Even if it were not for the fact that we had to get off the bus and walk through the immigration check point, it would have been easy to tell when we crossed from Malaysia into Thailand. The road quality immediately deteriorated, and the roadside flora looked far less landscaped. This is what I had been expecting all along, and I considered it an improvement. It did not take long to get to Hat Yai, also spelled Haadyai, Hatyai, Hadjai and probably several other ways as well. It is the largest city in southern Thailand, and the hub for bus and train travel in the region. In many ways, it is a Thailand equivalent of Tijuana; many Malaysian men come here for the weekend to visit the sex workers, just as the Americans go to TJ. They go for the same reasons - lower prices and less chance of being discovered by a significant other or coworker. I was later to find that in Phuket or Singapore, if I told someone that I had been to Hat Yai, it never failed to elicit a knowing grin or chuckle. Apparently, this is the just about the ONLY reason a foreign male would go to Hat Yai! I can see why, as it has little to recommend it otherwise.

It is just a big, dirty, really cheap city. I was told that it has a population of 1.5 million, although it really did not seem large enough for that. The bus let us off near a travel agency, and we proceeded inside to see what hotels they listed. We soon left, as they had a poor selection. There are travel agencies on practically every block, and we got lucky on the third one we tried, Chan Travel. They spoke excellent English, and had a good selection of hotels, including the one we wanted. Unlike the other places we tried that day and the next, they had all their hotel prices printed up on a sheet so that we could easily compare them, and this also assured us that they were not trying to inflate the prices. Using a local travel agent to rent hotel rooms in SE Asia will save you considerably off the rack rate anywhere except possibly the big tourist destinations. In our case, it saved us each approximately 300B per day. Chan's price on the Sakura Grand View was 830B per night, which translates to about $20 for a 4 star hotel that is completely guest friendly. Actually, guest friendly is putting it too mildly, since they have girls available at the on-premises karaoke. There are supposedly over 100 hotels in downtown Hat Yai, a number which I have no reason to doubt, and no more than a handful have a problem with you bringing a steady stream of girls in and out. I'm not actually sure that any of them object, but Tony and a man we were to speak with the next morning both had their doubts about a few of the very best hotels such as the Lee Gardens.

The Sakura Grand View turned out to be an excellent choice. It had an additional benefit as a way to detect how experienced a pro a girl really was. Across the street was its older sister hotel, the Sakura. If I told a girl I was staying at the Sakura, and she asked "which one" or something similar, I knew she had been around awhile, even if she tried to tell me she had arrived only a week earlier.

The first things I noticed about Hat Yai were the tuk tuks. [photo below] I had heard of them, but never actually seen pictures. These are small low powered diesel pickup-based taxis, about 1/2 to 2/3rds the size of a Toyota Tacoma, with a flat front like a VW bus. They are made by several manufacturers, but I swear they looked like they came from Tonka. The tailgate is cut out in the middle, to allow easier entry, and there is a seat on either side of the bed running front to back. There is a canopy over the bed, but it is sized for Asians. Anyone over 5'6" has to hunch over slightly. I have seen pictures of tuk tuks which had only three wheels, with the front one mounted centrally, but I did not see any of these on my trip. There were also some nicer ones in Phuket, which I will describe in that part of my report. The fare anywhere in the central business district is 10B per person before midnight, 20B after midnight. In addition to the tuk tuks, there are scooters everywhere, and their riders pay far less attention to pedestrians than the professional taxi drivers do.

We got to our rooms about 6:00 PM. I told Tony that I wanted to take a shower and get a little sleep. He wanted to go look around, so I asked him to wake me up at 8:00 PM. Big mistake! At this point, I had slept about 4 hours out of the previous 65. When Tony called me at 8:00, I knew there was no way I was getting up any time soon. After all the anticipation, I spent my first night in Thailand in bed, alone, asleep. What a loser.

Photo by Hippie.

Not a tuk-tuk, which is a three wheeler.

Isn't that just a baht bus?

Yes guys, that is called a tuk tuk in both Phuket and Hat Yai. As I said in my report, they do not have three wheeled ones in either of those locations.