Page Contents

• Introduction [more]
• Markets [more]
• Hat Yai Activity Listings Page 1
  • Tourist Authority Of Thailand (TAT) [more]
  • Ballroom Dancing [more]
  • Birdwatching [more]
  • Bullfighting [more]
  • Cable Car [more]
  • Foot Massage [more]
  • Fresh Market [more]
  • Gim Yong Market [more]
  • Golf [more]
  • Greenway Market [more]
  • Hat Yai Lantern Festival [more]
  • Hat Yai Municipal Park [more]
  • Hat Yai Nai Sunday Market [more]
  • Hat Yai Sports Club [more]
  • Kao Seng [more]
  • Klong Hair Floating Market [more]
  • Klong Nga Saturday Market [more]

Things To Do - Page 1

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.

Comments: Ballroom dancing is popular with some Asian people. If you live in Bangkok you can go along to Lumpini Park on a Sunday morning to get your Foxtrot and Tango fix.

If you're in Hat Yai and would like to try, but you're not very good, you could go along to the Rasadee School of Dancing for some lessons.

The school is located on the corner just opposite the Wiangpin hotel.

Each May you can see lots of White-throated Kingfishers perched on the electricity cables outside Tesco Lotus. Presumably, this is where they come to breed at that time of the year.

Colourful sunbirds feed from flowering bushes around town, and egrets and bitterns patrol Hat Yai's klongs, swooping down to snag fish.

The grounds in the Prince of Songkla University are home to quite a few species of birds. I was fortunate one day to spot a Blue-winged Pitta there - the only one I have ever seen.

However, birdwatching in central Hat Yai is rather hit-and-miss and nothing can be guaranteed.

If you are interested in seeing birds I would recommend venturing into Phattalung province (next to Songkhla), and particularly Thale Noi. Phattalung is full of birds.

If visiting Thale Noi, an overnight stay is recommended so that you can get out early the following morning. If this isn't possible, an alternative might be to visit Koo Kuut Waterfowl Park.

Koo Kuut is in Songkhla province near Sathing Phra district. If you drive over Ko Yo and take the main road to Nakhon Sri Thammarat, it is down a small road on the left. It is quite well signposted and a trip from Hat Yai there can be done easily in half a day.

You need a car though. You could probably get there taking buses and motorbike taxis but it could be a difficult journey.

There isn't much at the visitor centre but f you take a boat out on to the water there are a lot of birds. This location doesn't have all the lotus flowers that Thale Noi has, and therefore isn't as attractive, but the birdwatching there can be quite rewarding.

There are very few tourists, but far more purple herons and Brahminy kites than I have ever seen at Thale Noi.

As usual, the official transliteration of the name is awful and the way it is rendered in English is unintelligible to Thais. If you try, koo (rhyming with 'you') and kuut (rhyming with 'put') you might stand a better chance of being understood.

For more information and photos see my Nature page.

Here are some more Birds of Thailand that I have seen.

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

It is located in the municipal park and joins two temple sites on Kor Hong hill.

Let's start with the positives.

It's a fun ride and you get some great views. You can see Songkhla Lake and the Songkhla central mosque quite easily. The temples on Kor Hong hill consist of three sites. There is a temple that seems to be dedicated to elephants, a Chinese temple, and the site where the huge golden Buddha image is located. The cable car runs from the elephant temple to the golden Buddha.

Reassuringly, it was constructed by the Swiss-Austrian Doppelmayr Garaventa Group. With any piece of engineering like this, you want it to be made in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Safety, therefore, shouldn't be a concern.

I was impressed, but at the same time I was disappointed with a few things.

The temples aren't really accessible by foot. You can walk but it is a very tough climb for most normal people. I was hoping that the cable car would fix this problem. It doesn't. You still need to drive quite a long way up the hill to get to the cable car station.

Considering the fact that you have to drive up the hill, the car park at the elephant temple is miniscule. There is room for less than a dozen cars. If there are no spaces it is highly inconvenient. If you go when there are a lot of people you will be better off parking at the golden Buddha station. If you drive up yourself, you need to ensure that your car is in good shape - especially the brakes. The road is steep and there are some very sharp bends.

My final disappointment is something that really irritates me about Thailand. Dual pricing.

Everywhere you go in Thailand, there is one price for the locals and another for foreigners. The price for foreigners can be as much as ten times the Thai price. At the Hat Yai cable car it is double. Thais pay Bt100 and foreigners pay Bt200.

This practice infuriates me to the extent that if they insist I pay the foreigner price I simply walk away. I have lived in Thailand for a long time and while I was working I paid Thai taxes. If someone were to take this issue to an international court of justice you would probably find it is illegal but it is widespread in Thailand.

At most places the Thai price is disguised to foreigners by writing the prices using Thai numbers, which few foreigners can read. The prices aren't disguised at the Hat Yai cable car but it is still disgusting.

I made my usual protest - all in Thai - and paid the Thai price. I often get the Thai price by speaking in Thai and/or showing my Thai driving licence. On some occasions I don't, in which case I organise my own personal boycott and walk away. If every foreigner in Thailand did this, the Thais might reconsider this disgusting racist practice.

Some stupid foreigners think it is OK because "All Thais are poor and all foreigners are rich." This view is extremely naive. If you are in Thailand look around at some of the houses and look at the foreign cars that many Thais drive. There are lots of very wealthy Thais, and many foreigners are feeling quite poor now because of the economic woes in the West.

The ticket (whatever price you pay) is for a return trip, so you can get back to where you started from. If you go at the weekend or on a public holiday when there are lots of people, you may have to wait a while. There are just two cable cars and each holds only eight people.

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 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.

Apart from the massage shops in the central Hat Yai tourist area, you can get a foot massage at many other places in Hat Yai and the surrounding areas. I have seen masseuses at the Songkhla Sunday market and at other markets. Because they don't have high overheads, they are a lot cheaper. Some only charge Bt100.

The photo of the man having a foot massage was taken at Hat Yai municipal park and the other photo was taken at Songkhla Sunday market.

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 434770-3

A reader who is familiar with playing golf in Hat Yai very kind provided an update on the current state of courses in the area. See: Golf Courses in Hat Yai

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.

The 2005 event ran for just two weeks. It 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. Therefore, it does look as if the Hat Yai lantern festival 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 if it is raining heavily. Also, because the festival runs for four months now there is no urgency to go - as there was the first time - and the last time I went there weren't many people at all.

Hat Yai Lantern Festival (Thai web site).

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

Reader Comments:

15th July 2010

• I went to the Hat Yai Sports Club in early May (2010). For your information the gym, snooker tables and the dancing section are gone. It had been so for a while if I understood the staff correctly. (I don't speak much Thai!) Also the tennis court didn't seem to be in the best condition :-(

  "You could, at the time, take a swim in their swimming pool and a few kids were playing in the small pool."

เก้าแสน

gao sairn is Thai for 900,000. This relates to a local legend that is explained on one of the pictures to the left. Click any small thumbnail image on this site to see a larger image.

Kao Seng is a traditional Muslim fishing village near Songkhla. From Hat Yai you first need to get to Songkhla which is very easy. Once in Songkhla, go down to the beach road and take a sawng-thaew or tuk-tuk to Kao Seng which is a couple of kilometres south.

Alternative, if you take a bus or minivan from Hat Yai to Songkhla you can get off where the mental hospital is located. At the traffic lights turn right and Kao Seng is about a five minute walk.

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 and paint their boats, and repair nets, etc. 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.

Generally I don't like man-made tourist attractions, but I love naturally interesting places like Kao Seng. If you go there when the light is right it is a photographer's dream. Whenever I'm showing people around Hat Yai and Songkhla I normally make a point of stopping by Kao Seng.

Muslims cannot touch dogs so Muslim villages are about the only places in Thailand where you don't see stray dogs wandering all over the place. Instead, you often see cats and goats.

There is a small shop in Kao Seng where they keep about 20 Persian cats. The cats are gorgeous and if you love cats - as I do - you will love this place.

The market started off as a really enjoyable experience and I was quite impressed. However, in no time at all it had just become another standard Thai tourist attraction and then it was no more fun.

Previously, 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 each other it's a great place. However, if you want to experience something close to an authentic Thai floating market you are wasting your time.

The Hat Yai floating market attracts very few farangs but there are scores of Malaysian and Singaporean tourists. You can normally hear far more Chinese being spoken than Thai.

The market isn't big, the vendors' boats don't move, and there are no small boats for visitors to hire to ride around the klongs on like there are at Damnoen Saduak. However, there are now large boats that give visitors a ride around the canal for Bt20. It's actually a very enjoyable little trip and well worth Bt20. It would be even more enjoyable if all the rubbish floating on top of the water was removed.

Vendors 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.

There is no entrance fee, the food is good, all the food seems to cost Bt20 per portion, some of the drinks are served in cups made from real bamboo, and there is no dual-pricing system in place. All these things are good.

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.

If you are part of a group tour visiting Hat Yai, your tour company will most likely organise a trip to Klong Hair.

On my second visit I saw one of the big Malaysian tour buses parked outside. On a visit in April 2010 I saw at least 10 Malaysian tour buses, so the floating market has now become part of the standard Malaysian tourist trail.

If you've never been, it's worth a visit. However, if you've been once and then go back subsequently it's not going to be very exciting.

Official Web Site

Be warned, the official web site isn't exactly brimming with information. There's a Google map and a few photos but not even basic information such as when the market is open.

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.