Hat Yai Trip

Our whole family, including Ah Mah and all my aunties and cousins made a trip to Hat Yai recently to celebrate Ah Sing Ah Ku's 20th (or was it 21st?) birthday. It was to be a big celebration at her house. Daddy, Mummy and I did not plan to go at first seeing that I had no passport. However, so happened that Mummy was off from work for about a week so she took me to do my passport. The immigration office in Penang did not take photos of babies and little children so we went to a nearby photoshop to take my photo. I had to wear a little jacket and stand on a stool for the uncle to take my photo. I was a bit startled and surprised at the bright lights, hence this was the result:



Mummy says its a good thing that she took me to do my passport now because priority is given to children 2 years and below so we did not have to queue for very long. Also, when collecting the passport, I don't need to be there in person so Mummy can go and collect it for me. I guess the immigration people can understand that little kids like me will get cranky if we have to go there too many times and also if we have to wait for too long! So my passport looks nice or not? Now Mummy and Daddy can bring me for overseas holiday! :)

The initial plan was to leave Penang at 4 am so that we could avoid the congestion at the border. But travelling in a large group always causes delay, so by the time Ah Mah and Ah Cik reached our house, it was almost 5 am. Then we had to go and fetch Da Ku and Pei Yi Jie Jie from Bukit Mertajam. Since it was about 6 am then, we decided to have dim sum for breakfast at Chai Leng Park. I woke up just before breakfast, but see how cheerful I am so early in the morning! :)



This was almost at the border where we needed to get our passports checked and car registration stuff done. I forgot what the place was called. Mummy thinks this is a nice photo of the three of us.



When we reached Cik Kong's house in Hat Yai, we unpacked and decided to go to the market. Things are really cheap there. This was a view taken of the streets of Hat Yai; see the tuk-tuks below. I didn't get a chance to ride on one this time, so hopefully I can sit on one the next time we come. My aunts bought a lot of stuff at the market, in fact they even came back the next day to shop some more. I guess the things are pretty cheap. Mummy got a nice pair of shorts for only RM12!



While everyone was shopping inside, Ah Mah and Mummy took me outside to have a cold coconut drink as it was super hot. Look how I enjoy my coconut!



Daddy bought this for me from the market - RM18 only.



We also had lots of ice cream in Hat Yai. This was at Swensen's at one of the shopping malls. There were six of us (including myself) and we ordered 4 sundaes and this fondue below. The bill only came up to RM38, which included a water tumbler for Jie Jie Zhen Yi and a toy keychain for myself. Pretty cheap, right? In Penang it would have definitely cost much more!



Speaking of ice cream, this is Daddy's all time favourite - coconut ice-cream. There is a funny story related to this. We actually spotted the ice-cream man but failed to stop him before he rode off. So we followed him and waved to him to stop! The coconut ice-cream in Thailand has all sorts of other yummy ingredients added such as glutinous rice and atap chee (palm seeds). The man also had it in two different types, regular ice-cream and ice-cream float!



Look at Daddy enjoying his ice-cream :)



So anyway, here is what we were here for - to celebrate with the birthday girl. Doesn't she look all dolled up? I was also wearing a pretty dress but I was getting sleepy and cranky cos I didn't have a proper nap all day.



I later changed into my pyjamas to sleep but because of all the excitement around, I couldn't sleep yet.



The next day, we went to a Thai restaurant to have lunch - Mummy's request :) I am wearing a new dress bought for me by Chim Poh. There was a water feature at the restaurant with a dolphin statue and I took a photo with it. Not only that, I was trying to touch the water until my face and clothes were all wet :p



On the way back, we got stuck on a massive jam at the border and only got home about 9pm that night. It was a fun trip and please take me again ok Mummy and Daddy?