Hua Hin
This past weekend, I went to Hua Hin with my friend Karima. Karima
is living right inside Bangkok, and hadn’t taken any trips yet, so we decided
it was time for the beach!
Hua Hin is a beach and town about a 3 hour drive from
Bangkok. In the 1920s, the King at the time “discovered” the beauty of Hua Hin,
and would vacation there. Now, it is mostly a tourist beach destination. It is
also an active fishing area and one of the main draws to the area is it’s
seafood.
On Friday night, I took the bus into Bangkok – the plan was
for me to crash at Karima’s so we could make an early start the next day. It was
my first time getting into Bangkok by myself, and it went relatively smoothly.
I took the 138 bus from my area to Mo Chit bts station. The one small hiccup occurred
as I was trying to get off the bus. I went to get off, and the Thai bus
attendant came over and said we weren’t at Mo Chit yet (when I say “say”, I
mean it was a mix of Thai and English and lots of gestures). But I could SEE we
were there, or I was at least where I needed to be, as I needed to catch
another bus to Karima’s place. Just so you know, Mo Chit station is part of the
BTS skytrain, so the station is massive and hard to miss. And the last time we
look the 138 to Mo Chit, the attendant also said we weren’t there yet and told
us to stay on... We ended up in the middle of nowhere. So I tried to tell the
attendant it was fine, and I would get off here. He started talking loudly in
Thai and I had no idea what he was saying. But I knew I could get off, so I
just walked down the steps and hopped off. At this point, the bus had started
to drive away, but we weren’t going very fast.
I also managed to get the bus to Karima’s area without
incident. I met her at the stop, we got some ice cream from McDonalds, and
walked to her apartment. We went to bed fairly early so we could leave ASAP in
the morning.
Saturday we woke up a bit before 7 am – that’s one good
thing about the early start for the school day here, you get used to getting up
early - and took a taxi to Victory
Monument. There you can catch mini-buses/vans to just about anywhere. We found
a bus, bought our tickets and were on our way. The ride took just under hours, and was mostly south west. We arrived
in Hua Hin around noon, I think. We walked from where we were dropped off to
the grocery store, Tesco lotus. After a quick stop there, we found a really
cute guesthouse to stay for the night. It was called Ramayah and it was very
nice. We paid about 800B for the night (400 each) and had AC, a private
bathroom, a balcony, and a pool. And it was also about a 20 second walk from
the beach. So we dumped our stuff, and headed down.
The beach at Hua Hin is lovely. Like Ko Samet, it had lovely
white sand and palm trees along the sand. The water was a bit colder, which I
didn’t really mind! We had lunch on the beach and went for a swim. We also
walked along the beach into Hua HIn town, which was much nicer than walking on
the road. There were the usual vendors walking along the beach, as well as
Thais on horseback, offering rides. There were some other tourists there, but
it was much quieter than I expected. I guess it is still the low season.
In the evening, we went for dinner in the famous night
market. They close down one of the roads in the town, and stalls open up. I
always love walking in markets: there is so much to see! We bought dinner from
a street vendor, and it was delicious. We also didn’t feel like spending lots
of money at the fancy restaurants. Many of these restaurants had very cool
displays of the available seafood: fish, shrimp, crustaceans and huge Thai
lobsters. For desert, we got banana and nutella rote (similar to a crepe) and
it was also delicious. We also stumbled upon a "fish spa" - this is where you put your feet in a tank of little fish and they eat the dead skin off your feet. It was very bizarre! and cool! After, our feet did feel very soft.
After the market, we walked around the bar district to find
a place for drinks. However, all of the bars were occupied by middle aged white
men and their Thai “girlfriends”, so we were not to keen on these places. It
also started to pour rain. At this time, we went into the nearby Hilton hotel,
and disrecetely rode the elevator to the top floor. There was a great view of
the city, as well as the storm over the water. Worth it! Once the rain died
down, we walked along the beach back to our hotel.
In the morning, it was quite stormy. It rained for a bit,
but once it stopped, the wind was still blowing and there were lots of angry
looking clouds. We went for a long walk down the beach towards a temple/shrine
at the point. The water was all wavy and choppy – it reminded me of Ipperwash
Beach on Lake Huron when the wind blows from the north. It was pretty cool.
Eventually, the beach ended and seawalls took over. It wasn’t deep by the
walls, but we decided we’d rather not get swept out to sea, so we turned back. We
went for a swim in the hotel pool, then packed up our stuff. We checked out,
had lunch in the town, and caught a van back to Bangkok. The ride was fine, but
I’m pretty sure our driver was on crack. He was driving ridiculously fast, and
weaving around other cars. We were also in the very back, so we were jostled
around quite a bit. But we survived!
We arrived back in Bangkok around 4:30PM and I decided to
head back home. I took the BTS to a bus stop that would take me back to Phra
Pradaend. I had gone into Bangkok this way before, but left the city by this
route, so I was nervous about being able to find the bus stop. But, I found it
really easily and a bus arrived about 30 seconds later. It was a nice evening
ride, and I arrived back home safe and sound.
Hua Hin was lovely, but the next time I travel, I want to go
somewhere other than the beach. Also, if I had to pick between Ko Samet and Hua
Hin, I would pick Ko Samet – it was more natural (it is a national park). But
it was a lovely weekend, and great to finally get to do a trip with Karima!
No comments:
Post a Comment