Introduction

I can't think of a worse way to experience somewhere new than by following a list of 'Things To Do'. Do you really just want to traipse around a list of temples and museums? The best thing to do is just put on some comfortable footwear and walk. The little things you see and the people you meet are far more interesting than the temples the guide books recommend that are the same as every other temple in Thailand.

Of course, it depends what kind of person you are and what interests you. We are all different. I like to see normal people in their everyday lives - the market vendors at work; the seamstresses operating their sewing machines on a table set up on the roadside; the local Chinese performing ancestor worship rituals; monks doing their alms rounds, etc.

Hat Yai, like many Thai towns and cities, offers stark contrasts. The 'First World' face is that of Lee Gardens Plaza with its international chain restaurants, boutiques and multi-screen cinema. This is what the tourists like and this is the image Hat Yai likes to promote of itself.

Just across the railways tracks from the fresh market though, life couldn't be any more different. Large shanty areas exist with many local people living in flimsy wooden dwellings covered with corrugated iron roofs.

The people living there see very little of the tourist money coming into town and life is a real struggle. This is 'Third World' Hat Yai. It is just a couple of kilometres away from Lee Gardens Plaza but a million miles away in economic terms.

In my suggestions below I will include activities in Hat Yai as well as short trips to nearby places, sometimes in neighbouring provinces. Hat Yai is the main transportation hub in southern Thailand which makes travelling to anywhere else very easy.

I will also include some events that only occur once a year just in case you happen to be in town while one of these events is taking place.

Markets

I've included some markets on this page instead of putting them in the 'Shopping' section. Why? Because they're fun to walk around but for serious shopping I would recommend one of the large department stores.

The department stores sell good quality products at fixed prices and offer after-sales service. What's more, the department stores have permanent sales and their goods are often cheaper than the markets.

As a tourist activity, the markets are fun to walk around and they give a good insight into local Thai life but beware of any purchases you make and don't expect too much in the way of aftersales service.

Comments: For help with planning activities don't forget the TAT, which has an office in Hat Yai. There are staff on hand to provide information and they have a selection of useful printed material. You can pick up brochures for hotels and excursions, timetables for trains, buses and planes and discount tickets for local shopping. They can help with queries related to Hat Yai and the surrounding area, and other parts of Thailand for onward travel.

One has a huge, golden Buddha image, another contains a Chinese temple and the third is apparently devoted to elephants judging my the number of small and large pachyderm statues on display. There is also a very nice restaurant on the way up called Bon Khao, the details for which can be found in the food section on this site.

To get to Hat Yai Municipal Park is easy, as described above. However, getting up to the shrines from the park is trickier. On both occasions that I have visited, a kind Thai has shown me around by motorcycle or car but this was purely by luck and is not the recommended approach.

It is possible to hike up but its a long, steep climb and there is no shade from the intense sun. Tuk-tuks can't be chartered for the journey. The gradient going up is just too steep for their low-powered engines and even if they could get up their brakes wouldn't be adequate for the journey down.

If you have your own car or motorbike it isn't a problem. Other than that, one of the travel agents in Hat Yai should be able to help. This is one place that is not easy for independent travel without your own vehicle.

Before I make any comments about the temple itself, a word about getting there. Most places I go to from Hat Yai nowadays I have already been to. I therefore don't need to ask anyone for directions or advice.

Occasionally though I do need to ask and it is a reminder just how irritating and confusing the Thais can be if you need some advice. What was even more annoying with this trip was that I went with my girlfriend, who is Thai, and let her do all the talking. This proves it is not a language problem.

The temple is a very well-known tourist attraction and many people go there from Hat Yai. In Thailand you find that everyone always knows exactly how to get somewhere apart from when you actually need to get there. We had been told we needed to get a minivan and we knew where to get it.

Our first inquiries resulted in us being told we need to catch a sawng-thaew, not a minivan. Further inquiries revealed this information to be false. Next, we got the usual runaround about where to catch the minivan. One guy says here, another says there, and then we get sent back to where we were in the first place.

A few opportunists tried telling us there were no minivans but it so happened their mate had a taxi and could take us there for Bt600 or something.

A few shook their heads and reacted as if someone had asked them how to get to Mars or had asked, "Excuse me, do you know how I can turn this lump of lead into gold?" We are talking about a very well known place and these are guys who work with the minivans every day.

It reminded me of my early days in Hat Yai when I didn't know how to get to places. I would get similar reactions but when I did find out how, they were easy places to get to. I just don't know why the Thais make it sound so difficult. Thais. They are wonderful people but hugely frustrating to deal with at times.

Eventually we found what we were looking for. Directly beneath the clock tower at Hat Yai Plaza on Phetkasem Road, where the minivans leave regularly for Songkhla, there are also minivans that leave for a place called Nathawi. They are not as frequent as the ones to Songkhla and there is only about one an hour. The fare is Bt50 and the journey time is just under an hour.

Make sure the driver knows where you want to go to and before getting to Nathawi he will drop you off on the main road. From there the only option is motorcycle taxi. The fare is Bt30 and our ride took about 25 minutes with the rider taking a short cut across an unmade road.

The temple itself wasn't quite as exciting as its description made it sound. I was hoping for something quite spectacular, maybe similar to Bishop's Castle in Colorado which really is impressive. The temple and outhouses - toilets and monk's quarters - have been built normally and then an outer layer of bottles cemented in place has been added.

The bottles are all very uniformly positioned. It's certainly different to any other Thai temple I have seen before but, for me at least, it didn't have the 'Wow' factor I was hoping for. There is a big pond at the back where they breed catfish and you can buy fish food. The fish are monsters and appear in a swirling mass of hungry mouths whenever food is dropped into the water.

Getting back was a reverse procedure of getting there. There are a few motorbike taxis at the temple which will take you back to the main road. Our journey back to the main road was quicker than the one there and we kept to the main roads.

Minivans back to Hat Yai are infrequent - once an hour - and I believe they stop at around 5pm. There doesn't seem to be any fixed time and it's just a case of waiting for the next van so if you are unlucky and just miss one you are in for quite a long wait with nothing to do. For some reason the fare back was Bt5 more expensive.

Of course, it would be easier just to arrange a car and driver from Hat Yai but I try to use public transport options whenever I can.

More details and photos, plus an account of my visit, can be found on my Bullfighting page.

It can be a pleasant experience although I suspect there is little medical benefit. Most shops have big reflex charts outside and anatomical diagrams inside but hardly any of the 'masseuses' understand anything about reflexology or reflex points. Don't expect it to be a proper reflexology session therefore but, nonetheless, it can be a pleasant experience.

The massage shop owners in town are a close-knit community and stick together. Prices are therefore fixed at Bt250 for one hour. When you consider that two hours of ordinary Thai massage can be had for Bt200, and that many Thais only earn about Bt150 a day, this seems expensive. It's partly price fixing but also because renting shops in the centre of town is very expensive - up to Bt70,000 a month.

It's not for the squeamish though. A smell hangs in the air that I have only ever smelt at Thai fresh markets and some of the sights are quite gut churning. Pigs' heads, internal organs and intestines lie out in the open covered with flies alongside dead chickens and ducks. None of the meat is refrigerated or covered.

Most of the fish and shellfish aren't alive but air-breathing catfish squirm around in buckets until they are unceremoniously put on a wooden board to have their heads chopped off.

Old women sit on the pavement selling fruit, meat and fish. The atmosphere is quite frenetic and on very hot days the sights and smells can be overwhelming. The market is best visited in the early morning.

The fresh market sprawls along Rattakarn and Montri roads, going back as far as the railway track.

You will find clothes, ready cooked food, tinned and dried food, fruit, hot chestnuts, groceries, toiletries, cheap electronics, children's toys, watches, umbrellas and household items. There is also a wet market inside.

It's a busy place that is fun to walk around. The fruit stalls outside have prices displayed and the food stalls have fixed prices but when buying anything else you should attempt to haggle.

It is actually very similar to Suntisuk market but doesn't have quite the amount of pirated movies, music and software that Suntisuk has.

Upwardly mobile Thais like to play, and quite a few Malaysians and Singaporeans also schedule a round of golf into their Hat Yai trip. Larger hotels and travel agents will be able to make arrangements if you don't want to do it yourself. ;

If you prefer to contact the course directly, here are some details:

Kor Hong Golf Club
Tel. 074 219050-9; Mobile 081 277 1202

Thong Yai Golf Course
Tel. 074 323761

Southern Hills Golf and Country Club
Tel. 074 343560-2; Mobile 081 609 3385

Hat Yai Resort and Golf Club
Tel. 074 434771-3

There are lots of secondhand articles ranging from shoes, bags and clothes to magazines, toys and old office equipment. You can also find new goods and handicrafts (such as hand-made photo frames and postcards, etc.), food, and a few services such as getting photos taken and printed.

It runs at the same time - Thursday to Sunday evenings - and is close to the night market near the bus station so walking between the two markets is very easy. The combination of these two markets is the closest you will get in Hat Yai to Jatujak in Bangkok or Camden in London but on a much smaller scale with much less choice.

From central Hat Yai you can get there by catching any sawng-thaew that goes to the bus station (kon-song). As you go along Karnchanawanich Road (map spelling) you will see Greenway on the right before the sawng-thaew turns right to go to the bus station and that's when you need to ring the bell to tell the driver to stop.

As is always the case, it helps to be able to read (or at least to speak) a little Thai but if not you will find the locals very helpful. The market is known by the English name 'Greenway' which makes things easy but just remember to pronounce the second syllable in a high tone, as Thais tend to do when pronouncing English words.

Unfortunately the aviary disappeared some time in 2007 and the birds, including some fearsome looking Australian cassowaries, were relocated.

Getting to the park is easy and cheap, just hail a sawng-thaew on Phetkasem Road going towards Songkhla. There are hundreds each day and the fare is Bt10. At the end of Phetkasem they turn left on Karnchanawanich Road towards Songkhla. The park is located just after a golf course on the right hand side of the road.

To make sure you don't go past, tell the driver suan saa-taa-ra-na.

Hat Yai Nai is the area across the railway bridge from central Hat Yai and plenty of sawng-thaews go that way so it isn't a problem getting there.

For newbie visitors to Thailand these things are a lot of fun but after 500 visits to Thai markets they tend to get a little boring. On sale are clothes, food, fruit and handicrafts, etc. As at Suntisuk market, there is an extensive selection of dangerous weapons. It's frightening what can be bought in Thailand.

The good thing is that markets in places like Hat Yai are genuine markets for local people to buy things, and not simply tourist attractions that have been set up purely for foreign tourists.

However, that isn't the case. After a closer inspection and some questioning I realised it was all perfectly genuine. Unlike Penang 'Health Clubs', which contain nothing but young girls, the Hat Yai Sports Club has quite a few sporting facilities.

There is an outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts, basketball courts, a gym with proper weight training equipment, and snooker tables. Different kinds of membership charges are available for 1, 3, 6 or 12 months or you can just pay for each session without becoming a member.

Tel. +66 (0)74 234735-6

The 2005 event opened on the 15th November (one day before Loy Gratong) and finished on the 30th November. It was very successful, drawing huge crowds, especially on Loy Gratong day. Lanterns in all shapes and sizes were shipped in from other countries including China and Singapore. Being a night time event, the gates opened at 6pm every evening.

I have to give the organisers top marks. It was a big event with thousands of lanterns on display and setting the whole thing up must have taken an enormous amount of work and planning. It was held at a time when there were a lot of concerns about public safety but a large presence of police and soldiers assured everyone's safety. Well done Hat Yai.

The same thing happened in 2009. The festival opened on 1st November 2009 and will run until 28th February 2010. So it does look as if it has become a regular annual event.

The problem with November is that it tends to be a very wet month in Hat Yai so people are deterred from visiting. Also, because the festival runs for four months now there is no urgency to go, as there was the first time.

Therefore, if you visit, don't expect to see many people.

Thai web site (the button to select an English language version of the page wasn't working when I checked).

I suspect that Kao Seng has not changed for many years which is quite refreshing in this fast-changing world. The fishermen go out in the mornings using boats with brightly coloured sails to get their catch. In the afternoons they descale the fish, maintain their boats or repair nets. They go out again in the evening once darkness falls to catch squid.

Walking through the village is a different world as the residents go about their daily tasks while chickens, ducks and cats wander around their huts. The Muslim people are very friendly. This is the other side of Islam that many Westerners have forgotten about or don't realise exists.

This has to be one of the best Thai market experiences in southern Thailand and I will explain why.

Typical Thai markets get a bit boring after a while but floating markets are fun. However, most floating markets these days are just big tourist traps. One of my biggest disappointments in Thailand was visiting the well-known floating market at Damnoen Saduak.

If you want to see farangs dressed in shorts and Teva activity sandals pointing cameras at people it's a great place. But if you want to experience an authentic piece of Thai life you are wasting your time.

The market isn't big, the boats don't move, and there are no boats for hire for visitors to ride around on like there are at Damnoen Saduak. However, at this early stage while foreigners are still a bit of a novelty you may get treated to a ride in a boat, as I did.

Vendors just sell food from permanently moored boats. To pass food to customers, and to receive money, the vendors use little baskets on sticks. The market runs Friday to Sunday from around 3pm to 9pm.

Getting there can be slightly problematic if you don't have a Thai friend in the area who has a vehicle because there are no sawng-thaews or buses. However, it's not too far from central Hat Yai and easily reached by tuk-tuk or motorbike taxi.

The motorbike taxi fare is about Bt60 and a tuk-tuk driver will charge you as much as he can get away with.

If you have your own vehicle, it's not difficult to get to. Head down Niphat Songkhrao 5 Road (Map 2) for a couple of kms and you will come to a fork in the road. Take the right fork, follow the road and you will come to the market on your left. Just follow the crowds of people.

On my last visit I saw one of the big Malaysian tour buses parked outside, so the floating market has now become part of the standard Malaysian tourist trail. Get there quick before it gets too crowded with tourists.

Official Web Site

There is a big market in Klong Nga every Saturday morning with a strong emphasis on used clothes and shoes. New goods are also available though, and there is a traditional Thai fresh market.

The area is home to many Muslims, and loudspeakers blast out Islamic religious music in Arabic giving the impression that you might be in the Middle East rather than the Far East. It's an interesting excursion from Hat Yai for a few hours.

The market starts early. When I went, we left at 6:30am and returned at 9am. This proved to be a good move because even at 9am the temperature was beginning to get uncomfortably hot.

I went with Thai friends but I have seen sawng-thaews around that go to Klong Nga. If you don't read Thai though you will need some help from a Thai person. The same applies with buses. If you want to go, it shouldn't be a problem getting there but you might need some assistance from one of the locals.