Last Week’s Travel Story
If you missed last week’s travel story, I wrote about how wide the gap was between my expectations of Bangkok and my real experience there. You can read that story here.
Although I’ve been back from my first ever Thailand trip since early August, I’m still struggling to write about my experiences and stories. Just like any trip, I documented almost everything with photos. But I just can’t get myself to share the experiences because most of them were negative.
I even plan to gradually delete the pictures from that trip (I take multiple shots of the same thing) to make space in my phone’s drive because I no longer use Apple cloud space or whatever that’s called.
That’s why, I decided to write three more blog posts from my 25-day Thailand trip and then let that experience go. In my last story, I will share why my trip was disappointing and what I didn’t like the most.
Hua Hin Thailand
When I booked an upscale beachside resort in this town located about a three-hour drive from Bangkok, I expected a coastal town like Bali’s quaint towns. I actually just laughed out loud (twice) at this thought!
I even joined a Facebook group for Hua Hin expats and got to know that I won’t be able to go for a swim in the ocean because of the jellyfish that are around in the rainy season.
I really thought that I was prepared for this coastal town which attracts Bangkok city people on weekends and where Thai royalty have homes. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, it turned out that Hua Hin is very boring and there isn’t much to do.
Not only that. The town is more like a city and it’s so spread out that you need a car to explore it!
I basically wanted to take things easy in that week and I made it a point to do less. So I took daily long sunset walks at the beach, had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel’s buffet which is spread over many rooms and sections! The quality and taste wasn’t that great though. My best breakfast was at my first hotel in Bangkok – I will share about this in my last post.
If you’re a coffee lover, then you will be disappointed because there aren’t many specialty or even decent coffee shops in the city. I managed to find two decent ones and it took a good amount of research.
There are two famous outdoor food markets in the town. But they were afternoon/evening ones. I didn’t really bother to visit because I do intermittent fasting and I don’t eat at night.
I did watch a couple of YouTube videos and read many articles on what to do in Hua Hin and there really wasn’t much to do!
I honestly don’t understand how some people chose to move there and are living there. One week for me in that town was way too long! And I stayed in the main downtown area that expats recommend!
There’s a lot of foreign senior, retired people who live there.
The highlight of my week in Hua Hin was discovering a great foot reflexology place owned by a Christian Thai couple. Christians are a minority in Thailand and the woman (co-owner) was so friendly and gave me her blessings on my last visit.
The lady who did my foot reflexology (and back massage) was also really genuine and kind. And that’s something that I didn’t experience from Thai people in general (more about this in my last story).
Another positive thing was that I ate good local Thai street food at the main mall’s food court. I went to the same place for lunch every day and I rotated between two different shrimp dishes. The seafood was fresh since Hua Hin is a coastal town. So that was one good thing about my stay.
I took pictures of everything that I ate and the good coffee that I had, but I chose a few photos to share today. I think that I just want to share the highlights from that weird Thailand trip and let the rest go.
Here are some pictures from my daily beach walks, town walks to the reflexology place and mall, and some mediocre mango sticky rice from breakfast (the mango sticky rice story is actually the reason that I don’t ever want to visit Bangkok again and I’ll share it in my last Thailand blog post).
Love,
Leela
