Street Vendors & Hawkers, Hat Yai

Three streets away from Lee Garden Hotel (from the front entrance), you will find a Malay woman hawker who sells the usual dry titbits Malaysians love to buy home-cashew nuts, pistachios, durian cakes. The best thing about her is her honesty.

At the first look, you may complain at prices of her goods becaue they are definitely priced higher than many (actually only slightly higher) but that is because she sells you the products weighed with an accurate weighing machine.

I tested by weighing products bought from other hawkers on this hawker's weighing machine and found all much less than claimed.

What to buy: Dried food stuff - cashew nuts, pistachios, durian cakes etc.

What to pay: Slightly higher than most.

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If you like to buy the cheap cheap clothing, ear rings, souvenirs, etc... then Hat Yai is really a best place to shop. Some of the shopping complexes there offer goods in a good price, such as the Yong Dee store. Besides, you can also buy from the street vendors, which normally come out to sell their things in the morning and the night time. Noon and early evening is their resting time. So you too go back and have a nap before continuing the night activities!

What to buy: Anything, everything!

What to pay: Money.... Bargain for the best price!

What to buy: Another MUST BUY .. well, for my family, that is.

We normally fry these little anchovies and have them as a side dish during meals. Its not really that expensive but its really fresh ~ my grandmother's tip is to make sure that you can still see the eyes before buying them .... do I make any sense here ... hmmmmm ...

What to buy: Apparently, Cashewnuts is a MUST BUY item when in Thailand ... its pretty expensive in Malaysia.

There were soooo many varieties of cashews there ~ I bought 2 types : Cashews coated in Tom Yum and Cashews coated in Honeyy .. very yummy !! Excellent presents for people back home. My mum was estatic !! Ain't that great ? :-)

What to pay: It was about 200 bhat a kilo, which I thought was a pretty good deal. And the variety is just amazingly varied !

You often hear that Hat Yai is a great place to shop but I disagree. I've spent quite a bit of time in this large southern town and haven't been tempted to buy anything. There are the usual cheap clothes, many with fake designer labels. My experience of buying cheap clothes in Thailand is that the clothes don't last many washes.

There are a lot of stall opening at night near Pink Lady and Hatyai Shopping Complex.

What to buy: Get the lamps, they are unique and very cheap. Just be sure to bargain hard and get a switch converter at Hatyai Department Store. There are also coin bag selling 6 pcs for 100baht. I bought them at the earlier stalls and manage to get 4 pcs at 100 baht.