect.

I was originally just planning to spend the Wednesday exploring Hatyai, before heading northwards towards Krabi/Phuket the following morning, although when doing a little research of things to do in the area the nearby town of Songkhla came to my attention and it looked like a really nice place. I therefore decided to spend the Wednesday exploring Songkhla. I caught a local bus over there in the morning, heading over to Samila Beach when arriving. It was actually a really nice beach and there was a nice breeze and lots of palm trees giving it a cooling effect. There were several local market tenders on the beach and even horse rides on offer. There was also this statue of a mermaid on a rock which had a very interesting story beside it.

After following the beach as far as this old fort, I followed the river towards Tang Kuan Hilltop which was home to an old lighthouse and pagoda. There were great views up top of Songkhla and surrounding areas. I then headed into the old town which felt like a small version of Georgetown with lots of really interesting street art, as well as several Buddhist and Chinese related buildings. There were also a few jetties by the river which gave an interesting insight into the fishing industry. I spent a fair amount of time exploring the old town, before catching a bus back to Hatyai later that afternoon. After getting back to the hostel I chilled out for a bit, before heading out to Asean Night Bazaar and Greenways Market in the evening.

The following day I explored the city of Hatyai itself. The actual centre didn't really have much to offer apart from shopping malls and local markets, many of which I'd looked round the previous couple of evenings. Aside from shopping, most of the sights worth seeing in Hatyai seemed to be based in Hatyai Park about 5km out of the city. I therefore headed out to the park via Wat Thaawon, a Vietnamese Buddhist temple which was home to things including a giant statue of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha as well as a 9 storey Chinese pagoda. The complex was actually quite large although there was a lot of building work going on preserving parts of the complex which made many of buildings hard to get a close look at. The area I found particularly interesting was this Chinese cemetery which had 224 smaller Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha statues all lined up to store the ashes of the deceased.

Next stop was Hatyai Park and when arriving I followed the road up the hill to this temple featuring a 20m high white jade statue of Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion and mercy. From there I went through this huge dragon mouth entrance passing several small temples and statues including the fat laughing buddha, before over 1000 steps later reaching the hilltop where I got 360 panoramic views of both Hatyai and Songkhla. At the top of the hill was a temple with a 20m high statue of Buddha which looks over the city. There was also a cable car linking the hill to the adjacent hill, and when reaching the adjacent hill there was a four faced Buddha shrine, surrounded by several statues of elephants of various sizes, including a large statue of Airavata, the three headed elephant. I headed back down to the bottom of the hill from here and had a a stroll round the park before heading back into the city.

One of the highlights of Hatyai is the Klonghae Floating Market, although unfortunately it only runs on weekends which was shame as I still haven't visited a floating market. I therefore instead headed to the Kim Yong Market which was a nice market to look round. It was nice not to be hassled by the market sellers when looking round unlike some of the more touristy markets. After having a look round a couple of the shopping malls I headed back to the hostel, once again heading out to the night market for dinner in the evening. Looking back it surprised me just how little tourism there is in both Songklha and Hatyai, which is a shame because I thought they were both really nice places.