Chalelarn Hotel Hua Hin

Golf!

by iaint

So, on my first visit to Hua Hin (about 1994) I'm sitting in the guest house bar, minding my own business, and get talking to a New Zealander and a Swede. They've escaped the rigours of mine clearance in Cambodia for a few days of golf.

I'm Scottish, so whisky was the first topic of conversation. Short discussion, as I never touch it.

So, golf next. But I never play! I did when at high school, but after that I had to earn a living...

Anyway, I get talked into joining them on their game the next morning (7am start, to beat the heat).

I loved it! Got round in 110. Even got a par on one hole!

It was hot as hell. The monkeys kept pinching my balls. An elephant appeared out of the bush at one point.

Two magical moments to savour - taking my shoes off at the end, and the very cold beer which followed immediately! Jumping in the pool back at the hotel comes a close 3rd.

The course is seriously good. The first in Thailand, dating back to 1924. You can rent everything. Caddies compulsory (mine had limited English "head down, watch the ball" 109 times).

Beer almost compulsory.

Pepper spray for the macaques.

Getting from Hua Hin to Koh Samet

by sarahreynold

You need to bus to Bangkok, change bus stations and then bus to Rayong area for the boat to Koh Samet. I very much doubt you would find any boat to take you, if so would be extreamly expensive way to do it.
If you are not on a tight budget get a car+driver ( aka taxi car ) in Hua Hin, it should take about 6 hours including some rest stops, that cuts through south part of bangkok and then onto the fast highway towards Pattaya but by-passes Pattaya to the pier near to take the ferry boat to Samet.

BEACH EXPLORING

by mamasan69

Most of my daytime activties here were spent along the beach. Whether it was just relaxing with a beer with my brother, or out exploring the many sites around beach. We walked around the rocks along the shore and saw quite a variety of mussles, fish in the little pools, and huge jellyfish. After seeing the dead jellyfish that had washed up on shore, it kind of detered us from swimming after that. I don't know if they were poisonous or not but they looked pretty nasty.
Besides the jellyfish, the view from the beach is beautiful. There are horse ride tours offered around the beach (I didn't try myself) , plenty of places to buy goods, totally relax and get some sun.
The second picture is of the pier just down the beach from where we were staying, it was huge. People were always swimming around and jumping off it. After Koh Phi Phi, my brother and I both agreed that we were not going to jump off anything for awhile. Therefore, I can only speculate on how fun it looked from a distance.

Royal Waiting Room at Hua Hin Railway Station

by yen_2

The Station was built by King Rama VI and it is one of the promine'nt place of Amphur Hua Hin.

This is the royal room in the Hua Hin Railway station which was beuatifully built. You can see this one just in the side of the train station.

Hua Hin: My Second Worst Travelling Nightmare

by miketrudeau

"A Tourist Colony"

Let me tell you about Hua Hin...Ciara and I were staying at a resort just outside the relatively quiet (and relatively Thai) town of Pran Buri. We heard that Hua Hin was one of the big destinations in Thailand, so we decided to check it out. Mind you, it was Ciara's father who told us about it and he'd last been there 25 years beforehand. Things have changed, daddy-o, things have changed.

"Why would anyone want to come here...ever?"

We quickly discovered that Hua Hin has turned into one of those towns that every traveller dreads...one covered in sunburnt tourists the way maggots cover a dead deer. I've noticed in situations like these that nobody seems to be having a very good time. Everybody is too stressed out, to concerned with both satisfying one's basic needs and finding any shred of the authenticity and relaxed states that they are spending loads of money to experience. Hua Hin is packed full of cheap tourist shops selling the most hackneyed variety of cheap junk I have ever witnessed. Tourists of all age frown and whine their way between the kiosks. Why would anyone come so far at such great expense to load up on this crap?

Yet they come. And they spend. And whatever Thai presence this city once had has eroded away and left beggars and shopkeepers. Why do people keep coming here? The city is ugly and crowded and most of the restaurants are American; all of them are expensive. Do you like cheap suits, bootleg DVDs and croaking wooden frogs? Then Hua Hin is the place for you.
P.S.: My absolute worst travelling nightmare is my wife being kidnapped. This has not yet happened. Keep this in mind.