Cha-am Things to Do

The Beautiful palace, Maruk Khatayawan Palace, located in the King Rama 6 Military Camp. It is the King Rama Sixth's summer residence in the mid 1920s., golden teak palace with a long corridor leading to the sea and some buildings. The palace is elegant with two-storey pavilion facing to the sea, with series of halls linking each other. In the area around, It is a nice area with some gardens with beautiful flower surround.

Open everyday, Mon to Fri 8 a.m.-4 p.m. ;
Sat, Sun and public holdays 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

See more photos on my travelogue page (link below).

In the public area of Cha Am Beach is the place where you can see many kind of activities such as Jet Ski , Banana boat (favorite for teenager groups) etc. Sometime I can feel it’s too crowded on weekend as it is a popular place for Thais spending family time together on beach, mostly parents sit and enjoy food at beach chairs and watching the kids enjoy in the water.

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We stayed at northern part but make a bike ride in the morning to visit this quiter area, southern part of Cha Am beach. The feature of the area is the peaceful, quieter than the northern part. In the beginning of the part can look crowded as the same but if you keep walking further, it's getting more relaxing. I think some parts at the end is a private beaches and living places. Still I see there is some ranges of accommodations there. The beach is more slope, some rocks but still can swim.

The area provide a good view of Cha Am and it is a relax place. Many people go there in the late afternoon, too sunny by day. I saw locals come for exercise, enjoy aerobic dance and some relax activities…

By night at View point, it is a very romantic place ;-). A lot people come to enjoy the view and keep wating for the sun go down, admire sunset View point also is a place where they arrange any Festival of Cha Am.

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It's sometimes too crowded for me to get to swimming in the sea so I instead enjoy the atmosphere on long beach road. Apart from taking a walk, enjoy the food, I get a rental bike, ride it along to the end northern and southern part. There are so many shops set up by day along the foot path, provide rental bike and motorbike. (Average is 20B / hour for bike and 120B / hour for motorbike) Very popular activity…. Many kinds of bike…

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This tip refers to a place called the T&T Bar.

This place is nothing special in terms of facilities but the friendliness of the staff more than makes up for this. As the photo shows, it is just a smal lock-up type bar with comfortable chairs outside, and seems to be patronised about equally by expats and Thai. Although they do not serve food themselves, the staff will go to a nearby roadside stall (see seperate tip) and get you some very tasty food for a few baht.

The only slight disadvantage is that the place does not have a toilet, so you have to go to another premises around the corner. A small price to pay for what is a wonderful little place.

The picture may surprise you a little. I was sure I heard a strange noise and the next thing an elephant came into the bar. Well, I say came in, actually and not surprisingly, the beast could not fit through the small door. Well, it was an elephant after all. It's mahout walks it along the street and for a few baht you can buy titbits to feed it. There is something slightly odd aobut sitting over an evening beer feeding an elephant without leaving your seat but a great experience nonetheless.

From Cha Am it is only about 15 to 20 minutes by taxi or hotel shuttle from Cha Am to Hua hin, there is a busy night market in the center of Hua hin and also a weekend night market just south of the center of Hua hin at the Hua hin Grand Plaza. This night market has lots of cheap clothing, foodstalls and interesting items to buy.

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People who have read my other pages will know that I am an absolute sucker for markets, and the one in Cha am certainly does not disappoint. A large covered affair, it is seperated into sections for various types of products and has the obligatory numerous food outlets. Understandably, being on the sea, the largest section is reserved for fish and seafood and there is a huge variety.

If you like colourful markets, you will love this place.