Hua Hin :: หัวหิน

Right in front of Centara Grand Hotel Hua Hin.
A slight left towards Hilton Hotel brings you the crowds and more horses.

Stopped by Hua Hin for supplies, groceries and checked out its small night market, as well as Cicada Market. The night market is just like any other Thai city's night market. Shitty products and stupid souvenirs, and overpriced seafood eateries. You also get the annoying foreign tourists who go around filming, being scathing and speaking into their videos "Everything here is USD5!", proceeding to ask a stall owner the price of something, which would be unfortunately 199BHT. UGH. Cicada Market feels better as locals flock there and the products are handmade, say leather and ceramics. Food stalls aplenty. Food is bought via coupons. The friends said that this market has doubled the number of food stalls since a year ago.

The friends are spot on in their predictions- the man and I aren't that fond of Hua Hin. It's crowded too! Not as bad as Phuket or Pattaya, but almost there. There're no international flights into Hua Hin yet, so tourism hasn't exploded like the other Thai beach resorts. Oh well, at least the sleazy corner has El Murphy's which doesn't accept credit cards but supplied us with decent nachos and on tap Guinness (OMG I MISSED A GOOD ONE), Singha and Chang. Good for two drinks, but I wouldn't want to hop in again. It's kinda gross. It's telling that only three local servers spoke Thai and the rest couldn't and ironically spoke in English.

Stopped at the refurbished Centara Grand Hotel for the night. One of those old big resorts with colonial columns. The black and white floor tiles, old world charm and its associated stereotypes. Yes. Also what's up with big name seaside resorts and giant chess pieces on its grounds? Centara Grand's beachfront is picturesque; lined with stately rocks and boulders. But it's teeming with horses, crowds and lots of humans till it's quite unpleasant to hang out at the beach in peace.

We very much prefer the beachfront further away from the town center. Say, just a short 3km down the road. The beaches there are still nice and there're a lot fewer humans around. Less frazzling on the nerves. Woot. Managed to hop there the next day before going on to Pranburi. Had a leisurely lunch, and then simply chilled out at the beach with the iPod and a book. That was so lovely.

3km away from Centara Grand Hotel.