We were left with 2 more days on our trip in Thailand. We already had enough experiences with temples. Now we want to take a different experience so we traveled down south to Hua Hin for the beach, the floating market and the ELEPHANTS!!!
As a usual routine, we woke up early. We took the minibus (van) at Victory Monument bound for Hua Hin that leaves at 9:20am. Going to Hua Hin takes 3 hours and costs us 170 THB each. The last stop of the minibus is at the clock tower and they have a tourism office there where we were able to inquire about the places in our ITI and on how to get around the town.
Our first stop is at Hutsadin Elephant Foundation. We hired a taxi that could fit all 7 of us. We only paid 300 THB for the whole taxi going to the Elephant Foundation and to Plearnwan (our next stop). The taxi driver was very nice. He barely speaks but he was nice 🙂 and I will never forget his name – O (who would forget a 1-letter name :D) .
We chose Hutsadin Elephant foundation among the others because of the good reviews we read from Trip Advisor and we wanted to support them in their mission in helping elephants that were abandoned. We only had to pay 150THB (for 1 basket) for elephant feeding. We fed a pregnant elephant and get hugged by a baby elephant. That was the very first time I’ve ever touched an elephant. It was a dream come true – an item I need to cross off from my bucketlist. We also met a volunteer from South Africa who just recently moved in in the foundation. Hearing her passion and love for these elephants was really inspiring.
this guy was already standing outside when we arrived – looks like they were expecting us 🙂
Our second stop was in Plearnwan. It is a shopping center that has a cute vintage concept. Items sold here vary from food, cute accessories, dresses, handmade sandals and some other vintage items like tapes, sunglasses, etc.
Our third stop was in Sam Phan Nam Floating Market. To get here we had to hire a tuk-tuk. We agreed for a price of 300 THB for a trip going to the floating market and then to Khao Takiab beach.
I was disappointed to see a floating market with no floating market vendors just like the ones we see in pictures. It was just a man-made lake surrounded with stores (that aren’t floating) that sells cute items and food.
Our whole day trip in Hua Hin ended in their very long stretch of fine-grained sand beach. It was almost sunset and it was low tide. We wanted to swim but we could not find a changing room so we decided to just take a stroll along the beach.
We decided to have our dinner here as well before going home. Thailand is a home of spices. Almost every food is spicy. For us, there seems to be no difference between a food that’s “spicy” and “a little spicy” at all.
Our last day in Thailand…
We no longer have to wake up early this time. As usual, the hostel was serving the same breakfast since Day 1. That’s the only downside of this hostel; the rest was beyond my expectations. For a budget hostel, I was amazed with the facilities of Saphai Pae Hostel. We stayed in a dormitory type room and each one has our own power outlet and locker. The CR was well maintained and they keep it fragrant most of the time. It is just a common CR but they provided a couple of hairdryer for free of use. Well I’d pretty much recommend this hostel.
Our whole day activity will only be shopping, shopping, and shopping! We went first to Pratunam (the corner between Krung Thung and City Complex) across Platinum Fashion Mall where we were overwhelmed with the cheap prices of clothes. I was so happy I was able to buy a lot of pasalubong. They have this wholesale price if you’ll buy 3 or more items of the same design (from the original price of 200 THB it would drop up to 100 THB). Only here was I able to find so many cute hippie dresses and skirts and I couldn’t believe I could find the Mori dresses I’ve been so fascinated with.
We also shopped inside Platinum Fashion Mall where I found a very cute shop that sells very cool accessories.
We still weren’t able to buy all the things we wanted because we are on a tight schedule. We had to go home by 6pm. A whole day wouldn’t be enough for shopping. We heard that the prices drop up to 20 THB at night – something to look forward to in our next visit in Thailand.
I was so overwhelmed with happiness that this country has brought me. Then again, I need to overcome this feeling of never wanting to let go of a place I felt so deeply in love with and so connected with. But that’s the price I have to pay for traveling.
Kop kun ka, Thailand! 😀
