Hua Hin with extended family: the Brighton of Thailand?

Thailand has such abundant supplies of perfect beaches, with such a range of high quality and budget accommodation choices adjoining them, that the expectations of visitors tend to be pretty high. We had already enjoyed this level of luxury in Phuket and Kok Samui, so this time were looking for something a little different. Coupled with the fact that we were a party of 11, with an age range in the 8-80 region, but only a few days to spare, we had a slightly unconventional set of requirements. And as a result, we settled on Hua Hin.

Where? Few westerners seemed to have heard of it. Indeed, it’s less picture perfect than the beachy islands and sun-drenched jungle scenery of the more famous resorts. Not many blogs covered it, but those that did were enthusiastic (Would recommend https://livingnomads.com/2017/12/hua-hin-travel-blog/ here). Hua Hin achieved local recognition as a Royal retreat, splendidly documented in Alec Waugh’s “Bangkok”. Not unlike Brighton is to Londoners, Hua Hin is a seaside resort, a fairly easy journey from the capital. It was (and remains)  much loved by the Thai Royal Family, despite being slightly challenged by experiences of Malaria and military coups during their historic stays there.  

Like Bangkok, development hasn’t been kind to Hua Hin. The long beach that attracted the 19th century Kings is now hidden from the main road by a long sprawl of cheap hostels and smarter resorts; supermarkets, street markets, and shopping outlets; the odd school and temple lining the busy dual carriageway. The beach itself suffers from an influx of Jellyfish during the summer rainy season (when we happened to be there). But for all that, it does have a huge amount of character as a chaotic living city. While it lacks the classic stunning perfection of, say, Koh Samui, there is much fun to be had wandering through the markets and food stalls of the town, and living in it rather than viewing as a passive observer. 

Nowhere is this feeling stronger than the weekend Cicada night market. This had the usual selection of touristy knick-knacks, but interspersed with lots of live music, a play taking place in a small amphitheater, entertainment in the form of dogs leaping through hoops of fire. There was interesting shopping too, one stall was selling wooden home-made rubber band powered weaponry carved in the style of machine guns; the multiple elastic bands enabling it to be used like one to! The food market alongside sold a vast range of street food and drink - kebabs, curries, fruit juices, fried insects - no need for a McDonalds run here. A little further along the road is the smaller but no less variable “Grand Market”, running daily through the week and selling the most mind blowing delicious fresh fruit smoothies for pennies. 

Half an hour out of town towards the hills we found the Black Mountain Water Park. Such attractions are always a winner on hot family holidays, even better when low season meant that our family group made up most of the customers that day. Whilst the emptiness was a little eerie, no-one complained about the lack of queues for the 9water slides of varying degrees of size, steepness and downright madness. A separate lake alongside the pools contained a “Wipeout” style obstacle course complete with slippery floating bridges, inflatable climbing walls a trampoline enabling the larger of us to propel the smaller of us into the air by bouncing onto the opposite end of a semi inflated tube. I’m not sure how the facilities would cope in a busier season, but it was great for us in August!

Our final mini family adventure from Hua Hin was an ATV tour starting from a centre surprisingly close to the centre of town. After an initial half hour training and familiarisation session, we were guided into the hills by 2 of their instructors for a ramble through the countryside, and up a mountain to gaze down at the town and the sea. The more memorable part than the view was getting pestered by monkeys keen to extort a bag of nuts bought for the purpose. The instructors were great with the kids, the older ones were able to take turns to drive themselves, while even the little ones got to sort of drive with the instructors still firmly controlling the vehicles. The session finished off with a bonus air rifle shooting session, again with even the younger children having a go. However, they did reluctantly have to stand behind the line when those above 14 began the knife and axe throwing. And then back to our hotel where the more mature members of the group had endured a rather strenuous traditional Thai massage on the beach.

No story of Thailand is complete without mention of food, and the beachfront cafes and restaurants of Hua Hin cannot be missed. Simple decor and basic construction belied the delicious food produced from within. All the curries we tried had coconut milk to both take the edge off the spices and add a real sweetness that most of the kids could enjoy. The range of basic grilled food meant that no-one went hungry, and the prices were fantastic for such a large group. There was atmosphere too; romantic crashing of the waves in the background was drowned out by interesting Karaoke renditions of Western songs (I think).

Bangkok: Asian Las Vegas

There are few things more irritating than smug parents whose children always eat whatever they are given. Most children, ours included, are fussier. Travelling with them therefore needs a certain acceptance of the quest quest for familiar food, ie global McDonalds solution….. Until you get to Bangkok. For Bangkok is street food heaven. Lining main roads and back streets, on junctions and in the vast night markets, the range of child-friendly (and not so friendly) food is beyond vast. Satay chicken kebabs will do for the majority; some of the spicier chicken and pork offerings were more for the older children; wok-fried insects were a shared challenge that I really ought to repeat for the good of the planet, but won’t be any time soon. The ubiquitous Pad Thai seemed to vary hugely stall by stall. The sharpness of most of the curries was mitigated by the smoothness of rich coconut milk. Fresh tropical fruit were skewered, juiced, chopped into any sorts of shapes, mixed with chocolate, layered on waffles. Jet lag had the children awake half the night, which was great as we just ate into the small hours.

The initial exclamation of our 14 year old as we ventured out for this first evening in Bangkok was an excited shock that it was an Asian Las Vegas - he’d rather enjoyed the US version last year. Indeed it was, the advertising screens covering the entire side of shopping centres, the 24 hour artificial light, the heat, the traffic, the crowds on the pavement, the luxury shops alongside the standard 7/11. But this is Asia, there are also temples galore, street food (did I mention that?), markets, and canals. 

We’ve found that a handy way to orientate ourselves around a new city is to pick a fairly spurious destination a couple of miles away, and wander in a general direction towards it, purely to have a destination in mind. Ambling through the streets is a good way to throw off the tiring feeling of travelling, and we see lots of stuff we’d probably otherwise miss in a frantic effort to tick off the sights in the guide book. The rather random arrangement of Bangkok is great for this, with its juxtaposition of temples, shopping centres, ancient shacks and modern office blocks. Our destination was Lumphini Park, which we reached after a few hours, and had a pleasant relaxing afternoon renting swan-shaped pedalboats (an ageless activity), tormenting giant dragon-like geckos, and of course dining from the range of street-side stalls.

Friends who had visited Bangkok over Easter recommended a bicycle tour. Even as someone who cycles in London every day, the traffic in Bangkok was somewhat off-putting. However these fears were irrelevant, the tour took us through impossibly narrow alleyways, suddenly opening into huge peaceful squares devoid of traffic, mostly in front of Buddhist monasteries and temples. The guides were entertaining and informative, a particularly interesting point for the 4 boys under 16 with us was the news that all Thai boys spend 3 months in a monastery without access to the outside world... no internet needed for meditation. Maybe this is why Thailand hasn’t been to war for so long.  The tour covered both sides of the river separating the two sides of the city, and finished with a boat ride along the river and back to the base.

Mrs _h likes shops. That’s the main reason that most of our travels feature a city in them somewhere (aside from the fact that that’s where the airport normally is). I wasn’t really expecting much of Bangkok’s shops, particularly following on from Hong Kong which is a more obvious shoppers’ choice. But the shopping in Bangkok is just as good, probably more so with kids for the added entertainment thrown in. The range of stores right from the super high end international designer stores, through standard local and international chains and supermarkets, via individual stores in various states of repair and disrepair, through to elderly farmers towing trailers of produce behind bicycles, the shopping is an adventure in itself. Our favourite shopping centre was the Siam Paragon, mainly due to the ten pin bowling alley on the top floor that amused the non-shopping majority on this trip.

No trip to Bangkok is complete without at least one journey by Tuk-Tuk, and even though various guide books had warned us against some of their slightly underhand ways of earning commission from tourist traps. We were completely taken in by the Tuk-Tuk salesman dressed as a security guard, complete with epaulettes and clipboard, even though he used the established pitch that the Royal Palace was closed that day. The 11 of us piled into 2 tiny vehicles to a long-tailed boat stop about a mile from where we hoped to end up. A bit of dispute and a stroll later (you can’t go far wrong with a large river on one side) we found ourselves at the river bus stop that we had been aiming for, and resumed course. We never did see the floating market, but I’m told I didn’t miss much. Apparently there isn’t even a McDonalds.