Hua Hin bars of old

[Roel]

When I arrived in 1994 Soi Kanjanomai had only the Usaah Guest house annex Amsterdam Bar with Dutch owner Kees and a small bar next door (Swiss owner I believe) and das Nord Deutsche Restaurant (now a Swedish restaurant/bakery I believe) and MP Guest House (meanwhile renovated). The Swiss guy sold his bar to Kees who moved Amsterdam Bar in there and turned the old bar into more guest house rooms.

From these days I also remember Scorpion Tours and Travel, Deutsche Reiseburo on Naresdamri with Dieter, later accompanied by Leo who is still there. He moved the business a few hundred meters to where it is now at the beginning of the soi coming in from the Sofitel side. Nowadays known as Ken Diamond.

When making old maps do not forget to leave out most of the obstacles that nowadays seperate the incoming and outgoing lanes of Phetkasem Road. There was only a little greenery at some points. If you wanted to play mini golf (18 perfectly carpeted well maintained holes in a tranquil tropical garden setting, a shame that is gone) you just had to drive about 2 km in the direction of Khao Takiab and then cross the road (no U-turns then, and hardly any traffic too) and there it was.

Now I wonder where we crossed the rail road going in the direction of Pranburi? Fly-over was not there then, was it?

The first Head Rock (Mike) was ideal for watching football because not all the bars had big screen televisions then and besides HR was air conditioned. Watched the 1995 Champions League final between Ajax and AC milan in there!

And Linda Bar moved to the place opposite the Sofitel entrance but before that LB was located further down the road in the direction of Phetkasem in a big garden. Privacy fully guaranteed (I was told).

Billy started in Joy Guest House that he took over from a Dutch guy called Jack. I think the Italian guy that introduced the concept of combining a girly bar with a pizzeria (Roma) opposite Joy was called Mauro.
Another Italian called Gino had his Italian restaurant in where Billy is now (or next door maybe). I also remember Three Ladies and Rolf's Alpli Bar.
Willy sold his Music Garden to Heidi and then copied his old business 20 meters further down the road. Monta's Garden Restaurant was close to All Nations on the same side of the street. And did Alex (nowadays running the Halex business) not have the Piaff Restaurant before or did he own one of these guest houses on stelts or both?

When they filmed scenes from the movie The Quest with Jean Claude van Damme and Roger Moore in the Sofitel in 1995 almost the entire Hua Hin farang community served as extras. From these people I know two who are still in Hua Hin. The other 18 all left, including myself but I keep coming back.

[Huahinian]

When I arrived in 1986, the only girlie bars were Thai sing-a-song bars. Remember the Friendship Bar on the corner of Petchkasem opposite the Tessabahn and the Thai Kitchen going south of the traffic lights.

[sargeant]

Very interesting thread i am afraid i am probably not much use as i lived in Bangkwai when i came here and split my time between Cha Am and Hua Hin. As for bars i was i suppose very parochial chicken coop and 3 legged bar in Cha Am and in Hua Hin I started with the Hogsbreath and canada Jim which was not on the corner it was one bar up. Moved on to the coconuts with coconut Jim and then sometime in 98 latter end the lips bar when it opened .
I spent most of my evenings in Cafes all over the place and then the paradise disco
That was until Mrs Sarge nailed my feet to the floor

[Bamboo Grove]

That´s a good one, Roel. However, if I remember correctly the mini golf course actually had 23 holes. I think the reason why it doesn´t exist any more was poor marketing. Nobody out of town seemed to know of t. It was good fun and cheap, 100 Baht, play as long as you want. Used to go there often in -98 and -99 when I came down with my tour groups.
Also towards the end of it the maintanance started to get worse. They´d come and sweep the leaves out of the course only when you started playing.
Talking about mini golf, the one at the Regent, Cha Am is the worst I´ve ever played.

[lomuamart]

Adelphi (sic) Bar. Thanks, Roel. That was the one to the Hilton end of the "soi with no name", wasn't it? Can you remember the name of the one the other side?
On the subject of Petchkasem Road, Norseman was good enough to scan and post some of my photos from a holiday in 1989. I can't find the thread. Can anyone help with a link?

[JD]

Lomu,

Try these two

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/ol ... t7937.html

http://www.huahinafterdark.com/forum/hu ... t2495.html

[lomuamart]

Thanks, JD.
Guess, you're going to have to work with imagery like that.

[Guess]

Thanks, JD.
Guess, you're going to have to work with imagery like that.

Yes I had guessed so.

Roel, many thanks for all that. It is invaluable. If you can PM me a email address I will send you first drafts of the map and you can comment on that.

I think exact dates will be impossible so I will make notes of venues that had multiple names in the period 1997 - 2000

Sarge, I assume that Canada Jim and Coconuts Jim you refer to are one and the same person. Are you saying his first Coconuts was in Binthabaht before he moved to Selekarm.

Everybody, Soi Selekarm is in five parts according to postal addresses:

The main drag with Friendly bar (moonlight), Fairway's Moto GP
The Sabai leg with Sabai & Valhalla
The Jungle Juice leg
The road with no name with Captain's Inn, Nung Bar and Headrock
The top end with Lucky Shot, Octopus's, SugarCane, JW & Coconuts

Limelight & El Murphy's are at the junction of four

So I'll stick with that.

Thanks to all

Added 19:11+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

If any of you living here have a paper photograph from the old days, but you're not in possession of a scanner, I can scan them and later publish it here if everybody agree.

Is this still possible. It may be needed some time in October.

[Sabai Jai]

Dear Huahinian

I think 1986 was my first visit to Hua Hin as well and remember the friendship very well. I new Dam who sadly passed away a couple of years ago.

I generally ate at 'Suk Samran Seafood' opposite Gee's (suprised She hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread) as it was a friendly place and Jeb was a mate along with other members of the same Hua Hin family who I am still in touch with.

Can you remember the name of that perculiar place on the site that is now City Beach -they had wooden bungalows, a small bar restaurant and apart from Gee's the only place you could watch a video?

Regards Sabai Jai

[andy778]

Bernie's was where the Toro bar now is. Billy's, further up towards the temple on the other side. It was split into 3 bars, one of which is The Romantic now, I'm sure and probably the other two next door, heading towards the Hilton.
I'd need to walk down there as well to remember exactly.

old Billy`s is now the two Cheers bars

[Huahinian]

Dear Huahinian

I think 1986 was my first visit to Hua Hin as well and remember the friendship very well. I new Dam who sadly passed away a couple of years ago.

I generally ate at 'Suk Samran Seafood' opposite Gee's (suprised She hasn't been mentioned yet in this thread) as it was a friendly place and Jeb was a mate along with other members of the same Hua Hin family who I am still in touch with.

Can you remember the name of that perculiar place on the site that is now City Beach -they had wooden bungalows, a small bar restaurant and apart from Gee's the only place you could watch a video?

Regards Sabai Jai

Sabai Jai - I also new Khun Dam and his daughters. I ate regularly at Try Bar, became Try Seafood, which was on the right going from the Sofitel towards the Hilton although that didn't exist then.

I know the place on the City Beach site you mean but cannot remember the name. Gee's was an after midnight meal place for me - I was a drinker back then.

[margaretcarnes]

Surprising how many farangs DID use the old Gee after hours. It was certainly my favourite. One thousand curses on BurgerKing!

Guess - Canadian Jim and Coconuts Jim are 2 different folks. I think Canadian Jim was already mentioned somewhere - in connection with Hogs Breath maybe?

Sarge - anyone who was a regular at Chicken Coop deserves to be nailed to the floor by any self respecting woman!

Well done Roel. Good that someone knew all the Scandi/German crowd which is a big help.

Sarge's mention of the Chaam places though begs the question - how about a Chaam map as well? Lots of changes there also.

[Roel]

Bamboo Grove wrote:

However, if I remember correctly the mini golf course actually had 23 holes. I think the reason why it doesn´t exist any more was poor marketing.

18 holes from '94 to '96 when we used to play. I remember because one of the regulars was so excited about it being like a "real" golf course. He even appointed par-scores to the holes so it was a 72-par course. Of course we let him!

lomuamart wrote:

Adelphi (sic) Bar. Thanks, Roel. That was the one to the Hilton end of the "soi with no name", wasn't it? Can you remember the name of the one the other side?

Yes, the one at the right corner if you enter the soi with no name. Adelphi? Are you sure? Then it was re-named. Before it was Rolf's Alpli Bar. Alpli with an umlaut (two dots) on the A.
Sorry cannot remember the name of the bar on the other side but that one looks pretty much the same as it looked in the mid '90s. Think the owner's name was Terry. Maybe rings a bell for you?

Guess wrote:

Roel, many thanks for all that. It is invaluable. If you can PM me a email address I will send you first drafts of the map and you can comment on that.

PM sent. At your service!

margretcarnes wrote:

Well done Roel. Good that someone knew all the Scandi/German crowd which is a big help.

That would be more Dutch/German then Mags. My impression is that the Big Scandinavian Invasion came at the end of the '90s, beginning of 2000 but maybe Norseman can correct me on this one.

Surprising how many farangs DID use the old Gee after hours.

Well, a logical end of an evening on the beers and the only place to go. Open 24 hours! Chicken in the basket with french fries, Wiener Schnitzel, hamburgers! The big fat rat that I saw on several occassions running in the back near the toilets was for some reason not disturbing or alarming at all. Oh, the toilets. I would love to see a picture of that.

[buksida]

I'll never forget sitting in Gee's at some wee hour having a drunken feed as the rains came down and the water in there started rising ... what did we do? Order another beer of course!

One thing I also remember about way back then was that central Hua Hin was a real party town, many of the bars were open 24 hours, this is long before the puritanical party came into power and clamped down on everything.

Roel is correct, the bar was called Aelpli and was one of the better bars in those days.

[lomuamart]

Yeah. I always used to call it Adelphi because it seemed easier to say
Roel - that's right. Terry was the Brit with the bar the other side of Rolf's. Ran it with his Thai girlfriend. After a couple of failed attempts to get it going after Terry left the scene, Toby Charnaud (RIP) took it over and split the premises into three.
I just can't remember the original name - and it was pretty much opposite me for 2.5 years. I know a couple of people who will remember and will ask them when I bump into them.