Hat Yai Day 5: Magic Museum, Tang Kuan Hill & Samila Beach
For our day tour around Songkhla today, we booked a private car from our hotel for 3000 baht (9.30am to 6pm).
In our 7-seater Toyota Fortuner
Our first stop was the Magic Eye 3D Museum,approximately 10 minutes from Centara Hotel.
Magic Museum
(Address: Kho Hong, Hat Yai District, Songkhla 90110)
The Magic Eye 3D Museum also houses a magic show performance, which you can purchase as a 2-in-1 ticket. We decided to get the ticket without the magic show at 400 baht per adult.
This interactive TV screen freaked my boy out when it went from pretty to scary ugly in just 1 minute! 🤣
Our family photo
(poor boy was still crying from being scared)
Initially we couldn't take many photos as there was a large crowd of people blocking us. However, the magic show was going to begin so everyone headed for the theatre, leaving the museum empty for us to take pictures freely with no obstruction! Best decision we made to not go for the magic show! 😄
Having fun interacting with the art
Picking eggs 🥚
With the Russian matryoshka dolls
Left: Stuck in a bubble; Right: Sitting on a roller coaster with Mr Bean & Marilyn Monroe.
Love this picture of our family! So colour-coordinated!
My mermaid girl
Within a gigantic octopus 🐙
Left: Bamboo-climbing with an incredulous Po from Kung Fu Panda; Right: OMG there's a dinosaur!
(Hubby kept trying to feed the boy into its mouth)
Left: In the hands of King Kong!; Right: Balancing at the edge of a cliff!
My favourite back drop! So fun!
Found a ledge to take this photo using my camera's timer function
After we had enough fun with taking pictures, we headed to the next destination, Chang Puak Camp.
There're activities like archery, shooting, ATV and elephant trekking
The bro- and sister-in-law wanted to ride the Elephant at 500 baht per person but the queue was simply too long (the wait time was 1.5 hours!!). The price was also too expensive as compared to our experience in Phuket. Similarly, ATV at 500 baht per person was also more expensive than Phuket. We decided to head to our next destination as our time would be better spent there.
We travelled for about 30 minutes to get to Tang Kuan Hill.
Tang Kuan Hill
(Address: Bo Yang, Mueang Songkhla District, Songkhla 90000)
At the top of Tang Kuan Hill, we were greeted by beautiful views of Songkhla.
Tang Kuan Hill Top
Family photo at one of the lookouts
Blue skies and crystal clear waters
Tang Kuan Hill was also famous for the Love Locks, similar to the Love Padlock Trees of Mt Namsan in Seoul. The concept of Love Locks is simple: two persons pledge their love by securing their lock on a hill and throwing away the key to symbolise that their love will last forever.
It seems you might have to bring your own locks as I didn't see anyone selling locks. Perhaps because no one seems to be hanging them either! 😅
Love Locks
Hang your locks here!
You can also ring the 'Love' bell!
Only us because the kids refused to take a proper picture with us
The heat from the sun made it unbearable to stay at the summit for too long so we headed back down to the ground.
Going back down!
Cold ice-cream was exactly what we needed on a hot day like this!
Coconut ice cream in a coconut
So yummy!!!
We travelled to nearby Songkhla City to visit the famous Samila Beach.
Songkhla City
There was horseback riding by the beach at 150 baht per person! Initially we wanted the kids to try it but they were too scared to ride alone (only 1 rider per horse). In the end, only the in-laws went because they have never tried it before.
Boarding the mini horses
A hat was lent to the lucky brother-in-law to shield him from the sun
Mum-in-law's first time on a horse
Beautiful day to ride horses on the beach
After they had returned, we checked out the Golden Mermaid Statue, the main tourist attraction of Samila Beach and Songkhla City.
Golden Mermaid Statue at Samila Beach
(Address: Bo Yang, Mueang Songkhla District, Songkhla 90000)
There were so many people crowding around the statue that we decided not to take a picture up close!
After shopping around the area, we decided that it was time for lunch. Our driver highly recommended Sirada Restaurant, complimenting it to be the best seafood restaurant in Songkhla!
My boy was grumpy because he was forced to take this photo when he was hungry haha!
Clockwise from left: I think this was otah in coconut, can't remember. All I remember was that it was so good!;
Fried tang hoon with prawns;
Classic tom yam soup.
My family's favourite fried egg and grilled giant prawns
Our seafood lunch cost us 2155 baht, pretty value for money if you ask me! And since the restaurant was on a kelong, we were treated to beautiful views of the sea while dining =)
The view of the sea from the restaurant
We had wanted to visit another museum but a last minute emergency took up some time and we had to forgo the museum visit.
Our driver suggested that we visit Klong Hae Floating Market instead as it was on the way back to our hotel. Although we had already visited the floating market the day before, we decided to heed the advice of our driver and visit again since the bro- and sister-in-law has not visited yet.
Back at Klong Hae Floating Market
We ended the day with yet another seafood meal at The Nest, the same restaurant as the day before.
