Hua Hin will be a 'clean' city
If we are to believe the reports, Hua Hin should set an example for the rest of Thailand. The police have announced that bars will have to close at midnight in the future, while the ladies and girls present will no longer be allowed to wear offensive clothing.
Many bar owners fear for their business if tourists have to go to bed early. Forced sales are certainly not excluded. Especially local karaoke is affected by the new measure in Hua Hin. It was a meeting place for ladies and gentlemen who had not yet found a suitable partner in the bars. Hua Hin is already suffering from a declining number of tourists. Some operators report 24 percent less turnover over the past year.
The police patrol in groups of up to 20 men to see if the operators keep to the closing time. With video cameras they record bars that are still open after midnight. Insiders expect party animals and sex tourists to seek refuge in Pattaya through this measure.
Yesterday, of course, I went to take a look. Just after midnight, the main bar streets have a somewhat unreal atmosphere. One half of the owners are on the safe side and lower the shutters. Then the female staff is standing outside looking glum. But there are also operators who don't care and think: after me the deluge. There are those involved who say that it is a matter of paying money to the police. Perhaps it is also a matter of time and in Hua Hin the brakes will be released again in a short time.
About this blogger
- Almost 20 years ago, journalist Hans Bos moved to Bangkok. Almost from the beginning, he was involved in the birth of Thailandblog. As a journalist, he worked for Limburg newspapers and for the travel trade journals of what was once called Elsevier. Hans (76) has lived in Hua Hin for 14 years, with his wife Raysiya and daughter Lizzy. He was secretary and vice-chairman of the Dutch association in Hua Hin and Cha Am for about nine years.
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New sheriff in town? In Bangkok you sometimes have these kinds of announcements during a changing of the guard. Just take it easy and close early until the new 'rates' have been negotiated. Then it starts happily again a few weeks later.
The 4 and 5 star hotels are well stocked and also ask for hefty prices. I think things are going pretty well with Hua Hin.
I have the impression that there are different rules for Hua Hin anyway. I think they want to keep it a bit more exclusive. Must have something to do with the residence of the royal family. In addition, the Thai upper class often has a second home there.
There are also no Gogo bars, it is less extreme and smaller. It is therefore also more pleasant. Nice to see the contrast with other tourist places.
I'm going to take a look again in just over two months 😉
After reading this I am thinking more and more about leaving Pattaya and moving to Hua Hin.
@ Henk, why do you want to exchange Pattaya for Hua Hin? Because it's a bit quieter?
I've had a love-hate relationship with Pattaya for years, I like to travel through Thailand, but I'm always happy when I'm back.
Pataya is cheap to go out, food and drink in Pattaya is still reasonably priced.
Everything is available here, I'm going to Foodland shortly, delicious brown bread, all kinds of fillings, good and cheap meat.
I haven't been in the beer bars for a while, the noise and drunken tourists, I don't feel like it anymore.
When I look at the Thai news at 8 o'clock in the morning “I don't understand it, but images say more than 1000 words” what is happening again in Pattaya, drugs murder robberies.
They pick up 16-year-old boys with a revolver.
I have tried to settle in the Isaan "Roi Et" has not become anything, much too quiet.
Been to Loei with old and new for a few days, it's not going to be anything there, nice people beautiful mountains, but nothing else.
Loei Citty was 64 kilometers away, a bit too far to get a beer.
I've been to Hua Hin a few times, I liked it, quiet and less crime.
Renting or buying a house is also a lot cheaper than Pattaya, and for the rest they have everything I need.
I agree with you 100%, I have also seen it in Pattaya with all that noise and bustle, Russians and Indians, Arabs, etc.
Hua hin is a bit like Pattaya from the 1970s/1980s, before the craziness started.
Anyway if we are going to advise everyone to go there now, it will be just as crazy as pattaya , ha Ha !!
I hear that the opening hours have already been extended to 1 AM. Soon it will be business as usual again.
That's true, although some bars are erring on the side of caution. Presumably a wave movement until a new police chief rams the picket posts into the ground…..
I had no plans to do so, but now that I've read this, I'm thinking even less about moving from Pattaya to Hua Hin. It seems boring to me there!
My vacation in Thailand!
In a week and a half I will be back in Hua Hin.
For the fourth consecutive year.
Have a nice breakfast, relax during the day, eat good food in the evening and after dinner an evening walk, buy fruit at the night market etc etc.
No Pattaya states and that's how it should stay.
was in pattaya for the first time in 1967 (nbook for another two weeks) and said: never again. I went to Hua Hin all those years 2x a year. What a relief what a difference. What a sweet town and ngjep sangop, dee .Incidentally, the owners of those bars have known in advance that this will be allowed with a blind eye. Now that the holiday season is approaching, the Thais are starting to grumble. Hua Hin is the only thing they have left in the vicinity of Bangkok, the rest is rotten. the atmosphere is well worded. Hopefully we can continue to taste it for a long time. And finally: the mid-class hotels are having a hard time, because they focus too much on Europeans. Compared to Pattaya, Hua Hin has few Asian tourists. Please leave some for the Thais (and certainly not the wealthy). The road to Pattaye is open for the bargirls, even though the competition there will be much greater. Indeed, let it remain that way for us older couples as well.
1967??? What was there to do in Pattaya then?? I wish I had experienced that, but I was 10 years old at the time.
I know it from 1977, and as our grandfathers said 'everything was better in the old days', well that certainly applied to Pattaya, but good if you are 20 and have a load of beer and speed pills it will probably still be good to stay in Pattaya . I'll pass for that, but that will have to do with age.
Hua Hin a wonderful place for the elderly, and what to say about younger tourists with children, when my kids come over, they want to go to the beach, but definitely not to Pattaya or Phuket with my grandchildren, every sane person understands why. hope it stays that way.
I think you are confusing Phuket and Patong, on Phuket all beaches outside of Patong are in fact beautiful family beaches.
http://www.bmair.nl/Informatie/Thailand/Kaarten/Kaart-Phuket.htm
I have been living in Hua Hin for a good week now and I am also quite familiar with Pattaya, I have been there on holiday for about 8 years or sometimes twice. Hotel in Jom Ten and then going out in the evening in Pattaya, first good food, etc. But the last two times I've been there I was very disappointed and I really don't need Pattaya anymore. Now I'm not saying that Hua hin is perfect and it will be because of all the rules, but before I went to live in Hua hin I lived in Khon kaen for about 8 months between the more well-to-do Thais, no yuppies but just police people and teachers and I have to say I miss that atmosphere already. Hua hin is a nice place with beautiful mountains, beautiful beaches that are not overcrowded with Russians and the bar ladies don't drive you crazy, to put it kindly. A few years ago you could still take a quiet evening walk in the evening in Pattaya along the sea of Beach road, now there is a bar lady every meter who is generally becoming more and more brutal. But like I said we are quite new to Hua Hin and we have asked (my Thai girlfriend) for directions a few times now and you almost get snubbed or they laugh at you. But it is wonderfully quiet here and beautiful surroundings.
Gr Hank.
Hi Hank
I saw your story, my wife is also Thai and lives in Hua Hin I have been coming there for about 6 years now.
In that time, things have indeed changed. After those 6 years I can notice that the average Thai has become much more assertive in Hua Hin. Although I have to say that I have never been treated rudely. (as far as I know, because as falang we don't hear everything). Otherwise I would hear it from my wife. And yes people from Isaan are still seen as the working people (bars). We ourselves have now bought a piece of land in Nakhon Sawan (located between Bangkok and Chiang Mai). The people there are really friendly, but there are hardly any tourists there. And I think that will play a role. Hua Hin also often people, not only Dutch, who think they are just in their own place of residence, and have never heard of adjusting. It is and remains Asia. I am happy to leave again, another 6 weeks then we can go again .And hopefully within now and 2 years forever, it can't come fast enough for me Sawas dee.
Hi Leon,
Thank you for your response, I have of course been here too short to pass judgment, but this was my first impression and that of my girlfriend. That they have become much moniger is only good and we are not treated really rude, but also not very friendly. The people further north are certainly a lot friendlier in our experience. My girlfriend has a Farm there (rice fields) and also likes to work very much (certainly not in a bar), but that doesn't mean they are less, right? I think we will get used to it and otherwise we will go back to Khon Kaen in a year or two. I understand very well that you would like to go this way, the Netherlands is not really a pleasant country to live in anymore. Sawas dee.
You write this Henk: and you are almost snubbed or they laugh at you.
Are you saying that the southern Thai residents are not nice in Hua Hin?
It's my experience and also the reason I don't go there anymore.
My girlfriend and I think it's also because the southern Thai residents don't like the Isaan people very much, (they look down on them) that's what I suspect.
I am interested in other opinions.
Yes I mean that we are not very nice people in Hua Hin at least our experiences so far. There will be exceptions or we just asked the wrong one, but this is our experience so far.
We have been coming to HH for years but everyone is always nice and helpful, even if you have a flat tire…..they take you all the way to the tire maker. I feel good and safe in HH and there is something everywhere.
The only thing that bothers me here are the Skandinaviers are drinking, they are loud, and very rude of me, they can go to those Russians in Pattaya.
I have been living in Hua-Hin for about 5 years with interruption, I think it is a very nice city to live in, if you are married to a beautiful Thai woman, I have also lived in Jomtien for 3 years, near Pattaya, As a bachelor is pattaya a place to butterfly (step)
Firstly, Hua-Hin is much cheaper to buy or rent a house.
Hua-Hin has everything for me, beautiful nature, beautiful beaches, a few good bakeries, 10 km below Hua-Hin a large Makro, all kinds of restaurants with European
food, etc. Large shopping center with Tesco Lotus.
You have unfriendly people everywhere, if a Thai is a little brown, he or she will already be
discriminated against. but that's all over Thailand, that's why they get out in the sun as little as possible, and go swimming with their clothes on, just look at how the construction workers are wrapped up.
I'm having a great time Hua-Hin, I have a lot of Thai friends, my door is always open, for a drink or food, someone unexpectedly comes by regularly, and I'm often invited.
Quite different from now in The Hague.
Looking forward to moving to Thailand ( Hua-Hin ) for good at the end of this year.
I live 90 kilometers south of Hua Hin I like it just fine little tourism have been to a few in HH for a month extension. A Dutchman then takes me there by car, drops me off at immigration and he goes to his masseuse for a happy ending.
He last heard from him that many hotels suffer from understaffing, nevertheless they continue to build. He told me that many hotels on the beach claim the beaches for their guests, and that the thai don't really appreciate that as they throw the farang with the money, drive up the land prices, are often rude too,
I can imagine in the perception of the Thai that they think “fucking farang””.
In their eyes a Russian Englishman is American German and fill in all the same farang.
And I am even often ashamed that I am a white nose when I hear the above-mentioned farang going on like that and then I hope that the Thai will not tar me with the same brush