Day 1: Trip to Hatyai (Part 1)

Second trip to Hatyai. Overall, the trip had been really satisfying. It's a 2 Day 1 Nite trip. Depart from Penang to Hatyai by using a van that cost a RM52 per person (return tickets). It took roughly about 4 hrs to reach Hatyai main attraction area including the time that you need to spend at the border for passport checking.

Van I took to HatYai from Penang Island

Entrance to Grand Plaza Hotel

Booked to stay in Grand Plaza Hotel. Just directly next to Lee Garden Plaza. The hotel itself is quite old but overall it is clean and the staffs over there were very helpful. We managed to delay the room check out time from 12 p.m to 2 p.m. However, the room price is a little pricey than what I expected, about 100 Baht per nite including breakfast. After checking into the room, I went to Lee Garden Plaza for a stroll.

Entrance to Lee Garden Plaza

Inside Lee Garden Plaza, you can find McDonald, Pizza Hut, Swensen, Boots Pharmacy, Cinema, Food court etc. Highly recommended to try the McDonald's Samurai Pork Burger. Yummy! Can't find it anywhere else.

Lotsa cheap stuffs!!

Bookstore inside the plaza

Karaoke

Had Thai Chicken Rice..highly recommended!

After the meal, I proceed to visiting areas outside the plaza itself including the floating market. Will blog on this further. Stay Tune!

Favourite: Fried Noodle with Roasted Pork

Yes, I like this particular dish so much.. Sorry for the photo's quality as it was taken through iphone. There is a similar dish in Sarawak, fried tomato noodle is what we called there with tomatoes tasted sauce. In Sarawak, they used the yellow noodle but here in Penang, egg noodles is used and the sauce is mainly light soy sauce. I like the fried noodle, always crispy and with the light tasted sauce, it's heaven!!. The roasted pork is just nice, tender and the skin is cripsy enought. I ordered this meal from Max Restaurent in Penang. Price at RM6.90 before tax. It's a single person portion but enoough to fill you up. Together with some green veges, it's definitely a star ++ meal to order.

Ko Phi Phi Don

Phi Phi Don is definitely one of the prettiest island that I've went to in Asia. The water is crystal clear, can see the bottom from the top. I went to this island with a 40 mins speedboat ride through the jetty in Phuket. The speedboat roughly took about 30 passengers on it. Quite comfy at least for the price that I paid for. I bought a tour package from the booth in Phuket for a price of 100 baht a person including hotel pickup, several islands visit, snorkelling and lunch. It's a whole day tour from 8 a.m to 4.30p.m. Remember to bargain with them before you actually buying the tour packages. By the time I reached the island, it was quite pack with tourists. There's nothing much you can do here besides sun tanning and swimming around. Can't do much of snorkelling here as there aren't any fishes or corals to see. Basically I spend 30mins strolling around the beach here and took photos. I still like it..a very relaxing moment with a stunning view.

On way to Phi-Phi Don

SpeedBoat I ride on..

The beach

Toilet available for light usage 20 baht

Packed with tourists

I'll definitely be visiting again some years later. Hope by then it's still as stunning as it is right now. I'll be blogging about Khai island soon. Catch up with me.

Rice Writing Art

I first learn of rice art when I watch it from the television. During my past visit to Kek Lok Si, Penang, I've seen it myself the art of writing on a rice. Yes writing on a rice. It's not something easy as you need skills and proper tools to write on such a small rice. For many, rice art is considered to be bringing good luck and wishes to somebody. Rice art mostly be displayed in a form of pendants, bracelets as well as key chains. Personally I prefer it to be in pendant form. It makes a good gift for people. You may request the writer to write your wishes, your name or anything as long as it can be fit into a rice. The overall process only took 3 minutes..so fast.

After the writing, you can read the words/sentences through a magnifying glass and it is readable in such a small rice. Stunning art work.