HAADJAI HAPPENINGS

WELL HERE WE WERE, BACK AGAIN ... in Haadjai, I mean. It was a quick visit to R&R after the hectic New Year what with visitors and crowded Penang ... or so I thought.

Actually the border crossing wasn't as bad as I'd expected, although it was the usual mayhem trying to get through Immigration. There's a sort of organised chaos about the place, if you know what I mean. Everything's just so LAU JUAK one can't help but be swept into the spirit of the thing.

The quick drive once past Checkpoint Sadao was relatively easy, although when we hit the outskirts of Haadjai it became chock-a-block again, especially as we'd hit rush hour traffic by this time. Once we checked into the Novotel (my fav hotel - it's relatively new, UNEMCUMBERED - by that I mean no rumours of anything nasty not like some of the other hotels which have had floods and fires and all that kind of stuff if you know what I mean - and it's right in the heart of SHOPPING LAND ie Central and but a 5-min walk from the market and bazaars), I hit the shops. But actually didn't get much. There's just so much stuff you can buy.

The town itself was packed with Malaysians all anxious for bargains: Central Supermarket had been refurnished and was much bigger and had more things than the Cold Storage here.

HOWEVER we went back to the JAR LEK Restaurant for dinner. It's been there for 60 years, started by a Thai woman married to a Chinese man. The food is authentic and quite good, and not too expensive. We had some "Coconut Cream and Pork Dip" to start with - sounds strange, but tasted good. It had lots of fresh ulam: 4-angle beans, long beans, etc AND some young leaves which tasted familiar but I couldn't quite make out what it was until it hit me - they were tender MANGO leaves! Surprisingly tasty with that mango-ish aftertaste.

Then the other dishes came along, including a Prawns and Glass Noodles in Claypot dish - which blew the top off my head, it was that spicy. My husband had a good laugh - he'd never seen me so stunned (nor quiet!) before. It was a combination of the heat, the chilli padi (the Thais REALLY know how to grow hot chilli padi!) and PEPPERCORNS which really did it. Together with 3 large bottles of beer (yes, it was hot!) the total bill came to about 750 baht (RM80) which was quite reasonable.

The next evening we ate at the hotel - I ordered Thai Pomfret which was tasty; unfortunately it was underdone so I had to send it back where they presumably re-cooked it (or stomped on it ... whatever).

I really didn't do much shopping, except on the last morning after heading back from the market where I'd gone to get some - guess what - chilli padi, of course, I stumbled upon this little corner shop and managed to get 3 fantastic pairs of sandals for just RM10 per pair. A bargain, as I keep telling my husband - just think how much money I saved him!