HUA HIN - THAILAND

After Bangkok I headed a few hours down the coast to Hua Hin. Within a couple of days it became one of my favorite places in Thailand. On one hand it was a lively place to be at night but with one exception (see below) it didn't have the full on constant hassle you get in the likes of Phuket and Ko Samui. The accommodation was fairly social and on the second night a few of us went out to see some thai boxing.







I was not sure what to expect as I was told that some of these are not real fights but just set ups for tourists. However after seeing the knees and elbows go in and some blood it looked real enough for me. There were also more locals than tourists.......

Monday the 19th was my 29th birthday, I remember the day well because there were flash floods and most of the town was knee deep (or worse in water). At night I went to a club below the Hilton hotel, it was good but with European sized bar tabs. There was also an area with several karaoke bars that opened all night. Several times I was leaving after 7am the next day !!!!!!!
As a result I spent a lot of the daylight hours asleep.........



The following evening was Englands match against Sweden. Beforehand there were dozens of Swedes walking round the streets waving flags and chanting "England's going down". Very glad to get a draw that night.........



It seemed that I was never going to get away from Hua Hin because of all the people I met. I went out for the next England game at the Lord Nelson. I somehow got into a bit of a debate with some bloke about David Beckham. Within 1 minute of me describing him as "the most overrated sportsman that has ever lived" he scored the winning goal so I was forced to eat humble pie for the rest of the game.

A couple of days later I headed down to the islands (see next chapter) but because of events described elsewhere I ended up coming back about 10 days later before going back to Bangkok and flying home.



My final week in Hua Hin was more of the same, world cup fixtures, Singa beer and all night Karaoke bars. I did however manage a visit to a temple one night.

The world cup had been a massive distraction from properly seeing Thailand. Looking back I'm glad I got another chance with the country in 2008 and 2009 on my big world trip.

The world cup final was a memorable night, I picked the right bar to be in as it was full of Italians. Just before the last penalty was about to be taken I had a feeling that it would be the winning goal. So I started filming from the back of the bar........



What a great night that turned out to be..............

What a great night that turned out to be..............



CAN I INTEREST YOU IN A SUIT SIR.......................
One thing I found that was highly annoying and also baffling in Hua Hin was the Indian & Nepalese tailors. These are usually young men who stand outside their shops who will try and invent any reason they can think of to get you in there.

It does not matter if you you look like the last person on earth who would buy a suit. A dreadlocked hippy with bare feet, a group of men walking from one bar to the next on a Saturday night or walking to your accommodation carrying a backpack. If you have said no to them every day for the last 6 months it does not make a difference. These people think nothing of walking straight into your path and invading your personal space often trying to force their business cards into your hand. When all this fails you will often hear them cursing at you in their native language. These people obviously have a completely different work ethic to the western world. I remember seeing one of them standing in his doorway until 11pm when it was raining hard and the streets were completely empty.

Now these idiots are in most tourist towns across Thailand and other parts of Asia. The reason I mention it here is because of the unbelievable number of them in Hua Hin. Even a small street that you can walk down in a couple of minutes will have 5 or more of these shops. Estimates of how many they are in the town start at a minimum of 60. This is in an area that I can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes.

This has to be the most baffling thing I have ever seen on my travels. Supply must outweigh demand by at least 30 to 1, one bar owner told me that the shop opposite had not sold a suit for at least 4 months.

How do they stay in business ???????????????????