We drove to Hatyai from Penang. The trip take about 3hours+, without counting the jam at Thailand immigration.
So overall, driving there was not a problem.

This is my first time driving across the border to Thailand, so I research online for all the things needed to prepare/do before I depart…
1) Remember to bring your photocopy car grant with latest Road tax printout.
2) Insurance: Actaully just need to buy insurance before entering Thailand. This can be done before the Msia border, normal passenger car RM16, my 7 seater ~RM27, this is a third party insurance. I did expand my car regional geograhical coverage as well for ~RM17 (for in case I wan to fix my car back in Msia, if I had accident in Thailand).
3) GPS updated with Hatyai map and a Hatyai Map. (MalfreeMap)
4) border pass/international passport
5) book hotel
That’s all Not that tough…

At the border, Msia immigration, stay inside car, pass all the passengers’ passport to the officer and off you go. At Thailand immigration, park your car at the car park at the left. Then, go to the office, show them your passport and get the immigration card. Queue up at the counters while filling up the form. For the driver, after done the arrival chop, go to the CUSTOM counter, to do car import/export, another queue. Signed 2 signatures, follow the instruction paste on the counter. 2 conditions after this, the one i had was take the paper and take my car and go, heard it might be another condition where you go take your car, come out from the car park the way you go in, and drive your car up to the counter while they pass you the completed forms. Anyway, after this it’s all done and you are good to go Btw, make sure you had your departure card with your passport and safe keep the import/export form as it needed to be pass back to the CUSTOM when you leave.

After the immigration, it’s just straight road, until you reach Hatyai Town, then only find your way to the hotel

In Hatyai, we went for Hatyai Municiple Park for sightseeing. We took the 1 “tuk tuk” there, the driver will bring us all the places and wait for us, it’s ~RM60/whole car. There’s the 4 face buddha, standing Buddha and white Guan Yin. But mainly in Hatyai, it’s shopping shopping shopping…either for Food or Accessories. I updating some of my kitchen stuffs so Zebra is the best choice, there’s a shop opposite Pasar, selling nothing but Zebra. Price is ~half the non-promotional price here. But, careful is that you might be taxed when passing Malaysia border (except you stayed 3 days and above). I had my luggage and junk food stacked on top of the woks etc that I bought, so the custom let me go off without taxing. For going to pasar, basic $ is RM2/person, but if a lot of people you can ask for discount. Hmm, cloths and shoes also quite cheap there I got a 3-quarter pants for RM15. Levi’s is on sale in ODEAN that time, so I got a Levi pants for RM100 Also, bought a lot of dried seafood there…my mom was telling us, next time go before CNY, so these things all can be use for CNY next planning then….. hahaha…Full body massage in lee Garden is ~RM24/2 hours! foot massage at sawdee is ~RM20/1hour. Ginko tongsui is ~RM6/bowl with a lot of Ginko. I changed some of the $ there, it’s about RM1:THB10.05, quite a good deal.

When leaving, crossing the border, all passenger needed to get down the car and chopped and return the departure card. And the driver need to return the import/export form back to the CUSTOM, signed in front of the officer at left bottom column. Tricky part is they need to see your car…So, I did see some driver do the form return first while parking temporarily so the custom can see the car, then drive up ahead and park along the roadside and return back to the border to do the passport chop.

About the hotel, I booked through hotels2thailand as agoda i wasn’t able to find Lee Gardens Plaza Hotel in it. Anyway, this hotel was highly recommended in Forums. The staff was friendly, just that the hotel need some upgrading work, carpet was dirty, the aircond is not cold enough, and the toilet too was old. It comes with breakfast, a lot people, but still OK. We had the sky buffet for RM16.90 as well, to me it’s OK, but I think the fried chicken is same as the bfast though. Location wise, the hotel really convenient, coz there’s a lot of shopping right outside the Plaza. But changing lift is another problem, coz there’s lift for the Plaza and lift for the hotel, so if i stayed at 10th floor, i need to go from G-6, then change anotehr lift to go from 6-10th, a bit mess.

In terms of language, well, I know hokkien and mandarin, so not a problem there as most of the shop owners do speak mandarin/hokkien. Else english also works…If really they don’t understand any of these language, hand signal works too, and you’ll get what they mean too surprisingly…haha!

Overall, I wanted to go again to Hatyai, to buy some cheap stuff hahaha…

http://www.redbox.com.my/redbox/promo.asp?pic=rb_summerlove_small.jpg

Gentleman’s day, for ladies partner will have 20% discount on Sun/Tues/Thurs.
Ladies day, for gentleman partner will have 20% discount on Mon/Wed/Fri.

So, if you are couple, any day you’ll get 20% discount except Sat

Starting this year is a bit bored, as there’s not much competition for RedBull’s Vettel…
best, also McLaren’s Hamilton/Button or Vettel’s teammate Webber competing for the poles/chequred flag…
Now more interesting, as Ferrari come into the picture, Alonso
More teams competing for pole, so averaging out the championship points. More exciting…

It’s an exciting year, as it’s more of strategies (pitstop, tyre type, speed etc) and Perille tyres handling

Da gong chai also same, no one can predict the future…
Today you might be on top of the world, tomorrow you might be down to the earth & nothing you can do about it…
except resign and find another world of yours…
Da gong chai can be low post, can be high post…low post, your salary depends on your boss and even how best you are at it, it’s still in your boss’s hand…high post, you get bigger portion for your contribution, but higher risk too coz people under you screwed up, hehe, you are at blame…
so…just be moderate, do what you can and be happy (I guess)…

Business, you fight for it, you might see it, but still it’s very depending on your sights and predicts…
still, also it depends on environments and some uncontrolable factors…economy downturned and most of the business are dommed.

Hmmm….guess it’s been almost 2 years when I have this thought of doing something else….depend on myself instead of putting your destiny in other ppl’s hand…it’s hasn’t been a nice experience…
Let’s see when “miracle” will happen then

I bought RM1 kangkung, trying to throw into the pond and few it…but it’s too far away…it’s been playing and swimming there…not hungry?!
or it doesn’t like Kangkung as previously we never feed it any fresh vegetables…now it has to be vegeterian forever already…
When I fed the pond of tortoise, I realised they all looks like hungry…coz as soon as i throw in the kangkung, quiet a few come and get it…some even have to fight from the bigger size to have a bite…
So, I get another RM2 of kangkung and fed the ponds…

So long my tortoise…I’ll miss you.

So, when I’m back, I saw my mom very attached to the tortoise…got a name for her somemore…多善…very buddhist name hor…
She’s like a friend to my mom already, and since SP has bigger yard for her to crawl around at home and outside…
I left it with my mom lo…
few times already my mom asked me wan to release her…I told my mom “No”, coz it’s a good company to my mom…
just recently only I knew finally my mom release her into 极乐寺few weeks back…
Is it instinct? Cos this few weeks I had been thinking of paying a visit to 极乐寺, which normally I wont think of it, coz been there few times and it’s quite crowded…
So, let’s see la…maybe this weekend visit 极乐寺 and try to pay a visit to my tortoise as well…wondering how’s she’s getting on…?!
Coz she really love 虾米…now mostly will be just kangkung…

HOPE 2011 will be a GREAT year for my family and I, HUAT!! And all the best to you all out there as well…
*pray*

Frankly speaking, US backpacks is not a problem at all. Once you get a car rental and a GPS, you can be on the road…

Italy, I backpacked before, also not much issue. Buying for meal not really a problem as they already listed out the price, or they’ll write/print out the price for you. Traveling also not much issue as they have people to help those speaking English or machines in English. Once I was lost in finding where the hotel is, asking local Italian people who didn’t know English too, by body language of left/right and some location pronouncation, we ended up can find the hotel It’s just amazing.

Korea, I studied before too, backpack is not really an issue. They done the world cup before, so a lot information in English is available online for planning and routes are clearly specified. Public transport no issue too.

Hong Kong, totally no issue. Plenty of informations online, information center is at most of the MRT stations and routes are clearly specified too. Public transport can be easily found.

Singapore, no problem lo, public transport, accomodations, routes and online planning all can be done.

Bali…prefer Driver why do get the trouble to drive when there’s someone can drive you around on a reasonable expenses. But still needed to plan where to go and what you’re interested to see.

Where to go is one thing, actaully I like is planning part. Online search for all the nice places to go, plan the route and schedule, book the hotels and flights etc, it’s just a process where you’ll learn and understand on the place you’re going, why not, right? When you’re there, you’ll see the actaul place vs what you have read about it.

Budget wise, actaully backpack is on economy, we’re not really on economy, we’re more on safety and security. Spend a bit more for that I’m willing. At least we’re in a foreign country, I don’t want my stuff get stolen or I ended up in a place I couldn’t sleep for nights, and since it’s traveling and wanted to be relax, better food is a must too, agree? haha… So, one trip a year possibly, but can’t do too frequent than this…

My first trip of back packing is with my sister back in 2003 or 2004 to Hong Kong. That time, mostly is my sister did all the booking and had the idea of where to go. I mainly tagged along, be the mandarin wording translator and 1/2 bucket of cantonese speaking person This is the first time also I went out of Malaysia by flight, and alone…Haha, alone coz my sister has the mileage claim for S’pore airline and Cathay Pacific. So we had to be separated in 2 different airlines. Until now my sister is still a good “tour guide”. She brought my parents backpack to Italy, Bali and met me up in US etc.

Cham…older liao… soon…
Today “11111″…Nothing special la…since i’m not a “1 Malaysia” strong supporter…haha…

PTPTN 3% to 1%, ah…this “1″ i strong supporter la! Haha…

Recap 2010… No TOO BIG milestone…
first 5 months in US…suffered 1 month due to “小人”…
After back, lalat awhile…now it’s issues issues issues…really WTF!
7 years in this company, I think did impact the way I think and handle stuffs…in I personally think, not a good way…
No wonder people say new bees from this company to other company, normally people don’t like them…
coz too “chun”…In certain way, yes I do agree…
Firstly is high expectation on others…so once people can’t get it done, will be pushy…
But what to do…really geram sometimes how come these people take so long to get things done…
Example:
COURTS! Don’t think anyone will ever go and buy something there hor…too BAD, I did…
I bought a DVD player from COURTS! [no more la...this is the last time I'm going to buy from them!!]
I bought it, take it home ok, watched it, ok….after 2 months watch again…KNS, suddenly power down, no matter what I do, it won’t power ON.
OK, since I bought it in COURTS, sure I take back to them lo…manatau they say they don’t do after service!
So asked me to send to Toshiba service center myself! which is in Seberang Prai. I asked them for phone number, she say the guy last time dealed with them is not there, so…I have it search it myself lo…
I did have another experience with another shop on after service, it’s pretty simple, they just helped me to call that service guy and that service guy will handle it with me…such a simple “AFTER SERVICE” which COURTS didn’t provide lo…
So, I handled it myself, since I have the previous Toshiba service guy number, I called and sent it to him.
After 1-2weeks, he told me he sent it to the Seberang Prai one, after i chase him few times, since he’s middle man, he asked me to rush the Seberang Prai toshiba people in person. I did, and guess what, takes me 3 months to get it back!!
Firstly COURTS is selling OLD model! So since it’s old model, they don’t have the spare parts and need to replace a new one for me…so I ended up get a newer model…but 3 MONTHS! I talked to another shop, they say normally if like this they’ll handle for us, and if the reply they get is a newer model will be replace, they’ll straight give me a new one and they themselves wait for the new one to come. This la is after service! So, next time no more COURTS for me!!
I talked to my banker that day, and she also has the same “perspective” that my company people is a bit pushy, A* company people is the best, more relax, even in their way of speaking…

Hope that 2011 will be a good year for me…*pray harder*….