Thailand again!

In less than a month, me and my super housemate have decided not to let our paid Thailand car insurance expired without another trip to our Northern neighbour.
From just travel to the sungai Golok, we made a crazy act, we drove all the way to Hatyai, the third largest city in Thailand.
As usual, we set our GPS from Rantau Panjang
We departed after had our breakfast at home at 9am, filled up the petrol to full tank. Reached malaysia-thai border in 40 minutes drive. Pass through Malaysia custom, Thai immigration office. Had the documents signed as we are driving the car, without paying any extra money.
We went through Narathiwat, to the small town of Pattani, where more thailand soldiers and checkpoints. We were stopped by the first checkpoint in pattani, asking where are we going , they must be very curious why two girls driving malaysian car to the southern thailand state. But it was just a short interview and they let us pass through.
We stopped by at a stall in Pattani town to have lunch. just a simple kuey tiaw soup and fried kuey tiaw.
Well, the taste of the food more or less like the kelantan food. most of them speak Malay in this state.








we continue our journey and reach hatyai around 130pm local time. after check in to the hotel which i book online earlier we go to the town area and had another round of makan makan..
Yes, this is the mouth watering dish that we are waiting for...it is good, a shop opposite to the hatyai merridian hotel
After so satisfied with our late lunch, we decided to walk to the market area. Sadly the kim yong market was just another version of petaling street.

We had another round of eating after come back from kim yong market, which is the bird nest.





We walk around the lee plaza hotel and also the centara hotel plaza which house a central supermarket.
First round of shopping done and we had our hands filled with clothes.
After coming out from the shopping spree, we decided to go for thai massage and spa.
And before that, the hawker area already start selling food and here what we bought for dinner...

ok we just bought the prawn, as we are planning to get a proper dinner in green way market

Greenway market is a night market just behind our hotel, we had the mango rice and also som tam for dinner on top of the fried chicken and prawn. After that we just walk around the market and there is another round of shopping. :)

The next day we went to the town area again to have our breakfast. I think next time I shall stay in the town area. We walk to the Robinson for hunting for chinese new year clothes, and again, it is a great bargain as they are having Christmas sales now.
We then walk around to the railway station to have a look. Okay, I love taking picture of railway station as it is a nostalgic for the city. For me, the best one is still Ipoh railway station.

 After a late afternoon lunch, we travel to songkla samila beach to look at the mermaid!

 We found this uncle instead.. haha
but words of wisdom!
At night we are in central festival for thai food. only thai baht 500 for the food!

Seafood tom yam

thai herbal chicken

fried kangkung

duck and some spices

Another round of shopping in the central festival before the day ends.. 

 the next day we just walk around the morning market but we are trapped in the heavy downpour for few hours. But we did manage to find a local place for lunch before heading back to malaysia.

guess what is this? it is a milk tea, it is too sweet as compared to the bangkok milk tea.

Going back was adventurous, we decided to take the takbai route instead of sungai golok
hehe, we arent expecting the ferry from takbai to pengkalan kubor can carry the car but when we see the ferry, we are sweating haha..it is just so small and only can carry 9 cars per trip.
Luckily it was just a short trip, about 5 minutes we are back to malaysia.

Narathiwat

Well, having stay in kelantan for more than 1 year, the inner site of me has call for the adventurous traveling to the nearest state of thailand. However, there are reasons that why it is not popular among the tourists to travel across the border.

Female official shot in Narathiwat | Bangkok Post: news

www.bangkokpost.com/news/security/.../female-official-shot-in-narathiwat

Oct 29, 2014 - Latest news, politics, business and sport from Thailand and Asean, ... of Si Sakon district of Narathiwat was seriously wounded by a motorcycle ...

Two slain, 3 wounded in Narathiwat - Bangkok Post

www.bangkokpost.com/news/.../gunmen-launch-two-attacks-in-narathiwat

Nov 3, 2014 - Latest news, politics, business and sport from Thailand and Asean, plus ... Suthida was seriously wounded and was rushed to Narathiwat ..

Sungai Golok is a small town located very near to Rantau Panjang the Malaysia Thailand border. In weekends, the Malaysians will be rushing to the Thai Southern Province for some grocery shopping. We have decided to travel to Bangkok via Narathiwat Airport, which is just located 64km away from the border. Driving there would be one option despite of paying 180 Bath for taxi. Of course along the ways there will be few checkpoints by the army, but most of them are very friendly.

We choose to drive there as we are not sure how safe to put our car near Rantau Panjang, We arrive early in the morning but only learn that they need two copies of documents instead of one. So we have to wait for the nearby grocery and photostat shop to warm up the machine before we can make a second copy. 

So we need to prepare two copies each:

1. Geran

2. IC

3. DRIVING LICENSE

4. Authorized letter if the driver is not the car owner

But what we can see is the checkpoint in Thai border is a bit unorganized

Nevertheless, we need to put the car aside, get down go through the custom check and then to the other side to declare and pay rm 30 for one month insurance. 

After settled everything within half an hour ( in fact can be even faster ) we are ready to go. 

The journey from Sg Golok to Narathiwat airport is smooth. The roads are well maintained, broad and sign boards are clear in English. We arrived within 45 minutes, and realized that Thailand is an hour behind us so we lepak in the airport, but sadly there is nothing much to do as the airport only has AirAsia Thai that fly once daily from Bangkok. 

The flight took about 1 hour 30 minutes to reach Bangkok. 

new coffeehouse

In kelantan there is no starbucks or coffeebean, but what we have is hayaki!
There is some kind of improvement recently, hayaki is approaching the style of antipodean..  well, there are still lots of room for improvement.

coffee not bad..
mocha it is but the pattern i have no idea...

egg benedict...
still lots of rooms of improvement

environment not bad... in fact quite comfortable~~

where is it? the famous 2 hayaki in kebun sultan..

penang har mee

Just coincidence,  on the way to tesco to get my grocery after my postcall day, saw few restaurants opposite to tune hotel.
one of the shop is crowded, out of curiosity,  I stepped in instead of mcd breakfast.
Of course this is pork free restaurant, selling beef and chicken noodles, I saw long lost friend, penang har mee( prawn mee), without hesitation,  thats my choice.
NOT BAD, after all this is not penang, but is par above those in food court china town. Next will try the other noodles.
I went to try the beef noodle the following week, and is nice! Love the soup which is rich in taste. So tasty till I forgot to take the picture.

har mee

The ritz boutique restaurant

Kelantan is a city where chinese population consist less than 10%, however this does not mean that getting chinese food is difficult. In fact most of the chinese restaurant has expanded their business by selling halal food,  namely four seasons, chiang mai restaurant. Enough for the over rated restaurant, the ritz boutique restaurant provide good food with affordable price.
Come with set of four dishes with rice and drinks and even dessert included, rm 60 is a very good deal.
It is fully booked on festive seasons, and they did not increase the price.

Recommended dishes are butter prawn and sambal sotong. 

Steam fish