Taya Starling

One of my favorite holidays in Thailand is Loy Kratong.  Every year in November on the evening of the full moon in the 12th month of the Thai lunar calendar.  During this beautiful festival, beautiful handmade lotus shaped floats are decorated and then placed in rivers, lakes, and oceans to carry away all the negative thoughts of defilements in ones life.  It’s not just a gorgeous sight, but represents a new beginning of sorts and an overall cleansing of negativity to make room for new positive things- and let’s face it, we all need more of that.

For Loy Kratong this past November, since I was lucky enough to be in Thailand with my mom (and not working for the weekend!), we took the opportunity to drive a few hours down south to the little beach city of Hua Hin.  I hadn’t been in close to 8 years and heard about all the growth it has experienced as tourism spread further and further out of Bangkok, Loy Kratong weekend seemed like the perfect chance to explore a town I once loved as a child.

And people were not kidding.  Hua Hin today is not at all like Hua Hin from close to a decade ago.  The city has expanded to accommodate all the new residents and tourists and of course that brought in attractions- like Venezia…. A huge compound designed to look like a bright and colorful version of Venice, Italy right here on the outskirts of Hua Hin.  Very odd indeed, but Thailand has been seeing an increase in these themed plazas in recent years and each one tries to out do the other. With canals and gondola rides, if you get past the heat and the lack of handsome Italian men, you could almost imagine being in Venice – and bonus there’s no danger of the entire thing sinking any time soon. On top of shops and games, Venezia has activities like riding around in the horse carriage or for the kids, a little train that drives around the complex. The shopping of course is up to par with the rest of Thailand’s tourist attractions, but strangely most of the shops are touristy giftshops (even thought most of the visitors are Thai).  However, I did find this awesome optical shop that carries everything from brand name to knock off to vintage glasses plus hats and other knick knacks. 

So part of why we picked Hua Hin for the weekend is because I had heard so much about the Marrakesh Resort & Spa right on the main strip of Hua Hin beach.  This beautiful themed hotel (have you caught on that Thailand is loving the whole themed concept?!) is elaborately designed to give guests the feeling of staying in a magical Moroccan getaway. The detail in the tiles and the architecture are simply stunning- how amazing is that black and white chevron floor? All the rooms there are supposedly suites… ours was very nice, but not nearly as nice as I thought it would be according to the pictures on their website.  It’s clean, pretty, colorful, and nice, but pretty pricey.  Our jacuzzi spa tub was pretty pointlessly put on an open balcony- this is Thailand, mosquitos will eat you alive while you’re sitting outside let alone soaking in a hot tub when it’s already hot out.  We never used it.  What a pity, I do love a nice spa. We moved on exploring the rest of the hotel grounds- it’s a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but nice and well designed to make the most of the property… except a random few rooms that were unoccupied but apparently used to be a boutique or minimart. The gym was small and probably doesn’t get much use, but it serves its purpose if you decide to work out while you’re on vacation (I usually do, but I’m crazy.) I did love the restaurant and all the beautiful details in the tile, design, and aesthetics.  It’s the only restaurant on property so expect to eat just about everything between breakfast, lunch, and dinner- although I do recommend venturing off property for dinner! Of course we had to check out the spa- it was perfect.  Pretty, relaxing, and offered just enough services to keep you busy for a few days- luckily since it rained one of the days we were there.  No where better to spend a rainy beach day than at the spa or cozied up with a book.  We did both.

One of my favorite parts of Hua Hin is a new addition to the beach community.  Cicada was recently built to provide some evening/ night entertainment for locals and tourists alike.  It was about 5-10 mins by tuktuk from our hotel and upon arrival we were greeted by a band of teenagers playing modern music on traditional thai instruments.  I LOVE THAT.  The initiative for kids to mix tradition with their modern tastes.  Isn’t that what real evolution is all about? Cicada is home to several two story structures that serve as mini art galleries featuring all kinds of art from local artists and a few of their international friends.  It started pouring just after we walked in so my mom and I took refuge in one of the galleries and checked out the art until the rain died down.
 You’ll also find plenty of artists on site creating original art for your shopping pleasure.  You can have a caricature made, dip your hand in wax, or purchase original art made on the spot.  I bought this beautiful watercolor postcard made right before my eyes by this talented guy who turned an old VW into his art station/ store.  The postcards were selling like hotcakes! Once you’ve picked out a postcard or if you’re still searching for one you can head over to this lovely little coffee shop.  They have a great selection of coffee mugs, notebooks, postcards, and of course yummy coffee drinks PLUS you’ve got a place toe it, relax, write out some postcards, and listen to the live band playing on the lawn. And when you’re done they even have a postbox so you can send your postcards off to their loving recipients.  I love snail mail! I send postcards every chance I get (: After all that wandering and writing we decided to grab some food at the huge food court they have of yummy Thai dishes.  We opted for papaya salad (Somtum) and some northern food- grilled sausage, grilled pork, sticky rice, and this delicious spicy dip that I like to call Thai salsa (aka Namprik Num) For dessert we couldn’t resist roti- crispy fried dough that’s drizzled with condensed milk.  You can also get it with banana or egg or plenty other options.  Mama Starling and I prefer the original plain version though, extra crispy. After eating our fill we wandered around a bit more and stumbled upon some local Bboys doing their thing.  I loved watching the little boys watch their elders with so much awe.  Anything that keeps kids off the streets, drugs, and out of gangs is okay in my book- especially when it encourages creativity and socializing.  These Hua Hin Bboys get props from me. 

The next day was a bit gloomy but we woke up and took a nice long walk on the beach.
 One of my favorite things to do as a kid when we’d visit Hua Hin was go horseback riding along the beach.  This little pony is more for a leisure stroll or kids, but huge full grown horses are also available if you ever want to go for a gallop.  Random fact: I once got kicked by a horse while I was riding another horse on one of my last visits down to Hua Hin.  My leg didn’t fracture or break but I got a mean looking welt/ bruise that lasted a good month or so and every now and then when it’s cold my shin hurts where I got kicked.This little beach bar is one of my favorite parts of the hotel.  It’s quiet but on the beach with a full view of the hotel lawn and pool as well, plus they’ve got a nice wine selection and hookah if you want the full Morroccan experience.

That night was finally full moon so the hotel staff had generously prepared close to 100 kratongs for the hotel guests to float for the night ceremony.  During the day they were colorfully on display by the pool and my mom and I spent a good portion of the day marveling at how beautiful and colorful they all were.

 Each one had cut, folded, decorated, and completely unique.  I’ve been making kratongs since I was a little girl and I still haven’t mastered a third of the different folding techniques.  Night fall came and the beach bar lit up beautifully under the glowing full moon.  We decided to do dinner at the hotel tonight so we settled in to a nice Morrocan meal with lamb tangine, couscous, and a Morroccan salad with goat cheese.
 For dessert of course we opted for the sampler with a little bit of everything- dinner, awesome, dessert? mediocre. Finally, my favorite moment.  Time to wander down to the beach and “loy kratong”, float our kratongs.Mama Starling and I picked one of the hotels kratongs each to float along side the two we made our selves from a banana tree in our backyard and some local flowers.  We made them in our hotel room while it was raining- the perfect craft activity really (:

 Down on the beach other hotel guests were beginning to float the paper lanterns they had brought with them.  They hold the same concept and actually if you’re ever in Thailand during Loy Kratong I highly recommend making your way to Ayuthaya or Sukothai or Chiang Mai for the lantern festivals- stunning doesn’t even begin to describe how truly breathtaking it is to see thousands of paper lanterns floating up into the sky at the same time.

 Luckily the tide was out and there was a nice little bay of water divided from the sea by a sandbar.  I wouldn’t recommend floating kratongs in the ocean otherwise as the waves will simply knock them back on to the shore.  I also really don’t recommend floating kratongs that aren’y completely biodegradable since these pretty little floaters really wreck havoc on the environment when they’re made of styrofoam and plastic, nails and metal pins (my mom and I made ours out of banana stalk, banana leaves, bamboo toothpicks, and flowers).The night was perfect… a bit windy, but cool and comfortable at the beach.  Mama Starling and I floated our kratongs and then retired back to the beach bar to finish our bottle of wine and talk about our dreams and hopes for the future.  I adore the fact that my mom who is coming up on her sixth decade of life is still full of dreams.  I hope I never run out of hopes and dreams for my future.

The next morning was perfect day.  And I mean perfect.  We sat in a cabana by the pool and did very little of everything.  After a few rounds of cards and yahtzee we were content reading and napping until it was time to check out and hit the road back to Bangkok. On the way home we passed another of those big themed plazas- Santorini Park which is part amusement park, park water park, part shopping plaza.  I’ll let you guess the theme. These places are literally created for instagram.  I swear, every corner is made into a photo opportunity- if you counted the number of selfies happening at any given minute there I’m sure you’d be exhausted. We skipped most of the selfie action and decided nothing would beat the heat quite as well as gelato. WIN. Now I don’t know how many of you are only children but let me tell you… when you’re an only child, you have no choice but to be photographed everywhere possible, alone.  Seriously my parents houses look like shrines dedicated to me because well… there’s no one else to really put pictures up of.  I did take the opportunity to turn the camera on my mom here and there though- how cute is she being eaten alive by this shark? (; After you’re done admiring all the random but beautiful sights to see, you’ll face the very important question… “Where to eat?”  There are quite a few options but strangely enough, no Greek food…. However, there was a wonderful little vintage Thai noodle shop that was not only decorated entirely in vintage Thai memorabilia but also served your food old school in traditional bowls, cups, and cutlery pretty authentic to how my mom dined as a little girl. I ate two bowls of noodles. And I’m not ashamed.  I would have gone for a third if I didn’t already have my eye on another treat two doors down (;

But at last, we came to the end of our little loy kratong adventure in Hua Hin… I personally prefer to hit the islands when I’ve got a few days off but I do encourage you to visit Hua Hin at least once because… well, if I haven’t given you enough reasons above then you really should consider what it is you’re doing with your life and why you’re still sitting here reading this. Go on, get out there and adventure already.