Thailand – Laos: Day 2 – Part 2 – Thai Primary School and Wet Market in Hat Yai

For the Malay Language, click here.

Continued from the entry Thailand – Laos: Day 2 – Part 1 – Around the city of Hat Yai and Wat Hat Yai. For pre-travel, please refer here.

Location: Hat Yai, Thailand

The story is very lengthy and has to be separated into two blog entries. First, from Wat Hat Yai, and due to not hiring any tuktuk, we needed to walk to the main road. After walking out of Wat, there was an entrance gate. At the edge, there is a primary school and the atmosphere is quite crowded because of the voice of the students there who were receiving lessons from their teachers. So, we went into the school area without further ado and looking for new experiences while traveling.

I guess that this may be a religious school because it is built close to worship. It is a primary school and is named Tedsaban 5 Wat Hat Yai School. My friends on Facebook say Thailand is now on a school holiday (referring to December 29 recently). Perhaps it is also true that most of their school wear seems like a scout uniform and co-curriculum. Tatie seemed worried to go in and I asked her not to worry. I have told her that any school in the world, especially primary school, will undoubtedly be hesitant with all the visitors, and that is normal.

I’m interested in seeing a notice board showing a school administration hierarchy. All the teachers and administrators are wearing similar royal attire. Maybe that’s how Thailand respects its teachers.

There is a classroom where a teacher is watching us. I suppose she knew we were a traveler, so I waved a hand at her and she nodded her head, showing the sign that we were allowed to enter. So ok, we got the green light and entered into more parts inside the school area.

Just beginning to walk a few steps, four female students walk towards a parking place for motorcycles. They want to use the public phone provided there. It may indicate that Thai schools banned the use of mobile phones. Then we say hi to them and ask to take pictures with Tatie and Aqif. They agree … look a little shy.

There are various landscaping decorations in this main entrance area of the school. Very interesting and eye-catching. Aqif, who is just 3 years and 10 months old, probably does not understand schooling and what ‘school’ is.

Later, two male students carrying trash to be thrown away. From a distance, they smiled at me, maybe because I’m lifting my big camera to take pictures of them.

More landscaping decorations in this area.

I think this is part of the classroom, but there are no students here.

That’s Aqif, with a variety of styles. Behind Aqif is a school canteen. See the roof of Wat Hat Yai? It is huge and tall. So let’s take a closer look at the canteen interior of Thai schools.

The canteen is much less like a school in Malaysia as well. However, there are additional mini-stage and no table-based stalls here. All sellers must stand at the front counter that has been provided. Errr … is it similar to a school in Malaysia? Well, I’ve left school for a long time. Have to wait for our children to grow up and will know the latest school interior.

At the angle that I took Aqif’s picture just now came a few male students. This time the difference was in their outfit that looked like a scout uniform. We took a picture with them. Don’t reject if the opportunity to find a difference suddenly pops up.

Finally, we’re done and heading out of the school but stopped in one of these classrooms. Outside the door, I waved at the teacher who was teaching her students. While waving, I pointed out a hand gesture intending to photograph and she allowed. However, I did not want to disturb the learning session, so I asked Tatie and Aqif to do the photoshoot faster. Their classrooms are also clean and there are ASEAN flags on the board. This means that from the early stages, Thailand’s students are exposed to what is Asian, ASEAN and where their country position and strength are. In addition, each classroom is required to display a picture of the King of Thailand.

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I love backpacks. From a big-sized backpack, daypack to a sling bag, all I have. The sling bag aims to store my heavy camera. A daypack is essential if you plan to stay in the city and shop for the day. Later, your hand won’t feel a burden because you need to hold the plastic on the left and right hands. But for families like us, in the bag, there are diapers, baby powder and others.

Out of school, we went on a mission to find the main road. Suddenly, we found a wet market or morning market. I’m very excited to see these markets because here, we can see the authentic, local atmosphere, the way Thai people are trading and can even see the rare items sold that will make you vomit.

These are the rare items that will make you vomit. Can you take on the challenge of eating these animals? Do you want me to buy it for you? Free only … From turtles, eels to frogs are sold here. Only snails and cats (pity) that I do not see here. Perhaps in Thailand, these rare items are not as bad as in Cambodia and Vietnam.

That’s a turtle for sale! I’ve seen once back in my country while drinking at a restaurant. Coincidentally there, I was sitting in the back. So I can see the back of another restaurant there. The activities made therein are chopping the legs, hands and turtle heads. In my opinion, it is necessary to scrap the contents from the outside after cooking to eat the tortoise. Pity because the turtle was still alive when chopped!

This is an eel. I often eat fried eel when I go to Indonesia. It’s delicious and crispy.

Haa .. for this one, I will not eat it myself. I’m not sure what type of frog. And for sure, the size is as big as a palm. But, if you look at these frogs, you will say in the mouth “eeeeeeeeeeeee” or “euwwwwwww”, right?

Some frogs have been inserted into a package as ordered by customers.

Video on the stall selling rare items.

Vegetable traders.

Then, we turn right, following the GPS guide. I want to share with readers about the GPS. It’s insensitive to use while walking, except when driving a car. After walking 5 meters, I noticed that it would update the latest GPS position in maps. I can say that all smartphones have this problem. So use the technique of trying out many times and walking while looking at the current position.

After turning to the right lane, there are many more stalls selling goods.

Here, we can see a few fruit sellers. Initially, we wanted to buy fruit, but most of the fruit needed to be cut first. So it’s a bit difficult for travelers like us. Where can we find a knife to cut the fruits? So, we decide to find somewhere else that has already been cut. Probably in the Kim Yong Market area.

When we entered the lane, we came across the Muslim women sellers. Hmm … the atmosphere here is similar to the Siti Khadijah Market in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, which women dominate.

The atmosphere in the second lane. At the end of the street, there is the main road. This lane is full of Muslim sellers.

Muslim sellers sell fish, meat and chicken. If you rent an apartment or AirBnB that can allow the tenant to cook, I think it’s suitable for shopping for food items here.

Picture from the direction we came at first. From here, you can see the roof of Wat Hat Yai. Very high, right?

The video is about the second lane that we bypass just now.

Last picture in the morning market with my dearest wife and child. Actually, we did not buy anything here because the goods sold were not suitable for our following travel activities. Unless if you are married to a local Thai. Hehe.

When we got to the main road, I looked up. In Thailand, it has become a habit of its messy electric wires and transformers. Ok, where are we going next? Let’s go to Kim Yong Market …. !!

Continued in the next entry ….. Thailand – Laos: Day 2 – Part 3 – Kim Yong Market and Reviews About Park Hotel.