Before Hatyai International Marathon - Part 1/2

Well... I supposed many things to happen this (previous) weekend including:

1. Much delicious Thai food.
2. Wifey going on shopping spree.
3. Adrian Ong Soon Huat coming north from KL all the way to join 13km.
4. Woei Jye going debut on Full Marathon after accepting my challenge or I should call it offer.
5. Myself aiming for a PB.

It took us almost 4 - 5 hours to reach Hatyai due to heavy human traffic at the Thailand-Malaysia border, could be due to school holiday, or biking event or the Hatyai International Marathon. I think we spent around 1.5 to 2 hours queuing up to get our passport stamped and get my car permit. The driving experience was so-so in NSEW and I was becoming more cautious after crossing the border.

This queue took me more than 1 hour to get my passport stamped.

I still wonder why the Thailand immigration officers collect RM1 or RM2 from the each person that went across the border. Is it an official fee? or?

From 99.7 My FM is Malaysia, my car radio was in Thai FM at 99.75, I guess. Although I do not understand the language from the radio station, except those numbers, like neng, song, sham...etc ... but the music kept us entertained. 555....

We used ah Huat's GPS to reach Be My Guest Apartment. I'd booked 2 rooms with Anne's help and the rate was very good. RM60 per night, the room is clean, the hot shower is working (but not many need it in Hatyai due to the hot weather), and the receptionist speaks Mandrin. We wanted to go to Gan Ying (甘英) to have our lunch and we were not sure whether is it and we were planning to hop on to one of the tuk-tuk, but after getting the consultation from the receptionist, were were asked to walk straight out of the entrance of the hotel and go straight. We followed the instruction and we were in disbelief because it is just 300m away. Save 20 bhat per pax for the walk. Look at the dishes we had.

After the lunch, we drove to Jiranakorn Stadium to register for the marathon event. It was very very hot and the registration did not take too long, maybe around around 10 minutes for filling up the form, make the payment, choose the vest/T-shirt, check the timing chip. Then, we're done.

After that we were checking out all the merchandizes on the booths in front of the stadium, there were so many things, we were not quite sure whether they're genuine or counterfeited products. Anyway, no risk taken, so we did not buy any running shoes there although some of the Adizero Adios only 1000 Bhat per pair, tempting. However, I will never let go the chance to buy running pants which are quite expensive in Penang or Malaysia.

I have bought 3 pieces of running pants, I guess 2 are Nike and 1 is Adidas, I guess all are counterfeited good but I can live the quality of the pants after trying them in the 'Hong Nam' - toilet. 3 for 450 Bhat equals to 1 Adidas running pant after 40% discount, imagine buying those normal price item. Besides, I grabbed one dri-fit Siamdidas cap for 150 Bhat too... it was just too hard to resist.

Look my wifey's face when she cannot tahan the hot weather. After spending quite some time there, we decided to go back to the guest house to rest, everyone was tired after exposing under the sun for quite some time.

We gathered at the lobby around 6:15pm Thai time and we headed to the Bethai Night Market. Wifey did not get anything in the afternoon, she was so eager to shop at the night market. That's the whole purpose that she wanted to join this trip.

To be continued ...