Hua Hin - our first impressions

Hua Hin, Day 20

Last night we had a brief walk around the nearby area but mainly to grab some dinner as we were a bit exhausted with the heat and the travel day and it was also dark by the time we arrived at the hotel.

The Market Village Mall is close to the hotel, so that is very handy, and this is a large mall with lots of indoor shops and restaurants, including a food court. There is also quite a large outdoor area where there are food stalls and benches, and music, but it's a bit too hot for us to sit out there - more suited for those more accustomed to the heat.

Paradise?

Oh what a beautiful place to wake up to in the morning. We have a fab corner room with two sea view areas at the Veranda Lodges Resort and it has a little a little outside balcony and a view of the Gulf of Thailand.

Our room is upstairs in a veranda area with 3 other rooms, two of which face the sea and the other 2 face the inner courtyard area. All the rooms have access to a common outdoor seating area on the larger communal veranda, which faces the beach and sea. It is very lovely and I have taken to using this area in the evening to try and write up my blog posts as I listen to the waves from the water. I am typing this from this very spot at the moment, it's just after 6 pm, and I have a lovely glass of chilled wine and am sitting on a rocking chair facing the sea, which has a gentle breeze blowing in. It is pure bliss!

Another very nice feature is that there are lots of little enclosed bookcases dotted around the resort, which are stocked with a large variety of books, so there is no lack of reading material here.

One of the YouTubers that we follow (Side Trip Life) has a video with a little bit of footage which includes our Hotel (even though we have watched this in the past, we didn't realise we would be staying here and we only started to watch again to see if there was anywhere specific we wanted to visit now that we are here!): https://youtu.be/G8MEboH6yQA?si=1E7eREXYdBKdfoAZ&t=415 - It should start at the bit just as he is about to show the hotel.

We had a great sleep last night, and of course, we were delighted to wake up to such a gorgeous sea view. Our room comes with breakfast included, so again, that is another nice little bonus.

Breakfast

After breakfast, we went for a walk along the beach, and it was lovely. We were not quite ready for a dip in the water, but the sand and water on our toes were fun. We walked as far as we could before the beach disappeared and during the high season (now), the beach is reduced as it comes in much closer to the shoreline and in some cases, right up to the point where it cuts the beach off, so you need to walk for a bit on the roads again before you come to another stretch of beach. That was fine for us, although you certainly noticed the difference with the heat as soon as you came away from the beach area.

Hua Hin has lots of little streets with shops, bars and restaurants, so I can see why it is very popular with the 'retired populations'. There are of course lots of hotel and condo accommodations all around the place too.

By mid-afternoon, we were a bit exhausted, so we went back to the hotel, had a shower and then had an afternoon nap - yes, you heard right - we BOTH had a wee sleep. Clearly, all this eating, walking, fresh 'sea' air and heat is exhausting us, but I think that is partly what retirement is all about - there are no set rules any longer, we can do what we want, when we want and how we want. :)

After our nap, it was dinner time and we headed back to the Market Village Mall to have our evening dinner and we picked up a few items from the grocery store on our way back. Another busy day in the bag....

9 Dec 2024

Hua Hin, Thailand