PENANG / HATYAI 2016

Hello! 

It's 2016 already.  Didn’t get to travel for the past 6 months since my last trip on November 2015. But I'm still grateful to be able to travel once or twice and sometimes even thrice a year. By reading the heading, you know where I'm going already right? It's been more than a week since I came back from my trip but I've been procrastinating way too much. Never mind, I'm finally here typing my first post in 2016.

It was a 6D5N trip. Initially the plan was to go around Penang only. Then during the planning of my itinerary I found out that nothing much I can do in Penang for that amount of time. My colleague then suggested me to go to Hatyai as well. It's not a bad idea huh? That's how Hatyai came along with Penang. Let's begin now!

Day 1

Arrived at Penang around 4pm, took a cab to the hotel from the airport for RM44.70. I was so surprised that the driver was a lady. First time in my life seeing a lady cab driver. 

We stayed at The Souvereign Hotel for a night before our trip to Hatyai the next morning.  

The Souvereign Hotel

After checking in the hotel, we first went to locate Newsia Express Service Centre (pick-up point) for our trip to Hatyai. 

Newsia Express Service Centre

After confirming the place, only then I have the desire to go for shopping at 1st Avenue Mall and Prangin Mall. As for dinner, we end up eating in a random shop at the malls. No picture for the place though. So that's pretty much the first day of our trip.

Day 2

Checked out from the hotel and walked to Newsia Express Service Centre at 7.45am. Booked our van from easybook.com for a total of RM150 (2 person returned tickets). 

Our departure time was 8.30am but we have to reach 30 minutes earlier as shown in the booking ticket. The van departed at 8am to fetch other people from their own hotels. 

(Souvereign Hotel does provide the transport service to Hatyai and the price is the same but I'm not sure how the process though. Since I already booked in advance so I didn't ask more details about it.)

It was a comfortable ride until the van went to pick 2 more people when it's already fulled. What?! 4 person for a 3 sitter seats and for 4 hours journey? Did I paid for this kind of service? No refund was given. Seriously, damn it! 

Fine, enough complaints. The journey actually took us more than 5 hours due to some issues happened in the immigration counter and the amount of people going to Hatyai really crazy. 

  

Hatyai Immigration Counter

At Hatyai, the van stopped by at their office and there they will write down the hotel you staying and the return day to pick us up back to Penang. The service was good despite the overbooked issue. 

The van then sent us to V.L. Hatyai Hotel (our hotel). I remembered the hotel doesn't have any signboard but it's quite well-known in Hatyai. Just mentioned VL to the tuk-tuk driver and they surely know where is it. 

Tuk-tuk, "Taxi" in Hatyai

After check in, decided to go Robinson Shopping Centre (direction given by the hotel receptionist) for Thai sim card and food. Managed to purchase one sim card from DTAC and settled our late lunch at MK. 

At 3pm (Thai time), we took the tuk-tuk ("taxi") to Khlong Hae Floating Market for 200Baht. Not sure how long we spent our time there but it's actually nothing much to see there. 1 hour to 1.5 hours should be more than enough to cover everything. 

Basically what's in Khlong Hae Floating Market

    

Fried fish egg (Too fishy for me)

 
Coconut ice cream (Too sugary, no coconut taste)

 

Coconut water and bird eggs (Both acceptable)

Then, we took another tuk-tuk to Central Festival Mall for 300Baht.  

Central Festival Mall, Hatyai

Our dinner (Forgot what's the name of the restaurant)

At 9pm (Thai time), we took a bigger Tuk-Tuk ("bus") for only 40Baht back to our hotel. The end of second day.

P/s : Didn't manage to go Hatyai Ice Dome and Hansa Plaza (Cabaret Show) because we don't have extra time for these two places. 

Day 3

Walked around Kim Yong Market in the morning to see if we can get some food because we were lazy to go Chock Dee Tae Tium for dim sum although it is very famous in Hatyai but turned out there's nothing to buy in Kim Yong Market. Then we walked to Lee Garden Plaza and waited for 15 minutes as the opening time is 11am (Thai time).

Some part at Kim Yong Market

With empty stomach, we took Swensen's Ice Cream as our breakfast then walked around the plaza to spare some time.  

 

 

At this point, my stomach decided to give me this uneasy feeling, so we walked back to our hotel to settle it. Maybe we were too exhausted because of the hot weather, both of us fall asleep until we heard a loud explosion and our hotel blacked out. Both of us woke up in shock and directly rushed out with a sleepy face. 

(Not sure what happen though but everything went well after we were back at the hotel for another night.)  

We took tuk-tuk to Big Pasar for 100Baht to see if I managed to get something but turned out I bought nothing there. 

 Big Pasar, Hatyai

We hopped on tuk-tuk again to Big C Extra Supermarket for 100Baht to settle our late lunch and to get some junk foods as souvenirs. We bought too many things and it's very bulky to bring along to the next destination so we went back to hotel first to put down the stuff. 

Big C Extra Supermarket

The famous Lay

That super excited feelings when you know you are going to shop like crazy in the next destination which is Asian Trade Night Market. Came here for 100Baht if I'm not mistaken. Sadly, I only bought a few things to satisfy myself as the things there are quite pricey if compare with Pratunam market in Bangkok. We also settled our light dinner there as I'm afraid I might get stomachache when take into consideration about their cleanliness. Everything was alright after that but it's better to avoid before it really happens right?

 

Selling all kind of things here

Greenway Garden Centre was our last destination at Hatyai and it is within walking distance only. It is quite similar as Asian Trade Night Market so I didn't get to buy much as well. 

Greenway Shopping Centre

Went back hotel early by tuk-tuk to pack as we're going back to Penang the next day and that's pretty much about our trip in Hatyai. 

(P/s : Samila Beach was one of the places I wanted to go but it was a 50 minutes rides by tuk-tuk but didn't managed to because it will be quite an uncomfortable ride due to the sitting posture in the tuk-tuk)

Day 4

It’s time to go back to Penang. Waited the van at the hotel lobby to pick us up at 9am (Thai time). 

Thailand noodle as breakfast

Reached Penang at 2.30pm, the van will actually ask where to drop you so we asked him to drop us at Sungai Nibong Bus Terminal as we're going to collect our rented car there. 

(There will be RM30 extra charges if we collect it at Georgetown area)

Rented our car from http://www.i1rentcar.com/.

After getting our car, we drove to our hotel Inn Residence 18. 

Our car at Penang

Walked to Joo Hooi Café for late lunch. In my opinion, nothing really fancy about their foods though.

 Joo Hooi Cafe, that queue for the Chendul

 Penang Famous Teochew Chendul

 Laksa

 Chee Cheong Fun

 Char Kway Tiaw

Walked back to get our car and drove to Gurney Paragon.

Then walked to Gurney Plaza just to try Sangkaya (premium coconut ice-cream) because I love coconut so much. 

 Signature coconut ice cream 

Coconut milk shake

Did some shopping at Gurney Plaza as well. After that, we walked back to Gurney Paragon and I wanted to try Godiva so I ate ice cream again. 

Godiva twist ice cream

After having ice cream, no more time for dinner so we went to the kiosk outside the cinema to get a hotdog sandwich. 

Movie here tonight

After the movie, we then drove back to our hotel. Since Kimberley Street is just nearby, we went to look for foods there but it was late already so the stalls are starting to close, luckily we managed to order something to eat there though.

(P/s :  Didn't manage to go Straits Quay Marina Mall)

Day 5

Time flies and it's already the last day of our trip. Haven met Chyng (my friend) since I came to Penang so I decided to called her out today since it's my last day here. 

Had our breakfast at Hon Kei Food Corner. It is within walking distance from our hotel. 

 Breakfast at Hon Kei Food Corner

After breakfast, walked back to hotel to get our car and drove to Armenian Street for some famous street arts photo taking. Didn't spent quite much time there because the weather was too hot. 

 Able to rent it everywhere

 

Managed to capture the famous street art

Next, We went to Kek Lok Si Temple. I've been there during my last trip to Penang years ago, this time I just wanted to show my friend something famous in Penang. The weather is seriously killing us so we didn't spend much there as well. 

 Kek Lok Si Temple

Lots of souvenirs selling inside

After a short while in Kek Lok Si Temple, we then headed to Penang Hill. The last time I came to Penang, it was under maintenance so me and my family didn't manage to make it.

Since it's a public holiday, so the amount of people really scary. Still the weather was too hot to even have the mood to explore everything.

 

Penang Hill

 That love logo must pay for photo taking with it

Going up long queue then going down also long queue

Told Chyng to meet up at Queensbay Mall for dinner, so we headed to the mall next. We came here early to shop first but I bought nothing again. Wanted to have dinner but don't know what to eat, so we ended up having Pan Mee at the food court then proceed to Chinahouse for desserts.

 Pan Mee but my hometown one taste much better

Desserts at Chinahouse

Back to rest at 11pm after chit-chatting for hours.

Day 6

Flight back to Kota Kinabalu. It’s time to say bye bye to holidays. Drove to Penang International Airport and return the car there as well. 

-The end-

Now I miss having holidays again