Shopping in Hua Hin - Market Style !

What s travelling without shopping. Shopping is probably the most loved activities by all traveller. The only difference is that you banyak duit lagi best lah kan . But most of the time a traveller would already put some money aside for this purpose , even if shopping is not your fav thing to do , you would still be curious to browse and window shop at the local shopping area.

Shopping gives you an indication of the type of culture a place embraces , the type of economy they depend on , in the case of Thailand - imitation products are abundant , crafts , painting, textile , food, sex trade to name a few.

Since this is a young parent travelling with a toddler blog , i will not go into the last item mentioned above. However from my observation , Hua Hin unlike Phuket and Samui is a lot more popular with the local and very family oriented . The night activities are meant for families and focuses more on arts and music. Cicada Market and Chatsila Market is a great example of a market unlike those in Patong beach (Phuket) or Chaweng beach ( Samui), where musicians and artists are given a space to perform and have an artsy feel.

Personally for the three of us we would rate Cicada Market as the #1 night market in Hua Hin.

Sound check going on at one of the stage in Cicada Market, Hua Hin.

Another stage , where a Jazz concert will take place.

Dining elfresco style with Jazz music on the back ground really makes you want to dance away in this market.

Hua Hin is also famous for it s vine yard , thus dining such as this gives them the opportunity to promote their local wine. The food are sold over a stall like set up and sells a mixture of international and local cuisine such as pad thai, bbq seafood , mango sticky rice and loads more. Generally , halal food is not such an easy find in Hua Hin , that is why i brought my rice cooker and canned curry chicken along .They proved to be useful. Will write in a different entry about eating in Hua Hin.

Cicada market offers you items that are unique and rare , most unlikely you will find the stuffs else where.

What we bought here - Sol bought a t-shirt, leather card holders, embroidery t-shirt for Amyra ( Kaseh s cousin) and my mini ipad and iphone casings.

Opens fri - sun , 4pm to 11pm.
Tuk tuk about 120 baht from #theseacrethuahin

#2 - Chat Chai Market

Situated in the middle of town, a wet market by day and night market by night. The day market is also known as Chat Chai , we came here on our 2nd day and glad that we did Cause we went crazy with the fresh produce . As mentioned, halal food is a bit difficult to get , prior to coming here , i have done my research and found. Great blog by lynn

http://zlynn17.blogspot.com/2010/04/halal-food-in-hua-hin-prachuabkhirikhan.html?m=1

However since we are YPWT ( young parent with toddler) , it was very chllenging to find all the places mentioned by her , Kaseh s stroller have limited access to the smaller lanes , so since i brought my good old rice cooker , i decided to cook ! My mother did this you know n we always complained that she brings too much stuffs on our holiday , but now i am a mom , i can so relate ! /a>br />

Kaseh in her stroller and Sol buying fresh prawns . 1/2 a kilo for rm 10.80 , omg so cheap , so fresh , so yummy.

Sol requested for masak lemak , amboi banyak cantik , you ingat ni kat rumah ke ? On second thought , its not that difficult , so i bought serai , lengkuas, daun limau purut, lime, cili padi and santan tin.

The next day we came again to buy ikan merah ( red snapper) and tiger prawns. Red snapper only rm 9.60 . Would normally cause me rm 17 at pasar ttdi.

Recipe , nanti this blog is about shopping , will share in the dining blog kay :).

Banana bakar (roasted) at Chat Chai market .

Overall , you can find some things to buy here , like clothes and groceries . If you are looking for souvenirs , then the night market has better variety but bit more expensive by about rm 7.
Contoh i beli thai pants for rm 10 at Chat Chai and the same thing cost rm 17 at the night market .

Opening time : early morning to about 1pm, everyday.

#3 Hua Hin Night Market and Chatsila

Two markets combined into one , situated right smack in town , land mark dia ialah opposite Swensen and Starbucks , very lively and impressive , this market where you come to eat and shop . It s similar to Jonker Street Market in Malacca. Very touristy too but this is one of the places you must visit in Hua Hin.

Seafood restaurants like these memang bersepah kat Hua Hin market .

Fridge magnets, key chains and the usual sourvenirs can be found here.

Roti stalls , ala ala roti canai are a popular snack amongst shoppers. Our fav are rotee banana and roti nutella.

We enjoyed ourselves just strolling the night market , we bought more thai pants , fridge magnets and the yummies mango sticky rice here .

We also finally found the halal stall mentioned in lynn's blog, just opposite the railway restaurant. But since we already bought some fresh fish and prawns , Sol said he would prefer if i cook :).

Opens , Fri,Sat and Sun only 5pm to 11pm.

#4 Grand Night Market

Ok , this is our least fav market here in Hua Hin, seriously tak pergi pun tak pe ( you can give it a missed). Initially we wanted to go to this one first , we were decieved by he word "grand", thnking that it is the biggest night market in Hua Hin. But it acctually got it s name because it is situated just opposite The Grand Hotel, tapi tak lah grand mana.

Plenty of fashion and street wear , not much sourvenirs to be found , there s only two stall selling Hua Hin t-shirts. But i found a stall that sells these bags at rm2.90 and i bought 10 to give away as sourvenirs , what a great bargain !

More to come about Hua Hin in my blog, so watch out for it . Thanks for reading ,XOXO.

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Cuti cuti Hua Hin - The Sea Cret

The taxi ride took about 15 mins from the airport to our hotel . Traffic was good on Hua Hin road Road. This is the road if you just follow thru , it will take you to Cha Am , another beach vacation destination popular amongst the Thai people . And drive for another 2 hours and you will arrive in Bangkok . Ada jugak feeling feeling , to do a road trip to Bangkok , but Sol was not so convinced . Agree, that we will need to take longer leave and perhaps when Kaseh is slightly older :).

On Petchakasem Road, Hua Hin

I viewed so many hotels in Hua Hin on the internet thru Agoda, Asia Web Direct, Late Stay and even vent thru the reviews of Hua Hin Hotels on tripadvisor.com . They were useful but it got me stressed and confused . I wanted a hotel that is walking distance to every where , with a 2 year old with us , it s important that the beach is near , eating places are within reach and semestinya hotel kena child friendly.

What i mean by child friendly ialah - clean , no rowdy party goers, drunken mat salleh buat kacau , no party 18 SX, have enough to keep them occupied - ada playground lagi bagus. Dulu when i holiday berdua jea , (before the arrival of Kaseh) , i wasn t that fussy . But it is important that the hotel is clean and value for money .

I was also looking at smaller scale hotels as compared to the bigger chain hotels like Ibis, Best Western, Hilton,Hyatt and you get what i mean lah , i prefer boutique hotels cause they have character and most have lovely decors . Most Thai boutique hotels won 't dissapoint you, we ve stayed at Sugar Palm in Phuket , the Metropolitan in Bangkok , and other boutique hotels in Samui, Koh Phangan and Krabi and they all are very charming and nicely decorated .

After reading and surfing for hotels in Hua Hin , i decided on The Sea Cret. I didn't want to splurge cause , it s only starting of 2013 and we needed to keep our budget in tact due to a few commintments already set in the year , plus it's good to berjimat cermat right ? So my budget is around RM 300 per night . That s why Intercontinental Hotel was out of the way , even though i read so many good reviews on it . Well with almost RM1000 semalam , it better have good reviews right ?

Prior to booking this hotel on Agoda , i contemplated to book :
1. The Lapa - winner of 2012 tripadvisor award , thank god i didn't because you need to cross a big busy main road to get to the beach .
2. Verandah Lodge - it had smaller room , only 25 sqm. But faces the beach.
3. Devasom Hotel - nicely decorated and fit in all my requirements but it s slightly further to the city centre.

Plus Hua Hin is such a new destination that, it s no one i knew have been there , so my only source of reference is online .

Tada , it s like bercinta di alam maya . Seen and read about this place online and finally hari ni kita berjumpa :). Sceptical at first but felt in love at first sight .

And finally when i got here , i was satisfied . The room was spacious 40sqm with a private jacuzzi on the balcony. Yes, great for honey mooners but in our case , Kaseh officiated the jacuzzi .

I am glad that all the room in this hotel are king size bed. Think our i a super king . Normally i will bring extra thin mattresses along for trips, this is because we end up sleeping on the floor . Kaseh felt off the bed one day and i never wanted to take any risks ever since, but with this super king bed everyone can sleep together gether !

The decor of the hotel is really charming and sweet . The hotel have 2 koi ponds which was a delight to Kaseh and a clean concept pool, a sprawling garden , i love garens , i wish i have space in my house to have a garden like these ,

I read somewhere that this hotel is very popular for pre wedding photography.

The view from our room .

After we checked in we head on to the beach which is about 100 metres from the hotel . To surprise the beach is really clean and there s so much going on . Kiteboarding is a popular sport here , horse riding , massage and of course tourists and localsl taking a stroll along he beach . Unlike Phuket , local Thais enjoy coming here for a weekend getaway .

Ok , we ll probably stay in tonight , after the long journey today . Tommorow we are planning to explore #huahin and do some shopping . Let s see if we manage to find any interesting buy. Will blog bout it soon !

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Escape to Hua Hin - Part 1

And so today is the day that i have been waiting or weeks ! I booked and made arrangements almost a month ago , and if you ve been reading my blog , i ve been packing and preparing since 3 days ago. Pack and unpacking , hantar Abu to my brother s house, hantar Karimah (my maid ) to my mom s house and etc, with all that preparation , it reduces the stress and kelam kabutness of the travelling. Stress sikit lah pagi tadi , Sol and Kaseh bangun lambat . Tapi under control , phew . Mama jugak yang kena hambat semua orang and buat bekal before we leave.

We got to the airport via taxi, checked in and managed to grab breakfast.


I am blogging this dalam flight , and the travel time to Hua Hin is approximately 2 1/2 hours. This is probably the longest flight Kaseh have taken so far , we flew to Tioman and Langkawi before, so i am a bit nervous with the journey. Will she be bored ? Will she throw tantrums?

Tip 1 : prepare enough games, videos and distractions for your toddler , so dia tak mengamuk dalam flight . In my case , i downloaded the Play Tube apps and cached all her favourite Upin and Ipin episodes, and some Pada Zaman Dahulu . Carry a box of colour pencils , bila dia bosan tengok Upin , kita boleh main lukis lukis.

Kaseh keeping herself occupied.

The 3 hours journey was bearable, Berjaya Air do have in flight entertainment, but it s a shared one , even though they have individua l screens at each seat , but the programming is communal , meaning you can't choose what to watch .

The snack box provided was a huge surprise , i expected a cup of orange juice and a Kaya bun perhaps , but we were given these:

So Kaseh missed her usual nap time , cause telebih excited tengok plane. I had the opportunity to speak to the kakak-kakak stewardess, and they said that Hua Hin is a very clean and cosy town , suitable for young families like mine. Tetapi , 100% of the air craft passages are adults , Kaseh is the only child in this plane . The kakak told me that Hua Hin is famous for it s golf resorts , and most Malaysian visits HH to play golf. Oh ok , i am nevertheless , still kept an open mind about this beach resort.

We could have gone to Phuket, Krabi or Samui, but since Berjaya Air just opens this route to Hua Hin last Nov 2012 , i decided to venture before the ticket fare naik mencacak . We current paid rm 700 per pax for this flight . Phuket was at rm1200 with Air Asia for the same date the last i checked.

We landed at Hua Hin Airport almost 12.45 noon , Thailand time .

The view from the plane approaching Hua Hin Airport.

It s a small airport , not particularly busy

But the queue is kind off lama , with only 2 counters operating . Unfortunately they are not child friendly , thus we and Kaseh had to wait at the usual adult queue. Some airports give priorities if you are travelling with young children , this one doesn t.

The taxi fare from the airport was 400 bath, for a 15 minutes journey , mahal lah but what do you expect kan ? Airport taxi :)

Can t wait to discover Hua Hin , in my next blog will tell you bout the hotel, beach and where to get halal food in Hua Hin. See ya soon !

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