Hat Yai Hotels
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Welcome to Thailand
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After a ferry ride from Penang to the train station in Butterworth for my long train ride north, I arrived in Hat Yai, Thailand where I had to spend a night before getting a bus to Phuket. The landscape on the trip was impressive- flat farmland with large limestone outcroppings looming straight up out of the land. The guesthouse was in expensive for a reason- I had my own bathroom, but the rooms were very sparse and a bit run-down. But it was clean and secure- you could put your own lock on the door which was reassuring. This part of the country has seen some violence from the Muslim population (a minority in Thailand but concentrated mostly in the south, and objecting against Thai government rule of the area) in recent years but I felt safe enough walking around. I went out to eat some dinner- there was a Chinese New Year street fair of sorts still going on downtown, so I bought some noodles from a street vendor.
Now I know Thai food is hot, and I'm kind of a wus with spicy food, but the noodles looked harmless enough. I was wrong- it was so spicy I got the hiccups! Still good, and even though this was probably average or even mild by Thai standards, it was pretty spicy to this western mouth. There were some interesting food varieties available and all kinds of seafood- I did have for desert sticky rice and mangoes which was very good.
One of the first thing I noticed was how awesomely inexpensive it is here. You can get a very good meal for about 4-5 dollars, local beer is less than a dollar a bottle, where there is a lot of choice a comfortable room is about $20, and transport isn't too expensive. Things geared towards tourists are a bit more, as it should be, but in general it is a great deal and you can eat very well for very little.
I saw a crowd in the distance so went to check it out- in the center was a 30 foot tall (at least) bamboo pole with a litte kid sitting on top! It was very impressive but then an older guy climbed up, without hand or foot holds, to the top to join him (where there were two bars). First he moved the kid to his shoulders at the top of pole- then leaned out to one side and the kid dropped and was hanging by the guy's outstretched arm! If that wasn't shocking enough, he then dropped the kid! He fell probably 5 feet before being held by a strap that was not seen until that point. An impressive performance- he then pulled the kid back up, and the both climbed down. Being bamboo this pole was still very flexible and was being supported by a base and about 8 guys holding it.
Later on the same troop had a dancing dragon that climbed up on small platforms 7-9 feet high, jumping from one to the other, balancing on the hind guy's shoulders, running across them- all while acting as a dragon, winking the eyes and ears and opening the mouth. Very cool to see. Interesting note- although I felt safe, I did notice a lot of cops, as well as two guys from the explosive ordnance disposal unit scanning the crowd with binoculars.
Saw more of the country on the bus ride down to Phuket- very pretty with the limestone formations, some with caves and a temple attached, and the occasional Buddhist temple or mosque along the road. But decided that trains and buses were not the most time-efficient way to travel, so I revised my initial plan to train/ bus my way to Bangkok.
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