Kim Yong Market

Hat Yai is the commercial centre of the far south and its trade runs largely across the Malaysian border - it is where Malaysians and Singaporeans come to shop and eat, and Kim Yong is the market that serves them. It is a covered two-storey building with a fringe of stalls, dense and hot, selling dried and preserved food, nuts, sweets, spices, herbs, snacks, tea, cosmetics and imported goods in quantities meant for taking home rather than for a household's week. Alongside it, Hat Yai's food is the southern Thai and Chinese Muslim mix that the city is known for: dim sum, roast duck, southern curries, khao yam and the fried chicken the town has made its own. It is a working shopping market rather than a sight. Hat Yai is in the deep south; the four southernmost provinces beyond it have had a long-running insurgency, and travel advice for those provinces differs from the rest of the country.

What you actually see

• The covered market - two storeys of dried food, spices, sweets and imports.
• The cross-border trade - stock and quantities aimed at Malaysian and Singaporean shoppers.
• The southern food - dim sum, roast duck, southern curries and Hat Yai fried chicken.
• The commercial city - Hat Yai as the trading centre of the far south.

When to go

Any time; the market runs through the day and into the evening. Two hours covers it. Weekends bring the heaviest cross-border traffic.

Honest expectations

A shopping market, not an attraction - crowded, hot and functional. Hat Yai is a business city rather than a scenic one. Note that the four provinces further south have a long-running insurgency and carry different travel advice from the rest of Thailand.

Nearby

Songkhla and its old town are north-east; the Malaysian border is south.