Hat Yai

Tan Youg market, Hat Yai

Hat Yai


Hat Yai is Thailand's most popular destination for travellers going to the deep south, and is quite unlike other well-known southern Thailand destinations such as Phuket or Samui Island, famous as tourist destinations because of their seaside attractions, sandy beaches and luxurious resorts. Hat Yai, because of its strategic location, finds fame as a focal point for vigorous cross-border trading, enjoying the support from Thai folk from all over the country who clamour for Malaysian produce, such as tropical fruit, pears, apples, Muscat grapes, and products including assorted western biscuits and chocolates, cosmetics and many other items.
Sweet morning at Hat Yai, July 2, 1998.

Hat Yai is compact, with all amenities and facilities available in the heart of town. Hotel accommodation, available from low-budget establishments to higher-priced luxury hotels, can be found within a ten square-kilometre area in the town centre. Here are there main roads running parallel to one another: Nipat-uthit 1, Nipat-uthit 2 and Nipat-uthit 3, where businesses and shopping areas line up along each side of the three roads.

But the mian attraction is focused on Santisuk shopping mall which is located between Nipat-uthit 2 and 3. In fact the mall consists of two narrow lanes congested with stalls. In one lane, stalls are loaded with electrical goods, watches, cameras and computer games; in the other, there are all kinds of garment stalls and other consumer goods. During holiday seasons these two lanes are packed with shoppers, day and night - local folk and foreigneers. The local people flocks here to find cross-border products, while the foreigners - mostly Malaysians - come to buy inexpensive Thai garments and local fruits in season. The vendors spread out their goods and wares in great abunance and charge very attractive prices.

Hat Yai owes much of its charm and attraction to its vibrant, vivacious nightlife which revolves around the nightclubs, bars, pubs, discotheques, karaoke lounges, shopping malls and cinimas. It is redolent with the scintilla of a city that revels in its own fervid blaze of frenetic activity. A favourite haunt for tourists is the laser-life Tiffany Show where male transvestites clad themselves in glittering, shimmering costumes to flaunt their feminine endowments as they strut about the stage. All the while belting out the latest hits of the day--spiced with humour that it at once risque, raunchy and ribald.

On the bustling streets, large alfresco restaurants dish out superb seafood to the syncopated beat of raucous live music. On the siver-platter of culinary pleasures are the perennial favourites: shark's fin soup, birds' nest, fish maw, poached duck, fried pigeon, barbecued squid, and deep-fried prawns. On the humming side-walks, Thai fruits (durians, lychees, longans, mangoes, rambutans), cashew nuts, crisp fish and shrimp crackers and other culinary delicacies in all manner of shapes, smells, and cuts bedeck the roadside stalls. Attracting those who can resist anything except temptation to cast weight-watching to the winds.

For shoppers in hunt of a voyage of discovery Hat Yai is a paradise with its multifarious goods and down-to-earth prices. Designer-labels festoon the makeshift stalls, all going for a song. Thai silk, handicrafts, jewelry, ready-made leisure-wear and sportswear, wallets, leather bags and briefcases are some of the good buys always on offer. On the three parallel roats of Nipat-uthit 1, Nipat-uthit 2 and Nipat-uthit 3, there is a plethora of goods to suit variegated tasted and varying budgets. Those who wish to venture further afield may take a jiggling ride to Plaza Market. But hither or thither, in Hat Yai you can shop till you drop, burning of all your energy in a buying spree without burning a hole in your pocket.

Clamber up on a tuk-tuk (open-back jeep) for a city tour which also includes a visit to the Hat Yai Nai, renowned for its 35 m long, 15 m high and 10 m wide statue of the reclining Phra Puttahat Mongkol Buddha, ranked the fourth largest in the world.

For overseas visitors a visit to Hat Yai is an absolute "mest" because it is where you can make connecting trips, by train or road, to all other towns in the southernmost provinces of Thailand. Apart from the daily mini-bus shuttling to and from Penang, Hat Yai is also the centre for mini-bus services to Yala, Pattani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Surat Thani, Trang, Satun, Sungai Kolok and even Phuket. It is an important southerly junction with a web of connections to most of southern Thailand, as well as being a great gateway to Malaysia.

Products including assorted western biscuits and chocolates, cosmetics and many other items at Tan Yong Market

Tropical fruit such as pears, apples, Muscat grapes and others at Tan Yong Market

Chest nut or Gourat roasting at Tan Yong Market

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Information

: Tourism Authority of Thailand, 4 Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue, Bangkok 10100, THAILAND. Tel. : (66 2) 281-0422 (20 Lines), E-mail : tat@cs.ait.ac.th : Tourist Service Center (TAT and Tourist Police), Tel. 1155 : Tourism Authority of Thailand Tourist Service Center : TAT Southern Office : Region 1 1/1 Soi 2 Niphat Uthit 3 Rd., Hat Yai, Songkhla 90110 Tel.: (66 74) 231-055, 238-518, 243-747; Fax: (66 74) 245-986 E-mail : tathatyai@hatyai.inet.co.th Area of Responsibility : Songkhla (Hat Yai) and Satun