Date : 13th September 2012 Time : 4.

30pm ( Malaysia Time ) 11pm ( Thailand Time) Destination : Kuala Lumpur Danok Distance : About 550KM Date : 14th September 2012 Time : 7.30am 6.30pm Destination : Danok Hua Hin Distance : About 700KM Left KL right after Zheng Nis UPSR exam and 6 hours later we are in Danok, going through custom at 10.3opm is a breeze but please do have your insurance done with earlier arrangement as some of the agent at Chang Lun close earlier. I suggest to be at Chang Lun not later then 10pm as I noticed only a few agency stay up late ( Please go to those coffee shop of restaurant ), in fact I was the last customer at the petrol station or you have to top up with expensive fuel in Thailand. Next morning having breakfast at Danok street hawker as the hotel breakfast is not ready at 6.3oam. Danok is a small town serving mostly Malaysian. People here can speak Bahasa Malaysia and the food is very similar to Malaysia.

Porridge is good.

Fish ball noodle is not a bad choice.

Zheng Hao and Zheng Yuan enjoying noodle breakfast.

Continue our journey at 7.30am as we had a long 700KM to reach Hua Hin, Thailand highway is good as usual, only a few KM section having some maintenance and uneven surface, that made me missed my 4 wheel drive as I couldnt be bother those small potholes when I am driving a 4 wheel drive with big tyre. I was driving a Nissan Serena this trip where the handling is good and more comfortable for the passenger as everyone will have their own seat. But I just worried sometime when going through uneven road surface wondering if the small tyre can take the punishment or not. Luckily its an non even for the 5 days trip.

At about 10.30am, we refuel at Thung Song. Price for Gasohol 95 is 380 Baht per litre. For the rest of the journey in Thailand, I have been using gasohol 95 without any problem on Nissan Serena. At 12.30pm, right after we pass Surat Thani, we got to enjoy a very delicious coconut jelly call Vun Mak Pau in Thai ( Mak Pau is Coconut and Vun is jelly ). It cost abou 25o baht each. There are 10 stores at each sites of the road and some selling at 200 baht if you are good in bargaining.

One for each person and no fighting.

Continue our journey with smiling face, along the road there are a lot of road side stalls selling local product. We stop to replenish some tibits. That is the advantage in self drive holiday, you can stop as you want and leave as you wish.

Continue our journey after lunch, at about 3.30pm, we reach elephant temple where the last time we visited was in year 2006, the first time we drive to Thailand. Still the same old scene where there are a lots of stall selling banana product you are just spoiled of choice.

At about 1.30pm, we stop at a rest area for lunch. Simple mean and it cost about 30 to 40 baht per person, again 7-11 is the best place to stop because there are so many variety. The best choice is sticky rice and sausages. After the 5 days holiday, we conclude 7-11 is childrens heaven in Thailand, at least for Zheng Hao, Zheng Ni, Zheng Yuan and Zheng Er.

At 6.30pm, we reached Hua Hin right after dark. Check in to hotel Hua Hin beach hotel and walk to the near by Hua Hin night market. There are 2 night markets in Hua Hin. The one that we visited is more popular and targeted for tourists. It is located next to the Hua Hin wet market.

Suddenly Zheng Hao and Zheng Yuan becomes pirate in Hua Hin.

Very nice setup road side restaurant in night market targeting tourist.

Eventually Zheng Ni becomes pirate as well.

Old houses being restore to become night market.

A road site mobile bar.

beach. There are a numbers of activities you can do at the beach such as water sport and horse riding.

- See more at: http://www.drivetothailand.com/d rive-to-Hua-Hin-day1/#sthash.WzqZ1tPK.dpuf Had our breakfast at hotel, the hotel is located in the centre of city and about 300 meters walk to the beach.

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Walk to the beach after breakfast, saw this 5 things to do in Hua Hin at the entrance to the beach

Some photo taken in Hua Hin

Beach front hawker stall.

Beach chair for rent, its all about money, money, money

Hilton Hua Hin, one of the earliest and prominent hotel here.

Fishing village one end of Hua Hin beach.

not open for business yet.

A temple next to the beach, please note one of the god is similar to what we had at Genting Highland.

Continua walking around town, as its still early, a lot of shops are

This is a shop near the morning we market/night market selling fireworks, apparently it is legal and popular to play fireworks at the beach area.

This is Hua Hin morning market.

we sample some of the local food and it is quite tasty for my liking.

converse in Mandarin or dialects.

Quite a number of selections. and normally there are a lot of local foods at the morning market. Continue walking around town and visit some malls. Actually it is just a number of small shopping mall around town.

Like many parts of Thailand, chinese influence can be seen around town but most of them except the old generation cannot

factory located FN factory.

well.

It was raining so we decided to have early lunch at a western restaurant in town.

A giant colorful dinosaurs welcome us at the entrance.

Is it cheap ? I am not sure as I am not fancy branded stuff. In fact only 5 percents of the goods here from those international brands, the rest is a local brand cater for export market.

There is a cafe here with all the hero sculpture.

After lunch, we drove up north towards Cha Am/Airport where

Apparently there are a few dinosaurs inside the stall as

bridge connecting 2 buildings.

This is an antique art of wood carving.

Giant bear for sale in the store

The entire building is design with a lot of green especially the

Later we drive to a view point on top of a hill overlooking entire Hua Hin town.

Met a friendly Thailand couple with their pet a lovely bulldog.

Mona LiYuan

beneath is Hua Hin Golf course.. apparently the first golf course in Thailand is located at Hua Hin.

After the view point, we drove west to visit Salipin art village, basically it is a art centre converted from a village with a numbers of wooden house. Welcoming us at the entrance is no other than the famous Mona LiHao

Mona Li Er.. ( Not Lier )

and Mona LiYee

If you like art, then you will enjoy it.. we just take a stroll, relax.. and rest

Mona LiNi

Enough rest then we move on to visit the largest buddha statue in Thailand ( That is what it

claims in the travel brochure )

Next is the floating market, apparently some company create a man-made lake with the similar concept of the floating market. There are more like a shopping area where stalls selling all kinds of goods circling the lake. There are 2 of these so call floating market in Hua Hin now.

You can also take the boat ride around the lake as well.

Cultural performance in the middle of the lake. not magical show there are some platform build underneath.

Its time for dinner, back to the hotel and take a taxi to another night market cater more for local. A short 2KM cost about 100Baht. Having dinner at the night market food stall cater for local we are the only tourist there purely authentic Thai food typically cost about 300 to 400 Baht per meal per person.

grill fish

and here we have some quick sketching for the kids..

Mostly local here

While waiting for their respective turn.. they had fun.

- See more at: http://www.drivetothailand.com/d rive-to-hua-hin-day2/#sthash.jYRH05Kl.dpuf Date : 16th September 2012 Hua Hin Dolphin Bay After breakfast, check out and moving to our next destination, Dolphin Bay, about 100KM South of Hua Hin. On the way we drop by Hin Lek Fai view point where you can have the best view

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of Hua Hin coast line.

restaurant as well. I am not sure about the food there but eyeing at the fresh seafood, the food should be good. But since it is still early to have lunch.. we decided to move on

I notice there are a lot of monkeys near the temple area ( Same with the Tiger Cave/Wat Tham Sue at Krabi where Zheng Er lost her drinking bottle ), So do not carry any loose item. or prepare to lose it. There are a lot of stalls along the road to Hin Lek Fai view point selling fresh sea food and some Moving forward, we drop by Khao Tao, a fishing village further south.

Those are statues.. not real monk

Laughing Buddha is popular in Thailand and almost appear in most of the temple I visited

signboard ) and choose the following one due to its unique outlook.

again a statue

Squid is the most popular seafood here as you can see fisherman drying squid at the open area near the beach. Looks like our choice is right There are a lot of newspaper cutting on the wall, looks like it is one of the high recommended restaurant. I cannot read Thai but by looking at the menu with some TV logo it cannot go wrong..

moving on to another fishing village where we planed to had our lunch before hitting Dolphin Bay. The village is about 50KM south of Hua Hin, look and feel like Kuala Selangor. There are a lot of restaurant around ( If you are not sure where is the restaurant, look for coca cola

We had fish, prawn.. crab meat.. rice.. mixed vege. Price is on higher side where it cost about 2200 Baht for our lunch but the food is fresh and good.

Following are the menu, you may want to save a copy for reference..

This is highly recommended.. crab meat

Yes..its good please watch your diet

Elephant is coming to town you can buy fruit at 20 Baht each to feed the elephant

Wonderful lunch..

After lunch drive another 30Km to Dolphin Bay. Yes, you may spot Dolphin from November to January at the open water at a near by island. The area is quiet and there are only about 5 families at the resort. Food is limited to the hotel restaurant and a near by food stall. The area will only be crowed during peak year end seasons. The room rental cost about 1300 Baht each room. The resort had a large garden and pool with slide.. perfect for kids. Beach is just across the road but it is not as good as Hua Hin..but it is quiet and relaxing for holiday MAXIMUM 2 days for me because I just had nothing else to do other than watching the kids enjoying

themselves at pool and beach..

treasure at the beach

la-la..

All you can do is sitrest. sleep..eat..

- See more at: http://www.drivetothailand.com/d rive-to-hua-hin-day3/#sthash.Arh9yDjH.dpuf Date : 17th September 2012/18th September 2012 Dolphin Bay Hat Yai Kuala Lumpur Check out in the morning without taking the breakfast as it served late at 7.30am, we decided to have breakfast at the highway rest area. It is long 8 hours drive to Hat Yai.

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We stop about every 2 hours to refresh and replenish titbits .. one of our coffee break at a nice setup rest area..Khao Pho rest stop

Another stop

I remember I stopped at this rest area way back in 2006 in my first trip to Thailand.. still fresh in my memory.. everything here is BIG.

coconut jelly

during peak season for 3-4 star hotel. - See more at: http://www.drivetothailand.com/d rive-to-Hua-Hin-day4/#sthash.xd1Y6osw.dpuf

Reach Hat Yai about 7pm. Nothing special about Hat Yai after traveling to other place Hat Yai had lost its charms to me goods and food are expensive compare to other places Next day.. check out at 10.30am.. cross Malaysia custom at 1pm Malaysia time.. lunch at Changlung and back home at 6pm. We are near SuratThanitime to have our routine break and Overall a nice trip to Hua Hin refresh my memory for some of the places like Coconut Jelly and Elephant Temple certainly good for my next trip Total distance travel is about 2400KM and petrol about RM670.00. Hotel usually cost less then RM150 per night per room