Hua Hin



Last weekend I went with 12 other teachers from American School of Bangkok down to Hua Hin, which is located out on the Gulf of Thailand heading down the east arm towards Phuket. We took a big van down there and stayed in a little hotel right on the water – infact, most of the rooms were over the water in high tide. Friday was my 25th birthday and we all went out to a restaurant and had drinks and some people sang karaoke. They sang happy birthday to me and gave me a tiny butter-flavored cake. Yum!

This is a typical food vendors cart - he's selling ice cream - cones for 10 baht, which is about 10 cents - coconut ice cream drizzled with condensed milk!


Saturday I explored the long sandy beach with Spencer. The water is so warm you could stay in all day long! Hua Hin used to be a small fishing village – and there are still dozens of brightly colored fishing boats anchored along the beach. They sit in the sand as the tide comes in and out. When the King moved to Hua Hin, the little village became a lot more fancy and now there are large hotels along the shore. It was still very nice for swimming and picking up shells and star fish and poking at jelly fish washed up on the shore. We met a guy who was skim boarding along the shore, and he brought out two more skimboards for us to borrow. We spent hours running in the shallow water and hopping on the little plywood boards and skimming along or falling off and rolling in the water. Made me want to surf!


That night we watched a muay thai fight – like boxing except they spend more time kicking each other in the chest than punching each other in the face. It was very interesting, definitely more of an art than boxing, incorporating a lot of rhythm. It was disturbing, however, how young some of the fighters were – I think the last one must have been 6!





On Sunday the man who was supposed to pick us up in the vans and take us home didn’t show, so we took the train back. It was a 4 hour ride and the “regular” seats without air conditioning (but open windows…it was almost cold) was 80 baht, which is $2. The train had a drop toilet where you put your feet on the metal footpads and squat (pretty common in public restrooms)– and you could see right down to the tracks! On the way home we passed a lot of flooded rice fields with palm trees sprouting out of their middles and little shacks built along the sides. At most of the train stops, local venders would get on, selling hot meals wrapped in leaves or boxes for 20 baht (50 cents) and it was a bit of a gamble what you would get, but always turned out good.

What a weekend! My first outside of Bangkok since I have been here! On Monday I was totally whipped out! Next weekend I think we will be going up to Kanchanaburi to explore the waterfalls and forests and do a bit of hiking.