When was your first visit to Hua Hin?

[bigboots]

My first visit was in 2013. I remember it well because it was during Songkraan. Stayed for 3 or 4 days and thoroughly enjoyed it. Have been back another 3 times since but not in the last 4 years. I'm going back again in a few weeks, looking forward to it.

[kunda]

First time was in 2006 and have been coming back a giew times since. Will go there now after not having been for 5 years, looking forward to it.

[HHTel]

1995. Wasn't signposted or featured in holiday mags in those days. No traffic, McDonalds, Burger King, Market Village etc etc. Was a much better place in those days imo. Lived here since 2001. Not sure I'd live here now if I'd discovered it say in the last 10 years.

I must add that my first visit to Thailand was way back in 1965. BKK in those days was teeming with yanks having a break from Vietnam.
I knew then that I'd finish up living in Thailand.

[pharvey]

Perhaps should be changed to "When was your LAST visit to Hua Hin".... Covid, financial and all other struggles!

I for one have not been able to get back for many years - many friends and colleagues are having similar problems. But of course can't wait to get back.....

Let's have a beer or two when we get there!

[KhunLA]

2001
Bus from Udon Thani to Bangkok, then train to HH. HH became a regular stop at least 4 times a year during school breaks, on the way to & from Phuket 10 yrs running.

Caught the first 8 ish Jazz Festivals. HH is a bit congested for me now and don't think I'd enjoy living there. Visit maybe 4X a year now, just for the day, if that. Imm and maybe a stop when coming back from BKK.

[handdrummer]

Jan. 2014, moved here, from Bangkok, in Mar. 2014. Arrived in Bangkok, in Aug. 2014. After 2 months there, the landlady, my wife's cousin, realized that my wife was married to a farang and raised the rent from 10,000 a month to 40,000 a month. That plus the 24 hr. a day noise, traffic, people, and filth, and I said, I need to get out of here. My wife told me that there was a resort area that her parents used to go to about 3 hrs. South of Bangkok. We drove down on a weekend, contacted a realtor looked at 3 tragic houses, and were finally shown the one we now live in. When we arrived at this house, the agent said that the tenants were moving out in March and weren't home now. I tried the door, it was unlocked, and the agent almost crapped in her drawers when I went in. We looked around and knew that this house was the one. We put a deposit on it and moved in, in March.

[migrant]

Moved to Bang Saphan in 2015 and bought just over a rai on the ocean. We would go up to Hua Hin monthly for shopping, things you couldn't get in BS. End of 2018 my wife was not liking BS. She had friends, but just too little around. She loved walking the beach but wouldn't go in (I fish, swim, dive and kayaked). We put the property up for sale and mid 2019 stayed 3 nights in Hua Hin. We were thinking of moving back to the states but I suggested we rent in Hua Hin for a few months to see if she liked it better. She liked being back in Thailand, just not BS. We found a home in a small moo baan off soi 6 and she really loved it. The moo baan is owned by the home owners and very well run. We ended up buying there. I'm flexible, can live most anywhere, but miss the beach property in BS.

[2/cb]

An old friend emigrated from the UK to HH in December 2005, following the death of his wife earlier that year. I visited in 2008 for a holiday, and to be his ‘best man’ at his marriage to a delightful Thai lady.
I have visited 8 or 9 times now, the last one in February 2020. My old friend has had some bad luck with his health, money, and relationships. He is now back in the UK. We are planning a trip back to HH in late 2022 or early 2023. Missing HH a lot; there’s something special about it.

[Jack_Batty]

Arrived in Hua Hin for my first visit on Halloween, 2019. Never left. I like it here, and I feel I made a sound decision on my retirement home.

[PET]

I went on a golf holiday in 2003 with then wife to Florida, New Zealand and Thailand, stayed at the Dusit hotel for 7 days and played all the local courses. Then returned in 2005 each year until 2007 when I decided to stay.

[Khundon1975]

1998 (I think) when I actually visited and stayed with my wife in HH. She was scouting out businesses for her family and she said this is where she wanted to live.
Back then it was like a frontier town, with no modern amenities to speak of. I flew back to UK for a while then came back to HH to live.
I’d actually passed through in the early 80’s in the back of a pickup on a sabbatical from work, but it didn’t even register back then.

[GroveHillWanderer]

I thought I'd already replied to this but scanning back through the thread, I can't see anything from me so here goes ...

I can't remember exactly which year it was but my first visit to HH was not long after we got married, so around 1984 or '85.

We stayed at the Royal Garden Resort which at that time pretty much marked the southern edge of town - hardly anything beyond it except empty land.

Soi Bintabaht had only 3 bars as I remember, the first two structures on one side and one on the other, at the end nearest the Hilton.

We went for a meal one day on the beach just immediately south of Khao Takiap. After eating we went for a walk down the beach and again after a couple of old Thai-style houses right there at the north end, there was nothing.

On the way back up the beach, my wife got talking to an old lady who was the owner of one of the Thai-style houses fronting onto the beach. She was thinking of selling it and offered it to us for about 200,000 Baht, IIRC.

In what was in hindsight, probably one of the worst financial decisions in my life, I turned down the offer.

In my defence, we weren't even sure at that time, that we were going to settle down in Thailand in the long term, so buying property didn't necessarily seem like the best thing to do. I often look back on it though and think, "What if ..."

[buksida]

First visit was 1997 when HH was a village - there was one ATM and one internet cafe which was the only place to get online. Virtually no traffic, and definitely no weekend warriors as it took 4-5 hours to get here from the big smoke. Everything south of Soi 88 and north of Soi 51 was a jungle.

Stayed at a little hotel called Som Wan on Soi Kanjanomai and spent lazy afternoons in All Nations with mad professor Gary Jones and his experimental music jukebox. It was more of a backpacker hangout then and we had some good jamming sessions. Spent that year in HH and it was one of the best ones I had. Bars/entertainment was 24/7, prices were rock bottom (over 80 THB/GBP but I was 22 and skint), there were no cops, no hassles, and work permits were handed out like candy. The handful of expats that lived downtown all knew each other and helped each other, it had a real community feel.

Those halcyon days.

[hhinner]

Used to go down to Hua Hin from Bangkok most long weekends plus Christmas/New Year in the 90's.

A few names (bars, people, restaurants):

Head Rock, Fast Eddie, Rose Bar (Ross), Bernie, Duncan (Naebkehad), Linda's, Dick (Soi Rai Nun, aka Soi Sarawat, now Soi 80), G Restaurant (good cheap Thai food, scruffy old couches, backpackers, filthy - excellent!).

Not easy to find internet. CAT office for international phone calls and faxes (they insisted on keeping a copy, must have had a mountain of paper - as per Thai tradition).

Flooding September, October.

Drinking outside the mom and pop stores at the Petchkasem end of Soi 80 (no 7-11s).

[Jackes]

1970.
I can probably claim the shortest first vist to Hua Hin as well as one of the earliest, I was 20 at the time, a hippy doing the overland route from the UK to Austrailia. With a friend we had travelled through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Afganistan, Pakistan and India. In late 1970 we were in Bangkok and we boarded the train heading south on our way to Kuala Lumpar, to be honest I hadn't studied the train timetable or looked at the route on a map. I remember leaving Hua Lamphong station around mid-day, the train carriage looked to be around 30 years old with some window glass missing, we chugged along at around 20 mph through the rice paddies ( I travelled the same route recently, the carriages have improved but the journey takes about the same time.) and early in the evening the train pulled in to a lovely little station. I got out to strretch my legs and buy supplies from the food vendors on the platform, five minutes later we pulled out of the station and as the train pulled away we passed the station sign board, Hua Hin.