We spent a most fascinating five days touring the southern Thailand region, visiting the cities of Hatyai and Songkhla, as well as Phatthalung and Trang provinces.
Hatyai was the first city in Thailand I ever visited over forty years ago while Trang and Phatthalung were totally new to me. (Come to think of it, Hatyai was the first "international" trip I went on after getting my "international passport".)
Come with me as I retrace my wonderful food, shopping and sightseeing journey in south Thailand. This is a summary of highlights from our 5-day itinerary and I shall follow up with detailed articles on the attractions and food we ate.
Day 1
We took a direct Scoot flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Hatyai. Flight TR 632 departs at 1220 hours and uses the new small, 146 seat Embraer jets.
Our plane arrived in Hatyai in around 1hr 30 minutes. The plane was basically fitted but comfortable with good leg room for most people.
Once we were out of Hatyai airport (immigration and customs were a breeze), we were whizzed to Sabannga Restaurant which was just 15 minutes away by car.
Sabannga Restaurant serves traditional Thai dishes which were skilfully prepared with fresh, quality ingredients. The skin of this Thai style stewed pork leg was so soft and smooth, its fat melts in the mouth and meat was so tender. Flavour was gently savoury with underlying porcine sweetness.
After lunch, we checked into New Season Hotel in downtown Hatyai. The rooms and bed were large, clean, odourless. and the hotel is located right in the middle of the old city. Amenities and facilities are basic but all the essentials were provided.
Put down our bags, quick freshen up, and we dashed off to Khlong Hae Floating Market (which operates only on Fri, Sat & Sun).
There were about fifty boat stalls selling various local snacks and hawker dishes. These were all prepared on order on the boat.
The cooked food were handed to the customer and payment collected using a basket on a long pole. How ingenious and interesting!
From the floating market we went to Pra Phutthamongkol Maharat.
It is a large Golden Buddha statue on Khao Koh Hong, the popular hilltop Hatyai Municipality Public Park.
The Golden Buddha oversees the city of Hatyai keeping it peaceful and safe.
We had our first dinner in Hatyai at hilltop Bonkhao Restaurant.
Bonkhao serves traditional Thai cuisine such as this huge, mean fried pork knuckle. The skin was so crackly crisp, yet the meat underneath was tender and juicy.
We had many dishes including this deep fried Toman fish loaded with roe. I soon realised that the locals love eggs, be it chicken, fish, squid, and even horseshoe crab. We will be meeting more eggs during our journey.
After dinner, relax with cocktails at Villa Vanilla.
The area around the old Lee Gardens Hotel was still throbbing with energy (just as I remember it from over forty years ago).
People were still thronging the streets for food among hundreds of food stalls along the main road and every alley way.
Day 2
We skipped the hotel breakfast, did not go to any restaurant but instead came to a group of food trucks by the beach on the way from Hatyai to Songkhla city. This is at Chalatat Beach at the intersection of Chalatat Road and Thaleluang Road.
The idea was to buy different food from the various food trucks and have it together at the beach like a picnic under the trees and with a grand view of the Gulf of Thailand.
Many nice local dishes and I super love this aunty's porridge. The savoury sweet rice gruel have everything from shredded chicken to pork ball, fish slices and soft boiled egg. Full of flavour, delicious and most satisfying.
After breakfast by the sea, we carried on to Songkhla city by jeepney.
Well.., a regular taxi or van is more comfortable but a bouncy open sided jeepney with your hair blowing in the wind is more fun. The choice is yours 😅
Here we are at the old city wall of Songkhla.
Our second breakfast of the day was at Hub Seng, a hyperlocal, atmospheric old Hainanese coffee shop.
They have the Hainanese kopitiam staples of Nanyang coffee, kaya toast and soft boiled eggs. They also have traditional Cantonese steamed buns, rice dumplings, etc.
Aunty is 84 years old and she still makes kaya for her coffee shop which was founded by her father Mr Foo 府 who came to Songkhla city from Hainan Island in the 1930s. Aunty makes kaya with sugar, coconut milk and eggs (without pandan) according to the recipe her father taught her.
For lunch, we went to Khao Stu Kiat Fang coffee shop (by the 将 family) that serves excellent steamed buns and roast pork rice.
Aunty's steamed bun skin were puffy, fluffy, subtly sweet and they were stuffed with well prepared fillings of stewed pork, red bean paste, etc.
Khao Stu Kiat Fang's pork rice was mind blowing memorable. There's pork sausage, char siew and roast pork - all stall made. There's also a savoury saucy dish with pork innards which is poured over rice for a delicious pork rice meal.
Southern Thai style roast pork differs from the Malaysian & Singapore counterparts in having less savoury salty and Chinese 5 spice taste, and is also sweeter. The crackly rind is marvellous.
Songkhla old town has many old crafts and traditional food shops. We roamed around randomly and stumbled upon an old shop hand making a traditional sweet with rice flour and sugar.
After all the walking around the old town, we parked a while at Lyn's Cafe to cool our smoking hot heels (exaggerate lah, just an excuse to chill in a beautiful cafe 🤭 ). Lyn's is a Shanghai - Thai theme cafe.
Lyn's has many coffees, ice creams, Western and Thai savoury food dishes which are created at the cafe.
Next stop, Nai Dong Bon Cafe which is a unique rainforest cafe. It is a popular social media check-in spot with many picture perfect opportunities.
But, the most amazing thing for me here was the meal personally prepared by owner Khun T's mum. Eating here is a privilege.
It is delicious Thai home style dishes from mum's kitchen made with fresh vegetables from Nai Dong Bon's rainforest garden.
Dinner was at Kiengtalay Lampang Restaurant in Phatthalung city.
Kiengtalay serves Thai style dishes made with fresh produce and catches from the Phatthalung area.
We love all the dishes and the highlight was this river prawn that rival the legendary Ayutthaya river prawn. Like its northern cousin, the Phatthalung river prawn has a firm chewy body and explosively umami head butter. However, Phatthalung river prawns live in brackish water so it has a subtle taste of the sea overlaying its crustacean sweetness. Many argue that this gives the Phatthalung river prawns the edge.
We retired for the night at Phatthalung's luxurious Dusit Princess Hotel.
Well appointed rooms, comprehensive amenities and facilities, with outstanding hospitality.
All are much appreciated as the next morning we leave at 5:30am to catch the sunrise at the amazing Talay Noi.
Day 3
The incredible Talay Noi (also spelt Thale Noi) is one of the highlights of this southern Thailand trip. It's an incredibly beautiful brackish water wetland teeming with fish, birds, lilies and other aquatic life. The water at the wetland is only a metre deep at low tide, so even water buffaloes come here to graze on seaweed!
Talay Noi offers many unique photo opportunities. We need to come back because we missed the sunrise as the sky was overcast, didn't see the water buffaloes grazing on seaweed (they were shy 😂 ), nor the fishermen netting fish with traditional foot operated fish traps 🤣
After cruising Talay Noi, we went shopping at the stalls selling dried products fished from the wetland. Look at the bright eyes of these dried fish - it's like they were alive 😲 You can imagine how fresh they were.
After shopping, it's time for breakfast! I need a coffee now!
One thing I appreciate about this trip is the opportunities to enjoy Thai street food like a local.
Khanom jeen which is rice vermicelli in a spicy soupy sauce eaten with fried chicken, fried fish egg cakes, and lots of fresh juicy crunchy greens. I super love this hyperlocal breakfast.
People at Phatthalung love their fish roe. They mix different kinds of fish roe, hand form them into little cakes which they deep fry to make fried fish egg patties. Enjoy it with rice and noodles like how we eat bergedil in Singapore. We had it with khanom jeen this morning. Yum yum 👍
After our hearty, local breakfast which I enjoyed very much, we got on the road to Trang. Along the way, we stopped briefly at Kachong Hill Resort for coffee and the splendid rainforest and valley views at Kachong Hill.
Introduce my travel kaki kaki - on my left Songchai of Uncle Rich Food Leveling, and on my right Wilber of Aroi Mak Mak. Some of the photos and video in this article are courtesy of Wilber and Songchai 🙏
Love this Thai style tempura of fried battered betel leaf and shrimp. Soft tender juicy succulent sweet prawn and subtle bittersweet leaf wrapped in a crisp, airy crust.
Sneak peek at one of the Kachong Hill rooms. Are you really sure we have to go right away? 🤭
Next stop on the way to Trang city was Cervidae Deer Farm. The farm with around 400 animals serves Halal certified venison.
We tried various venison dishes from French to Thai Massaman curry style.
There was no gaminess from the soft tender venison (but truth be told, I was hoping for some distinctive gaminess so that I can tell if I am really served venison in Singapore restaurants).
We are in Trang city in front of the iconic Dugong Circle. Dugongs also known as sea cows are now a critically endangered animal found around the sea and rivers of Trang province.
Tuk tuk, of course, are found throughout Thailand but frog faced three wheeler tuk tuk can only be found in Trang city. So, if you want to experience the unique thrill of riding in a frog face tuk tuk, you are welcome to Trang 🐸
One of the joys of this trip was the hyperlocal experiences like enjoying lod chong Singapore (what is that?) in an alleyway from a famous but no signboard alley stall.
Lod chong Singapore is what is known as cendol in Singapore. In Thailand, they use pandan noodles and coconut milk with ice but no palm sugar.
Eating lod chong Singapore together with fried banana fritters adds another layer of sweetness, and a higher level of enjoyment. Fried banana and lod chong are often eaten as a pair in Trang.
Next stop, Trang Pancakes.
Soft tender spongy pancakes filled with different fillings such as peanut, coconut, etc. My favourite is the one filled with foi thong or egg threads.
Next stop, Richy Trang, a cafe popular with locals. It has an extensive menu of Thai and Western dishes. We sampled their cheesecake and chocolate cake as we were already over full by this time. Both cakes were delicious. We ended up buying take away snacks such as their famous nutty almond and coconut tuiles.
Dinner in Trang was at Koh Ngai Camping Seafood, a river side restaurant.
All the dishes we had were nice. I want to highlight their steamed pomfret. The sauce was a little flat and lacked aroma and the fish was smothered by too many vegetables. But still, the freshness of that thick meaty Andaman Sea pomfret 斗鲳 shone through with its mind blowing natural sweetness that I have never tasted before from a pomfret. I mean I have eaten 斗鲳 before but this beats them all even though this wasn't my preferred preparation.
The squid cooked in its own ink was not pretty but tasted wonderful.
After our huge dinner, we went for supper 😂 It looks like roti prata or roti Canai but it is just called roti here.
They have many types of savoury and sweet fillings but we were here only for their sweet roti. We chose roti with coconut, cempadak, and palm seed which are eaten with white sugar and condensed milk.
Our crib for the night at Trang city was at Parima Hotel. The room was big, bed was huge, clean, no smell, basic amenities, friendly staff. I enjoyed my one night stay here.
Day 4
We skipped breakfast at the hotel so that we can save our tummy space for hyperlocal meals. But, I couldn't resist this eggy sweet foi thong at Parima's breakfast buffet. Quintessentially Thai now, foi thong has Portuguese roots.
Soon, I realised that dim sum is a popular breakfast option in southern Thailand (don't mind me saying, I can't think of any Singapore coffee shop dim sum that can beat this 🤭 ). We were at Pong Ocha Tim Sum.
There were dozens of varieties, made at the shop with fresh ingredients, steamed on order. Just go to the counter and point to what you like, go back to your table and your steamy hot, delicious dim sum follows you back. Magical.
Crabs are abundant in south Thailand, so I encountered more crab roll (hoi cho) than prawn roll (hae cho) 😁
Trang is also known as the city of roast pork. It is said Trang makes the best Chinese style roast pork. It is not as savoury salty and uses less Chinese 5 spice than the Malaysian / Singapore varieties but is slightly sweeter, so it is better balanced.
Locals eat their siobak by stuffing it into a slit opened in a short piece of you char kway, and dress it with a dash of zesty spicy hot sourish chili sauce. Delicious. More flavours and textures in every mouthful.
They make coffee with a coffee sock like we do in Singapore (and in Malaysia).
Pong Ocha Tim Sum also make their own kaya like Hub Seng in Songkhla, using only eggs, coconut milk and sugar (without pandan).
After breakfast, we went to the local wet market to look for more food! 😂
This dish is fascinating and unique. The lady boss spreads rice flour solution on a piece of cloth stretched over a pot of boiling water. She then adds in stewed yam bean and fresh beansprouts. Once cooked, she deftly covers the contents by folding the rice sheets into a dumpling. She next splashes in a sweet spicy sauce and serve the dumplings with sweet cucumber slices.
It is eaten just plain which is delicious enough or with side of braised pork head meat and innards with the same spicy sweet sauce. Locals said this dish is found only in Trang.
Next event, the very important mission of shopping at Khanom Pia Soi 9, one of the most famous traditional Chinese bakers in Trang.
Khanom Pia Soi 9 bakes Chinese style pastries with very thin flaky crust with generous fillings of many kinds from sweet to savoury. They are famous for several fillings with the char siew type being the top seller. Reminds me of Seremban siew pau but with a thin flaky crust. You will regret if you come all the way to Trang and go home without this.
Next was lunch on a raft as it cruised on a river meandering through mangroves. We ate lunch made with crab, prawn, sea bass fish caught from the mangroves around us.
It was raining heavily but it dampened neither our spirits nor our appetites one bit. The staff on the raft were so warm and the food they prepared were so delicious.
Highly recommend this experience. Good natural food, simple preparation (but that is the best for fresh food of the sea), friendly staff, beautiful scenery.
After lunch on the raft, we proceeded to Hatyai on the final leg of our 5 day tour. We stopped a while at Kuanito to try their famous house made ice cream.
Kuanito's ice cream is nice, very creamy and rich while not overly sweet. There are many varieties in the menu, this is their signature ice cream roll filled with foi thong (egg threads). Yeah, I love foi thong... .
Back on the road to Hatyai. (That hat shaped hill reminded me of Maw San in Sarawak, Malaysia.)
Our dinner in Hatyai was at Alive Cheewit Cheewa. It is designed almost like a wedding shoot location set with many dreamy backdrops.
The place was packed when we were there. It's a long weekend in Malaysia and many Malaysians flocked over to Hatyai like Singaporeans going to Johor Bahru.
Alive serves traditional Thai dishes and is popular with locals and visitors alike.
For the night, we returned to New Season Hotel. Comfortable clean room and bed, essential amenities provided, excellent downtown location. Yeah, so we were back.
Day 5
Breakfast was dim sum at กุ๊กชัยติ่มซำ2-By Cook Joss. I have to admit that I have fallen in love with dim sum in south Thailand. Lots of varieties, hand made, fresh ingredients, point and shoot to order, no stress.
Steamed on order, served steamy hot, delicious, pocket friendly, no stress, all fun.
And, you have to try their signature hor fun. It's hor fun (flat rice noodles) coated with rice flour batter which is seared to a chewy, lightly browned crisp. Served with stewed sea bass fish which is eaten as a topping for the crispy hor fun pancake. Delicious and this was my first time seeing this dish anywhere.
Go Hatyai, must eat dim sum (besides lots of other things).
After breakfast, dashed to New Kim Yong Market near our hotel to do some last minute shopping to stuff our luggages.
At the airport, airline check-in, immigration and customs, security procedures all done smoothly. Our flight TR633 departs Hatyai at 1325 hours.
Home sweet home. Familiar sight of Changi control tower from my seat window.
This article is just a summary of itinerary highlights. I am writing more articles which will cover the attractions and food in greater detail. Do come back to this article from time to time as I will be providing the links to the detailed articles here.
This article will be the hub for Johor Kaki's south Thailand articles.
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