Holiday in Hua Hin
-Horsin Around in Hua Hin-
It was a few weeks before christmas and we are getting antsy for the holiday season to strike. As a large group of us work for christian schools around Thailand, the children were already preparing for Christmas talent shows, dances growing more energetic and less disciplined by the second. My school had already been decked out since thanksgiving week with tinsel, fake christmas trees. The classes had begun to slowly turn into magical portals of holiday cheer, feeling as though every time I entered a room to teach, I had stepped aboard the polar express. The children found themselves aerosol canisters of fake cold snow and were hyped up on candy. Although exciting, the games that involved me popping a balloon full of fake snow and having candy strewn across my lap became quite exhausting. Having Christmas everyday had its benefits. The children were always happy and the teachers, a little more pep in their step. However, lesson plans had been unintentionally shoved to the back burner due to the very face that the children had lost all sense of ambition regarding sugar high and the soon to come vacation. Children were wearing antlers for the entire month of December and the bell alarms that notify the teachers of time turned into jingle bells. Needless to say, I was decked out, silly pun intended. Along with a few other teachers who shared the same feeling, we thought a beach weekend would be a necessary get away. With help from my older students, I was given the name of 3 beach towns that were only three hour a van ride away. The most popular option was Hua Hin, a beach town southeast of Bangkok that has proven to be a weekend getaway for many people living within the confines of the big city. My friends made a collaborative decided to book the Air B and B and the rest was history!
Something I noticed about weekends away is that Friday, I find myself checking the clock every two minutes waiting for the day to pass by. The last day of the week always drags along as if it knows you are waiting for that school bell to go off and release you into freedom territory. Luckily on Fridays, my friends do not have to worry about last period as we do not have one! Although being finished with school one hour early makes the day slow down that much more, It is all well worth the wait as transportation changes juristically changes between the hours of 3 and 5 around Bangkok. At 5 o;clock, the traffic might as well be just as bad as LA traffic or my friends in LA have complained of. Anywho, I will stop ranting about how school drags on because lets face it, I do not have problems, I am in a lovely country and am about to embark with you on a journey through Hua Hin, one of the coolest places I have visited on this trip.
Friday rolls around and the end of day bell rings, I run like a small school girl out of my house, hop on my rusty bicycle towards home and complete my hiking backpack. Something I have struck upon in my blog posts is the concept of 'packing light'. I have been here about three months and I cannot claim that I have even come close to mastering this. However, I have definitely found a difference between trips. There is a difference between leisure and trekking. Packing for leisure includes the cute dress you want to wear on Saturday night, and maybe even a pair of wedges that you can sport to the local club where you and your friends will boogie. To pack for trekking is an entirely different game. When I pack to trek, I focus upon the clothes that I can wear again, the clothes that if I sweat my butt off on public transportation, I can spray with something nice and wear it again without people being able to tell much difference. Trek packing consists of muted and neutral colors that you can swip swop and be on your merry way, clothes you don't care for and can ruin incase you run into a sticky situation or smart layers. Now smart layers is a tricky concept, smart layers are a lot of very light layers that you can wear all at once if you needed to but in their own right serve as a cute layer as well. They are multi purposeful and easy to pack in comparison to the heavy layers you might see back home on the east coast. Bulk is a no go in Thailand. You realize this when you are on your way to a 2-day weekend with a heavy packing backpack sweating and immediately regretting everything you convinced yourself was entirely necessary and that you could not live without.
So with no further adieu, the topic of this Blog post which is Hua Hin. Hua Hin had been classified as a leisurely weekend as we had found ourselves a giant house with 16 friends in a cute beach town with many options for late night fun. We knew that we would not only need beach things, but hiking and also going out things to bring. Naturally, I jam packed my Dueter hiking backpack to the very brim laid down with it to get it upon my back, had my friend help me stand upright and made our way to the bus station down the street. By 7 o'clock, we had made our way to 'Sai Thai Mai'- the southern terminal bus station in Bangkok, found our travel sister Meghan and a $ 180 B / 6 USD van to Hua Hin. ( I absolutely love every single time I have to make that conversion). We arrived at our Air B and B no later that 9:30 pm. Our beach house was cozy, filled with plenty of room, a kitchen, dining room three bathrooms and enough places for everyone to sleep. Oh not to mention hot water, all of the above are a godsend here in Thailand. Did we sleep? You better believe we did not. We continued to shower off the transportation smells, put on a cute dress, and make our way down to Hua Hin's party district. I have noticed that in Thailand, all of the party districts had the very same feel, whether you were at Pattaya walking street, Khao San or any busy main street club district. The streets are usually packed with people from all over the world, music blaring in competition with the bar next door, people shoving trays of bugs on a stick or inappropriately labeled bracelets in front of your face as well as well as the most shocking people making inappropriate gestures in your direction suggesting underground prostitution opportunities. Once you get used to the chaos, you find yourself finding the ability to walk through the street without too much disgust and a more relaxed approach towards such overwhelming stimulation. To say that it doesn't shake me up at all, would be a false statement. Adjustment doesn't happen overnight. Luckily my friends would rather find the nearest karaoke joint and lose our voices screaming classic american tunes all night instead. Something I am extremely proud of to this very day is our ability to sniff out karaoke. If you think about it, karaoke is the perfect way to make new friends in a new country. What better way to conquer a language barrier than to choose a top american hit from the 80's and continue to bolt out the lyrics at the top of your lungs. We tend to thrust the microphone in the locals faces giving them no choice but to join us in song. It's actually genius.
-Hua Hin Beach-
- Phraya Nakhon Cave Temple-
It was a few weeks before christmas and we are getting antsy for the holiday season to strike. As a large group of us work for christian schools around Thailand, the children were already preparing for Christmas talent shows, dances growing more energetic and less disciplined by the second. My school had already been decked out since thanksgiving week with tinsel, fake christmas trees. The classes had begun to slowly turn into magical portals of holiday cheer, feeling as though every time I entered a room to teach, I had stepped aboard the polar express. The children found themselves aerosol canisters of fake cold snow and were hyped up on candy. Although exciting, the games that involved me popping a balloon full of fake snow and having candy strewn across my lap became quite exhausting. Having Christmas everyday had its benefits. The children were always happy and the teachers, a little more pep in their step. However, lesson plans had been unintentionally shoved to the back burner due to the very face that the children had lost all sense of ambition regarding sugar high and the soon to come vacation. Children were wearing antlers for the entire month of December and the bell alarms that notify the teachers of time turned into jingle bells. Needless to say, I was decked out, silly pun intended. Along with a few other teachers who shared the same feeling, we thought a beach weekend would be a necessary get away. With help from my older students, I was given the name of 3 beach towns that were only three hour a van ride away. The most popular option was Hua Hin, a beach town southeast of Bangkok that has proven to be a weekend getaway for many people living within the confines of the big city. My friends made a collaborative decided to book the Air B and B and the rest was history!
Something I noticed about weekends away is that Friday, I find myself checking the clock every two minutes waiting for the day to pass by. The last day of the week always drags along as if it knows you are waiting for that school bell to go off and release you into freedom territory. Luckily on Fridays, my friends do not have to worry about last period as we do not have one! Although being finished with school one hour early makes the day slow down that much more, It is all well worth the wait as transportation changes juristically changes between the hours of 3 and 5 around Bangkok. At 5 o;clock, the traffic might as well be just as bad as LA traffic or my friends in LA have complained of. Anywho, I will stop ranting about how school drags on because lets face it, I do not have problems, I am in a lovely country and am about to embark with you on a journey through Hua Hin, one of the coolest places I have visited on this trip.
Friday rolls around and the end of day bell rings, I run like a small school girl out of my house, hop on my rusty bicycle towards home and complete my hiking backpack. Something I have struck upon in my blog posts is the concept of 'packing light'. I have been here about three months and I cannot claim that I have even come close to mastering this. However, I have definitely found a difference between trips. There is a difference between leisure and trekking. Packing for leisure includes the cute dress you want to wear on Saturday night, and maybe even a pair of wedges that you can sport to the local club where you and your friends will boogie. To pack for trekking is an entirely different game. When I pack to trek, I focus upon the clothes that I can wear again, the clothes that if I sweat my butt off on public transportation, I can spray with something nice and wear it again without people being able to tell much difference. Trek packing consists of muted and neutral colors that you can swip swop and be on your merry way, clothes you don't care for and can ruin incase you run into a sticky situation or smart layers. Now smart layers is a tricky concept, smart layers are a lot of very light layers that you can wear all at once if you needed to but in their own right serve as a cute layer as well. They are multi purposeful and easy to pack in comparison to the heavy layers you might see back home on the east coast. Bulk is a no go in Thailand. You realize this when you are on your way to a 2-day weekend with a heavy packing backpack sweating and immediately regretting everything you convinced yourself was entirely necessary and that you could not live without.
So with no further adieu, the topic of this Blog post which is Hua Hin. Hua Hin had been classified as a leisurely weekend as we had found ourselves a giant house with 16 friends in a cute beach town with many options for late night fun. We knew that we would not only need beach things, but hiking and also going out things to bring. Naturally, I jam packed my Dueter hiking backpack to the very brim laid down with it to get it upon my back, had my friend help me stand upright and made our way to the bus station down the street. By 7 o'clock, we had made our way to 'Sai Thai Mai'- the southern terminal bus station in Bangkok, found our travel sister Meghan and a $ 180 B / 6 USD van to Hua Hin. ( I absolutely love every single time I have to make that conversion). We arrived at our Air B and B no later that 9:30 pm. Our beach house was cozy, filled with plenty of room, a kitchen, dining room three bathrooms and enough places for everyone to sleep. Oh not to mention hot water, all of the above are a godsend here in Thailand. Did we sleep? You better believe we did not. We continued to shower off the transportation smells, put on a cute dress, and make our way down to Hua Hin's party district. I have noticed that in Thailand, all of the party districts had the very same feel, whether you were at Pattaya walking street, Khao San or any busy main street club district. The streets are usually packed with people from all over the world, music blaring in competition with the bar next door, people shoving trays of bugs on a stick or inappropriately labeled bracelets in front of your face as well as well as the most shocking people making inappropriate gestures in your direction suggesting underground prostitution opportunities. Once you get used to the chaos, you find yourself finding the ability to walk through the street without too much disgust and a more relaxed approach towards such overwhelming stimulation. To say that it doesn't shake me up at all, would be a false statement. Adjustment doesn't happen overnight. Luckily my friends would rather find the nearest karaoke joint and lose our voices screaming classic american tunes all night instead. Something I am extremely proud of to this very day is our ability to sniff out karaoke. If you think about it, karaoke is the perfect way to make new friends in a new country. What better way to conquer a language barrier than to choose a top american hit from the 80's and continue to bolt out the lyrics at the top of your lungs. We tend to thrust the microphone in the locals faces giving them no choice but to join us in song. It's actually genius.
-Hua Hin Beach-
Saturday morning comes rolling in, headaches and sore singing voices, we crawl out of bed and make our way towards the Hua Hin coastline. Hua Hin beach happens to be an area where there is large european influence, primarily french and german. Therefore, the food was exactly what we had been craving. We found ourselves in this breakfast place directly across from the beach with soft jazz, modern decor and amazing coffee. It hit the spot. Bellies full, we found ourselves roaming alongside the Hua Hin Beach waterfront playing with the horses whom ride up and down the length of the beach daily searching for tourists in need of a ride on the beach. As most of my friends don't ride the animals in Thailand, we chose to cuddle the horses instead offering love rather than labor. The owners didn't like us much. After horsin' around, pun intended we found ourselves at a beachside villa that only costed us 200 Bhat / 6.50 USD for the entire day including two free drinks, access to beach lounges and facilities. We spent the day drinking on the beach, playing in the waves and enjoying the bar's happy hour acoustic John Mayor cover band. The villa had been decked out christmas decor, yet tropical which was highly confusing for us people from the United States. To be on the beach, two weeks before Christmas singing John Mayor while in Thailand was definitely a first for many of us. This was an amazing day, exactly what we needed as burnt out teachers on a holiday weekend off. We found our way back towards the main strip, tracking down food and Song Theaw's back to the house we rented for the weekend. This night we decided to stay in singing songs playing cards and running around the house causing havoc. There was no better way to spend this Saturday night in my opinion. Moments like this remind me of just how lucky I am to have found such a large group of similarly minded people. Grateful for the laughs and the good memories.
Understanding we had no choice but to peel ourselves out of bed this Sunday morning and make our way to the one event planned for the weekend, we set our alarms and jumped on one another reminding each other of the pact we had made the night earlier to get up early and get the journey started. The Phraya Nakhon Cave Temple was about a $ 100 Bhat/ 3 USD45 minute ride South from the center of Hua Hin by group Song Theaw. Recovering from the night before, we ran to the nearest 7/11, grabbed electrolytes and toasties (our favorite local ham and cheese sandwiches) and began to hydrate for the hike ahead. The Phraya Nakhon Caves of Hua Hin are about an hour hike each way from the base of town. Dropped off at the entrance, we paid our entrance fee, us Farangs (foreigners in thai) have to pay $ 200 Bhat/ 6.50 USD while locals a wimpy 40 Bhat. A concept of inequality you have to understand is a part of the tourist industry almost everywhere in the entire universe. We swalowed our Bhat and headed upwards. Our goal is always to get to the destination as fast as posslbe. After the fist half hour of climbing both up and down the cliffs outlining a beautiful and isolated beach below, we found ourselves at the beach entrance. The only things found in this inlet of land included a few bungalow for national park staff and a outdoor restaurant offering phad thai and other thai dishes for cheap! We passed this beach knowing that it was our goal at the end of the day. The next half of our hike was unexpected. We climbed the slightly grueling and what felt like 100% humidity climb in a total of 45 minutes. First we climbed up over the cliffs guarding the beach and down into the cave scaling massive boulders and slippery rocks. The right shoes for a climb such as this would include hiking shoes, or Chacos. Some of us only brought sandals out of lack of planning and sleep. The hike did not do us so well. Moral of the story, sleep well and hydrate before this hike. Some of our friends had to stop on the way down into the cave and also lay on the ground of the cave and take a nap on the ground to muster up enough energy for the trip back.
As for those who made it through the hike with high spirits, what we found in this cave was nothing but mystical. The minute you enter the cave opening, the sunlight from the small opening in the ceiling of the cave captivates you as it is shining down directly on the center of the temple structure built in the center of this 200 km wide cave. You can't help but stand there in awe and breathe in the view. The Cave itself is deceivingly wide and circular, you can lap the circumference of the cave and explore the cave openings and vegetation that has survived decades of pilgrimages to this hidden temple. The vegetation within the cave is entirely different from what you would find outside the cave. This is because only particular species can withstand a limited about of sunlight throughout the day at this elevation. The temple itself is considered one of the most mysterious landmarks of Thailand due to its placement. There are small dedications in the small crevices of the candles filled with offerings to the gods and place for prayer. We spent about 45 minutes in this cave in silence exploring and enjoying the cool climate. As terrible as the hike initially seemed, the cave visit itself was well worth the wait. The hike back was something terrible but went by much quicker since we knew there was a beach waiting for us on the other side. The minute we hit ground again, we stripped of our sweaty clothes and went swimming in the ocean, ending our day at a beachside restaurant drinking coconut smoothies and eating Phad Thai. The isolated beach was one of the most untouched and desolate beaches we had visited thus far and it was nothing beyond gorgeous. The beach itself was a fine shell beach, which did not want to leave our clothing once we departed, yet it was the brightest white and just beautiful.
-Cicada Market-
After working up a large appetite, we had to force ourselves to get out of the house and find a substantial meal in town. Some friend had heard of a Market known as Cicada market. This was a slightly upscale night market meaning instead of spending 3 USD dollars on a meal, you may have to spent 6 USD. The market proved to be well worth it. Because Hua Hin has a large European Influence, the market had scenery resembling that of Ibiza, St Bart's or other European influenced tropical Islands. White linnen covered the booths of the market places, brick layout surrounded the ground creating a clear path for you when walking around the market. There was a ticket booth in which you purchase a certain amount of food tickets depending on how hungry you are. I had to return to this booth a few times for the very fact that I didn't expect to want as much food as I did there. We began at a Chicken satay booth, something I remember vividly living off of when I was in Thailand as a young girl. This peanut style chicken is traditionally served with small pieces of toast and an onion salsa topping. My friend Farah and I realized that splitting this food would not be enough and we continued onto a brick oven open air pizza restaurant with some of the best brick fired pizza I had had since Italy. The booths themselves were beautifully lit with string lights and hot air balloon paper lanterns strung upon every tree surrounding the market. I wanted to buy absolutely everything in this market including the denim tye dye linnen booths and the hand woven purses. I did my best to remind myself that I had absolutely no room left in my luggage and couldn't physically buy anything from the market. There was live music in an open atrium and people camped out on blankets and seating areas eating their meals enjoying the open air market. I would definitely return to this market with properly planned financial backing and room in my bag in the near future. The environment was relaxing and laid back, unlike most bustling night markets of Thailand. It was absolutely beautiful. We ended the night at a french cafe across the street enjoying a fancy mixed drink and playing funny group get to know you games. This was the most perfect ending to the weekend. For a large group, I feel as though we did an excellent job of packing everything into a three day weekend. Hua Hin proved to be the perfect long weekend getaway from the bustling city of Bangkok. I would highly recommend this to anyone traveling with a group of friends or large family. My students were right to recommend this getaway and for that I am very grateful. Below are some tips for visiting Hua Hin.
-Hua Hin Reccomendations-
1. Look into Air B and B's near Hua Hin beach. The hotels can be pricy.
2. Renting lounge chairs on Hua Hin Beach is worth the 200 Bhat! Look for deals with free drinks and access to facilities
3. Panama Bar is a great place to go out and dance on the walking street in downtown Hua Hin.
4. Bars stay open until 2-3 am so keep track of time!
5. Song Theaws are difficult to get past 8 o'clock if you are staying outside of downtown (we were about 10 minutes away) On that note they are very cheap and run up and down the length of Hua Hin for as minimal at 10 Bhat per trip!
6. Dedicate a full day to your Phraya Nakhon cave adventure. Since the cave is about an hour south of Hua Hin, and there is not only a lovely beach area and lovely restaurants onsite but you want to spend time in the cave as well.
7. When you arrive at the Cave site, there is an option to take a boat for the cost of 200 Bhat each way to skip the first section of the hike. Because this was the same cost as the entrance fee for the park we decided to waive this fee and take on the first half of the hike to save money.
8. Bring a change of clothes for the beach beside the cave as the temperature change is vast and if you want to get in the water I would definitely suggest a bathing suit and dry change of non-sweaty clothes. No one likes to change back into sweaty clothing and if you do, you're odd.
9. The European influence of this town makes the costs a little inflated due to influx of tourists so budget a little more for this vacation as compared to traditional Thai towns.
10. Thai culture is more prevalent down on the beaches with the open water restaurants and sellers offering sarongs and other hand made products to travelers.
11. Make friends at these beachside villas as they want your company and funds and will definitely help you out with deals.
12. Check out the kite surfing schools alongside the beaches! They are very reputable and this beach is known for the sport of Kite Surfing. An hour lesson costs around 500 Bhat/ 16 USD and they have great reviews online!
-Hua Hin Beach-
- Phraya Nakhon Cave Temple-
- Cicada Night Market-
Comments
Post a Comment