Things To Do In Hat Yai Part 1: Visit Khlong Hae Floating Market

Friends ask me the same few questions when they heard that I was in Hat Yai:

 

“Where is that?”
“What’s there to do?”
“Are the things cheap?”

 

To be fair, Hat Yai is not a common destination of travel for people in my generation. I only hear of Uncles and Aunties in their 50s and 60s, who visit Hat Yai to visit temples to pray or for very cheap shopping. I like checking out new destinations that I’ve never been to, and since the primary purpose of the trip was to spend time with my mom, I didn’t mind going to a place that could potentially be ‘boring’. Thankfully, I did my research and found enough things to do to occupy my 4D3N there. Some tourist spots are an hour’s ride away, so I skipped those. We pretty much covered the more interesting places in Hat Yai town, which is very small by the way. If you are planning a short trip to Hat Yai, this will be a useful guide for you.

 

Some basics first - We flew to Hat Yai on Tigerair, which is the only budget airline that flies direct from Singapore to Hat Yai at about S$200/pax. Flight time was approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, and Hat Yai is one hour behind Singapore time. We stayed 3 nights at Centara Hotel Hat Yai, and you can read about our experience here. Centara Hotel has one of the best locations in Hat Yai, and I would strongly recommend staying there. For the price that you will be paying, it’s very worth it. I’m going to share my list of recommended things to do in Hat Yai in two posts, and this first one is on Khlong Hae Floating Market:

 

The floating market is only open on Friday – Sunday 3pm-9pm, so make sure you plan your itinerary in order to catch it. The floating market is really small compared to those in Bangkok, but it’s still worth visiting because of the really cheap food you can get from the market vendors here. Apart from the floating market vendors, there is also a bazaar selling all kinds of food, clothes and knick-knacks. We paid a Tuk Tuk driver 300 baht to bring us from the hotel to the market, wait for us and then bring us back again to the hotel. Depending on your negotiation, you can pay a lot lesser than that, I believe. We were just lazy to negotiate because it was the first place we went to.

 

This is the entrance to the floating market, with both sides lined with stalls selling clothes. Prices are cheaper than in Bangkok and I found that the people are friendlier too. I like it that it is not crowded like Bangkok, and I feel a lot more relaxed when shopping in Hat Yai, without the need to rush or squeeze through crowds of people.

 

 

That’s the whole stretch of floating market – very small but take your time to walk down the banks and you will discover many delicious street food options at really cheap prices.

 

To put things into perspective for you, 10 baht = $0.40. So you can see that most of the food items here are selling at less than S$1 each. These are already considered expensive by their standards because they are targeting tourists, but still considered affordable to us.



 

 

There are several stalls selling drinks in these character ceramic cups, and almost every visitor would buy one so that they can bring the cups home as souvenirs. I used them as flower pots when I got home – Super pretty! But of course, you cannot be too picky about hygiene and just close one eye when you drink whatever beverage you purchase. I opted for Thai milk tea and it was yums! Only $1.20 for the drink and the cup.

 

 

 

 

I saw this lady selling these bamboo rice and wanted to try. Turned out that 8- cents got me two bamboo rice in different flavors – Purple rice was slightly sweet and the glutinous rice was salty. So very delicious and fragrant – Regretted not buying more back to the hotel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This other snack we bought may be very sinful and oily but tasted super good. Deep fried battered sakura prawns! You must try this when you are there – surprisingly no smelly oil taste even though I’m sure the oil’s been used many times over.

 

 

 

At the pasar malam area, you can buy different types of fresh fruits (their mini pineapples are signatures and very sweet when fully ripe).

 

 

 

And we stayed around to watch a vendor attempt to fry a huge pan of phad thai with chives and beansprouts. Like a performance, really!

 

 

So, take your time and slowly enjoy the atmosphere at Khlong Hae Floating Market and the bazaar. Like I said, the place is not huge but definitely worth a visit if you want to enjoy cheap street food and go home with really cheap clothes, shoes and bags. The vendors are very open to bargaining and generally friendlier than the vendors in Bangkok, IMHO.

 

Read my next post on Hat Yai here.