Off The Beaten Path - Phatthalung : Khao Chai Son, Hatyai and Journey Home

Day 3 (Part 1) : Dimsum Breakfast

We checked out after our complimentary breakfast and the songthaew driver was already waiting for us in front of our bungalow. We hopped onto the songthaew with all our luggage, and bid farewell to the beautiful Thale Noi. The songthaew driver then dropped us in front of Phatthalung train station. The ride costs us 450 Baht or 50 Baht per person (SGD2.06 / RM6.50). We then enquired about the earliest available train tickets to Hatyai and Khao Chai Son, bought the next train (10.30am).

Train ticket from Phatthalung to Khao Chai Son, only costs 18 Baht

Only 6 of us (MJ, CK, Arthur, Amy, Anna and I) were heading to Khao Chai Son, while 3 (Richard, Sherry, Lloyd) headed straight to Hatyai. The train fare to Khao Chai Son costs 4 Baht (SG0.16 / RM0.52) for a half-an-hour trip, train from Khao Chai Son costs 14 Baht (SGD0.58 / RM1.82). The fare from Phatthalung to Hatyai is 18 Baht.

Breakfast at Thom Barkute

Photo credit: CK

Once we bought the ticket, we went to fill up our tummy since we had more than 2 hours to go. We walked around town and came across a Bak Kut The/Dim Sum Restaurant called Thom Barkute. Our breakfast of dimsum and barkute costs us only 735 Baht (approximately 82 Baht per person, or SGD3.36 / RM10.62).

Dimsum spread

More dimsum

Half of our portion

Roasted pork

We ordered one. It tasted below average

Not our usual bak kut teh

Thai Milk Tea

Ice milk tea to beat the heat

Day 3 (Part 2) : Thai Massage… Finally!

The plan for Arthur, MJ and I were to finish our breakfast quickly, then walk over the first massage parlour we saw the day before, to get a quick one-hour massage, before rushing back to the train station to board our train. With that plan in mind, the three of us left the restaurant earlier in search of that massage parlour. Surprisingly, on our way out from the restaurant, just a block away, lies a low-profile massage parlour right in front of us.

Finally...!

Knowing we don’t have much time to waste, we quickly walked in and booked massage for 3 persons. That’s when the real surprise is. Apparently, the massage centre is operated by the blind. As they don’t speak English either, we did have a hard time communicating with them until another staffs who is not visually impaired came out to assist us. Although she isn’t well-versed in English either, body language helped us greatly in conveying our message and we got our booking for 3 people. The price for a one-hour Thai traditional massage was crazily cheap at only 140 Baht. This has got to be the cheapest massage I’ve ever gotten!

All three of us are assigned to blind masseur and they were all very skilful. The masseur I’ve got applied the right amount of pressure on my body. By the end of the massage, my body felt relaxed, my body ache alleviated and my knots seemed to have untangled.

One of the blind masseur who served us

Satisfied, we left the place and hurried to the train station. After all, we had a train to catch. On the way, we bumped into Amy, Anna and Sherry who was shopping for beauty products at a local drugstore. Since we have about 30 minutes before the train is scheduled to arrive, and the train station is only stone throw away, MJ and I didn’t miss the opportunity to grab some local beauty products.

Khao Ok Thalu sighted from the train's window seat

Day 3 (Part 3) : Trip to Khao Chai Son

Khao Chai Son train station

We arrived at Khao Chai Son as scheduled around 11am, and we have until 3pm for our next train back to Hatyai. With not much time left for us to explore Khao Chai Son, we hurried to the one specific place we were eager to visit – Khao Chai Son Hot Spring. There were motor taxis waiting for passengers just right in front of the train station. We got a ride for 20 Baht per person. It’s a quick ride from the train station to the hot spring which took us only around 5-8 minutes by motor taxi, but walking on foot may take u around half an hour. On such a hot sunny weather in Thailand, I wouldn’t recommend walking at all.

Reached Khao Chai Son hotspring

A photo at the entrance

Our research online tells us that the hot spring is the main attraction in Khao Chai Son, famous among the locals for its healing natural hot spring and a special traditional massage. The massage only costs 120 Baht per hour and had received positive reviews online. The entrance to the hot spring is free (like many other attractions in Phatthalung), by the way.

There are hiking trails here as well

Unfortunately for us, the massage room was only available from 2.30pm onwards on the day of our visit, and we therefore couldn’t try it out. As we were checking with the counter staff on whether there are any other places in vicinity that is worth checking out, we saw a brochure at the reception, highlighting the hiking trail and caves near the hotspring. We weren’t particularly interested with the hiking trail since we were carrying large backpacks with us, and not all of us are fit for long walk, so we ended up choosing the cave. After enquiring the direction from the reception staffs, we walked on foot to Tham Nam Yen which is about 10-15 minutes’ walk away.

Khao Chai Son map

Tham Nam Yen

Tham Nam Yen

About a short walk away from the hotspring lies a popular local attraction. Situated strategically at the junction of the main road, it’s hard to miss this. Named after “cool stream” (“Tham” means stream, “Nam” means water and “Yen” means cold), it is a water cave, from which its stream flows directly from a nearby water. The water is clean, unpolluted and has natural, beautiful green color due to the reflection of surrounding trees.

Taken with iPhone

There are several activities to do here – hiking, caving, and boat caving. Hiking is probably free, as we don’t see it listed on the pricing boat at the counter, while Numyen Cave Boat Tour costs 300 Baht per boat and Lorkor Cave Tour Guide costs 300 Baht per maximum of 4 person.

Pricing

After leaving our bags at the counter and paid the fees, we got onto the boat and off we went into the cave with the boatman-cum-guide.

Boat caving

View from my boat before entering the cave

Here we go

We entered the dark cave with a big spotlight provided by the guide, and slowly as he rowed the boat into the cave, we were introduced to various formations in all kinds of shape. Home to bats, the cave is also narrow so you will need to lower your head at times to avoid hitting your head.

Mind your head

Elephant head

This cave is also home to bats

Beautiful marbling pattern

Rock that resembles boobs

Looks like animal skull?

More formation

More patterns

Torch light is important to shine your way in the dark cave

Beauty of mother nature

More boobs?

Jelly fish?

More jelly fish?

Something shiny like diamond

Dinasour head?

Last photo

The cave is quite dark and eerie if you were to go in alone, but with a group of companions, it became a fun and lively experience.

A small cave we walked in (admission: free)

There's some statue inside but I haven't gotten the photo from Arthur yet

Tham Nam Yen
Operating hours: 6am to 8pm
Entrance: Free
Numyen Cave Boat Tour: 300 Baht per boat
Lorkor Cave Tour Guide: 300 Baht for maximum of 4 persons



Khao Chai Son Hotspring

Back to the hot spring

After completing our boat tour, we grabbed our bag from the counter and walked back to the hot spring. Since we only have less than an hour to go before we would need to head back to the train station to catch the next train to Hatyai, we only soaked our feet in the public pool for about half an hour before we left.

Amy, MJ, Arthur and I

There are private bathing room available with bathing tub for a more private experience, but a fee is imposed. After checking out how it looked like, we decided it was weird and doesn’t worth the price stated, so we decided to stay on the public pool instead. Unfortunately, the weather was hot and we decided to soak only our legs.

Soaking our feet. Feel so much better after walking so much

Beware of monkeys which will snatch your food and belongings

Khao Chai Son Hot Spring
Address: Soi 2, Sukhapiban Rd., Khao Chai Son, Khao Chai Son, Phatthalung 93130 Thailand
Operating hours: Everyday, 6am to 8pm
Entrance: free
Massage: 120 Baht per hour
Bathing room: Available at a charge



Stranded on The Train Station

I must stress that it was not easy to get a songthaew from the hot spring and we struggled to actually tried fetching one from the main entrance. There were no songthaew parked there and we saw none passing by the main road. Worried, we asked the counter staff whether he could help us call a songthaew or motor taxi. Luckily for us, a motor taxi driver was there to offer us a ride. Since there were 6 of us, the driver made two rounds with Amy and Anna then Arthur and CK, while MJ and I hopped onto the motorcycle of the counter staff. Only when we reached the station that we found out that the staff wasn’t even charging us. Awwww! Thank you so much for the free ride!

Typical tourist photo with landmark. LOL

Thanks to the him, we managed to reach the train station half an hour before the scheduled next train at 3pm. Unfortunately, the train was delayed, and we ended up stuck in the train station for almost 2 hours before the train finally arrived. Thankfully, we have got CK with us so we took some nice shots while waiting for our train. Even luckier is that we’ve got each other as company and didn’t die of boredom.

Taking photo with any signage since we have nothing to do

Even stepping onto the track since there's no train

 

Bought coconut water

Photo credit: CK

Photo credit: CK

Photo credit: CK

Day 3 (Part 4) : A Night In Hatyai

We reached Hatyai around 6.30pm (2 hours behind schedule due to the delay). With the address of the hotel (WE Hostel), we walked all the way from Hat Yai Junction, which is just about 10 minutes away. The price of our accommodation was 2460 Baht (approximately 273 Baht per person / SGD11.25, RM35.53).

After freshening up, we gathered at the hotel dining room, where we discussed about our dinner arrangement. As our hotel is situated strategically along the night market, the plan was to pack our dinner, and bring them back to the dining room for sharing. We went out in group of two with a budget of 500 Baht per couple. We ended up spending 1824 Baht (approximately 203 Baht per person / SGD8.34 / RM26.35)

Braised pork

Ended up buying pork ears which we mistaken as pork trotters

Meat balls

Onions and rice

Mixed all together with peanut and you get this

Beer again on the last night

Cheers~!

After dinner, we shared some beer, and then went to bed.



Day 4 : Journey Home

Every journey comes to an end, and by Day 4, we had to bid farewell to Thailand. With a morning train to catch, and one that we must not miss, we checked out early in the morning, bought from quick bites from 7-eleven and quickly walked to Hatyai Junction to purchase our train tickets to Padang Besar. With almost half an hour left to boarding time, Arthur, MJ and I even managed to walk to a nearby restaurant selling pork leg rice (We saw that it was opened when we passed by, on our way to the train station). After filling our tummy with the soft and tender pork leg, we rushed back to the station to board our train.

Braised pork leg rice

The train departs at 7.30am Thailand time, arriving in Padang Besar at 9.25am Malaysia time. (For more information on the ETS ride, please read my post on the train journey here)





Our train back to KL was at 12.50pm, so with 3 hours to spare, we walked out from Padang Besar station to Padang Besar Bazaar to kill time. We also had early lunch at one of the Malay warong there before walking back to the train station to board our train back to KL.

Padang Besar train station (credit: CK)

Walking from Padang Besar station to Padang Besar bazaar

… and that marks the end of our journey to Phatthalung.



Epilogue:

Part of the fun while traveling abroad is to explore the unknown, even if we were to get lost (or in our case, stranded) along the way. We get to explore the beautiful Numyen Cave which was not part of our initial plan, but it was lots of fun. Being stranded on the train station wasn’t planned either, but that only comes to prove that life’s always full of uncertainties. If we can’t change them, we should embrace them and enjoy the moment.

Those are my over-developed calves muscle for walking and hiking too much

Phatthalung was indeed one of the most fun trip for me after a while. As I filled 2017 with so many hiking and camping trip, taking a break from those and embarking on a journey to a new unknown place with my group of trusted friends was such a refreshing activity. It reminds me of my passion on traveling and my love for travel photography.

I’ll be back with more travels. Till then. *wink*






Related entries:
Summary of itinerary
Day 1 - How to travel by ETS and SRT to Hatyai and Phatthalung
Day 2 - Thale Noi
Day 2 - Temples of Phatthalung