Hua Hin is an odd expat place. They built the hotels right up to the edge of the beach, or over it, so the beach is pretty much gone. The roads are illogical and both of the old night markets have seen better days.
The two newer night markets, Cicada and Tamarind, are newer and are actually kind of fun.
It has two malls, Bluport and Village Market, and they are rather important to both locals and expats.
30 years ago i used to hang at All Nations Pub/Inn but it has been gone for years.
Hua Hin is plastic, there is not a lot of Thailand left in it.
But it is comfortable in its own skin. Despite its flaws i kind of like it.
But I seldom spend more than a few days there.
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it has been a weird warm February in Sask, Alberta, and Montana, meanwhile we are still in the deep freeze in Ontario.
We had to add on extra per visit snow removal services yesterday, because the snow removal team has already come 28 times this season. Usually only 24 snow removals are budgeted per winter in this part of Ontario, when the contracts for snow removal are prepared in the fall. Tough time for anyone in the snow removal business. There has also been a storage of salt and other ice melt.
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Doesn’t sound like my kind of town, but I guess it has some benefits for snow birds
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I think the US expats who live there might tend to be more permanent residents of the area, than Snow Birds? Some of the expat communities abroad aren’t really geared to tourists and snow birds, compared to other parts of the country.
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Hua Hin is both permanent expats and snow birds. It has a plastic downtown but it has a nicer outer layer that i am less familiar with.
But we tourists have pretty much ruined what i used to like about it.
The West has pretty much altered everything i liked about Thailand when i first got here in 1995, though, so there is that.
Way back in the day (1995 again) i saw a cartoon in a grocery store on Ko Tao that summed up how we love exotic locations.
Even truer today.
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Permanent residents aren’t expats, they’re immigrants 
People who chase the sun for a few months of the year are snow birds.
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Tourism usually has a terrible impact on pretty much everywhere, it’s a dual edged sword unfortunately.
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Very true!
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It can be frustrating trying to relay the desired heat level when it’s such a subjective thing. I guess Thais will err on the lower side for farangs than they’d do for natives, which is its own annoying fact. TBH I’d rather my face melt off than feel an underwhelming tickle 
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At one of the new plasticky hotels (though this one frequented more by Thai hi-so’s vs expats) there is a drinks and small snacks restaurants called Praca in an older house right on the beach. More spendy than the night markets but the food is quite good.
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Some permanent residents consider themselves expats.
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But they’re not, they’re immigrants
Immigrants are a subset of expats.
Says who, expats?
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I am leaving Bangkok for Rome tomorrow and I am sad to see the end of Thai visit! I spent most of my trip at the Lancaster, some at the Rembrandt and a little at the We Hotel, where I also had dinner at the You and I restaurant. I thought that was kind of overly cute, but the staff was great and the “infinity” pool was small but nice.
The Lancaster had a huge spread for “breakfast” that was more brunch like than breakfast’y.
Stayed on the Club Level which is really nice, but sadly, the food is not as nice as the welcome. But this end of Bangkok is rather walkable, so I spent a good deal of time walking up and down Sukhumvit Road, between the Emsphere and Emquartier. The Emspere is the newer one, with hugely gaudy decorations, not just for Chinese New Year, but pretty much all year. Found a Japanese Bakery place called Danish Bar Man that served these bread rolls with brown sugar or with chocolate, really good! And they are cheek by jowl with an Esaan place that serves my favorite kind of Sai Oua with cabbage! Just outstanding!
I also visited my favorite place for Affogato, though the service at Sarnies is slow and kind of forgetful, they do have power receptacles at most tables which makes it a nice mid-day spot to visit!
Then I spend a couple days using the khlong taxi boats to get to the Wat Sommanat area.
Some of my favorites are near here. I visited Boonlert for Michelin Bib level noodle soup. Simply outstanding small cafe with great friendly service!
Then I walked around the corner to Khao Kaeng Ruttana, a locals Kaeng place with 15 or 20 prepared types of Kaeng/Curry in a corner location. Love this place! It does not see a lot of Westerners, but they do have dish names in English for most of them. I ordered a pork dish with no name and a braised egg. Both were outstanding!
I was walking along minding my own business when a gentleman pointed out the excellence of his wife’s (Aunt Hong Dessert) mango and sticky rice, I agreed but had to take it to go. Another delicious dish!
The next day I was over closer to the madness of Khao San Road so I hit another Michelin Bib location, Pad Thai Fai Ta Lu. I went up the cramped stairs to the upper, airconditioned space where they were out of all of their juices but they had the Pork Jowl Pad Thai I had heard so much about. I am not a big fan of pad Thai but this is a very, very good dish! Rich, slightly sweet but layered flavors that really showcase the Iberian (?) pork. Small portion size but good.
I actually like Ram Buttri, Khao San’s neighbor a good bit from my old travel days and Tossakan has two of my favorite dishes prepared just about as well as I have had them. Both their Massaman Gai and their Penang Curry with Chicken are outstanding, and the ladies that run the place are very sweet. Very touristy, but they do not dumb down the spices. Great food in the middle of Ram Buttri.
This is the Penang Curry, I can not find my photo from a few weeks ago of the Massaman Gai.
And just down the road is my second favorite mid-day hangout, Madam Musur. All outdoors but shady and plenty of fans. I do not eat here, I just get mugs of ice and tall Singha beer. Kind of a beer shandy but no lemonade, just melted ice. Very refreshing!
I also spend a couple days walking through the Giant Swing area south of Khao San Road and every place I went was better than average. I was not channeling Lake Woebegone, I had very good reco’s from friends that had visited the area over the years. First of all, Kolun.h was simply outstanding, Hainan noodles with crispy pork, prepared very well with a moderate spice level that accented the pork, not overpowered it. Friendly service, albeit at a place that had more tourists than locals. Simple but good.
The next day I went to the Fat Duck, not sure what the name is in Thai. Grandma served me another simply outstanding soup dish with very nice duck. Old school Thai, close by Kolun.h but all locals, may have been luck of the draw, but it was nice.
Next was my usual hangout, Petit Peyton, a hostel that serves cold drinks and has the cleanest bathroom in the area. Rootbeer floats, Esyen iced coffee, it is all good. This is the place I go nearly every time I end up at this end of Bangkok.
Finally, my favorite canal walk is Ang Ong from Petit Peyton on my way to Original’s Mae On for Green Curry. No trip to Bangkok is complete without at least one giant Monitor Lizard sighting. These things are huge!!
Bangkok is a great city, it has a little of everything. The heat really slows you down by afternoon, but the food and the people are both enough to make it worth it. This trip the amount of new construction has been off the charts. Bangkok is paving all the sidewalks on Song Wat, the sidewalks around Sukhumvit, buildings that have been there for 60 years are getting torn down, old warehouses are getting knocked down and low-rise commercial residential mix going in. Just an amazing time to visit this city. And the Sky Train still does not accept credit cards or share a ticket with the Subway/MRT. Nah, it does not irritate me. Not at all. 25 minute waits for a Sky Train ticket, twice during my stay. Grr…
I do use the Sky Train in off peak times because it is a great way to get a birds eye view of the city and it goes places the subway does not.
Not sure what to think of this…
I have been going on at length a bit, so I will talk about Chinatown/Song Wat in a separate post.
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Another outstanding report filled with excellent photos!
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The Lancaster looks great, and the price is very reasonable. Are the club rooms worth the upcharge?
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Odd that you would ask that because I have recently looked at what I got and what they charge and I came to the conclusion that logically the answer is no.
They do throw in 2 items of clothing cleaned per day of stay, plus the club for desserts and later for apps and drinks and you stay in the upper level rooms but the numbers do not quite make it worthwhile. Unless you eat or drink more than I do.
But I like going to the club for apps and a highball at the end of my day, so it makes sense for me. But the numbers do not make financial sense. And I am ok with that. One other thing about the club that is not written in stone and I mention with some misgivings, is that I show up here at 11am, maybe around noon, fairly frequently. So far, and it may be coincidental, but they always find a room ready for me on the Club Level. Nothing like having a room ready for me after a long day of travel and me arriving way before the check in time. But this is just my recent experiences, and I have probably jinxed myself by mentioning it. LOL!
The Lancaster falls into a class of hotels that I have been seeing a lot of lately. Hotels that claim they are 5 star, but are really just nice 4 star hotels, but they are better than normal 4 stars places. So I am referring to them as 4.6 star places like the Lancaster, or 4.3 star places like the Rembrandt. I am a firm believer that 5 stars is not enough to delineate the gradations in hotel quality, or restaurant quality. You really do need 10 stars, or a 10 point scale, to grade places. I do not require the services a true 5 star hotel provides, so paying for that level of service is a form of throwing pearls before swine for me. No insult meant to myself, it is just a waste of money and other peoples time for me to stay at most 5 star places if I am traveling by myself. I like a good 4.6 star hotel, it fits my travel style better than a 2 star or a 5 star hotel. But just about any hotel that is friendly and clean that falls between 3 stars and 4.6 stars is a possible for me.
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That early check in is worth it’s weight in gold, regardless of how it came about 
I guess it really comes down to whether or not you take advantage of the extra perks. Still, even with the club room upgrade, the prices are still excellent in Thailand compared to North America and the EU.
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I just finished booking rooms in Rome and Washington DC (Arlington VA actually) and the price differential from Thailand is notable. Not as huge as it used to be, but still notable. I have a neighborhood in Arlington I usually like to stay in and my two favorite places can vary from $130USD per night to over $600USD per night depending on whether the PlaceMakr or the Westin are nearly sold out.
I used to work in the hotel industry when I was going to school and none of the hotels I worked for would gouge the people booking the last few rooms available quite that badly.
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