Road trip to Danok & Hatyai : Are we there yet?

The original plan for this trip was to Koh Phiphi via KL - bukit kayu hitam - Hatyai - Krabi - Koh Phiphi. Unfortunately 2 of the team members unable to make it due to unaproval leave. Personally I'm not a big fan of road trip, because I have bladder issue, and its tiring. I will ask same question every half an hour 'are we there yet?', I know my beloved friends feel like wanna throw me out hahaha.

However I found that , once in a while road trip could be the great bonding time. Yeah 8 hours driving, like it or not we have to talk to each other. Here some tips to make road trip more enjoyable:

• Avoid using your gadjet all the time, this is the time to interact with real human being!
• Play nice music that everyone could enjoy. It would be more fun to play the type of song that we all can sing along. 
• Bring something to munch.
• Play game! Anything that's not distract the driver.
• Chit chat / gossip / make joke.
• Don't sleep / be too quite , its make the journey boring and could put the driver to sleep.

The journey start from PLUS highway exit Kota Damansara with full tank petrol (RM 70) for Perodua Myvi, if you plan to drive you car in Thailand I recommend to fill up your petrol again somewhere nearby the border because the petrol price in Thailand double our petrol price. We departed around 1.30 AM with 2 pit stop at R&R (due to my small bladder issue). We arrived at the border around 8 AM, the same bus to Thailand arrived but the immigration queue was not that bad.

We parked our car at The Zon Duty free shopping, and we walked to Dannok, the hotel was only walking distance from the border. We stayed at Oscar Hotel , THB 800 per night for deluxe room. The hotel was really old, and its not decent place if you planning to bring family with minors. The hotel has Spa & Massages (it doesn't look decent to me) and also Erotic Karaoke! The room was very basic, the mattress and pillow was really hard, I'm not the type of traveller that like to complaint about mattress and pillow but this one really make my neck stiff!

 
There's mirror on the hotel room ceiling! Its freaky.
 

 
The view from our room, very near to the border.
 

 
Room 'decoration' , this place is so not child friendly , even the TV channel has x-rated channel.
 

 
We went out for breakfast after checked in , had my favourite Thai roadside food, fried chicken with sticky rice. I really can eat this everyday!
 
After breakfast we went back to hotel room, had some napped then went out for lunch at The Water View restaurant. We took the hotel van, which cost THB 300, the restaurant was nice and windy with a great music (oldies, rock, Chinese, even Hindi/Tamil!). The food was good too, we order 7 dishes just for 4 of us! The meal cost RM215, I think its cheap consider its was seafood meal.
 

 
The Water View restaurant.



 
The food was served using boat because the kitchen is on the other side.



 
Our table, the ambience was very laid back. They provide pillows for customers to relax.



 
Our foods! From top left; Prawn with young coconut (the waiter recommended this, but its taste just fine not great, probably we were too full), dried beef, tomyam seafood, deep fried catfish salad, deep fried seabass with sweetsour gravy, glass noodle salad, refreshing watermelon juice with angel wings deco! omelette with crab meat (not in the picture because we were too hungry lol).
 
We heading to Hatyai after lunch for a visit to floating market. I've been to floating market in Amphawa (Central of Thailand), so to compare with the one in Hatyai its like comparing KLCC with Selayang Mall. The trip from Dannok to Hatyai via mini van took 1 hour at THB 70, after heavy lunch, all of us slept in the van! Once arrived at Hatyai town, we took 'tuk tuk' to the floating market, its cost THB 500 return trip. After floating market trip, we were back to Hatyai town, I was not feeling so good (tummy upset, probably due to heavy lunch). We rented the whole mini van back to Dannok. The cost of transportation in Hatyai different during day time and night time, it was 8 PM the van to Dannok cost us THB800, during day time it would cost THB 500 only.
 
We arrived in Dannok and I straight away went up to the room, other friends went for Thai massage. The massage only cost THB 200 over here, but I was not well for massage. I slept whole night, felt like sore throat, fever and flu. Dannok is just a small town, like a cowboy town, but at night time its very 'loud'. Its the kind of place that men are looking forward to, cheap food, good beer, young hookers with good massage, what else would they need? The music was so loud, even my room in level 8 can hear that.  
 
We checked out from the hotel the next day afternoon, the hotel was not really particular about check in and check out time, when we arrived it was 9 AM, and they gave us rooms. After some light shopping we walked to the border (the weather was boiling hot!). Oh I forgot to mention, at the Thai immigration you must put RM 1 in your passport when you pass it to immigration officer. The corruption is everywhere in this part the world, its RM1 at the border of Thailand but probably thousand ringgit somewhere in our custom office. Its RM1, just put the money in your passport to make your life easier , don't think as corruption , think it s 'administration fee'. Will I come back to this town? Maybe , but just as stopover for road trip to other part of Thailand.
 
The journey from Bukit Kayu Hitam to KL feel faster even we make a long stop in Penang for a sinful lunch. You know why? there's a thing my late father told me, until now I still believe in it. He said 'when we heading the new place, the trees keep asking 'where are you going?', so on the return journey the trees already knew that's what make trip faster'.