The Old Railway Hotel

Hua Hin, Day 25

So today is our last full day in Hua Hin as tomorrow we move back to Bangkok for our second Home Exchange.

The weather has turned a little bit, and by that I mean it is partially cloudy and rain is predicted. The temperature is slightly lower than the past few days at 28oC and the rainfall that has been predicted is for 2mm - yes, 2mm. So there still isn't any respite from the heat as it's still roasting.

The Railway Hotel

As I may have mentioned previously, I have a love of old architecture (now, now that's not the reason that I married R!) but after visiting the Hua Hin railway station (the old and the new one), I thought it would be quite nice if we went and visited The Railway Hotel.

14 Dec 2024

Now it's no longer called the Railway Hotel, but since late 2014, it has been run by the Central Plaza Hotel Company, who renamed it the Grand Centara Beach Resort Hotel & Villas Hua Hin.

It's a historic hotel, and it was used as the Hotel Le Phnom in the 1984 film The Killing Fields. The hotel originally occupied land leased from the State Railway of Thailand, which was the owner. The hotel dates back to 1909 when engineers surveying the southern railway route noted its beauty and location. When the train line opened in 1911, wealthy Bangkok residents started coming to Hua Hin and building holiday homes. In 1921, the southern line to Malaysia was completed, and this made it possible to travel between Bangkok, Malaysia and Singapore by train.

Mr. Alfredo Rigazzi, the State Railways' Italian architect, designed the original building as a luxurious two-storey European-style resort hotel made of brick and wood, following royal command. The hotel was constructed on State Railways land while existing bungalows were moved a short distance away. The hotel featured 14 bedrooms, a lobby lounge, bar, restaurant, billiards room, wine storeroom, and large verandas, costing a total of 128,366 baht (£2954), a staggering sum at the time. A veranda surrounded the building, cleverly designed to protect guests from the sun's heat and prevent rainwater from running back along the tiles.

The hotel opened in October 1922 and had its grand opening on 1 January 1923.

King Rama VI commissioned road maintenance engineer A. O. Robins to build a golf course on land opposite the railway station, completing the original nine-hole, 3,000-yard Royal Hua-Hin Golf Course and tennis courts in time to welcome the first hotel guests on 26 October 1922.

By 1928 the hotel's reputation was international and, in order to accommodate the growing number of visitors to Hua Hin, a new wing of 13 rooms, was built to exactly the same design as the existing building.

After WWII, two more guestrooms were added, along with three restaurants, a downstairs bar, and a lobby with a panoramic view of Hua Hin's bay.

In 1988, the hotel was purchased by Sofitel and became the Hotel Sofitel Central Hua Hin before later becoming the current Grand Centara Beach Resort.

Overall, it was a beautiful place and the gardens with their hedgies in the shape of all sorts of animals and old style building was just delightful.

After our tour around the beautiful old hotel, we headed back to our hotel and sat outside the restaurant with a glass of iced lemonade, reading our books with the waves in front of us. There were some tiny (warm) rain drops but certainly not enough to scare off two hardy Scots from our prime beach front position.

Before we knew it, R was having a case of the rumbletums, and that meant it was time for dinner. We headed off to the Market Village and R had his usual of a rice and pork dish, and I had a pork noodle soup followed by a mango sticky rice.

After a quick shower and and change of clothes back at the hotel room, we then sat out in the veranda with the last of our wine reading and doing some stuff on our laptops before we headed back inside to start packing our bags for our departure tomorrow.

Hua Hin - it's been lovely, and one day we may come back and visit you again.

Hua Hin, Thailand