Another trip report

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Isabella
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Another trip report

Post by Isabella »

Hi folks

Well, I am feeling less jet lagged now and am therefore ready to launch into the story of my family's 9 days in Hua Hin ( along with our friends of course).

Having spent 5 wonderful days in Bangkok, it was time to move on to a relaxing beach resort and we were duly collected by our mini bus on Saturday 21st August for the 3 hour drive. My friends were a little apprehensive about this long road connection, but I have to say that the journey seemed to pass very quickly - and we were allowed a 15 min stop for toilet/ food.

We arrived at Hua Hin Marriott Resort & Spa, at approx 3 pm and were shown to our Garden Terrace rooms almost immediately - as part of our original booking, we were automatically 'upgraded' to this type of room. However, upon entering the room, the first thing we were greeted by was a pool of water on the floor caused by the air conditioning unit. In addition, the room appeared very dark and dingy - due to the dark wooden furniture and the surrounding trees/shade. The worst thing though was the bathroom - very small with a bath designed for the vertically challenged - later we were to discover that the shower spurted in different directions rather than downwards. My friends room was exactly the same - although I think their air conditioning wasn't working at all at first.

We decided to ask to see the manager, a chap called Lars who we think was scandinavian - although he arranged for our 'pool of water' to be cleaned up, he showed little interest in the rest of our comments about the rooms and actually went so far as to suggest that "We were just looking for a free upgrade" - to add to his general sarcasm, he offered upgrades to a suite for a 'special discount' of $150 per night per room.

It was clear that he was not going to budge, therefore we made our exit, but not before my friend had asked for and been provided with Lars' own manager's telephone number - more with this story later as upon attempting to call the number, it transpired that this higher manager was only contactable between Monday to Friday ( we arrived on Saturday afternoon), so for now, we had to make do with what we had.

We managed to spend a couple of hours by the Pool which was very pleasant. It was fairly large and noticeably deep apart from a small area near the kids pool - the kids pool was a little small with a slide attached which although the kids clearly enjoyed, they would often receive small scratches from the slides rough surface.

As it was our first day, we decided to eat dinner in the hotel which was very pleasant and the food very good - in fact, apart from the manager himself, it was becoming clear that the 'Thai' staff were very helpful with the usual 'Thai' service levels.

We spent the next day (Sunday) doing what we had planned to do since Bangkok - nothing. After 5 days hectic touring/shopping, it was lovely just to relax by the pool and soak up the sunrays, whilst allowing the kids to do what they loved best - swim and play in the pool. One word of warning, we were advised to reserve our sunbeds very early, as especially at weekends, the pool can get very busy. We quickly agreed on a rota system with our friends to pop to the pool once awake each day - in the end approx 9am was perfectly okay to reserve sunbeds we desired.

The hotel massage and spa seemed very expensive at a price of approx 1900 baht for the cheapest treatment - so my friend and I decided to get a tuk tuk into centre of Hua Hin - only 50 baht and 2 mins journey. Tuk Tuk became our regular mode of transport into town each day - sometimes there were 7 of us crammed into this small vehicle, but they did have larger Tuk Tuk's to provide more comfort for us.

In Hua Hin, there were lots of massage places for approx 300 - 500 baht depending on the type of massage - much cheaper and very relaxing.

During our first evening, after a meal at a French restaurant by the pier (the name I cannot remember), we visited the night market near our hotel - not the main one in Hua Hin, but better than that to be honest. We managed to obtain DVD copies of the latest cinema releases that were superb quality for just 650 baht for 5 DVD's.

Breakfast was not included in our trip - probably just as well, because we are not big breakfast eaters. However, for those that do like their breakfasts, I can report that the choice was excellent and food very good. One good point is that in my experience, beach resorts which are usually open plan, I found were not as good as the city hotels with their buffets - but the Marriott also had an airconditioned area for people to eat in as well as outside, plus extra food was kept in this area where flies would normally surround - fruit, cheeses, salads, cold meats etc. So full marks to Marriott for breakfast.

Sunday evening was spent visiting Hua Hin centre ( in fact we did this every evening except one) - we found a few exchange places near Hilton Hotel offering a better rate than Marriott, plus we found a tour office offering cheaper rates than hotel, again very close to Hilton Hotel - Ken Diamond Tours. We had a chinese meal this evening in the main road where the main night market is - but this resturant was clearly not used to 'Westerners' and they spoke no english - we did manage to communicate our needs in the end - and in fact the food was very good for just 1000 baht (including service/drinks) per family.

I am starting to tire a little - so I shall continue with my report tomorrow morning UK time on Sunday.
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Lev
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Post by Lev »

Excellent reports, glad you enjoyed your time here. :thumb:
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