How to go to Hua Hin, and the cost involved, Thailand

I manage to plan a 5 days 4 nights trip to Hua Hin, Amphawa Floating market, famous Mae Klong Market Railway, visit the temple within a tree and did my prayers at Wat Erawan and finally shopping in Bangkok that cost me a total of RM1750 with good food and our own choice hotels! Wanna know how? I found it so interesting and was bursting with so much info and photos that I feel I have to do write 4 separate blogs to do justice to these famous fascinating places^-^

First it's how to get to Hua Hin? There is bus from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Hua Hin town. Make your way to Level 1 at Suvarnabhumi Airport. The Hua Hin airportbus is at Gate 8 and fare cost THB269 per pax. This the link for the schedule: airporthuahinbus. If there are 4 of you, another option is to take a taxi from airport to Hua Hin town. I was pleasantly surprised at the efficient system of getting taxi queue numbers here. Go to level 1, gate 5 or 6 then just get your taxi number queue from the kiosk. A thumbs up to Bangkok for such an efficient service. After meeting your allocated taxi, better confirm the prices first. Initially our taxi driver wanted THB 3500, but we haggled it down to 2800, which is still high as I heard some got it for 2000-2500. (It also depends on the size of the car). The trip takes about 3 and a half hours for 224 km.

I chose Ibis Hotel Hua Hin because it is 5 minutes walk to Cicada night market. There are 3 night markets in Hua Hin, and I found Cicada to be the best as it is clean, orderly, wide variety of food and free live music thrown in.

Cicada night market is opened only on weekends from Friday to Sunday. There many souvenir stalls selling handcrafted goods showcasing the ingenious creativity of the locals. 

Thailand is famous for pork leg rice, therefore I tried this with dumpling instead of rice in Cicada night market. 

There is this normal local night market just next to the Cicada night market. Just walk to the end and you will see the other night market with just normal gravel/sandy ground. This stall of the pork leg with rice is in the local night market.

I booked a car with driver at the hotel for a day trip around Hua Hin which cost THB2000. The trip includes the following places : 

1. Khao Takiab Hill,  Monkey Mountain and also known as Chopsticks Hill

There are many monkeys and I am amazed to see the monkey eating crabs! Wow, monkeys there enjoy seafood so much. 

Notice the three monkeys sitting in the background of the picture below??? Must be waiting for the next boat of fresh seafood!!!.

2. Summer palace built in 1924 by King Rama VI

Phra Ratchaniwet Mridagayavan

3. Luang Pho Taud (Big Buddha)

4. Khum Khao Tao, Pranburi 

 5. Plearn Wan - a recreation of old chinese shophouses that once occupied the Thai-Chinese neighbourhoods of Thailand

6. Hua Hin Railway station 

7. Giant King Statues in the military compound - King Statues

8. Hua Hin night market

Dropped off at Hua Hin night market in town at night. Many types of goods are being sold there. Walking further inside, there are restaurants selling seafood. I was offered big lobster with rice, vegetables and even scallops thrown in for just THB1800. But what a pity I didn't know about this earlier and had taken my dinner elsewhere. So, my advice is, do eat at the night market as the lobsters and king prawns are cheap there.

One of the restaurants in the night market

After two nights in Hua Hin, we are on our way to Amphawa. But there is a stop at Wat Bang Kung, the temple within a tree. Then one night stay at Baanklong Amphawa homestay at THB1200 a night. Do not miss the night boat ride in Amphawa floating market and also the fireflies. The next day, make sure you reach the Mae Klong Railway market before 11am to see spectacular sight of hawkers folding their tents for the train to pass through just a few centimeters away. After that it's on the taxi to Bangkok to Silom City Hotel (THB 1600 a night). Did some shopping for handbags at MBK Center (Ma Boon Khrong Center) for THB200 each. Did prayers at Erawan Shrine and ate dinner at the well known T & K Seafood in Chinatown.

Please check out the related posts for the full interesting story:

1. Amphawa floating market at: http://secret-spices.blogspot.com/2016/08/amphawa-floating-market-fantastic.html

2. Wat Bang Kung ( Unseen Thailand) at: http://secret-spices.blogspot.com/2016/07/wat-bang-kung-temple-within-tree.html

3. Mae Klong Railway market : (under construction)