Hua Hin
Hua Hin was just a stop on our way to Ban Krut further down south. We hadn’t planned to stay here for more than a night, and though we had a nice time at the beach and the night market, we were perfectly happy to move on the next day.
Hua Hin is…how should I put it…Thailand, but the part of touristy Thailand that I don’t care much for. It’s also a biggish city (80000 inhabitants) with all that this entails in terms of sketchy characters and activities. Hua Hin is very much on the visitors map and as such doomed to lose in charm to some extent. Indeed, as we ventured into town for an evening walk, after getting settled into our hotel for the night, one of the first things we saw was this:
We couldn’t believe our eyes! Now I have nothing against roast pork or Danes, but to me this indicates one of two things (or both): Hua Hin is a Danish tourist hub or the city has an important Danish community. For there to be a market for ‘flæskesteg’ every Sunday as written on the sign, this has to be the case. I sort of hope that it’s the latter, because honestly, if this is to cater to Danish tourists, I really don’t understand what traveler would travel half way around the world, to eat what he eats at home?! Anyway, personally that is definitely not my understanding of the point of traveling, but to each his own, of course 😉
We were happy to find the sea at last, and had a nice evening walk down the beach. But decidedly, Hua Hin is just too busy, too crowded and too westernized for my taste. You can tell you’re at a touristy place, when the horse back rides at the beach are THB300 per kid. Not that it’s an enormous amount of money (though when you’re traveling on a low budget it is) but it’s out of sync with the general level of costs and even in Europe I wouldn’t pay that for sitting 15 minutes on a pony!
So, we weren’t exactly blown over by Hua Hin…
I’m sure if we stayed there longer, there will be great things to do and nice places to hang out. Hua Hin itself is just the city, obviously the region will have it’s share of beautiful nature walks and worthwhile activities. I am well aware that one overnight visit doesn’t give an accurate picture of anything. Still, there are places that speak to you straight away, and Hua Hin just wasn’t one of them for me. I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures I took along the way. The train ride from Bangkok was absolutely lovely!
How to get there? Easy-peasy and inexpensive local trains from Bangkok. The #261 departs early morning and takes about 4 hours. A standard 3d class ticket on this train is THB44 pp. Difficult to beat that 🙂
love & light
Luna
love & light
Luna