Firstly we would like to wish all of our readers and forum members an extremely joyous Christmas and a blossoming New Year. This is the best time of year to put away all of those political, financial and social blues and just join in the party wherever you are. The festive season has always been one of celebration regardless of national or global events that are largely beyond our control.

Hua Hin will be as busy as ever during the peak season and many of the hotels will be fully booked so get online and make your reservation early if you need to. The culinary festivities are as good as ever with local food purveyors Hua Hin Ham and Bacon providing all of the traditional Christmas food for the visitors and expats of Hua Hin. Christmas dinner will also be available in many of the town’s bars and restaurants, two that we can recommend are O’Neill’s and Buffalo Tavern, you can check their menus online.

The forums are as busy as ever even if things have been a little quieter in town over the past couple of months. The slowdown of tourism has been one of the hot topics recently however we’re sure to see things booming again soon. One major concern is currency exchange, with a strong Baht and weak Dollar, Euro and Sterling, Thailand has become a more expensive holiday destination for many.

We were saddened by a recent shooting of one of Hua Hin’s expats and several pages of support messages have been posted on the forum. The incident has shocked everyone as Hua Hin has always been known as a peaceful place - the crime highlights the fact that there is an insidious dark side that lurks beneath the sand and sea façade of this tropical holiday resort.

Property discussion has livened up with more rumours (at the time of writing) of government relaxation of property leases for foreigners. Everyone is in hope that the powers-that-be will make more of an effort to encourage foreign investment back into Thailand. Potential buyers get a little more security, local developers, materials suppliers and builders benefit, as do local businesses, and of course more money comes into Thailand. For us it’s a no-brainer, but we don’t run the country!

Golfers have had a swinging time up at Mongkol Driving Range with their popular demo nights. The big names in golf including Cobra, Titleist and Callaway get the wrappers off of their latest clubs for golfers to test out. There are free range balls and occasional barbeques so get along there to see what’s on offer.

The bikers are coming to town this month too with the Hua Hin Bike Week running from the 5^th to the 7^th of December. Fire up those chrome steeds, crotch rockets or Italian stallions and join the party, more information can be found on the forum. December is also the month of the Hua Hin Vintage Car Festival, again there will be more info on this and any other Hua Hin events on the boards.

The ‘ask the expats’ section has been ticking over with its usual array of requests from water proof clothing to Jacuzzis to motorcycle ownership. There was a request for more information for Hua Hin’s gay community also as there is currently very little out there providing news, events and updates. Find out more on the Hua Hin Forum

This entry was posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 3:55 pm and is filed under Hua Hin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.