Hat Yai

Hai Yai, 933km south from Bangkok, is southern Thailand's commercial centre and one of the kingdom's largest cities, although it's only a district in Songkhla Province. A steady stream of customers from Malaysia once kept Hai Yai's central business district booming. You wouldn't know it by walking along its streets, though - you found everything from dried fruit to stereos is sold in shops along the parallel streets of Thanon Niphatuthit No.1, Thanon Niphatuthit No.2 and Thanon Niphatuthit No.3.

Visually, Hat Yai is a big city with big buildings, including some large department stores. Busy streets are filled with traffic, while walkways are lined with hawkers and their shoppers. Culturally, Hat Yai is very much a Chinese town at its centre, with loads of gold shops, Chinese restaurants and Mandarin-specked conversations. A substantial Muslim minority is concentrated in certain sections of the city, especially near the mosque off Niphat Songkhrao.