HHAD forums continue to grow this month with more news and information about Thailand and Hua Hin and more questions from those wanting a quick answer from the town’s busiest website. There is now a Twitter feed offering daily “tweets” with the latest updates from Hua Hin and the forum, you can follow it on your computer or mobile at http://twitter.com/2huahin
Chinese New Year went off with a bang in Hua Hin as festivities at Market Village and all of the major hotels welcomed in the year of the tiger. The weekend celebration attracted the usual Bangkok crowd eager to get away from the big smoke to their favourite resort by the sea. Occupancy at Hua Hin’s high end hotels was even better than the regular new year indicating a possible shift in visitor demographics to the town.
Local organisations are now marketing Hua Hin towards Asian countries such as Hong Kong, Singapore, China and India as a high end destination. At least for the 2009/2010 season western package tourists seem to have moved on, Hua Hin and Thailand in general are no longer destinations for the budget conscious and it looks like the authorities want to keep it that way.
March sees the return of the Hua Hin Kite Festival which is held on the 13th and 14th at the Naresuan army camp around 12 kilometers north of town. The event is a great day out for the kids with kite competitions and aerial displays. The strong seasonal winds this time of year also attract the kitesurfers and an international kiteboarding competition is also held on the same weekend.
Theatre, dance, music and the arts have been making a big splash in Hua Hin recently at the month-long Fringe Festival which was held at The Vic in Khao Takiab. Domestic and international acts put on shows and displays to ever growing audiences, events such as these and the annual Jazz Festival are slowly putting Hua Hin on Thailand’s cultural map.
Several topics on life in Thailand have seen lively discussion including the behaviour and dress conduct of tourists whilst in town, relationships, getting and being married to Thais, living in Thailand as a western female spouse, and the sadly deteriorating state of current Thai politics and possible implications on expats living permanently in the Kingdom. HHAD is more than just a web board about Hua Hin, members from all over Thailand join the discussions.
Last month Hua Hin immigration released a number of directives and new forms for resident “aliens” to fill in for reporting purposes. One even included a bizarre 48 hour cross-provincial reporting policy that would be a logistical nightmare to enforce. Either security around the town is being beefed up or more elaborate fine extraction methods are being introduced. Also cracking down last month were the tourist police who raided many foreign managed operations to check up on paperwork and the legitimacy of the foreigner involved.
The expats were asked plenty of questions last month with the usual array of weird and wonderful requests including sourcing Copenhagen tobacco, solving soi dog problems, finding a reliable print shop, paying electric bills by direct debit, and buying kitchen cabinets and office furniture. Whatever your question you’ll find the answer on HHAD.