Hua Hin Part II

We recently returned to Hua Hin, a medium-sized beach town about 3 hours South of BKK. As I had just returned from Sukkothai, I think Jana was a little jealous and eager to get out of the city.
After a quick and refreshingly efficient minibus trip, Jana and I cleaned up and went to a restaurant/pub to watch Wimbledon. The food is the true highlight of Hua Hin; both Thai food and Farang food are noticeably better in Hua Hin. Jana and I both ordered Thai food--Jana ordered pad pak ruam mit (stir-fried vegetables with oyster sauces) and I got gai pad med muang (stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts). We then spent the rest of the night trying to avoid vendors and watching tennis.
The next morning we headed out to the beach. Hua Hin's beach is certainly not as pretty as the beaches in Southern islands--the water is a little sandy and the beach is a little muddy. (Hyper-development has contributed to the discoloring of the water). But the beach was very peaceful (not many people around at all) and later in the day the water looked much prettier. We also received massages on the beach--a common benefit at most beaches in Thailand. After about four or five hours on the beach we decided to head in. We spent this night as we had the previous, eating delicious food and watching tennis. The next morning, after some haggling, we arranged a taxi back to BKK. Even more effecient than the minibus; our driver had us at our front door in under 3 hours.

Not the most active of our trips by far but since we only had a couple of days (really a little less) this little trip worked out perfectly. It's a shame we didn't find out about the minibus before now; this was a much better way to travel to Hua Hin and still provides a great break from the urban jungle that is BKK. The guidebooks we have tend to mostly reference government-subsidized transportation, which is cheaper but considerably slower.