Holiday Hideaway: Hua Hin

A holiday came rolling in once more so JM and I headed to Hua Hin, about 300km south of Bangkok. It's considered to be the oldest beach resort in the kingdom and one which is said to be more popular among the Thai people than other beach resorts. It's a very historic place. It is where the first beach hotel, the Railway Hotel (now known as Sofitel) was built where scenes in the movie Killing Field were shot. It is also where Thailand's first golf course is located.

We were supposed to go there by train and I had already gotten quite excited over this new adventure but the husband changed his mind at the last moment when he learned that train trips are usually delayed and could take about 4 hours, whereas a bus ride would only take 3 hours. So we took a mini-bus/van from the Victory Monument (after almost 2 years here, we finally discovered that there are "bus stations" near our place!) and off to the beach we went.

Our experience of the Hua Hin beach was not as great as I would have wished it to be. We chose to stay near the city center and the only resorts there that had beachfronts were the luxurious ones - Hilton and Sofitel. So we had to walk for about 3 minutes to go to the beach and about another 3 minutes more to get to the part which was not rocky. And when we got there, it was low tide, so the waters were so far far away and the heat was so unbearable as their was no wind or nearby sea to cool us. And then the rental fee for lounge chairs and beach umbrellas were 50 baht! Well that's for a whole day, but hey it costs only 15 baht in Pattaya and you don't even have to pay if you order something. And in Koh Samet, there's no fee at all! Worse, the lounge chairs were really ratty. But we sat there for about an hour maybe until we felt faint from heat and hunger.

We had pizza and pasta for lunch at Roberto's Pizza. Their pizza was great, and it's probably the reason that the place was full for dinner. The pasta, though, was so-so. This pizza place was located on the corner of two main roads heading to the beach so we enjoyed some people watching and just general sight seeing. They had these quaint bicycle tuktuks, much like those in Vietnam and what really amused us for the whole duration of our stay was this one driver who was always asleep in his bicycle whenever we passed by.

After coffee we went to the Railway Station which is quite famous for its one-of-a-kind structure. It's one of the oldest railways stations in Thailand. And I must say it is indeed captivating. It has a Royal Waiting Room in traditional Thai architecture where the King was welcomed when he arrived. When we got there, JM got quite interested in taking the train back to Bangkok, but the train departure schedule that was convenient for us was already fully booked. After some picture taking at the station, we went back to our hotel to chill out by the pool. It was blessed! The breeze was coming in prettily to the pool area as JM swam some laps and I lounged with a book.

We decided to have an early dinner to avail of a nice sunset view, but unfortunately there was no beach sunset to speak of. We only realized on our second night, that there couldn't possibly be any marvelous sunset on the beaches Hua Hin since it was facing the wrong way. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a sumptous seafood dinner by the sea at Chao Lay restaurant. We had a feast! Baked scallops, deep fried sea bass in fish sauce, garlic prawns in their special sauce and seafood fried rice. Dessert was yummy gelato.

We then went to the Night Market, which is like the Walking Street in Chiangmai. The road was closed to traffic and was overflowing with stalls that sold everything from food to clothes to souvenir items. We also went to the Grand Market, which was basically the same thing except that it was not a street market thing. I was in search of something uniquely Hua Hin for a souvenir but everything they sold in the market were stuff I would also find in Bangkok, so I went home with empty hands.

On the second day, we were looking forward to breakfast by the sea. We had found a stall near the Hilton the night before and the stall owner told us she was willing to open earlier than her usual 1oAM so we could have breakfast there. But when we got there, the stall was closed. So instead of a nice breakfast by the sea we just sat around enjoying the breeze and the charming sight of 3 men fishing. It was great to be at the beach so early, to enjoy the warm feel of the sun and the cool breeze, to enjoy nature at its freshest. We ended up having so-so breakfast across the pizza place.

We then boarded a sawngthaew that took us to Khao Takiab, another stretch of beach on the southern part of Hua Hin. There we saw the gigantic golden buddha facing the sea and an interesting picture of a man scraping the sides of his little fishing boat. It was low tide once again, we walked close to the waters to avail of cooler sand for our feet. I liked this part of the beach, it wasn't rocky and there were very few people there. I told JM that if ever we were going back, I'd rather stay in this area. I could spend endless hours sitting on a lounge chair, staring out into the oceans, listening to the lapping of the waves.

Finally we could no longer take the heat (and we'd forgotten to bring our sunblock so I was afraid of getting toasted) so we went to one of the seaside resorts and relished some cool cool drinks. JM ordered a coconut shake (prettily served in its shell) while I had a watermelon shake. We decided to sit around until lunchtime and have our lunch at the same resort. As we sat there, I envied the resort's guests who were chilling in the pool...I remember one of our friends telling us that she and her husband would sometimes just order ice cream at some fancy hotel in Phuket in order to avail of the pool and I wondered if we could do that there too, besides we were ordering more than just ice cream. Lunch was prawns in garlic and grilled porkchop.

After lunch we walked by the sea some more and finally went back to our hotel to once again cool down by the pool with a bottle of beer each. JM once again took a dip in the pool while I read some more. We had planned to get a foot massage after lounging but I was too sleepy and tired so we decided to skip the massage. By the time I knew it, it was almost 6 and I had to get ready for dinner.

To celebrate JM's birthday we had dinner at White Lotus, the chinese restaurant on the top floor of the Hilton where we got marvelous views of the ocean and the city. We again had an early dinner, and of course there was no sunset on the beach to witness, but what we witnessed was the spectacular lighting up of the city as dark set in. Dinner was good too. Let's see...I had minced peking duck wrapped in tofu rolls for appetizers while JM had a lobster and mango salad (the peking duck came in a huge portion, I gave half to JM who wasn't satisfied with his salad)...For entrees, I had grilled sea bass and JM had grilled prawns...We each had a glass of white wine to go with the meal. We had agreed to skip dessert in favor of more drinks at some bar we were yet to discover.

Little did JM know though that I had made other plans. After I finished my meal I excused myself to go to the restroom. When I came out, I approached the friendlier looking waitress and asked if they had cake for dessert (I didn't see any on the menu earlier) and I explained to her that it was the gentleman's birthday. She told me she had to make a call if they had any (to the bakeshop I presume). I was fidgety as I waited for her to come back, JM might get suspicious if I was away for too long (but no! he had assumed I needed to do the number two in the toilet!). Finally, the waitress came back and told me they only had two kinds of cake, chocolate and black forest. I decided to choose the black forest since I thought it would look fancier than a chocolate cake and I asked that they put a candle on it. The kind waitress then offered to add "Happy Birthday" on the plate.

I went back to the table and tried my best to look normal. JM asked if I wanted to ask for the bill and I told him I wanted to enjoy the view some more. I came up with different topics to chat about while we waited. I took photos of the view from where I sat. Gosh, I must have looked and sounded funny! And then the waitress came by and JM asked for the bill and I gave her a smile. In a few moments, a waiter came to our table carrying the cake - and he joined me in singing Happy Birthday! The look on JM's face was priceless =D Wow, there's always great satisfaction when I'm able to successfully pull off a surprise for him. You see, I'm such a failure when it comes to these things and JM always beats me in the area of surprises. Ah, victory is sweet!

We skipped the margaritas we had planned to have after dinner. Instead we had coffee at Doitung (it's the local coffee place that is a project of H.M. The Princess Mother) and walked around town. It's actually fun, walking in and around the small streets of the city, discovering quaint little shops. By the way, I fell in love with a painting in one of the shops. It was of 5 Buddhist monks walking in a line. I loved the brightness of the orange background and the play of light and shadows. I gulped hard when we inquired about the price -4,5oo baht! In my mind I was saying "Baket, sikat ka ba??? Gagayahin ko na lang yan!"

On the way home we passed by a massage place and decided to get the foot massage we were earlier planning on. Nice! But by golly, if the place was empty when we came in, people started streaming in after we had settled in our seats! My friend, Jet, refers to it as the Jet Effect (the phenomenon wherein one enters a shop that is empty and then all of a sudden it fills up, presumably because of one's presence) to which I would disagree and say it's the Jenn Effect. But ok, Jet Effect sounds much better so I long gave up on the fight and pointed out to JM the Jet Effect that was happening at the massage place.

On our last morning in Hua Hin, we had breakfast at a German place. JM originally wanted to have the Bavarian knuckles which he had seen in the menu the night before. But when he asked the waitress about it, he only got an astounded reply of "For breakfast?" Well it turns out they didn't serve knuckles for breakfast so we had the usual American Breakfast of toast, eggs, bacon and coffee. And then JM still wanted to have a last taste of the gelato before going home, but the shop was still closed when we walked by. Yep, that's my husband!

We arrived back in Bangkok before 2PM.

In summary, like I said earlier Hua Hin was not as I expected it to be. It doesn't have the pristine beaches and clear waters of Koh Samet. Prices were kind of on the higher end of the usual Thailand scale, our meals averaged 700 baht every time, except of course for JM's birthday dinner which was expectedly expensive. It's very city-ish, not at all a resort place. Surprisingly, though, we had fun. We loved our walks by the sea, our walks around town, the early morning sea breeze, and despite the numerous bars and nightspots, I hardly felt it to be a party place. The place was able to maintain a charmingly serene air despite the bustle of the city.