Day Three of our Hat Yai trip was a 1.5 hours drive to as the boy wanted to have his fortune read by this famous monk. It costs 1500 baht for two persons and the driver, and the entire trip to three temples is included. The driver drove us to this place for some Pork-madness. I know, pretty weird for a breakfast choice haha.

J’s eyes glistened up immediately at the sight of his favourite food: Crispy pork belly! You could hear the crispiness as the lady boss is cutting it away just 50 meters away.

And the crazy fat pig trotters. C-O-L-L-A-G-E-N!

Here it is! If you notice, you can barely see the disgusting pores on the trotters too, unlike the ones we have in Singapore. Sometimes, the pig trotters found in Singapore can contain a really thick layer of fat and the skin contains huge pores and maybe even hair ewww.

The pork trotters here are a whole different story. I loveeeee the pig trotters here. The one we had on our first day was nothing compared to this. There were more lean meat and the skin melts completely on your tongue.The preserved vegetables beneath the pork was also not too salty and heavy for our tastebuds and complemented the meat well.

Unlike the crispy pork we have in Singapore which is cut in a different way, the ones served here are thinly sliced. I didn’t really hold high expectations for it as I thought we wouldn’t be able to taste the crispiness of the pork since it is so thinly sliced. To my surprise, the meat was tender and really crispy! Even though it is a little oily, I still like it as the fat and lean meat are thoroughly separated.

The pork stomach soup consisted of a variation of the parts of a pork. Similar to Chok Dee, the pork intestines stole the limelight with its tenderness. The soup, however, was nothing spectacular. So I’d say, skip this dish.

The driver then drove to our first location: Wat Thanawee. There were already people there waiting to get their fortunes read and we waited for approximately 45 minutes before we managed to get our fortunes read in less than 1 minute. Really super not worth it. Furthermore, we couldn’t understand what the monk was saying as well since there were no interpreters or translators around.

The trip also allows us to visit another 3 temples: Bottle Temple, and  this other name whose name I cannot remember. Bottle temple was relatively more rundown and smaller in scale as compared to Wat Thanawee. The temple is supported by many bottles and it was rather different from the usual temples we see.

The list of sponsors from Singapore and Malaysia

This temple was alot bigger and more majestic as compared to Bottle temple. There were many shrines that you could visit and offer prayers.

Four-faced Buddha

Guan Ying

Oh I managed to get a really good lot here too. Though I have no idea what it means haha. The driver initially was to drop us off somewhere for really-good Phad Thai but the place was closed. We ended up at Central for some shopping. There really isn’t much to shop in their shopping malls. Most of the malls were really empty and we wondered how they managed to sustain their business.

LOL we settled for Yoshinoya cause we thought it was cheap. Their Yoshinoya is not the fast-food restaurants we see in Singapore. Instead, it was more of a restaurant-styled concept.

Err. I think I’d rather have it back in Singapore. The meal ended up more expensive than our usual meals. LOL

We returned to our hotel to rest before setting out for some Thai food. What’s Thailand without Thai food? Surprisingly, it was reallllllly tough to get Thai food in Hat Yai. Instead, Chinese food is everywhere. Kan Eng Restaurant was a mere 10 minutes walk away from our hotel and we were all ready to have a feast! And it was closed. -.-”

We walked and explored other areas and FINALLY found Thai food in a really rundown coffeeshop.

Second BMW we saw in Hat Yai woah~