Hat Yai (Haad Yai/Had Yai) is a city in Southern Thailand near the border of Malaysia. From Kuala Lumpur it is an eight-hour bus ride (50 RM) to its city center. We arrived at around 5:00 PM and bought tickets for an overnight bus straight away. It costs 500 THB including ferry and transfer from the travel agent to the bus station (which is 2KM from the city center).
It would be cheaper to buy bus tickets at the station and ferry tickets at the port, but we figured we’ll be ripped off by a songthaew driver who’ll take us to the station anyway – might as well pay the few extra bucks for a more stress free trip.
It’s a five/six-hour drive from Hat Yai to Surat Thani. We got to the port 5:00 AM and waited for the first ferry trip at 6. Next stop, Koh Samui.
Crossing the Malaysia-Thailand Border. View Kuala Lumpur-Hat Yai-Surat Thani in a larger map
[This blog is part of the South East Asia in Six Weeks series which took place May-June 2009. Price of goods, transportation and so forth may already be different.]
