I should start off with a disclaimer, because I was reluctant to even write a trip report for this (miniature as it is) because I didn’t go to game, just as a tourist with my girl. I spent almost entirely the whole time with her as it was her first non-Taiwan/China trip. As a result, I don’t have the normal intel I’d come back with after even a two day trip (and this was four days in this area). However, I’ll post it as it may provide some help for forum members intending to take a closer look at the area. Just keep in mind (it will be easy to, as its obvious), this is mostly about logistics and what to expect, and not a gaming guide or bang review.
Hua Hin is a beach city/large town located down the cost, two to three hours (traffic dependent) southwest from Bangkok. It’s primary claim to fame amongst Thai people is that it is the second residence (holiday) of the Royal Family. Its also become a tourist destination for those on holiday in Thailand, with the good, and all of the negative, that this implies.
Getting there from BKK is quite straight-forward but also involves a large change to get ripped off (like many things in Thailand). The best way seems to be (and thanks to Libertad, Afarang and Satoshi for pointing it out for me in advance) to head to Victory Monument on the BTS. When you get off the BTS, follow the signs and walk towards the monument. After a short walk, you’ll see the overstreet walkway divide and basically form a circle around the monument. Take the right side, and walk about one quarter of the way around the whole circle. Go down to ground level at 3 Oclock (assuming you were entering at 6 oclock) and you’ll see the bus signs saying Hua Hin, Cha-Am, etc. A minibus, fairly comfortable with A/C should cost 180bht/person (a little less than 6USD) for a one way trip. The buses appear to leave every thirty minutes. The price for Pran Buri is the same as for Hua Hin, though its twenty five minutes or so further. The same price is available going in the other direction from Hua Hin, and tickets can be purchased on the main rd again in Hua Hin, just south of the clock tower, but on the opposite side of the street from it. Ask where you can buy the bus tickets and people will let you know.
The buses make a few stops. not for long enough to make it an issue. The stop into Hua Hin appears to be the clock tower. In Pran Buri, the stop is at the Lotus Hotel and Tesco on the main highway heading south, which is not in the middle of town like the Hua Hin stop. However, the one in Pran Buri appeared to be next to a scooter rental place, which might solve the issue.
Taxi issues are rampant, as is overcharging, in both Hua Hin and Pran Buri. They’ll try to overcharge you, very often, by a factor of 10x (i.e. 500 when the price should be 50, or 2000 when the price should be 180). When we went originally to Pran Buri, there were no metered taxis waiting by the Tesco, so I arranged for my hotel to send their van (a high end Sheraton Villa Pran Buri, so it was possible). They told me if they booked a cab, the five minute ride would be 500 baht (should be no more than 50), more than we paid for the entire trip to Pran Buri. I eventually got the hotel to do it for 200 with their luxury van, and arranged a similar deal when we moved from Pran Buri to Hua Hin. More along these lines, if you try to book a taxi from Hua Hin to BKK, they’ll try to charge you 2500 baht. Avoid the hassle and set your shit up ahead of time, and take the shuttle.
Once you’re in HH, you’ll encounter some of the same baloney about pricing that you do in BKK, on a higher level. Bargain, as its part of the pricing even with food in some places (though use your common sense, chicken on a stick, if you eat that, is gonna be 20baht, you likely wont get cheaper as a foreigner). That being said, value is available and the seafood is fantastic quality, on the same level as Chinatown in BKK (where the seafood was also terrific and cheap). Expect 10 USD per person for a very nice dinner of BBQ manta shrimp or other seafood. If you eat the pre-made plates, cut this price about in half. Beer tends to be overpriced in the sitdown restaurants, not painfully so. There are two night markets in Hua Hin, one is by the railway station (incidentally, which takes significantly longer to BKK than the bus, but might be an interesting trip), and the other by Sao Paolo hospital. We stayed near the railway station, at the Royal Pavillion Hua Hin (which for 50 USD per night was exceptionally clean, included a mediocre breakfast for two, well located and quiet enough but not much else) and so we ate several times at the first one, which has straight cart food as well as restaurants with BBQ stands set outside. Both had very good quality, good pricing and I had no stomach issues with anything I ate the entire trip.
As mentioned HH has a lot of foreigners, both Chinese and American/European/Austrailian. Also seemed to have it share of long-term expats and sex tourists, older single guys with not-very-attractive looking Thai women, for the most part. There is a bar girl scene in HH, obviously not on the same level as BKK, and we didn’t see many if any girls working on the streets. They seem to stay in the bars. Like BKK, massage places also abound, both ligit and straddling the line (by the look of them). We got massages at a place near the beach called Thai Thai, 250 Bht. for an hour, a standard price). It had good recs on TripAdvisor, and was fine but not special.
Pran Buri, twenty five minutes further south, is another animal from Hua Hin. We stayed for two days at a resort there, and the resort gave us bicycles to ride around the town. There are far fewer foreigners in Pran Buri and its much smaller than Hua Hin. Its a beach town as well, but some of the beach is undergoing a sea wall construction project, which made it less desirable. A short ride away, though, the beach looked quite nice as the buildings and hotels are all on the non-beach side of the beach road, as are a bunch of little restaurants, outdoor massage places and the odd clothing shop. You’ll see foreigners from the various hotels, or perhaps expats, riding scooters and bicycles near the beach, but wont see many, or even that many thais. Population density appears to be a fraction of that of Hua Hin.
We went via bicycle one afternoon to the PB night market. I was the only white guy there for a few hours, until an older british expat showed up to buy his dinner. I chatted with him for a while, and he’d been in THailand 10 years, Asia for 30, and Pran Buri maybe for 7. He seemed to intimate enjoying the peace and quiet of the area. The prices of the seafood and fruit in Pran Buri were a good deal lower than BKK, which was already lower than what I am used to in China, much less the USA. I’d estimate you’d spend 5-6 USD to eat very very well for dinner in Pran Buri, at the night market, including mangosteen, durian (yeah I like it), rambutan, lychee, etc. as your desert. Pran Buri is definitely a better choice to unwind and turn off than Hua Hin, as HH is more like a mini-bangkok on the sea (nicer beach than PB to be sure) and Pran Buri is a thai town with some hotels and resorts at various levels. If I had to pick one of them to live in with my gal, it would be Pran Buri (since its so clean and quiet) though logistically its less desirable if you need to go to BKK often being further south. I imagine you could probably live for the same price, all you need to do is hire a thai housekeeper and let her do the shopping for you in either place, and you’ll achieve a reasonable approximation of what prices are for Thai people (or you can haggle every day, but I can afford a housekeeper who's also going to clean, so I’d go that route).
I don’t think PB would be a great place to game, too small and likely you’d stand out too much. The pool would be too shallow, though there were cute enough girls walking around (nothing compared to BKK, or even HH though). You could definitely pull from HH though living in PB, and probably with some advantage, as girls would not have to be seen with you in HH (maybe this would help, Thailand experts can weigh in). I didnt check out any located based social networking sites, though. I also didnt see anything in PB that resembled nightlife, though no doubt there is somewhere Thai men gather and drink. I did see girls dressed kind of slutty, with tattoos, and I imagine they’re girls who work in HH and live in Pran Buri possibly, or maybe home visiting family.
Hua Hin is a beach city/large town located down the cost, two to three hours (traffic dependent) southwest from Bangkok. It’s primary claim to fame amongst Thai people is that it is the second residence (holiday) of the Royal Family. Its also become a tourist destination for those on holiday in Thailand, with the good, and all of the negative, that this implies.
Getting there from BKK is quite straight-forward but also involves a large change to get ripped off (like many things in Thailand). The best way seems to be (and thanks to Libertad, Afarang and Satoshi for pointing it out for me in advance) to head to Victory Monument on the BTS. When you get off the BTS, follow the signs and walk towards the monument. After a short walk, you’ll see the overstreet walkway divide and basically form a circle around the monument. Take the right side, and walk about one quarter of the way around the whole circle. Go down to ground level at 3 Oclock (assuming you were entering at 6 oclock) and you’ll see the bus signs saying Hua Hin, Cha-Am, etc. A minibus, fairly comfortable with A/C should cost 180bht/person (a little less than 6USD) for a one way trip. The buses appear to leave every thirty minutes. The price for Pran Buri is the same as for Hua Hin, though its twenty five minutes or so further. The same price is available going in the other direction from Hua Hin, and tickets can be purchased on the main rd again in Hua Hin, just south of the clock tower, but on the opposite side of the street from it. Ask where you can buy the bus tickets and people will let you know.
The buses make a few stops. not for long enough to make it an issue. The stop into Hua Hin appears to be the clock tower. In Pran Buri, the stop is at the Lotus Hotel and Tesco on the main highway heading south, which is not in the middle of town like the Hua Hin stop. However, the one in Pran Buri appeared to be next to a scooter rental place, which might solve the issue.
Taxi issues are rampant, as is overcharging, in both Hua Hin and Pran Buri. They’ll try to overcharge you, very often, by a factor of 10x (i.e. 500 when the price should be 50, or 2000 when the price should be 180). When we went originally to Pran Buri, there were no metered taxis waiting by the Tesco, so I arranged for my hotel to send their van (a high end Sheraton Villa Pran Buri, so it was possible). They told me if they booked a cab, the five minute ride would be 500 baht (should be no more than 50), more than we paid for the entire trip to Pran Buri. I eventually got the hotel to do it for 200 with their luxury van, and arranged a similar deal when we moved from Pran Buri to Hua Hin. More along these lines, if you try to book a taxi from Hua Hin to BKK, they’ll try to charge you 2500 baht. Avoid the hassle and set your shit up ahead of time, and take the shuttle.
Once you’re in HH, you’ll encounter some of the same baloney about pricing that you do in BKK, on a higher level. Bargain, as its part of the pricing even with food in some places (though use your common sense, chicken on a stick, if you eat that, is gonna be 20baht, you likely wont get cheaper as a foreigner). That being said, value is available and the seafood is fantastic quality, on the same level as Chinatown in BKK (where the seafood was also terrific and cheap). Expect 10 USD per person for a very nice dinner of BBQ manta shrimp or other seafood. If you eat the pre-made plates, cut this price about in half. Beer tends to be overpriced in the sitdown restaurants, not painfully so. There are two night markets in Hua Hin, one is by the railway station (incidentally, which takes significantly longer to BKK than the bus, but might be an interesting trip), and the other by Sao Paolo hospital. We stayed near the railway station, at the Royal Pavillion Hua Hin (which for 50 USD per night was exceptionally clean, included a mediocre breakfast for two, well located and quiet enough but not much else) and so we ate several times at the first one, which has straight cart food as well as restaurants with BBQ stands set outside. Both had very good quality, good pricing and I had no stomach issues with anything I ate the entire trip.
As mentioned HH has a lot of foreigners, both Chinese and American/European/Austrailian. Also seemed to have it share of long-term expats and sex tourists, older single guys with not-very-attractive looking Thai women, for the most part. There is a bar girl scene in HH, obviously not on the same level as BKK, and we didn’t see many if any girls working on the streets. They seem to stay in the bars. Like BKK, massage places also abound, both ligit and straddling the line (by the look of them). We got massages at a place near the beach called Thai Thai, 250 Bht. for an hour, a standard price). It had good recs on TripAdvisor, and was fine but not special.
Pran Buri, twenty five minutes further south, is another animal from Hua Hin. We stayed for two days at a resort there, and the resort gave us bicycles to ride around the town. There are far fewer foreigners in Pran Buri and its much smaller than Hua Hin. Its a beach town as well, but some of the beach is undergoing a sea wall construction project, which made it less desirable. A short ride away, though, the beach looked quite nice as the buildings and hotels are all on the non-beach side of the beach road, as are a bunch of little restaurants, outdoor massage places and the odd clothing shop. You’ll see foreigners from the various hotels, or perhaps expats, riding scooters and bicycles near the beach, but wont see many, or even that many thais. Population density appears to be a fraction of that of Hua Hin.
We went via bicycle one afternoon to the PB night market. I was the only white guy there for a few hours, until an older british expat showed up to buy his dinner. I chatted with him for a while, and he’d been in THailand 10 years, Asia for 30, and Pran Buri maybe for 7. He seemed to intimate enjoying the peace and quiet of the area. The prices of the seafood and fruit in Pran Buri were a good deal lower than BKK, which was already lower than what I am used to in China, much less the USA. I’d estimate you’d spend 5-6 USD to eat very very well for dinner in Pran Buri, at the night market, including mangosteen, durian (yeah I like it), rambutan, lychee, etc. as your desert. Pran Buri is definitely a better choice to unwind and turn off than Hua Hin, as HH is more like a mini-bangkok on the sea (nicer beach than PB to be sure) and Pran Buri is a thai town with some hotels and resorts at various levels. If I had to pick one of them to live in with my gal, it would be Pran Buri (since its so clean and quiet) though logistically its less desirable if you need to go to BKK often being further south. I imagine you could probably live for the same price, all you need to do is hire a thai housekeeper and let her do the shopping for you in either place, and you’ll achieve a reasonable approximation of what prices are for Thai people (or you can haggle every day, but I can afford a housekeeper who's also going to clean, so I’d go that route).
I don’t think PB would be a great place to game, too small and likely you’d stand out too much. The pool would be too shallow, though there were cute enough girls walking around (nothing compared to BKK, or even HH though). You could definitely pull from HH though living in PB, and probably with some advantage, as girls would not have to be seen with you in HH (maybe this would help, Thailand experts can weigh in). I didnt check out any located based social networking sites, though. I also didnt see anything in PB that resembled nightlife, though no doubt there is somewhere Thai men gather and drink. I did see girls dressed kind of slutty, with tattoos, and I imagine they’re girls who work in HH and live in Pran Buri possibly, or maybe home visiting family.
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Strip away judeo-christian ethics ingraining sex is dirty/bad & the idea we're taking advantage of these girls disintegrates. Once you've lost that ethical quandary (which it isn't outside religion) then they've no reason to play the victim, you've no reason to feel the rogue. The interaction is to their benefit.
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