It was a very long day – an 8hr flight from Sydney to Bangkok followed by a 4hr coach trip south to Hua Hin. It’s always hard arriving after dark, not being quite sure what the place is like but we needn’t have worried. The Fulay Guesthouse may be a little basic, but this heritage property built on a pier over the sea with waves gently lapping underneath is certainly quaint.
Hua Hin was just a fishing village, but when the railway came, a hotel was built for passengers travelling from Bangkok to Malaysia, and the train made beach excursions possible. Rama VII built a summer palace and a golf course here and the rest is history. The Royal family still comes, and often there are two warships on the quay and a flag flying when the King is in residence. Despite several large hotels, there are lots of small guest houses too, including those built over the squid piers at the heart of the original fishing village. Sadly it seems, there is talk of the piers being demolished which would be a real shame.
Having passed the piers, the Chinese Pagoda sits at the north of the beach …
… which extends passed the huge Hilton at the busy end of the beach …
… down to the quieter end with the promontory known as Khao Takiab or Chopstick Hill in the distance.
The first day we saw sun loungers and umbrellas laid out by small beach shacks and had even chosen our preferred spot for the next day, only to find that they have an enforced day off on a Wednesday ostensibly to keep the beach clean, but maybe the council don’t want them to get too comfortable! Either way it was towel on the sand time, fortunately on very fine sand and there was shade at the back of the beach from the trees, but come Friday we secured a very comfy lounger each!
Behind the beach are shops selling tours, souvenirs, suits of clothes and massages as well as all the bars and restaurants you would expect … even Ronald!
We went to Petchabuti for a visit, some 60kms north and had been offered a private ac car for the day for THB1500 or £35, but chose a shared minivan from the clock tower in town instead.
I had assumed it would drop us centrally in Phetchaburi, but the end of the line was on the outskirts with the only options being a long walk or a motorcycle taxi … going pillion, one taxi each! Chris could see my apprehension and said yes and got me on the back before I had a chance to think about it too much … and all was fine … and here are the two chaps who took us.
We arrived at Khao Wang, a palace, built for Rama IV in the 1850s but no longer used and now a museum. The cable car took us to the top of the hill which was surrounded with flowering frangipani trees which scented the breeze with their fragrance. We were warned of dangerous monkeys, but only saw a couple from a distance.
We explored the three peaks of the hill with a pretty motley collection of buildings including wats, checks and prangs as well as the European style summer house built for the king with attached observatory so he could watch the stars.
We found a couple more motorcycle taxis to take us to the Rabieng Rimnum Guesthouse, an old wooden house beside Chumron Bridge, overlooking the river and had house specialities of banana blossom salad and sugar-palm fruit curry for lunch.
Phetchaburi is famous for khanom or sweets as palm sugar is produced locally. We managed to find a shop selling the maw kaeng, a sweet egg custard with mung beans and coconut which we took back and ate at teatime … very tasty!
We ended with a walk to the oldest wat in town, with a huge teak sala, lots of Buddhas, and a scripture library built on stilts over water to protect the papers from bugs.
Our trip back went smoothly, more motorbike taxis to the minivan then back to the clock tower. It was all a bit of an adventure and much more fun than being driven round in a car. Also it only cost us THB600!
One of the highlights of the day has been sundowners in the Fulay bar at the end of the pier. The sun sets behind the resort rather than into the sea, but we’ve still had a couple of very pretty skies.
There are lots of restaurants and bars in town, but we found the atmosphere was best in the night markets so have eaten here most evenings, and browsed through the souvenirs after dinner.
Having had a few days to chill and relax, tomorrow we move on … southwards!
Off Travelling Together 