blueballs Posted December 18, 2002 Report Share Posted December 18, 2002 Cha-Am , Hua Hin Observations I recently visited Cha-am and Hua Hin with my tilac , here is a report of sorts. We negotiated a ride with the mafia taxi from in front of the Grand President (soi 11) Bkk to the Methavalai Hotel (www.chaam-methavalai.com) on the Beach Road in Cha-am for 1600baht.You can take a train or a bus for much cheaper. Cha-Am is a beach community 2½ hrs south of Bkk and 20 min north of Hua-Hin. It is a quiet town where the beach is the focal point. Hotels range from 200 to 6000bt/night (the more expensive ones located a few km down the beach) We stayed at the Methavalai Hotel,1400/night ,2 excellent breakfast buffets included. The hotel has a great pool/garden area, coffee shop, bar and huge rooms, all with balcony and seaview. It is well maintained but somewhat dated. The first 2 days at the pool had quite a few German families there. Swimming with my gal. I got the impression that the farang wives disapproved of my 27yr young girlfriend (I?m 41)but the husbands seemed envious. On the weekend the pool was full of Thai families and I got the impression the wives thought my girl was quite fortunate to have an older farang whereas the Thai men seemed to be wondering why I didn?t have a much younger one?..only in Asia. I have been visiting all over Thailand for 10yrs, but this is the first place that I?ve been to that requires renting a scooter .I have never driven in Thailand and was somewhat apprehensive(I drive on the opposite side of the road at home) but the traffic in Cha-am is almost non-existent. The cost everywhere seems to be 200bt/24hrs, our hotel had 6 new bikes to choose from, helmets included (we didn?t use them).It turns out that exploring and crusing Cha-Am and surrounding area on the rental bike was the most enjoyable part of the trip. Overall Cha-Am is friendly and safe, we always left items in our bike?s basket unattended for hours without problem. The Beach is great in some areas, not so in others , lots of roped off sections for swimming and virtually no boats or jetskies. Everything in Cha-Am seems to close down around 10pm, a little later on weekends. Monday to Friday is very slow, things picking up on weekends. I found one internet café inside a mini-mart on beach road, 1 bt/min ,slow connection. The other 2 internet café?s were always shuttered up when we passed by. Traditional massage is 200bt for 2 hrs, oil is available by some cute girls. IMHO the hi-lite of Cha-Am is the fishing village about 1 km north on beach road. It is a large fishing port with 2 very long rock piers with boats coming and going as well has 100?s moored in between the two(piers). We spent 2 days just wandering the area watching the boats unload their catches. We saw crab boats squid boats, anchovie boats etc.etc. .Everyone was very friendly (fisherman and dock staff) and tried to answer my 100? s of stupid questions. Many outdoor restaurants are located at the fishing village, they are the CHEAPEST for seafood that I have encountered in all of Asia. All the restaurants close by 9:30 pm. Our favorite was Lucky Seafood. One interesting note are all the chicken shacks( Kareoke/Brothels) where the fisherman get serviced for 100 to 300bt. These are basically sheds with Kareoke TVs in them where young girls( some pretty) will sing with you or take you behind a curtain for tutoring. I visited the Girly Bar Area ( a few beerbars and Chicken a gogo) twice, both times were dead, and the pickins were slim?very slim! On the main road off the hiway into Cha-Am, are a bunch of restaurants built out of bamboo on stilts over the marsh . These all seem to serve bbq chicken and pork as well as other Thai dishes. A whole chicken, 2 somtam ,2 sticky rice, 1ltr btl of coke?.175baht! Cha-Am is a BYOG destination, very friendly safe and cheap, but no real nightlife to speak of. A bike is a must and exploring the area was quite rewarding. All in all a very pleasant 3days/nights. We then took a hotel taxi (200bt) to HuaHin and checked into Puangpen Villa Hotel (960bt/night) a very nice boutique type hotel about 20 mtrs from the Sofitel. HuaHin unlike Cha-Am is filled with Farangs( at least in the beach area) shopping and restaurants. The beach at HuaHin is beautiful and clean, but very small when the tide is in. There is the wonderful old train station (still in use) and the night market 2 blocks away which are worth seeing. A scooter was not needed here, as we were able to walk everywhere. The girlie bar area was bigger and better stocked than its poorer Cha-Am sister. I did see some nice talent. We did do the Elephant Trekking (700bt/person) 1 hr, as my girl had never been on one. I do not recommend it, as I have done them in Northern Thailand where they are absolutely brilliant. Two days/nights in HuaHin seemed about right for me. Taxi?s back to Bkk was 1700bt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 18, 2002 Report Share Posted December 18, 2002 sounds like you had a great trip to Cha am and hua hin... i been in hua hin the 4 las trips i made and i like it there, nice bar area and gold courses there and decent price on many things. even thou its high season its not so crowded as for lets say Phuket. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli13 Posted December 18, 2002 Report Share Posted December 18, 2002 the best thing I remember about huahin was the (sea)food. I did have some nice BG encounters as well as enjoyed the scooter ride to the monkey bay & some countryside temples thanks for your report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Central Scrutinizer Posted December 18, 2002 Report Share Posted December 18, 2002 blueballs, Thanks. Good trip report, with some great info for those who may like to do the same. Thanks. I may follow in your footsteps to Cha-Am this April/May/or June and go down there myself with the wife and daughter for a week or two. Visit friend in Hua Hin too. Thanks for a great report. Seems to be quite a few excellent trip reports being posted the last week or two. Cent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thalenoi Posted December 22, 2002 Report Share Posted December 22, 2002 Good report on Cha-Am, used to stay at the Methavalai, was a nice hotel except foer their restaurant. I did not know about the fishing village. I live on a beach 300km South of Cha-Am, and there is so little here I sometimes consider moving to Cha-Am, as long as it does not become a farang getto (that's why I dislike Hua Hin). It gets crowded during week-ends because it is an easy ride from Bangkok. I will probaly spend a few days soon there to have an other look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueballs Posted December 23, 2002 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2002 You'll definitely want to check out the fishing village and Lucky Seafood restaurant. Thanks and enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 28, 2002 Report Share Posted December 28, 2002 Haven't been to Cha-Am, but visited Hua Hin earlier this year. My travel agent arranged a car & driver from Don Muang to the Hilton for 1800 baht (much cheaper than what the hotel would charge). The nightlife is mostly on a couple small sois across from the Hilton. I noticed a few good looking ladies there, but not many. On my last night there was a live band playing in Hilton's brew pub with a large crowd on hand, including several attractive ladies. My favorite thing about Hua Hin is the availability of great golf courses at very reasonable prices. And there are several decent places to get good seafood. BYOG would be a good suggestion for Hua Hin, though probably not as necessary as Cha-Am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.