The hot topic of the week on the forum in Hua Hin is golf. A number of discussions have been raging over golf courses in and around the town, with the major concern to many being the prices. It is well known that Hua Hin isn’t the most wallet friendly destination in Thailand so it comes as no surprise that many expats have been grumbling about green fees on the major golf courses.

Nearly all of the ‘big eight’ around town have been reported to have a dual pricing system, one for Thais and one for foreigners, the cost to play some courses can be up to 200% more than the non-advertised local price. Naturally the societies can play cheaper and there is always the option of buying a lifetime membership but isn’t it about time the permanent expats of Hua Hin are given a break and no longer treated like rich tourists?

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The forum rumour mill has calmed down a little this week as the keyboard cops returned to their corners and the shooting story got brushed under the virtual carpet. This doesn’t mean that anyone of the moderators and staff at HHAD has forgotten about the suffering that Don and Dolly are still enduring. The hope is that the real mastermind behind this attempted murder in Hua Hin is apprehended without further delay. Since the arrests it has all gone quiet and many are still left wondering and, of course, blaming and accusing.

More rants were aired about the lack of English soundtrack movies at the Hua Hin Market Village Cineplex. It seems like the MV management have no interest or inclination in catering to non-Thai customers, the marketing department has already been contacted by several people from the forum and, without surprise, has refused to reply to any of them. It does seem rather perplexing that a cinema in a tourist town doesn’t even have one theatre showing soundtrack movies when Bangkok, Pattaya, Phuket and Samui have no problems with them or farang customers.

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With over 120,000 views at the time of writing the news of the arrests of four people in connection with the attempted murder of Hua Hin resident Don Whiting was broken to the English language media on HHAD and Hua Hin Report following its release on the Thai language media website Thairath last Tuesday.

Since then a flurry of armchair detectives, bar stool rumour mongers, and property developer pundits have flooded the board with their own version of events and opinions mostly derived from the writings of a few so called ‘investigators’ on other websites.

The big question is the whereabouts of a Mr Darren Oxley, the owner of the development and farang husband of the woman arrested for the planning and paying for the shooting. UK media have also picked up on this story and have reported on some of Mr Oxley’s not so spotless past just to add a bit of spice to the story.

The attention shown on HHAD from people with otherwise very little interest in Hua Hin has been quite inexplicable. Also strangely baffling are the ludicrous accusations some of them have been making regarding the forum’s involvement in all of this. This comes about from one of the websites advertisers, a real estate agency, that severed ties with the accused in the middle of last year, well before the incident took place.

Some not so bright sparks have even made a fabricated connection between the colour schemes used for the agency and the website which only displays the galloping stupidity of individuals with too much time on their hands. HHAD was established in 2002 and the agency several years later in 2006, these keyboard cops could at least do a little research. They’ll be blaming local weekly paper AWOL next for carrying a HHAD logo on its front page!

Naturally other websites that have nothing to do with Hua Hin will open their doors (or web servers) to all kinds of rumour, hearsay, gossip, scandal and online bitch-fights to bump their own readership up and belittle their competitors who, being based in the town in question, need to show a little more consideration when publishing anything regarding local crimes that could be used in a court of law at a later date.

It is good to see that the police have finally swung into action following directives from the new PM (and three months of thumb twiddling) however as the law dictates everyone should be entitled to a fair trial, guilty or not … whether they show up for that trial remains the hot topic. Find out more: HHAD