Jo and I had separate rooms last night, the only night during our travels together. This cheap, well-located and highly-rated guesthouse only had double rooms and it didn’t break the bank for us to have two rooms.
We woke early, had breakfast in my room. It was an easy day with a pick-up and 0945 for the airport, by the lady Grab driver from yesterday. All we have to do today is get ourselves to Bangkok.
We arrived at Hat Yai airport 2h+ before the Thai AirAsia flight and killed time quite well before our flight to Don Mueang, Bangkok. With the midday departure, I ordered a green curry (which was rather different from the one on Malaysia AirAsia, the former being a stirfry while the latter the more familiar creamy curry). I had added-on the mango with sticky rice as dessert which was served with a sachet of dried fish with salt and sugar. It was my first time having that familiar dessert with the condiment and it went well together.
Today we fly from Hat Yai to Bangkok for THB886 (NZD39) on Thai AirAsia with scheduled time of 1h35. We will be covering this route by rail in the opposite direction on our homeward journey.
Sign in Hat Yai airport is written in Thai, Jawi-Malay, Romanised-Malay and English. Strangely the two Malay versions differ slightly; the Jawi-Malay says “Harap menjaga kebersihan” instead of “Tolong”
At Don Mueang, we saw a bus service to Khao San at THB150 per person. We were told that a taxi was THB600 (but it was probably less). The bus turned out to be very easy but probably wasn’t much cheaper than a taxi with two people; but it was a good famil for my next time when I’ll be travelling solo.
Our hotel, the Lucky House was clean and well-located near to Khao San Road but far enough to escape the din at night. We had a massage nearby before having dinner on Rambuttri Street.
Bangkok is heaven for good cheap massage at THB250 (NZD11) per hour. It was cheaper in Hat Yai though at THB200 (NZD9),
Soi Rambuttri, a walking area with street food and eat-in places. I like this place for the cheap yummy food and atmosphere.
Lampshades for sale.