Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Discussion on where to go when the sun goes down in Hua Hin; bars, pubs, clubs, karaoke and general nightlife.
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DaveT
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Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by DaveT »

I'll preface this by saying, of the 15 or so trips, each of around 10-day duration, I've made to Hua Hin in the last 6 years, this is the first time I've been in the high season.

And of course I could have just been unlucky. Wrong place, wrong time perhaps.

But the general impression I got, after usually being in HH in April, May and August, was that HH's character is changing. And if I was unlucky and in the wrong place at the wrong time, it actually happened twice.

I've always loved coming to Hua Hin. Friendly people, great nights out, no worries about safety, providing you keep your wits about you and be sensible. I have some good friends who live in HH, both farang and Thai. I also know a lot of the regular visitors like myself and bump into a few on every trip.

I hate to say it, and I hope I'm either wrong, it was a one-off, or as I said above, it's down to the high season.

I was in HH from Feb 9th, returning back to UK yesterday.

Walking round the bar area, the girls seemed much less friendly. There's always been a happy medium in HH, unlike some of the other more commercial places. By this I mean in places like Bangkok, Phuket and Pattaya, it's "in yer face". While in HH it's been the friendly "hello handsum man", or "where you go?" or "love you long time", in the more commercial places it's far more aggressive.

Maybe I'm getting older and uglier but the banter seems to have almost disappeared. If I have got older and uglier it's happened in the last 9 months as I was there last May and while there has been a change over the years the difference between May 2010 and Feb 2011 was marked. This trip the girls were sterner, much less banter and certainly there seems to be a newer type of girl, with a more hardened attitude. A lot of the girls I've seen and enjoyed a chat with over the last 6 years are no longer there too, replaced with more battle hardened versions.

I really hope HH doesn't turn into a Phuket and the like. The town is obviously getting bigger, expanding out and therefore more people residing there. I don't think that's the problem though, I think it's more to do with (and I'm trying hard to phrase this correctly) the type of visitor now coming to Hua Hin.

Walking round the streets near the Hilton and the bar area during daytime there certainly seems to be a different class of visitor now. While there are many "nice" farang visitors - couples and families with young children, who are obviously enjoying themselves, there were also quite a few "groups" of younger male farang and some couples that, how can I put it politely, perhaps weren't from the best upbringing, wandering around in the middle of the day drunk, males with no tops on, females with skimpy bikini's on, walking round Market Village, the shops around the Hilton, etc. While I'm no prude, you have to respect the culture of the country you're in and it made me cringe.

But coming back to the "wrong place, wrong time" scenario, as on previous visits, after a night out (normally culminating in seeing the final set of the Stonehead Band at Murphy's) as on previous visits I wandered over to the Kareoke bar area behind the Hilton. Previously this has always been a good natured area even though there's a lot of drunk people about. Just people have a laugh, having fun. This time was different.

I witnessed 2 pretty serious punch ups, one of which I inadvertently very nearly became involved in. I was sitting with a Thai friend at the end Kareoke bar (furthest from the Hilton, where they play darts outside). We were minding our own business, sitting outside having a drink. My Thai friend had his back to the bar, I was facing him, with my back to the outside. All of a sudden a commotion started a couple of bars away. Noise, banging. This then stopped, so my friend and I continued to chat. Suddenly a group of people crashed into our table, knocking me pretty hard on the head. It was 2 farang fighting each other, luckily I had enough space to duck down and slide out sideways into the doorway of the next bar. These two guys crashed into the glass frontage of the bar we were at, on top of my Thai friend. One guy had a pretty bad gash on the back of his neck.

They were fighting against the glass when a group of people (Farang and Thai) jumped in and joined the fight. One Thai girl was holding a beer bottle high above her head, obviously intent on hitting someone!!

Some other Thais came up (bouncers from the bar where the fight started) but the fight then moved away from this last bar into the alley way that leads down to the motorbike stand.

This was a hugely frightening experience. I'm just out for a good time and all the years I've been coming to HH I've never witnessed anything like this.

My Thai friend, who is well known around Hua Hin, sat down with one of the Thai bouncers of the bar where the fight started and tried to calm things down. Apparently one very drunk farang (Scandinavian) argued with a Thai girl and slapped her hard across the face. That's how it all started but it seems others were spoiling for a scrap so just waded in.

On another night in another part of the Kareoke area, I witnessed (from a distance thankfully this time) a scrap that involved around 8 people, some farang, some Thai. Again it was very nasty with fists and bottles involved.

So my question is, what is happening to Hua Hin? I don't come for this kind of stuff, I hate violence. As I've said above, perhaps it's due to this being my first trip in the high season - if so, I won't come again at this time. What I sincerely hope is that it's not becoming the norm. If that's the case, I won't come back at all.

Of course I could simply avoid the area, but I've never had to do that before - previously it's been great fun and I've always felt safe.

I look forward to any comments from the locals.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by richard »

They call it progress!!!!

HH is changing as is most of the globe

Generally in HH the profile has changed to a more mature visitor with wife and family but there is an influx now of Pattaya BG's and Pattaya scumbags

Think you may have had a one off bad experience or frequented the no go areas where piss-heads go to late at night and are looking for a brawl European style
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by DaveT »

After coming to HH for so many years and frequenting that same area many times with absolutely no issues I do need convincing it's a one off. When the first incident I described happened, in the aftermath I chatted to a few people who said fights were becoming more prevalent nowadays, normally caused by drunk farang.

I take your point about the Pattaya bargirls and Pattaya scumbags - that does seem to be the case. I just wish they'd get their sorry arses back there.


richard wrote:They call it progress!!!!

HH is changing as is most of the globe

Generally in HH the profile has changed to a more mature visitor with wife and family but there is an influx now of Pattaya BG's and Pattaya scumbags

Think you may have had a one off bad experience or frequented the no go areas where piss-heads go to late at night and are looking for a brawl European style
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

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DaveT wrote:After coming to HH for so many years and frequenting that same area many times with absolutely no issues I do need convincing it's a one off. When the first incident I described happened, in the aftermath I chatted to a few people who said fights were becoming more prevalent nowadays, normally caused by drunk farang.

I take your point about the Pattaya bargirls and Pattaya scumbags - that does seem to be the case. I just wish they'd get their sorry arses back there.
richard wrote:They call it progress!!!!

HH is changing as is most of the globe

Generally in HH the profile has changed to a more mature visitor with wife and family but there is an influx now of Pattaya BG's and Pattaya scumbags

Think you may have had a one off bad experience or frequented the no go areas where piss-heads go to late at night and are looking for a brawl European style
They will get their arses back there. The general consensus among the Pattaya types is that HH is boring - just families, geriatrics and golfers.

The BGs may be in a bad mood because business is down.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by DaveT »

johnnyk wrote:
DaveT wrote:After coming to HH for so many years and frequenting that same area many times with absolutely no issues I do need convincing it's a one off. When the first incident I described happened, in the aftermath I chatted to a few people who said fights were becoming more prevalent nowadays, normally caused by drunk farang.

I take your point about the Pattaya bargirls and Pattaya scumbags - that does seem to be the case. I just wish they'd get their sorry arses back there.
richard wrote:They call it progress!!!!

HH is changing as is most of the globe

Generally in HH the profile has changed to a more mature visitor with wife and family but there is an influx now of Pattaya BG's and Pattaya scumbags

Think you may have had a one off bad experience or frequented the no go areas where piss-heads go to late at night and are looking for a brawl European style
They will get their arses back there. The general consensus among the Pattaya types is that HH is boring - just families, geriatrics and golfers.

The BGs may be in a bad mood because business is down.

Yes, I've read on other forums that people think of HH in the way you describe. Trouble is, if some of these Pattaya scumbags do come and have a good time, while at the same time ruining it for the likes of us, word will spread and there'll be more of them.

As to the bargirls being in a bad mood, I guess that's Thai logic. Look miserable and glum cos business is down rather than happy and smiling to make business better when a single guy walks passed.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by Johan »

It was the same a year ago when i first came here, that's why i don't go to these places anymore. Police and bottles involved also.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by lomuamart »

But bar fights have always happened here and always will do.
In years here, I've only seen a few really serious ones and they could have happened anywhere in the world.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by johnnyk »

Louts and yobbos are everywhere, HH is no exception but I think we are lucky there are fewer mouth-breathers here than many other places.
BTW, can anyone think of anything more stupid than fighting over a BG?
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by redzonerocker »

johnnyk wrote:
BTW, can anyone think of anything more stupid than fighting over a BG?
fighting over a ladyboy? :mrgreen:
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by MrPlum »

I've never felt threatened since I've been here. If you go where an excess of alcohol is involved, fights are inevitable (as you say), amongst a certain 'sub-culture'. I'm not surprised it's happened. More surprised it hasn't. I certainly wouldn't stop coming.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by hhfarang »

I rarely go down to the bar areas at night, but it doesn't surprise me. Like Richard said, it's progress. We moved here because Hua Hin was a friendly almost sleepy, mostly Thai town when we first came back in 2003, but the character (and characters) seem to have changed a lot in the ensuing years with the greater discovery of this area by the European community as a holiday, retirement, and business opportunity destination. This discovery was helped along by people looking for an alternate destination after the tsunami in Phuket.

The growth in home and business starts over the last six years has been amazing for a town of this population and has changed the character of the town and definitely the cost of living in Hua Hin forever imho. Look at the land prices. Land in many areas west of Pethkasem road in town have gone from less that one million per rai when we were first looking to between ten and twenty million for the same area. When we came, we could have gotten beach front land for that price (or less).Whether you like it better now or before is a personal opinion but I preferred it the way it was in 2003 (with a few exceptions of course).

We are looking for alternatives now; Nong Khai maybe... :|
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by margaretcarnes »

I do agree Dave that HH seems to be changing. Last trip (late 2010) I also noticed that the girls don't seem so happy these days. I've only just heard BTW about the influx from Pattaya so maybe the HH girls aren't happy about that - or more likely they are just fed up with the lack of trade.
Lets face it the 'window of opportunity' for them is pretty short! And girls will always go where the grass is greener. Nothing can up sticks and hop on a bus quicker than a Thai BG when the going gets tough.
I'm also wondering if the new ferry service is having an impact on the Patters influx. Thats still in it's infancy of course but I can't see the effect - if there is one - easing off because Patters has an ongoing turnover of new tourists, some of whom will no doubt be spotting the ferry option.
Over there there never used to be any publicity about HH....
Safety wise in general I don't think HH is bad. But must admit I don't go around the Bazaar strip next to the Mai Thai apart from quick visits to see Billy W and Jeaow, and never late at night.
Unfortunately that row of bars started to change after Little Big Horn went IMO, and the established barkeeps have had to adjust their opening times to suit a different market which I'm sure has been fuelled by the flashy karaoke place next to Billys. Scandinavian owned.
I feel sorry for people like Berney and Billy W now, but the fact is there do seem to be more Scandinavian owned businesses than ever before and they do seem to invest big style. The big hotel nearby on Soi Kanjanomai was Scandi backed - there are bound to be more non-package Scandi tourists. Its just a shame some of them seem to cause trouble.
Don't give up on HH though. Sometimes we all have to change our usual haunts and there's plenty there which is still trouble free.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by buksida »

margaretcarnes wrote: Unfortunately that row of bars started to change after Little Big Horn went IMO, and the established barkeeps have had to adjust their opening times to suit a different market which I'm sure has been fuelled by the flashy karaoke place next to Billys.
Good point, there was never really anything in that Karaoke area when all the regular bars were allowed to open 24 hours a day - the scraps were down Bintabaht then! :mrgreen:
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by Takiap »

I can't really comment as I only frequent HH center two or three times a year, and even then, I don't really venture into those areas. With that said, I would say you should carry on coming back, but perhaps give the high season a miss.
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Re: Hua Hin seems to be changing - for the worse

Post by dozer »

It could be that big changes are coming.

There are several ongoing court cases involving the bazaar area at the moment and if found in favour of the developers then we will see major changes.

Also the Bintabaht area will almost certainly be redeveloped in the next few years; it is just a matter of getting enough of the land owners to sell and what I have heard is that at least 8 out of the 12 or so are willing to sell.
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