what's all the fuss about hua hin

[Tinker2]

As a single retired female ( early retirement ) after many years in Asia... HH... boring, non existent nightlife, only IMO one great restaurant, in '' town'' that is. Try having a pleasant drink anywhere in this town, as a female, not so easy !

Golf, good.

Proximity to BKK great, so go up there for entertainment.

Traffic, its the same wherever you go.

Beaches, agree need a good clean up, and can anyone tell me why there are no garbage cans on the beach ?

I could hazard a guess why.

Shangri - La doesn't exist, so make the best of what you can.

That and keep smiling

[sirocco]

As a single retired female ( early retirement ) after many years in Asia... HH... boring, non existent nightlife, only IMO one great restaurant, in '' town'' that is. Try having a pleasant drink anywhere in this town, as a female, not so easy !

Golf, good.

Proximity to BKK great, so go up there for entertainment.

Traffic, its the same wherever you go.

Beaches, agree need a good clean up, and can anyone tell me why there are no garbage cans on the beach ?

I could hazard a guess why.

Shangri - La doesn't exist, so make the best of what you can.

That and keep smiling

Ah! very surprised by your reaction.

It is only my opinion but you should not to please you in the different countries or cities where you have crossed.

HH, although small, is a pleasant bustling city. Just look and say that there are very sad locations worldwide to appreciate what we have.

As for the glass that one can takeand which is a difficulty for you, where is the problem?

Per cons, true, no garbage cans or archi-full. And relatively For Sale Apartment City.

Woman alone and assume.

Good W.E.

[sesdaman]

Hi guys, its interesting hearing all of your comments. I am in the process of moving out to Thailand, although will rent for a few months first, before buying, but with all the negativity, there must still be some great things that keep everyone there. I've been out many times for holidays, and I know living there is different, so..... could you give me some positives, and also what areas would you recommend to live in, bearing in mind we have a 10 year old son.

Cheers.

[hhfarang]

Hi guys, its interesting hearing all of your comments. I am in the process of moving out to Thailand, although will rent for a few months first, before buying, but with all the negativity, there must still be some great things that keep everyone there. I've been out many times for holidays, and I know living there is different, so..... could you give me some positives, and also what areas would you recommend to live in, bearing in mind we have a 10 year old son.

Cheers.

As I said before, some, if not most of the people I knew that moved back home did it because they had school aged kids or kids approaching school age and thought the schools here were not good or would not give their child the much needed advantage in life in this day and age. Make sure you are not doing your son a life long disservice by moving here.

We moved here when we still had a 15 year old and we made arrangements for her to stay with a guardian family until she finished high school in the west. There was no way we were sending her to a Thai school and I couldn't afford a western boarding school in Bangkok.

[sesdaman]

You know, there's a lot of negativity coming through! Surely its true that once a decision is made to escape home, wherever it is, and go to pastures new, wherever that may be, life generally starts out exciting, new, different etc, but after time, well, life returns to normality, and perhaps we start looking at the negatives, rather than the positives? I don't know, cos I haven't yet decided, am still considering the options. I do know that here in England its becoming harder to enjoy life, problems with schools, hospitals, work, prices, weather etc!! Or am I too just at an age where we look back rather than forward? For me, I think that the idea of a new beginning in a foreign place sounds like a real tonic, something to stimulate and excite. Sure there will be issues, things that I don't like or agree with, but life is for living to the full, and we're never to old to go on an adventure! Right or wrong, I don't know, but I would love to hear a bit more about whats good out there, what still makes you laugh out loud, and feel like life's still worth living, or do you feel so depressed and lonely that your only outlet is to moan on TV! Not a criticism if that's how you feel, but feel certain that there must be some real good reasons why we all decide on making the move in the first place! Have a feeling I'm gonna get slated now!! but hey, happy new year to everyone, keep up the comments

[iSabai]

You know, there's a lot of negativity coming through! Surely its true that once a decision is made to escape home, wherever it is, and go to pastures new, wherever that may be, life generally starts out exciting, new, different etc, but after time, well, life returns to normality, and perhaps we start looking at the negatives, rather than the positives? I don't know, cos I haven't yet decided, am still considering the options. I do know that here in England its becoming harder to enjoy life, problems with schools, hospitals, work, prices, weather etc!! Or am I too just at an age where we look back rather than forward? For me, I think that the idea of a new beginning in a foreign place sounds like a real tonic, something to stimulate and excite. Sure there will be issues, things that I don't like or agree with, but life is for living to the full, and we're never to old to go on an adventure! Right or wrong, I don't know, but I would love to hear a bit more about whats good out there, what still makes you laugh out loud, and feel like life's still worth living, or do you feel so depressed and lonely that your only outlet is to moan on TV! Not a criticism if that's how you feel, but feel certain that there must be some real good reasons why we all decide on making the move in the first place! Have a feeling I'm gonna get slated now!! but hey, happy new year to everyone, keep up the comments

I wouldn't make any life-altering decisions based on opinions of complete strangers on some internet forum sesdaman. (Especially this one!) But then maybe that's just me.

And I do mean that respectfully, not having a go at you or whatever decision you ultimately make. But only you know what your wants and needs are, and only you can decide what is suitable for you and your family.

The only way to be sure is experience it for yourself. Don't burn your bridges back home. Come for a year and make your decision after that. I would guess a year (minimum really) would give you a decent enough picture of the place. The country, people, language and culture, foods, weather, etc are polar opposites from most everything you know in farangland.

And by the way, I do not live in the HH area. But I am a complete stranger on some internet forum!

Edited January 3, 2014 by iSabai

[sesdaman]

Thanks iSabai, nice to hear your comments, and do agree with you. Certainly my plan is to do exactly that, have had plenty of holidays out there, but will do a long term out there first, before deciding. My other problem is where to go, as I do like Hua Hin, but also fancy the outskirts of Pattaya, and I do mean the outskirts!! wife's family live in Pattaya, and that's both good and bad! lol

[mikebike]

I just turned 40, and have lived here for 3 years. I realy dont know why I am still here to be honest, it is to me an incredibly boring place. When I say 'boring', by the way, I mean boring in a broad sense.... There isnt very much to do, the local ex-pats all seem a little bored and fed up and the nightlife is shocking.

In my opinion, HH breaks down as follows:

Infrastructure. Not too bad, realy. The roads are ok for the most part but it does suffer from patchy flooding in some areas when it rains. The traffic is quite bad though and a weekend drive through the town center can take 45 minutes, end to end

Shopping. Average. There is of course Market Village but I genuinley dont see the attraction with the place, unless you like Clarks shoes, Thai style clothing brands that have no hope of fitting the average Ferang, a multitude of boring-as-he11 coffee shops, dougnut shops and T-shirt stalls selling naff shirts with "we love Hua Hin". There are a few outdoor style malls around the outskirts such as Santorini with its big wheel and reverse bungee - surrounded by truly crap shops and the new Venetia, which laughably tries to replicate Venice Italy. The shops there are dead and have no hope of surviving as again, they largely sell souveniers targeting the Bangkok Thais, who are renound for spending no money down here. Both mals are basicly full of Rich weekend Thais walking around taking photos of everything and anything whilst spending no money at all.

Lots of supermarkets around town and of course Villa Supermarket.

The nightlife is painfull. I have mentioned this before in another HH thread. Its basicly two areas: Bintabhat and Soi 80. Bint is full of crappy beer bars with the exeption of a couple of bars that have made a real efort to impress - but failed misserably as the target market of older ferags are not interested in anything other than low priced beer and cheap brass, which only the crappy beer bars are able to deliver by cutting costs. Soi 80 is laughably poor, an entire street on the edge of town consisting of truly low class beer bars with no decor. There is (in my opinion) one good pub in the whole town: El Murphys. Its a real pub with draught beer and reasonable food. Usualy an ok crowd and the owner is a nice bloke.

Kao Takiab is a nice little 'village' type area 10 minutes from town. Some ok local type bars there but can be a bit clicky.

Ex-pats are mainly scandinavian who in my opinion like to keep amongst themselves.

Im bored out of my mind here. The only reason I havent moved is because I just cant think of amnywhere else to live. Phuket - too many issues these days, ruined. Pattaya - I dont trust myself to live there, as I work from home and would probably end up in the pub every night which isnt great for me. I love Chiang mai but its miles from anywhere and I lived in Samui 10 years ago, when it was nice. Now, its ruined.

Im 40, so no way in he11 am I going to move to Nakhon Knowehere with the Mrs and live in the middle of an isarn village. maybe when im older, not at 40.

Just my 2 cents. Im pretty certain I will get kicked around for this post so again please let me stress, just my opinion.

Khanom.

[iSabai]

Thanks iSabai, nice to hear your comments, and do agree with you. Certainly my plan is to do exactly that, have had plenty of holidays out there, but will do a long term out there first, before deciding. My other problem is where to go, as I do like Hua Hin, but also fancy the outskirts of Pattaya, and I do mean the outskirts!! wife's family live in Pattaya, and that's both good and bad! lol

I'm not living in HH as I mentioned. But I spent some (brief) time there (twice) in recent months. Couple of observations I had; Hua Hin has become crowded and quite congested since the last time I was there, which was admittedly a looooong time ago. But it did somewhat turn me off to the place. Lots of farangs, and a bit overly expensive compared to other places, even those nearby.

Another thing was that if you are undecided about where you want to settle, HH is probably not the best place to base yourself for getting around to explore other possibilities. There is an airport, but has limited flight options AFAIK. And yeah you can get to Bkk to the airports there, but it's a good 3 - 4 hours away no matter what your choice of transportation.

A better idea would be to base yourself somewhere that has easier ins and outs to get around the country to explore possible places to eventually settle. If you're willing to take a year to sort things out, you may as well use that time to get around and explore all the possibilities. And HH (IMO) is probably not the best place from which to do that. Unless of course it's the immediate HH area you are interested in.

Anyway, just my two cents. Good luck in your quest!

Edited January 3, 2014 by iSabai

[peterquixote]

Of everywhere in the south, including Krabi and North Phuket I like Cha-am the best.

Its easy to get around except on Thai public holiday.

I am building up a web site of places to see, and things to do from Cha-am south .

This will be mainly foe people with motorized transport

Only in early stages, but I should be able to get up photos and good directions to places.

https://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?msid=211016930155102944161.0004e460e92752e50580c&msa=0&ll=12.838331,100.001142&spn=0.011925,0.01972

[Aforek]

Of everywhere in the south, including Krabi and North Phuket I like Cha-am the best.

Its easy to get around except on Thai public holiday.

I am building up a web site of places to see, and things to do from Cha-am south .

This will be mainly foe people with motorized transport

Only in early stages, but I should be able to get up photos and good directions to places.

https://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?msid=211016930155102944161.0004e460e92752e50580c&msa=0&ll=12.838331,100.001142&spn=0.011925,0.01972

Before, Cha am, where I live, was quite and nice; it's with people like you, who say to every body "come and stay in Cha am " that it becomes now crowed with farangs: I have seen and heard already some Russians : you want that in five years mafia comes to Cha am, like in Pukhet ?

These last three years, I have seen many changes here ( bad changements ) and we can be anxious for the future of Cha am.

[Crazy chef 1]

Of everywhere in the south, including Krabi and North Phuket I like Cha-am the best.

Its easy to get around except on Thai public holiday.

I am building up a web site of places to see, and things to do from Cha-am south .

This will be mainly foe people with motorized transport

Only in early stages, but I should be able to get up photos and good directions to places.

https://maps.google.co.nz/maps/ms?msid=211016930155102944161.0004e460e92752e50580c&msa=0&ll=12.838331,100.001142&spn=0.011925,0.01972

Before, Cha am, where I live, was quite and nice; it's with people like you, who say to every body "come and stay in Cha am " that it becomes now crowed with farangs: I have seen and heard already some Russians : you want that in five years mafia comes to Cha am, like in Pukhet ?

These last three years, I have seen many changes here ( bad changements ) and we can be anxious for the future of Cha am.

OMG- russian..

you won't believe i've heard recently danish,swedish,german,italian,french and god beware english here too.

for god sake is not the origin which is the problem it's the behaviour!!!

[taninthai]

quick answer to the op

i don't know what all the fuss is about in hh all i know is i didn't like the look off it all so didn't even bother stopping the car and getting out just drove straight on through,it just looked like a bigger version of ao nang to me.

[maccaroni man]

Interesting post by the singles, I have to admit it is probably my children and wife that have helped me keep my sanity while living in the LOS. I doubt that I could enjoy Thailand on the long stay as a single man.

[lovinglife]

I have travelled all over Thailand and have found the area South of Hua Hin meets most of my requirements. Long quiet beaches, nice countryside, plentiful good quality cheap restaurants, and easy access to HH on weekdays, (weekends are a no-no because of traffic).

Is it boring? Sometimes yes but where isn't that doesn't cost the earth? I play golf twice a week, darts and pool once a week and regularly go to Bkk for a couple of days.

I go back to England every year for a 8-10 weeks in the Spring-Summer which I look forward to immensely, I then look forward to escaping Britain before the weather goes grey. In the future I will probably spend 5 months in the UK and 7 months in HH.