Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thailand: Hua Hin Beach: A Beach for Thai Royal Family, Localz & Foreignrz

General: This is the most popular beach amongst the Thais and equally important holiday resort for foreigners. The length of the beach is approximately 5 miles and this place has the highest density of world class golf courses anywhere in Thailand (Golf and Football are the two main games preferred in Thailand). This is the oldest (70 years old) of the beaches in Thailand as Phuket and Samui being the new discoveries. The place was unaffected by Tsunami. This place has an 18-hole golf course and a huge fishing port. Most of the Bangkok’s Upper class have their own beachfront summer houses towards the south and north of Hua Hin along the curvy sandy bay and usually they will come here on weekends with their families. This place definitely gives a different holidaying experience.

History:
   This place was discovered by the King Rama VII in early 1920s. He established his Royal Resorts here and subsequently became popular in a short time. The place is connected to Bangkok via Road as well as Train. In 1928 King Rama VII built his Klai Kangwon (Klai in thai means “far from” and Kangwon means “worries”) Palace which is used by the current Royal family even today and is open to visitors. In 1923 State Railways working under the then kingdom built the Railway Hotel in a traditional old Thai architecture, which today is known as Sofitel Central Hua Hin Hotel.

Bangkok to Hua Hin: 
Taxi (120 Bahts) from my hotel reached to Bangkok Southern Bus Terminal in 40 minutes to get a bus for Hua Hin. At 7 I was in the bus that was going to Hua Hin. You will find government and private Air conditioned and Non-A/C buses going to Hua Hin from this terminal starting every half an hour. Ticket costs 130 Bahts per person. And the journey started. I adjusted my seat in a semi laying position and dropped my mobile from my back pocket in the bus. It was given to me by a young boy who had got into the bus to sell off cold drinks and snacks. We were amazed at his sincerity. We were half asleep when we reached at this place and the moment we got down one of us noticed that he had slipped out his wallet from his pocket in the bus. The bus was taking a slow turn about 50 metres away and was almost at a standstill and hence my friend could run and get into the bus. And he found his wallet back at the back of his seat. Great!.

We reached Hua Hin: 
It was around 11 when we reached there. We enquired and got to know that we can take bikes or taxi to go to the beach. Just tried to cross check with a foreigner and got to know that it is at a walking distance (around one plus kilometers) and we decided to go by walk. Near the beach we found an Indian Restaurant and decided that we will have our lunch here while coming back.

At the Beach: 
The Beachside On the beach side there were so many beachside snacks/beer shops having their shady tables and leisure chairs to relax. We sat on this chairs and immediately the shop owner came to us and told that for one hour sitting he will charge 20 Bahts per person, if for whole day 60 Bahts and if we order something to eat no extra charges for sitting. We negotiated with her that we will have beer and will not pay for it and not extra Bahts for sitting. Into the Sea We decided to swim in the sea for couple of hours and have some photo session with our 7 megapixels camera before we have beer and later lunch before going back to Bangkok. Got into the sea and had a good time. Then to go deeper we decided to take tubes @ 40/- Bahts. Enjoyed the swimming but there is a catch, there are big rocks inside the water, so you need to be careful. I wounded my feet slightly. Locales were busy in capturing sea food items.

Finally the Bikinis, the topless and the Men at the Beach
 The beach is full of foreigners from almost all parts of the world. Many topless and bikini beauties were spotted easily lying on beach chairs, applying oil on their body after swimming and enjoying sun bath and swimming in the beach. We had a great photo session

Thai English
 Thai English is different – saw a logo behind a car – “EVERY HAPPY”. They don’t know tenses, verbs etc. but convey the message beautifully. Important lines to catch – “INDIA MANY BRAINS” “MANY SALARY” “MANY CARS” “NO GO” “NO HAVE”

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