Water View Restaurant Location: Sadao, Thailand
Date of Visit: 23rd December 2012
>> On a very cool and windy late afternoon as we (myself and my family) were making our way back to Malaysia after 2 days 1 night visiting the city of Hat Yai in Thailand, I discovered something that surprises me from the very beginning to the end.
It's almost 3pm and we are approaching Sadao, Thailand's immigration center to cross back to Malaysia. With no lunch in plain sight, everyone in the vehicle complained of their hunger. As we're just 2 blocks away from the immigration, our appointed driver made a sudden left turn into a very little road, passing through an eyeful of whorehouse and soon after, we're driving in the middle of a thick jungle.
I was on alert, asking plenty of questions such as why on earth would be going into the jungle when we're so close to the border. At one point, I can even see Malaysia on the other side of the fence! My heart races as we continue to drive even further into the jungle as the sky grows dark all of a sudden and rain just came pouring down. What surprises me at the end of the drive is that in the middle of the jungle, there lies a restaurant that serves authentic Thai food.
This place is called the Water View Restaurant. Unimaginable! A man made lake in the middle of a jungle and the restaurant is jam packed with eager Malaysian tourists at this hour at 3:30pm. This place must be famous to many! At that moment, I continue to feel dazed... probably due to the hunger. We made our way out of the vehicle as the rain kept pouring heavily and the wind was blowing from every corner of the jungle.
We ran past trees and mud puddles to get to the restaurant that sits along the lakeside. Already feeling cold, wet and miserably hungry, I can't help but to feel frustrated, blaming that this is one of those bad trips that I've ever taken. The waiter and waitress at the restaurant speaks little English or Chinese, so we have to let our driver, who spoke fluent Thai, to help us to make the orders. Everyone seemed jovial as we wait for our very late lunch to arrive.
The family went on a picture snapping frenzy, throwing peace signs on every single pictures that they take. Anyway, the kitchen is situated across the other end of lake from where we were seated. We could see motorized boats are used to deliver food orders to the tables. At one point, the delivery had to be stopped for a short moment as the rain continue come down heavilly. Our order came 20 minutes later.
As the food being served on the table, we began to devour the hot and steamy food without hesitation. I had to quickly snap pictures these wonderfully delicious food that has been ordered and may I add, it's pretty darn good. We had deep fried fish and garlic served with a side of sambal, seafood otak-otak in coconut, seafood tom yam, stir fried asparagus, onion omelette, kerabu chicken feet, prawn Phat Thai and a few more dishes that I can't really recall.
Each dish were cleared off pretty quickly. I don't really remember the price tag for the amount that we ate but I know it's cheaper when compared to eat such feast in Malaysia. The rain subsides gradually and before we depart, there's traditional Thai Dance performance being performed on a floating stage. Meal with a stage performance! You won't get such feat here in Malaysia anymore these days. A full and satisfied stomach as we head off and it's very obvious that dinner is out of the question on that night.
