Hat Yai and Songkhla - Places I Wished I Had Gone to

This is basically to end the Hat Yai and Songkhla posts that I had been doing back last month. I was supposed to end it as soon as Part 4 was posted but was interrupted by the trip I did on Penang (here and here) and the Penang Hill's beauty (here and here). So, here goes.

To be frank, 2 days 1 night is not enough to fully explore the two cities. Even though I had fun time exploring Songkhla city the morning of our arrival, walked on an unknown island, had amazing dinner the first night out and did some quick walk around Hat Yai the next day, we still miss out a lot of sights and sounds that we initially planned to go but did not due to time constraint. Read more on the places I miss out so when you plan your trip, you can include it on your itinerary.

Here are the places that we wished we had gone to:

• Klonghae Floating Market - We had all the intention of going to this uniquely Thailand market once we heard about it from friends and also when we did some quick search through the Internet. Essentially, it was a place of buying and selling but what set it apart from other markets in Hat Yai is the fact that all the sales took place on boats rested by the dock near the river. There are about 100 boats along the river, selling Thai foods, snacks, and drinks. This floating market is located at the Tambon Klonghae district and need about a good 30 minutes drive from the town area. We did not realize how far it was and we planned to go after dinner, which would be sometime around 7pm. This floating market only open on weekends, from 3pm to 9pm and our trip was on Friday and Saturday. 
• Wats or temples - A visit to Thailand without a visit to at least a wat is like going to Cambodia without visiting the Angkor Wat which I damn sure will go. Wats are everywhere in Thailand and even though there are not much famous wats in Hat Yai and Songkhla, there was one wat where the third largest reclining Buddha residing in it that was located about 30 minutes from town district of Hat Yai. We were not too religious and so, we thought of opting out visiting wats but it was a mistake doing so. 
• Songkhla's city pillar - This historical site is highly revered by the local residents back then and still is and we were supposed to visit this place but due to some miscommunication between the tuk tuk driver and us, he ended up brought me to somewhere else and we ended up few Baht poorer and not getting what we want. 

There are many things to see especially in Songkhla that we had missed out such as Songkhla National Museum, Tang Kuan Hill, Ko Yo, and so on and we had to come back to visit it again. However much we may have missed out, we did come back from the trip spiritually elevated for we had so much fun exploring a new and foreign land.