The South Of Thailand (Part 1)

 I just got back from the South Of Thailand last Thursday. The LCCT airport was very packed like a can of sardines with so many holiday makers flying off on the first day of Hari Raya. I saw so many Malay families with small kids towing luggages, all dressed in their very best & colourful traditional clothes. It was a beautiful sight.

I will not be posting anything about the retreat where my wife stayed as no photography was allowed inside. All I can say is that it was a new retreat being set up by a well known nun and is being managed by several monks and many practitioners. The location is at the outskirts of Nakorn Si Thammarat which is an ancient Thai town with much history during the reign of the old Kingdom of Siam. It is almost 200 kilometers north of Haayai town. It took me almost 2 hours drive at neck breaking speed to reach there in my cousin's 4 wheel drive which has got the most damn powerful engines I had ever driven.

 Let me share some photos below.

  

Photo 1: I stayed at my cousin's hotel which he has inherited from his late father for free. My family has stayed at this old hotel for free since I was 7 years old.

 

Photo 2: I have been coming to Haayai since I was 2 months old and often lived at my grandfaher's home by the seaside near the famous Mermaid Statue in Songkhla. The town seems boring to me always. Luckily my cousin accompanied and chauffered me around in his brand new Mercedes Benz which cost him almost RM500K when the price of the cars are considered cheaper in Thailand than Malaysia.

 

Photo 3: They always have these huge AMAZING THAILAND's shopping icons all over the town and just changed the dates every season.

 

Photo 4: Their beloved King has been discharged from the hospital after 4 years. They have many arches along the streets all over the country to show their love for their King.

 

 Photo 5: This hotel is a famous and prominent landmark in town. It has been bombed by terrorists using car bombs not just once and killed many people. It also often got flooded until its basement carpark where tourists were drowned too. Humans have short memory indeed.

 

 Photo 6: Their market is very popular with Malaysians with hundreds of stalls inside selling clothes, bags, shoes and fake branded stuffs. I was surprised that they even have faked BONIA bags.

 

Photo 7: I walked across the whole town center in less than 2 hours and passed many food stalls that made me fatter. Here I bought the popular sweet mangoes with glutinous rice. (In Thai language  - Khao Niao Ma Muang)

 

Photo 8: I always loved to buy their sweet cakes that could turn you into a diabetic instantly.  The right boxes of orange coloured desserts made with duck's eggs into shreds is my ALL TIME FAVOURITE. Everyone in my family and friends hated the smell. One friend spat it out on the spot once! He was idiot and knows nothing about heavenly desserts. My favourite duck's eggs yummy is called "Foi Thong".

 

Photo 9: We also spotted the fried fishes which was so aromatic and irresistible. It costs only 100 bahts (RM9.90)  each! I bought one.

 

Photo 10: My cousin felt excited and decided to bring me to Songkhla to have lunch and to buy some Thai Native's Food Products to give my mother. This place is the square by the Samila Beach where the famous Mermaid sits on the rock.

 Photo 11: This is the special crab we had as appetizer. It is the signature dish that is only available in that restaurant where they sliced the flower crabs into think slices and stripped the claws too. You can just suck the crab meat and roe out easily.

Photo 12: I missed their famous coconut ice cream which I often ate from a hawker on bicycle when I was a small boy. So my cousin took me to a proper shop selling them as those old hawkers are no longer around.

Photo 13: We ate 4 bowls each! So yummy and Slurrpss!