9D8N Driving in Hua Hin + Khao Yai - Day 3 Itinerary

Day 3

We went for a Thai cooking class!

We chose a company called “Hua Hin Thai Cooking Class” which is one of the top rated cooking classes in Hua Hin. It costs 1500 Baht (~S$58) per person. Some may find it pricey, but I'm willingly pay for unique experiences when I travel. Besides, I’m learning a skill from the locals themselves and that I feel, is quite a valuable and fun experience.

They picked us up from our hotel in the morning with a tuk tuk, and brought us to the wet market. Their experience of bringing us around the market to purchase ingredients is one of the main reasons I chose this company over others. It was really an eye-opening experience, and well, it is always good to learn how to pick fresh ingredients if you want to learn how to cook.

Some of the ingredients are familiar, some not.

We saw a shop selling live frogs and fishes at the market. The Caucasians with our group seemed shocked at the idea of eating frogs. But sorry guys, in Asia we do eat them and it tastes somewhat like chicken. In Chinese, we call them Tian Ji - literally means field chicken, not to trick you to eat them but probably for the same reason that it tastes like chicken (but more tender).

Some people eat worms, some people eat frogs, some people eat semi-raw meat, I guess it’s just different culture and it’s all about perspectives! (:

Lucky fish to be released

As it was Buddhist day in Thailand, our guide bought some frogs and fishes to be freed in the temple. Really interesting!

Unfortunately, we also witnessed those that were unlucky and fell under the butchers’ knives.

After our shopping in the market, we took the same tuk tuk back to the cooking class. We were served lemongrass drinks and given a booklet with all the recipes we will be learning that day, ingredients guide, places to order Thai ingredients in Caucasian countries and even restaurants they recommend in Hua Hin. That is really more than I have expected! Though, the restaurants are a bit hard to find because some of the restaurants are in Thai in google maps, so you can’t search them- and you got to manually find your way using road directions. Argh, I’m so spoilt by digital technology..

We get to prepare our own ingredients and cook them ourselves after the teacher (who is also our guide) demonstrated to us. Our teacher was very patient and speaks good English, and we learnt a lot from her.

Aik diligently making his green curry

Preparing dessert

We learnt four dishes today:

They turned out better than I thought, but that’s because I had a good teacher and fresh ingredients.

I think the secret to good cooking is fresh ingredients, sense for taste and good timing.

Overall, great experience for us!

Sea-Cret Garden Hua Hin Hotel  

Next we drove to Sea-cret Garden Hua Hin, another hotel by the same guys from Sea-cret Hua Hin. This is the hotel that I look forward to the most, because of this:

How gorgeous this is! You can walk directly into the pool, and you can take a stairs up to a private chilling place right on top of your room.

You can also swim with huge balloons like a flamingo balloon or pizza balloon. But note that they are not free. You have to pay at least 150 baht for the cheapest ones.

The pool right outside our room has Jacuzzi. Yay.

And so does our room.

You may have noticed by now that we changed hotels every day. That’s because there are so many unique hotels that we want to experience. To keep things within budget we always alternate expensive and cheap hotels. We also pack light and organised our luggage such that it's easy to pack and unpack.

Supper at Ku Rotee Chachuk

Next, we head for supper at a rotee place, Ku Rotee Chachuk. The place is pretty popular among Thais, and if you come late you might have to wait for a seat.

Rotee is something like Roti Prata/Canai. It has various flavours like banana, butter, cheese, curry etc, and we were so tempted to try all of them. We tried the crispy Rotee in the end and it is very addictive. 

9D8N Driving in Hua Hin + Khao Yai - Day 2 Itinerary

The next day, we had our lunch at Krua Kannikar, quite the popular restaurant among both tourists and Thais. Its strength is its chicken dishes and they cook it in all kinds of tasty ways.

Again, hard to find parking, especially during peak eating hours. We managed to find a parking space run by this Thai dude with a motorcycle. He charges 20 Baht for a few isolated parking lots that he guards along the road, which he cordons off with a rope.

When you get in, we were told to order first at the cashier. Then we waited for our seats.

And here comes the chicken! It is very tasty, especially the one that is stuffed and fried! Just writing about it makes me hungry too. We ordered the vermicelli (rice noodles) too, and it goes really well with the sauce.

We skipped the Hua Hin Train Station as we are short of time and also because it was packed with tourists.

So, we headed to Santorini park. Do note that it is quite a distance (about 30-40 minutes drive) from the main Hua Hin city, so plan your trips well!
As the name suggests, this park is designed to look like the famous Greek island Santorini. The place was more crowded than we expected, probably because it was a long holiday in Thailand.

Totally love the white washed buildings.. It is my dream to visit the real thing one day.

Most people come here to snap pictures. You will see a lot of instagrammers around (you can tell from the clothes and poses) hahaha. And of course don’t forget the insta-boyfriends/BFF behind all these pretty pictures. You will see them everywhere in Hua Hin and Khao Yai as well. Seems like youth culture is quite the same in a lot of countries lol.

There’s also a haunted mansion, carousel, water walking ball, ferris wheel etc. in the park which you can enjoy for an extra fee. We weren’t interested in any so we just skipped them.

After spending some time walking around, snapping pictures and enjoying the view, we headed to FN Outlet, which was on the way back, to have tea at Suzette. Suzette is a Western-Thai fusion restaurant and apparently pretty popular.

Okay, I know this doesn’t look like tea, but I was really hungry.

This is one of the pasta we found recommended online. It comes with fried anchovies and pepperoni, along with the homemade sauce giving it a Thai taste. The coconut shake was also very refreshing. Aik had an espresso served in an all-glass cup and saucer, which he spent half the time taking photos of it.

At night, we checked in to Hua Hin Hub 57 (budget and nice, with great location) and walked over to Hua Hin Night Market.

One very important point: If you want to visit the Hua Hin Night Market, it is highly recommended that you stay somewhere of walking distance to the market or just take a cab there. It is quite hard to get parking (we learnt this the hard way a few days later, when we came back a second time by car).

There is a whole row of fresh, no-frills seafood here. Highly recommended to take seafood at least once, since you are in a beach town. Along the way, you can also eat some street food like Phad Thai, Rotee (something like Roti Canai/Prata), Rojak etc. while you shop the night market. There’s also a cart selling fried worms and insects… But, not really a fan of worms, so we skipped that.

I like how most of the shops don't simply hike their prices just because they could. I found a few shops in Hua Hin and Khao Yai selling the same kind of service/item for the same price, be it inside malls, paid tourist attractions or night market. I've had bad experiences where sellers do price discrimination based on their location, but this does not really happen in the places we visited in Thailand.

Somewhere in the middle, attached to the night market is Chatsila market, where they sell mostly non-food items. It is less crowded but not less interesting. There’s also some seats there if you are tired. The night we were there, there was a young guitar busker soloing over a background track. I bought a few customised key chains there for gifts, then we walked back to our hotel.

Hub Hua Hin is about 5 minutes’ walk from the night market. The room is simple but clean and nice, with a lift for heavy luggage. Best of all, it’s really affordable at S$40. I say it’s a good value for money.