Experiencing Sungai Golok

Assalamualaikum.

I have never been to Thailand, not once in 21 years even I live at the border of the land. Loser boo! So, when my sister asked me if I would like to join her to go to Sungai Golok, Thailand with her friends, I have no hesitation. Why hesitate when it's free and I get chance to explore new place?! Yeah Thailand, here I come!

I need a passport or border pass to go to Thailand. It's normal procedure. And here how it goes...

 “Who need a passport to go back to hometown? Nope, I will leave this passport at college; it is so big to fit my bag and heavy too, I can break my bone if I carried it along”

That’s me, the smart girl who think passport is unnecessary for 2 weeks holiday at home and end up making a new border pass which worth RM10 to go to Sungai Golok. Note: always bring your passport with you, who knows you win some holiday trip from a contest or a stranger give you sadaqah of free ticket to Hawaii hahaha.

It's only me, my sister and my sister's friend; Kak Rusa ( bukan nama sebenar) in this trip. 

We prayed first at petrol's station (at Rantau Panjang) so we don't have to stop to pray at Sungai Golok later. Then, we went to immigration’s office at the border of the Thailand’s country and filled in some form and get our border pass checked by the officer. The interesting thing is,one side of the building is in Malaysia and the other side is in Thailand and it is the same building! I can be at two countries on the same time uolls, uuuuu creepy right?

Our first stop was a restaurant known for their famous tomyam, Kedai Pokkee. Unluckily Pokkee got a day off work and the restaurant was closed. I'm quite disappointed because I already imagined eating hot and extra spicy seafood tomyam with rice sobsss. So we decided to eat at the restaurant situated next to Kedai Pokkee. I had padthai cambo (Thai’s noodle with chicken balls and soups) and Alhamdulillah it was tasty. The noodles look totally plain but it did not fail to rock my taste buds. I also bought (read: my sister bought) special green tea and the drink was surprisingly delicious unlike the usual green tea that I had before. It was creamy, not too sweet, milky, tasty and refreshing. 

Paper bag for the special green tea that I had. 

I want to show you the green tea, it's kinda look likes green tea with milk isn't it? hahaha

The padthai cambo, omg I miss this noodles.

Done eating and then we went to a shop where Kak Rusa’s bought a snack and her friend bought something from another shop which she claimed the price was cheaper than at Malaysia. There were also clothes, scarves, shawls and other things but we’re not into shopping mood for this trip. So we just walked away from all of the shops. 

After that we had to go to the immigration’s office again and waited for Kak Rusa’s friend’s friend (yeah again. Lots of waiting activity)

Next, we went to a restaurant known for their delicious glutinous sticky rice and mango (pulut mangga). Omg seriously, the pulut mangga was so delicious; their glutinous sticky rice was perfectly cooked, the mango chunks were perfectly ripe, sweet and juicy and the coconut cream blends the taste to heaven. (Kecur ayaq liuq woih)

The devil pulut mangga.

Then we stopped at a mosque to pray before continuing our journey to a recreation’s park. There’s no really interesting thing at the park but we don’t know where else to go and eating was not a good option since we just had two main dishes earlier. So we walked directionless-ly and enjoyed the greenery view of the park. It’s kinda boring but Kak Rusa’s friend’s friends were so funny and made us laughed almost the whole time.

We went to food stall across the park and we were surprised by an elephant! Okay, that was the first time I saw an elephant and it was not really gigantic as I imagined but it still big though. A person came along with the elephant and sold sugarcane that can be feed to the elephant. We bought some to feed the elephant. They offered me sugarcane to feed the elephant but I am like…

“No, thanks. Feed the elephant, I’m doing great here. No, no, I’ll just take the picture from your back, go on, feed the elephant.”

No way I’m going near to that elephant; the tusk was so big and sharp. I’m happy to greet Mr/Mrs. Elephant from far. Then we stopped at a stall and they ate again! I’m not going to eat heavy food anymore, so I just choose mayonnaise filling hotdog for snack.

We talked (actually they talked and I just smiled or laughed or answering their questions only) about everything but most of the time they talked about travelling. Oh did I tell you they knew each other from backpacker’s group? Yes, they had travelled to everywhere and some went to Japan, Krabi, Europe, islands and many more. It was exciting even just hearing to their stories. Their conversations mostly consist of...

"Jom pi pulau, diving lagi"

"Jom lepak Russia"

"Jom pekena teh tarik dekat Neptun"

The last stop was at mosque again to pray. Most of the Jemaah were hafiz kids (hafiz is the person who remembers Quran by heart) and they looked so decent and happy. After praying, we went to immigration’s office to go back to Kelantan. That’s the end of our journey.

Overall, I enjoy the trip. I love the foods, so delicious and even Thai cuisine from hotel can’t beat original Thai cuisine from their own land. We don’t have any difficulties in communicating because most of the residents can speak in Kelantan’s dialect. In fact, some of the shops do receive payments in Ringgit Malaysia. (Note: if they receive payment in RM, pay in RM because exchanging RM into their money is more expensive).

If you want to find best food, go to Sungai Golok. I guess other part of Thailand has tasty foods too. OMG, must put Thailand in my travel list.

Enjoy your trip peeps!