More than 200 sailors will set sail in this year’s Hua Hin Regatta, which is being contested off the Hua Hin Naval Yacht Club.

A total of 99 boats in the Super Mod class - a boat designed by His Majesty the King - will also be in action.

The three-day regatta is being held to commemorate not only His Majesty the King’s great success at the South East Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games on December 16, 1966, where he won the gold medal in the OK Dinghy event, but also to celebrate the diamond jubilee of his accession to the throne.

The Yacht Racing Association of Thailand (YRAT) have put the Super Mod - a 14-feet, 11 inch dinghy designed and patented in the UK by His Majesty - on the list of boats taking part in the regatta.

On the first two days of the regatta sailors will contest the Thailand Open Sailing Championships and the Super Mod Vega Rudder Race, while the 25 nautical mile long-distance Vega Rudder Race for will be held the following day.

The Thailand Open will consist of the small Optimist class dinghies for children and the bigger Platu boats, while the long-distance contest features Lasers, 420s, 470s, Fireballs and catamarans.

Sailors from Australia, Burma, China, Germany, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States are expected to return for the annual regatta, while skippers and crews from England, Hong Kong and Japan have already entered.

“This year’s event is very special because we [YRAT] have added the Super Mod class as part of the celebrations for His Majesty the King,” said Rear Admiral Apiwat Srivardhana, the secretary-general of YRAT.

Source : The Nation

More images from the event can be found here: Hua Hin Regatta 2007 images

Wikipedia tells me that tipping in Asia is frowned upon although there are regional variations. It seems to me that Hua Hin is one of those regions because I am told by Thai friends that it is as easy to remember a poor tipper as it is a large one. And easier to remember both than someone who does not tip at all.

It does seem to be specific to certain trades and specific to farangs. The Tuk Tuk driver, the girl in the massage parlour or waiting staff to name three. I don’t think these groups expect to be tipped because they aim to please without one.

Once it has been determined that a tip is due then comes the thorny problem of how much. Twenty baht, ten percent? I don’t have an answer but I do know that a woman spending two hours giving a massage deserves more than twenty baht. Was the man who gave that tip insulting the woman? Was it his way of telling her she was rubbish?

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My favorite tourist spot in Bangkok is the Jim Thompson House, a collection of traditional teakwood Thai houses set in a garden that the silk magnate assembled before his mysterious disappearance in 1967. The Grand Palace is, well, grand, but also a little overpowering. The Jim Thompson House is on a more human scale. You can see how everything in it reflects his exquisite tastes.

For the past year I’ve lived in my own Jim Thompson house, here in Hua Hin, except that my little bungalow has only one room, while the Thompson House has a dozen. But it is a genuine traditional Thai house, constructed with teak and set in its own garden, an oasis in the middle of town. There are three of them located in a quiet soi just behind the post office. Technically they are a part of the Phueng Hotel, an otherwise conventional Hua Hin guest house

I stumbled across them a year ago looking for a cheaper place to live. My room, in fact, was not cheaper, but I fell in love with it anyway and have stayed there ever since. In the early mornings I sit out on my balcony, feeling the breezes wafting in from the Gulf of Thailand, which is only about two blocks away. And I like the convenience. Walk two blocks to the east and you hit the beach, two blocks west and you hit the golf course.

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The event started on Sunday 29th and continues today with off road time trials and racing. It is located along the canal road on the “48 rai” market land near Karat Village. Offroaders from all across the Kingdom turned out to compete by driving modified “Mad Max” type dune buggies and pickup trucks around the course which had been created to resemble a battlefield with some serious peaks and troughs! It was a great day for all, gearheads and regulars alike, and you could get close to the action but with the risk of getting covered in dust everytime one of these beasts roared past!

More images from the event can be found here: Hua Hin Off Road Images

The Hua Hin Municipality have kindly sent us their list of up and coming events for the rest of this year.
JULY
Hua Hin Candle Celebration
Starting Day – 27 July 07
Place – “19 Rai” Near Majestic Hotel
Activities – ceremony of candle melting for the temple.
For more information – Hua Hin municipality education Tel 032 532480

AUGUST
Hua Hin Lilawadee & Orchid Exhibition Show
Starting Day – 1st to 14th August 07
Place – Hua Hin Market Village
Activities – Orchid & Lilawadee Exhibition show Contest Lilawadee Seedling self
For more information – Hua Hin Market Village Tel 032 618850 and 089 2545182

Cha-am Hua Hin Golf Festival
Starting Day – 1st to 14th August 07
Place - Hua Hin golf courses
Activities – Special prices and competitions for golfing in Hua Hin
For more information – O ffice 2 Tel. 032 471005-6

Hua Hin Regatta
Starting Day – 1st to 5th August 07
Place – Infront of Navepirom building, Hua Hin beach
Activities – Annual sailboat competition
For more information – Ship Royal Palace Fleet secretary Office Tel. 02 4661811

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Travelling on Petchkasem road, and it’s a long road, you might be following a truck full of building material. You might see several of them that turn off and head towards the mountains.

You will also see many places where there is new build. Go onto the coast road and head towards Khao Ko Lok or continue toward Pranburi then turn  left at the traffic lights and you will see more new build - homes, shops, condos, roads. 

Take in the view. If you’re a frequent traveller then you might realise that something is missing. Ah, yes! The mountain that used to be there is now no bigger than a builder’s spare tyre. The lush green vegetation has given way to raw red rock with trucks perched on it, gouging a trail that circles the mountain, stealing the earth and reducing the ancient land to nothing.  

The Western World has been levelling the earth for years and when I arrived in Thailand it was a pleasure to recover some of those lost landscapes.  My eye gloried in the rise of land that sometime looked like jagged teeth biting at the air: sprigs of trees, tangled foliage and broad leaves that alleviated the sameness of the horizon; land that was alive with insect, bird and beast.  

Paradise is disappearing fast and I feel a great sadness. 

www.writeinparadise.com

Low season is upon us and the streets of Hua Hin are a little quieter this time of year, fortunately that seasonal lull does not transfer to the internet as the forums have been as busy as ever. We usually find that many people start researching for their approaching holiday online when we in Hua Hin are going through a quiet spell. With more people using the internet, they find HHAD the best place to search for accommodation, recommendations, and things to do in advance of their approaching holiday. For the expats it provides a good place to share their knowledge and meet up with like minded people.

This month discussions have revolved around all number of topics including the advantages and disadvantages of all the recent development and an interesting list of things that the town could do without. Most residents are in agreement about many of them with traffic topping the list of annoyances, we think a spell in Bangkok is due to regain some perspective!

Lots more discussion in the property section, most of which now centered on condominiums as foreigners can legally own the freehold to them resulting in a possible increase in demand. A number of new condominium developments have been started this year as their popularity grows, we will have more news on them with the launch of a new website next month.

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Finally got round to taking the boat trip out to Singto (Lion) Island last weekend. We stocked up with essential supplies which didn’t include sunscreen (but should have) and did involve emptying the local minimart’s fridges of beer.

The weather was pretty overcast and the sea a murky brown colour so little chance of any snorkeling out there, not that there would be much marine life anyway. We chugged out towards the sleeping lion which gave us some great views of the coastline around Takiab.

Due to very low tides we were unable to disembark at the islands so motored on towards Khao Tao and were rewarded with a great view of the temple complex there. Jumped off and swam for Sai Noi beach where we anchored up, had a good feed at the restaurant right at the far end.

It seems the army were doing some kind of initiation ceremonies on the beach there as groups of half naked men in speedos where subjected to hurls of abuse and forced to drink whiskey and do pushups, we were hoping the Burmese didn’t decide to invade just then!

A pleasant cruise back along the coastline past Suan Son where more bizarre military maneuvers were taking place. All in all a very agreeable day and worthy trip for those seeking to have a different view of the surrounding area.

More info and bookings for the trip can be found here:
www.khaotakiab.com/island-trip.htm

You might have noticed that a lot of people in Hua Hin are wearing what appear to be Olympic bronze medals suspended by a chain around their necks. There is nothing athletic about them. They are Buddhist amulets, called Jatukam, believed to have magical powers. The whole country has been swept up in Jatukam mania.

It all started in the southern city of Nakhon Si Thammarat, located at about the same latitude as the much more famous Phuket, although on the Gulf of Thailand side of the Malay Peninsula rather than the Andaman Sea. From there is spread throughout the country.

This historic city (it traces its origins to the 13^th Century and beyond) is still the epicenter of the phenomenon. Of the city’s 560 Buddhist temples more than 200 are producing the special amulets. Along the main street whole stores are given over to displays of the amulets in their plastic containers, selling for 2,000-5,000 baht.

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Busy times on the forums last month as our membership reached 2,500 and readership exceeded 45,000 per month making HHAD officially the town’s best read website. Plenty of discussion on local issues such as Hua Hin’s water supply, the state of Soi 102 where the immigration office now resides, and litter problems around town and the beach and what we can do to help. As low season is now upon us the streets of downtown Hua Hin seem a little quieter but the number of people moving to the town on a semi-permanent basis is definitely on the increase.

All that jazz …
A great time was had by all at this years Hua Hin jazz festival, the music certainly didn’t disappoint with solid performances from Italian lounge jazz band Montefiori Cocktail. They were the only band of the evening to get the crowd up and dancing, some were even in the ocean and on Hua Hin’s famous rocks. Saturday’s lineup was also very impressive with some awesome guitar work by Prode Tanapat and a powerful performance from Caroline Henderson. Unfortunately though the overcrowding problems were worse than previous years due to the scaling back of the event from three nights to two and two venues to one. We hope the organizers will bear this in mind for next years jazz festival. A website has been setup by local jazz and Hua Hin aficionados to help promote the event online, it can be found at www.jazzfestivalhuahin.com

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Another year, another Hua Hin jazz festival, this one to be bigger and better than the rest … however that wasn’t quite the case! Everything from the musical talent, fewer international artists, to the number of nights, the number of stages, and even to the toilet facilities seemed to be scaled back this year. The only thing that was bigger was the crowds squeezing onto a rapidly diminishing stretch of beach as the tide came in. Organisation problems aside it was still a great event with a fantastic show by Italian band Montefiori Cocktail on friday night. The twin brothers entertained the crowds with a top notch performance which had people dancing in the ocean before the night was out. Saturday afternoon was throughly pleasant however it became very busy very quickly with hordes of Bangkokians getting down for the weekend, with at least 10,000 people and only one stage on the beach we did not stay for the final act but did enjoy the smooth electric guitar solos of Prode Tanapat. We hope a little more thought will be given to the organization and number of people attending future events. More photos and info on the event can be found at www.jazzfestivalhuahin.com

A strange phenomenon was observed in Hua Hin and all over Thailand on Friday when the sun appeared to have a halo around it. Mystified locals emerged from their houses and consulted each other in hushed voices at the solar spectacle. The halo is actually caused by ice crystals in thin clouds in the upper atmosphere, the crystals behave like tiny lenses and as they are all similar in shape refract the light at 22 degrees which corresponds to the radius of the sun halo. Needless to say more lottery tickets were purchased in Thailand that day!

Hot topics this month on the Hua Hin forum were actually wet topics as there was plenty of discussion on the recent deluges we have had. Several tropical storms have caused heavy rainfall in the area and some flooding along Petchkasem Road and down town. The concern is that this is the beginning of the rainy season and we have another four months of it to look forward to!

The theme park saga raises its head again with reports in national newspapers of large expanses of land in Cha-am being earmarked for development. Plenty of discussion on this as the arguments for and against such a large development and impact on the local community are laid out. Another related topic is the future of Hua Hin and what it will be like in the year 2029 some have visions of a great Riviera of resorts and high rise condos stretching from Hua Hin to Cha-am, high speed monorails linking it to Bangkok and international air connections. Others see it as possibly going back to its old quiet fishing village origins following an economic and political collapse in the Kingdom. Either way change is inevitable and it made for an interesting discussion.

Accommodation hunters have another option as we welcome Putahracsa resort to our booking system, luxury villas are on offer here however they also have a fine restaurant and bar and welcome local expats. Accommodation will become scarce for the Hua Hin jazz festival weekend so get online and book early. The organizers finally unveiled the press release and official dates of 8^th and 9^th of June. It seems to be a smaller affair this year with only one main stage and two nights. Hope to see you there.

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Having just returned from Phuket I thought I would compare it to Hua Hin from a purely tourist point of view. I’ve broken the categories down for easier viewing and comparison:

Accommodation:
We stayed in a 3/4 star hotel with pool walking distance from Karon beach, the week spent there was booked on the internet at a rate of 1,500 baht per night. There are fewer options in Hua Hin with these facilities at this price but they can be found, accommodation options in general are better in Phuket but then the place is much bigger.

Admiring an Andaman sunset

Transport:
I drove myself and found that the roads in Phuket are much bigger, more organised and traffic seems to flow better without the bottlenecks and crazy makeshift police barricades that can be found in Hua Hin. That said there did seem to be a greater volume of traffic there, the likes of which Hua Hin only experiences on weekends. Hua Hin is far better for public transport and motorbike taxis, Phuket seems to be overrun with a taxi mafia with fixed inflated prices.

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Every year this huge market and fair comes to town, it occupies most of the length of Naebkehardt Road and lasts about a week. Most of the produce is OTOP stuff and includes clothing, toys, household appliances, furniture, ornaments, tools, electrical goods, plants, food, and media. There is also a large fairground for the kids and a number of attractions where you can win prizes. A big stage has been erected on the corner of soi 51 where local bands play. It is extremely popular and very busy so expect a long walk as you will not be able to park anywhere near it!