Chiongster Girl Travelogue: 9D8N Driving in Hua Hin + Khao Yai

It's July and I had a month long holiday, so we decided to plan a Hua Hin + Khao Yai trip right after our Penang trip. So in the wee hours of Sunday morning, after we returned our rented car from Kasani at Penang International Airport, we settled all the procedures to board our 8am flight to Bangkok.

Before we talk about our flight.. Some quick pre-travel tips:

Traveling period

Our traveling period was July 17-25. July 18-20 was Thailand's public holiday and Buddha day. So tourist attractions will be a little more crowded than usual and hotels sell out a little faster. Also, do note you won't be able to purchase alcohol from anywhere during these few holy days. If these factors affects your travels, do google first when is Thailand's Buddhist holidays which varies every year.
Holidays in Thailand: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/thailand/

Weather

When we were at Thailand, it was blazing hot in the morning and usually cloudy/raining in the afternoon. The sun rises earlier than what we are used to and it gets really hot quickly. Some people say Khao Yai is a good place to travel because it is cooling, it has pretty views and all, but note it's not like that throughout the year.

If you want to be a chiongster, I would say the best time to travel to Khao Yai is December-January period. Because that's when the weather is coolest, when the sunflowers will be blooming if you want to catch the beautiful view of a sea of sunflowers, and when Jim Thompson farm, one of the main attractions, is open for the year.

We didn't have a choice because we can't make it in December. But don't get me wrong, there are still pretty views and interesting places to visit as you will see in my other posts.

Currency

We converted some SGD at Singapore CBD area for a rate of 1SGD to 25.95THB at that time. Some say converting at Thailand is better because they offer better rates, but the markets was fluctuating at that time so we couldn't vouch for that. Quick tip to convert from THB to SGD in your head: divide by 100 and multiply by 4 to get an approximate number.

Ok, so those are some pre-travel concerns, now to continue our journey..

Flight Penang International Airport-Thailand Suvarnabhumi Airport

We took the first flight by Thai Smile (literally their first ever flight from Penang to Bangkok, so we were the pioneer guinea-pig batch!). It was the cheapest flight at that time at RM261(S$91) with free 20kg baggage. We researched and found that the budget airline is a subsidiary of Thai airways so we figured it should be reliable.

The orange themed, short distance budget airlines reminds me a lot of Jeju Air that we took a year ago. Both flights gave an overall good impression. Thai Smile's flight attendants were very pleasant and polite. And they also served breakfast even for a short budget flight like this! The cheapo side of me was naturally impressed haha.

Food during the flight was omelette with corn, along the common bread and butter, fruits and fruit juice, with coffee or tea.

The journey from Penang to Bangkok is 1 hour 45 mins and though there was a short delay of 15mins, we still arrived on time at 8.45am. Do note that Thailand time is one hour behind Malaysia and Singapore time (i.e. 8am at Thailand is 7am at Malaysia/Singapore). Flight was very smooth and special commendation for a impact-less landing!

Buying SIM cards

If you land at Suvarnabhumi airport, upon exiting the customs, take a left turn and keep walking until around Gate 6-7. You should see the telco counters AIS and dtac there.

The following are the prices, which seems the same across the telcos, so we just chose AIS:
7-day: 299 baht, unlimited data with max speed for 1.5GB, reduced speed of 64kbps afterwards (free 100 baht credit)
10-day: 449 baht. unlimited data with max speed for 2.5GB, reduced speed of 64kbps afterwards (free 100 baht credit)
There are also several 30 day plans for much longer stays.

We needed it for 9 days, which seemed obvious to get the 10-day package.

But, here's a tip: if you have some experience with prepaid cards, you might know that you can just top up at a store and buy something like a 1-day package when your 7 days run out which might be cheaper. True enough, the 7-day package lasted us for 9 days! Here's how the math goes:

299 baht gets you a 7-day 1.5GB data and 100 baht credit in your SIM.

If you use data after the 7 days, you can use the 100 baht credit to buy 1 day packages at 15 baht for 24 hours (Speed 512kbps, 250MB).

We kinda forgot on the 8th day so they sent us an SMS that informed us that if we use 49 baht of data today, we will get unlimited data until the end of the day(12am) at max speed of 384 kbps.

So, our two days of data usage was capped at 49baht x 2 which is perfect for us.

We only purchased one SIM card and use our mobile hotspot to share our data. As our 100 baht credit wasn't touched, we can maximise it for additional data. This is our experience with AIS, I am not sure what the offers like for the other telcos, but if they are competitive like other countries it will most likely be similar.

If you do not require ultra high speed data and want to go on budget, you can try our tip, and even save more than us by exploring and purchasing the daily data plans. Honestly, you don't need high speed if you are just going to use it to research food, use google maps and whatsapp. But yes, having data is highly recommended for road directions, finding food, and occasionally to translate words etc.

Renting a car

We rented our car from Thai Rent A Car. For an economy car, Toyota Yaris, the cost is 700THB per day and we also opt for super loss damage waiver of 200THB per day. So in total, plus VAT, we paid 8667THB for 9 days (counted in 24 hours). That's about S$344 on our credit card (S$38 a day) which is pretty affordable.

Things to bring when you rent a car in Thailand:

- Passport

- Driving licence (We had an international licence at that time, but we read some forums that said you can just use your Malaysia/Singapore licence, do email the rental company to check)

- Valid credit card of 6 months

Of course, if you want a specific type of car, booking early always helps.

Remember to check your car for dings and scratches together with the rental staff. Take pictures of them with your mobile for further assurance if you want. Our car was pretty beat up with around 10 minor scratches and a hole in the rear light cover, so after having it marked everything on the agreement form, we were good to go!

Drive to Hua Hin - Experience of driving in Thailand

Off we go to Hua Hin!

Driving in Thailand is quite a challenge, it's like Need For Speed in real life. There is generally the 'truck lane', which is on the leftmost, the 'chill lane' (~100km/h) which is generally in the middle and the 'fast lane' (~120km/h) which is on the right. ALSO, theres the 'fastest lane' (~140+ km/h) which is all the lanes, including the road shoulder sometimes. These are the cars that change lanes as soon as there is a vehicle in front of them, and they really know how to squeeze. Even with this, Thai drivers are generally polite, and they almost never horn, even if a speeding car cuts their lane causing them to brake.

One thing to take note is that U-Turns are particularly hard. They are usually on the right side of an expressway, which means that you will turn into the 'fastest lane' most of the time. Be very careful when you are doing this!

I'm really a road paranoid so I freak out quite a few times even though I'm at the passenger seat. I told Aik that I just want to close my eyes and sleep and wake up at our destination. (FYI I didn't, I yelled my way through the first few days, and got numb by the fourth day)

Renting your own car is definitely worth it for many reasons, but just be alert and careful on the road.

While exiting Bangkok, there was a jam of approx half an hour at about 10am although it's a Sunday. Try to avoid the morning and evening rush hour if you want to escape the jam. As for toll, we only pass through one the entire journey which is while exiting Bangkok, costing 40baht.

Eating in Thailand

Okay, then comes lunch.

Sometimes as travelers, we tend to go to places that has English reviews, English speaking waiters, appear on familiar sites, recommended by hotels etc. But what we notice is that these places are sometimes only patronised by tourists and that no locals ever step in. Are you truly experiencing the authentic food and culture of the locals, or just the tourism industry they created for you to experience? Some food for thought.

Well, if you are feeling adventurous and don't mind using hand signs in return for the best of best food, what should you do?

One ultimate tip that I can give to you: To find the best food in a foreign country, especially if you want authentic local favourites, you have to download the food apps that locals use. And no I'm not talking about Foursquare or TripAdvisor, which is used by foreigners.

In Thailand, I found this app called "Wongnai", something like FourSquare or HungryGoWhere. The app is partially English, but reviews are mostly in Thai. Doesn't matter, we can make do with that.

All you need is to see which place has the highest ratings, with a decently high number of reviews. There's a lot of Thai words. But as long as you are familiar with apps in general, you will be able to figure it out pretty quickly! There are pictures, search filters, and recommended food as well! Once you chose your restaurant just route to the location using the app.

Other than that, you can also ask locals, read blogs written by locals, use google reviews etc. Which are also good. But do note that if you ask locals, they will sometimes recommend shops opened by their kins/friends, or places they think you as a tourist will like, which will lead you back to the touristy places.

So using our app, we found this place called Dang Seafood. It’s the highest rating restaurant when we were on the way to Hua Hin, so we decided to give it a try.

This place is so Thai, so very Thai, that we stood out like a sore thumb. But the food was amazingly authentically Thai. More on that later.

FYI, there is designated parking for the restaurant right next to it too, but we parked somewhere further down because it was full.

The place was packed so we waited for our seats. About 5 minutes later, we got a seat and got an English menu from the waitress. After picking our dishes, we gestured our way to order.

The fried rice with crab (recommended by local reviews) was heavenly and bloody cheap at 150THB (S$6 for a lot, a lot of crab meat).

Unfortunately there was only two of us, so we couldn't order much. Otherwise, we would have tried the recommended seafood here, especially the fried fish they are famous for.

When you want to call for the bill, just say “check bin” or “kep tang” and they will understand.

Some useful phrases:

“Klap baan” – Takeaway

“Phet” – Spicy, “Mai phet” – not spicy, (not pronounced as “f” as in Philippines, but a strong “p” sound like park)

“Nam” – water, “Khaaw” – rice

“Aw” – Want, “Mai aw” – Don't want

“Thawray kha/khap?” – How much is it? (But make sure you understand numbers in case they reply you in Thai hahah). Googling "Thai numbers" should get you going.

http://www.thai-language.com/ref/numbers

"Check bin" "Kep Tang" - Asking for bill
"Khop khun kha" (if you’re female), “Khop khun khap” (if you’re male) – Thank you.

Deeply satisfied with our lunch, we continued our journey to the Sea-Cret Hua Hin, our first hotel.

Arrived at Hua Hin
The Sea-Cret Hua Hin Hotel

The hotel is a very nice and very chic place. I love their art sense, design and their use of both natural light and artificial light. By the way, if you stay on ground floor (probably more pricey), you can jump straight into the pool from your balcony area.

Welcome drink

Pink and white themed lobby

Hotel room

In our room, there’s a Jacuzzi at the balcony. You can purchase bath bombs for the Jacuzzi. We tried the big bomb (Cherry Blossom) for 150 Baht which generated an overwhelming amount of bubbles (in a good way, depending on your inner child). The small one which goes for 60 Baht but it doesn’t seem like a bubble bomb, but more like a scented bath, ask the hotel staff if you’d like to learn more, they are quite friendly (:.

A having fun with the bubbles

One thing about the hotel is that it doesn’t have a lift, though we managed to found one under construction. A and I don’t have a lot of bags, but I’ve traveled with my family before, and I know how sometimes we can really need a lift. We stayed at third floor, and the staff offered to help us carry our bags. However she looks very petite and as small as me, that I feel so paiseh to let her carry our bags. Well, hopefully they can get the lift done soon.

Cicada Market

At night, we headed to Cicada Market. Cicada Market is like a weekly art market where they sell art and crafts items, customised items like key chains and toys, etc.

They are open from 4pm-11pm every Friday and Saturday and 4pm-10pm on Sundays. Do plan your trip on weekends if you intend to go for this. We deliberately arranged to arrive on Sunday just to be able to catch this weekend market, and we loved it.

Okay, now comes an important tip. WHERE TO FIND PARKING.

Honestly, we struggled with this too. I read a blog that say there is parking "somewhere nearby”, but that’s not very helpful. We also passed by a sign that says “Free parking” that points to nothing, so we decided to just forgo it. If you managed to find the free parking, do leave a comment to help other travellers.

Eventually, after some google mapping and observing, we found the big parking space next to Cicada, but you have to turn in a small road, as seen in the screenshot below. Just use google maps and search for the Parking word next to Cicada, and that’s where you have to go.

Parking is 50 Baht (S$2) per entry. We passed by a few “indie” parking space earlier along the same road as Cicada which are of cheaper price but you have to walk a little bit (some are actually quite near, just look at your google maps to decide). If you are lucky, you may also find some space at the roadside where a lot of locals park, but I’m not sure if it is legit. You may try those also if you don’t mind.

Right next to the car park. there is a food night market, where you can have dinner before checking out Cicada market.

After dinner, we cross the road to Cicada market.

Being an artsy fartsy person myself, I really enjoyed this place. The ambience was warm and friendly and some of the things on sale are really unique and interesting. I would say overall, this is one of my favourite places during our trip.

One of the interesting shops was a customized doll shop with a lady dressed in a princess costume, which formed a long queue of eager kids. They would choose from an array of accessories and designs to put onto their dolls and wait in line for their turn for the lady to hot-glue-gun the items onto their doll.

Another one was a wooden rubber band gun shop which sold very intricate weapons of mass irritation, and A's inner engineer was amazed that there was an automatic rubber band rifle. Unfortunately, I don't think you can bring that home without being detained in the airport.