A few sites around Hua Hin

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I have been wanting to visit Hua Hin for awhile now but for some reason something has always come up to stop me. All the Thai people I have spoken to have told me how beautiful it is, lovely beaches, a great night market and most importantly....a very romantic place to be. Many Farangs have told me that the beaches are OK but the town is a bit boring.....so in late March 2010 I finally went to see for myself. I planned to stay 4 or 5 days then head to Bangkok to look for a new camera.

I was not disappointed, Hua Hin does have a beautiful coast line with very clean white beaches, the town area down by the sea side gave me a very nice feeling just walking around exploring its narrow streets lined with old wooden buildings, heaps of restaurants scatter the beach front all have the option for balcony dinning with great ocean views, the seafood is fresh and delicious. The night market is a must visit with everything a tourist could possible want to buy and a very nice atmosphere. I bought a few Hua Hin ‘T’ shirts and fridge magnets for friends back in Australia (big spender).

I spent the first part of the day casually driving to Hua Hin from Pattaya, took about 4 hours with stops along the way. I put the Hua Hin train station into GPS and it took me straight there, with only one mistake (my fault) that took me 10km’s in the wrong direction before I could find a U turn again the road condition was excellent.

Once I arrived I then looked around for a hotel while exploring the town, I found a lot of very reasonably priced places to stay but nowhere to park a car due to the narrow streets, I eventually settled on the City Beach Resort, situated between the night markets and the Hilton Hotel.

The next day I decided to drive out to see Pa La-U waterfalls, the lady at the hotel reception was very helpful, she informed me that the best time to visit the falls is between July-November, she pointing me in the right direction, told me to take some water and my swimmers, she even gave me a hotel towel to use, as I was about to head off she then told me (with a big smile on her face) to be careful of tigers!!!

The falls are located 60km west of Hua Hin in the Kaeng Krachan National Park, this is one of Thailand’s biggest National Parks and with 15 tiers, it makes it one of Thailand’s highest as well. This national park forms part of the Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) boarder.

I Put Pa La-U falls into the GPS and to my surprise it was in there, under attractions, but they are very well sign posted along the way in both English and Thai, as is another attraction on the same road, Wat Huay Mongkol, seeing as I was going to pass it I decided to drop in and take a look.

Wat Huay Mongkol is located about 18km out of Hua Hin and has a very large and very impressive statue of Buddist monk Luang Phor Thuad, who is believed to have performed many miracles in his time. Wat Huay Mongkol also has an elephant sanctuary (which I did not visit) and large park area. I didn’t spend much time here, just under an hour.


The entrance to Wat Huay Mongkol.



There are 4 of these smaller images of Luang Phor Thuad, and they are covered in gold leaf.

The detail of the statue is very impressive.

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The drive to Pa La-U waterfalls passes many Pineapple plantation’s, they are everywhere........then heading into the hills where the forest scenery is stunning, there were quite a few farming trucks and tractors on the road, making the going slow so I had a chance enjoy the view.

There is a small town about 5 km’s from the falls, this is the last place to pick up some food and water, as nothing is available once in the falls. This is where I noticed this sign.

So...what should you do if you came face to face with a wild elephant.....don’t feed him?

The entrance fee is 200 baht for a Farang...i showed my car papers (as I only have an international driver licence) and was charged the Thai price of 80 baht with no charge for the car.




This is the start of the trail, a very shaded picnic area with toilets.

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Took my first dip here at level 3.
Even though there was little water flowing it was still very cool and refreshing.

The first 3 levels are not much of an effort to cover.....however!!!!


mmmmm, is there something i should know?

[Khun Don]

I watched a repeat of Chef Rick Stein's "Far Eastern Odyssey" in which he visited Hua Hin on Sunday night. He lamented the disappearance of the food stalls at the night market since his last visit many years ago and interim development of the town in general, but said the food and food hygiene had improved, and still seemed to like the area generally.
It is somewhere I would like to go as well.

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The going got a lot tougher from level 3 to 4 but was worth the effort as level 4 was the most impressive pool so far.


Another swim cooled things off.


This path to level 4 got the old heart rate up.....also...there was a lot of rustling in the under bushes and quite a lot of animal noises......Gibbon maybe?


Level 5 and another swim....
There was a lot of climbing over rocks to get to level 5, but 5 was even better than level 4.....will this be the trend.....right up to level 15????

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I didn’t go any further than level 5, it was enough and it just kept getting harder the higher you went.


I stayed at level 5 swimming around with these carp fish nibbling on my feet for a good half an hour.

I started chatting to one of Thai’s also swimming in the pool, he spoke very good English and told me that if I was heading back to Hua Hin I should stop by Dao Cave, he gave me very good directions, but I did get lost as it was not in the GPS but I eventually found it.


The way back to level 4.....

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On the climb back down I was impressed by all the tree roots growing around the rocks....



and this beautiful old tree.


Simply stunning.

Just the other side of this old tree was a Thai family of about 10 people having a picnic....as I walked past, I'm sure looking rather heated, they asked me if I wanted to join them, I politely said ‘no thank you I am full’ in my best Thai, this was received very well with cheers and laughter from the group....the same thing happened when I walked pass the picnic area at the start of the trail on my way out, very funny...very nice.

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On the drive back to Hua Hin, it took awhile but I eventually found Dao Cave, by asking everyone I came across and a bit of luck, it is not far from Hua Hin, maybe 15 Km’s, I could find it again but couldn’t tell you how to get there.....It is now marked it in the GPS.




some of the 118 step up to the entrance of the cave.


The entrance.



At the bottom of the stairs a monk will turn on the cave lights for you. By this time it was around 3pm and quite hot, especially after climbing 118 steps, the cave was welcome relief . I was the only person in the cave to explore....as it seems, as long as I wanted. The lighting is not the best but only adds to the atmosphere. Unfortunately my camera flash wasn’t working and I didn’t have a tri-pod, so the only pictures worth sharing are the ones I posted, there are much better ones deeper in the cave.

It is amazing deeper in the cave with huge stalactites and stalagmites, thousands of years old all over the place, the cave winds into the side of the rock going lower and smaller, there is a little rickety ladder you climb down through a very small entrance that opens up into smaller inner cave.....fantastic. I will be going back there hopefully in May to take some pictures with a good camera and tri-pod.

There was a squeaking sound similar to that of a bat, it just kept squeaking...eek, eek, eek.....i didn’t see any bat droppings on the floor so I'm not sure what it was, and there wasn’t that musky bat smell.....eek, eek, eek......i shouted out Hello! And it stopped...only to start again about 15 seconds later eek, eek, eek.....Mia loo.....

Once out and back down on the ground there is a donation box......

Also, out on the ground a bit of construction is going on.....

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the construction is this.....

can anyone translate this into English?





this should look pretty impressive once finished.

after this i put in Hua Hin train station into the GPS to get me back to the hotel.....end of day two....

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The third day was going to be a 'take it easy beach day'. I got up early and packed a hat, sunscreen, a book and my dodgy camera in a small backpack. I was going to pick a beach and just walk all day, stopping at places to eat and read my book. The day looked OK at 8am from out the window of the hotel but when I came back from breakfast the weather had turned nasty, it was blowing a gale and raining.

I went to the look out on South Takiap Beach but the weather was too bad for a beach day.

looking north at South Takiap Beach from the lookout.


looking north at the lookout on Suan Son Beach.


looking south on Suan Son Beach.


everyone was indoors.....

I didn’t want to spend the day indoors or by the hotel pool on such a drab day so I decided to check out and head to Bangkok and look for a camera...red shirts permitting of course.

cheers, .