We Eat, Shop & Sleep in Hatyai: A Day Tour Around Hatyai

Date Visited: 23rd June 2013

Initially on the third day in Hatyai, my friend and I decided to continue shopping but not until we were approached by a almost middle aged lady for a day tour around Hatyai. After haggled for almost ten minutes, we finally agreed with the price offered of 1,000 baht travel around with her tuk-tuk. Be make sure to do research of the market price beforehand, or else you will likely being ripped off with with absurdly high prices. I always do my research earlier at least, by reading blogs, TripAdvisor and so on.

Wat Hat Yai Nai

Not far away from the Hatyai city center, we started off by visiting Wat Hat Yai Nai, which known as Temple of Wisdom. This temple is well-known for a gigantic statue of sleeping Buddha, named Phra Phuttha Hattha Mongkhon. With the measurement of 35 metres long, 15 metres tall and 10 metres wide, Wat Hat Yai Nai is claimed to be the third largest reclining Buddha in the world. No admission fee is required, just a small donation would be appreciated.


Hatyai Ice Dome


I knew about this place exist but we came here without any early preparation; wore short pants and slippers which is totally insane! But we glad that we were provided with thick coats and warm gloves before entering. Upon entering, we were amazed with the beautiful colourful ice sculptures being displayed around such as our proud iconic, KLCC as well as other famous landmarks around the world. It was really pretty impressive and we were indeed enjoyed the ice cold feeling inside but just make sure in case you are interesting to visit here, please wear long pants and shoes.

Admission fee: 300 baht (Adult) and 200 baht (Children)
Opening Hour: 10 am to 8 pm

Chang Puak Camp


Chang Puak camp is the place for those who are interested with elephant trekking activities. Besides elephant trekking, they even offer other fun activities such as ATV and archery. However, we just dropped for few minutes for phototaking and left instantly. I'm strongly disagree with elephant riding activities, especially after seeing the animal cruelty exposed. It's indeed heartbreaking.

Songkhla Aquarium


After more than 40 minutes of ride from Hatyai district, we reached a small, beach side town of Songkhla and the first place we went was Songkhla Aquarium. Our tour guide convinced us to visit this home to a great variety of both fresh and salt-water fish. Don't expecting this aquarium as big as the one in Singapore or even in Langkawi as it was quite small but sufficient enough for a visit in less than an hour. If you are bringing small kids with you, then this would be one of the recommend place to be but if not, well perhaps you could just skip this place cause honestly speaking, nothing much to see here. The only thing we enjoyed the most was the feeding time performance.



Admission fee: 300 baht (Adult) and 200 baht (Children)
Opening Hour: Tuesday to Sunday (Close on Monday)

The Great Serpent

One of the popular attractions around Songkhla is the statue of "The Great Serpent" found on the sea shore. This Nag is highly respected in southern Thailand as it believed to bring happiness and good fortune to the population of the town.

Golden Mermaid Statue


Probably Songkhla's most photographed tourist attraction, this golden mermaid statue sits on a rock on the Samila white sandy beach. A visit to Songkhla is incomplete without seeing this statue and this is the reason why I agreed to take the day tour trip, just mainly for this.

Besides the places we went, eventually there are even more places you could consider when visiting Hatyai such as:

• Hatyai Municipal Park
• Tang Kuan Hills of Songkhla
• Hatyai Cable Car

and more but we decided to end the trip earlier as we were exhausted and the weather was unbearable hot.