Where to stay in Hua Hin?

Hua Hin is one of Thailand’s most popular seaside resorts among overseas visitors as well as Thais. Located on the sunrise (west) side of the Gulf of Thailand, Hua Hin lies some 200 km. or a three-hour drive southwest of Bangkok and is renowned as Thailand’s most traditional beach resort. It was here, King Rama VII built a summer palace, thus creating a vogue among high society for Hua Hin as a favourite retreat from Bangkok’s summer heat. Today the Royal Family continues to reside at Hua Hin for part of the year. Hua Hin is noted for its traditional fishing port with many seafood restaurants, and a splendid sandy beach which starts from a rocky headland next to the port and curves gently for some 3 km. to its southern point where Buddhist temples surmount hilltops. Hua Hin is a well-established beach destination, with full facilities. But in contrast to Pattaya, the long-established resort on the opposite shore of the Gulf, Hua Hin provides a quiet, relaxed retreat amid surroundings which preserve a typical Thai ambience. Hua Hin is thus well suited for families or those who wish simply to escape the city bustle.

The answer to where to stay in Hua Hin question is easy: near Hua Hin Beach. This 3 km beach with its fine white sand extends from one side of Hua Hin to another. There are many resort hotels and many water sports opportunities here and beach is the main reason people come all the way to Hua Hin.

Cape Nidhra, Hua Hin (5-Star, 800 meters from the beach), Hilton Hua Hin Resort & Spa (4-Star, only 200 meters from the beach), Centara Grand Beach Resort & Villas Hua Hin (5-Star, only 300 meters from the beach), Baan Laksasubha (4-Star, only 300 meters from the beach) and Citin Loft Hua Hin (3-Star 700 meters from the beach) are some of the best hotels in Hua Hin to stay.

For resorts and  hotels around Hua Hin Beach, room prices and details like customer reviews, you can go to Hua Hin Beach Hotels page.

Hua Hin Beach, Thailand. Hua Hin is a popular beach resort destination from Bangkok.

One of the good things about Hua Hin is that it has some nightlife but does not have the seedy and naughty night life of Pattaya and Phuket. With its long, sandy beach, restaurants, shops, quite interesting attractions and azure waters, it offers everything you can expect from a tropical, seaside holiday.

Khao Takiab
Hua Hin is popular and relatively crowded. If you want to be a little outside Hua Hin's tourist traps but still want to be a short ride away from it, Khao Takiab is a place to look at. This fishing village (Khao Takiab means "Chopstick Hill") offers a nice beach, clean waters, plenty of beachside dining and accomodation.

For resorts and  hotels around Khao Takiab, room prices and details like customer reviews, you can go to Hua Hin Khao Takiab Hotels page.

Pran Buri
30 km to the south of Hua Hin, Pran Buri offers sun, sand, pristine beaches, the clear waters of the Gulf of Thailand and a charming local village. You can find luxury resorts as well as budget accommodation here and hotels are quite apart so there is a sense of privacy and quiteness.

For resorts and  hotels around Pran Buri, room prices and details like customer reviews, you can go to Hua Hin Pran Buri Hotels page.

Cha-Am
Cha-Am is technically not in Hua Hin. It is a neighbouring district and a famous beach resort town in Thailand. Its long and peaceful coastline has many hotels and resorts with direct access to beach and  unlike many Thailand beaches, the beaches of Cha-Am are less crowded with people and activities.

Singapore Hotels Near Clarke Quay

Clarke Quay is a historical riverside quay in Singapore and is one of the hottest Singapore nightlife hubs with  five blocks of restored warehouses housing various restaurants and nightclubs. The area is also very central with 5 minutes drive distance to Singapore Central Business District and Orchard Road. Clarke Quay MRT Station and buses passing right next to it also provides a convenient access to Singapore public transportation system.

Above properties make Clarke Quay an ideal and central location in Singapore. Although relatively expensive due to its location and the upscale nature of the area, if you are new in Singapore, it would be one of the convenient places to stay here.

Here are the 5 Singapore hotels near Clarke Quay :

Swisshotel Merchant Court Singapore

Right next to Clarke Quay nightlife options and 5-minute walk from Clark Quay MRT Station, Swisshotel Merchant Court Singapore is a luxury Singapore hotel overlooking the Singapore River from its central location.

Swisshotel Merchant Court Singapore is right next to Clarke Quay (here Clarke Quay seen from the hotel)

Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay

Sitting on top of Liang Court Mall, Novotel Clarke Quay is just right next to active nightlife spots of Clarke Quay and 10-minute walk to Clarke Quay MRT Station and Central Mall. The hotel also has very beautiful Marina Bay, Fort Canning Park and the Singapore City skyline view.

Novotel Clarke Quay is seen here from Clarke Quay.

Park Hotel Clarke Quay

Park Hotel Clarke Quay is less than 10 minute walk to Clarke Quay as well as Robertson Quay, a less tourist oriented nightlife scene in Singapore. It is just 5 minutes drive from Central Business District and 10 minutes walk to Clarke Quay MRT Station.

Park Hotel Clarke Quay

Holiday Inn Express Singapore Clarke Quay

5 min walk from Clarke Quay with plenty of restaurants & bars around, centrally located Holiday Inn Express Singapore Clarke Quay has an awesome roof pool and value for money accommodation.

Holiday Inn Express Singapore Clarke Quay

Robertson Quay Hotel

Located along Singapore River, Robertson Quay Hotel is 10 minutes walk away from Clarke Quay and offers a central location with easy access to Orchard Road, Central Business District, Bugis and China Town.

Robertson Quay Hotel

Pattaya Night Life : Red Light Districts

Pattaya's extra colorful night life is infamous with its sex tourism offers. Although you can have a holiday in Pattaya without going into this naughty part of Pattaya night life, if you will not be able to take a very young girl/boy (sex worker) hand in hand with an old uncle, than Pattaya is probably not for you.

But if your reason to be in Pattaya is commercial sex in the first place, Pattaya is the capital of it. This type of tourism does not necessarily stop after 1-2 hour horizontal sports: there is something called boyfriend/girlfriend experience in Pattaya (and in fact in all Thailand tourism attractions) where you hire a woman or man to be your temporary partner in your entire holiday. A very good opportunity for a working lady, boy or ladyboy to empty your vallet.

Pattaya Walking Street
Walking Street is the main red-light district in Pattaya with hundreds of beer bars, go-go bars and brothels. Pattaya is famous for its beer bars and its bar girls who are for hire for sex tourists who drink there. But majority of the customers you see in these bars in fact do come there to drink and flirt with the girls without bar fining them (paying the bar fine and taking them).

Go-go bars are indoor bars where there is a stage full of bikini clad (and occasionally topless and fully naked) dancers. All the dancers and usually all the girls serving drinks are "for hire" with a "bar fine". These places are also open for those who go just to drink and watch. But you cannot take picture and camera the action inside and if you are caught doing this you may be beaten up.

Some famous and best go-go bars in Pattaya Walking Street are Baccara A Go-Go (one of the most lavish and impressive clubs in Pattaya), Airport Club (dancers in bikini style air hostess outfits), Living Dolls Showcase and Peppermint.

If you want to stay near Walking Street, choose hotel in Pattaya Beach Road area. Here are the list of Pattaya Beach Road hotels with their ratings and reviews.

When living the Pattaya night life to fullest do not forget to bring your common sense (as well as condoms) with you. Since most of the blood in your body will be sucked by your "little" buddy, to keep whatever intelligence you have, do not drink a lot. Beer is cheap in Pattaya (compared to many Western countries) and in go-go bars they will push you to drink a lot (especially the cute lady hanging with you).

Many do not have any significant issue during Pattaya stay but some simple cautions are necessary. Never be directed to a go-go bar (or any bar) by a stranger. Always either choose your destination before heading to streets or go into places you choose. Also, this is important, do not go into any go-go bar which is not on the street level (ideally entered from street and you can partially see inside from street).

Pattaya Walking Street

Many tourists end up drinking a lot and having sex without so much memory of the night and then spend more money to HIV tests than the bar-fine, the girl and the beers.

Walking Street is full of colorful neon lights, girls, boys, lady-boys and snatch thieves. Do not carry large sums of money or valuable on you. When choosing a Pattaya hotel choose one with safe-boxes and use them.

It is best to avoid commercial sex in Pattaya but if you are really into it, note that picking a street-walker or engaging in sex without condom in a place where people from all around the world comes for boogy nights is a playing russian roulette with your life.

Studio Ponoc Mary and the Witch's Flower Trailer

As you may have already known, after Hayao Miyazaki retired, there were many rumors floating around that The Studio Ghibli was done for. Without Miyasaki at the helm to create its box office monsters the studio was left with little choice but to restructure and that most of the staff go. Yoshiaki Nishimura was one of them that left in the middle of 2015 and went on to found his own studio called Studio Ponoc.

Yoshiaki Nishimura was a lead producer in Ghibli films When Marnie was There and The Tale of Princess Kaguya both of which were nominated for academy awards. As one of the youngest lead staffers at Ghibli, Nishimura held immense potential to succeed Miyazaki's work. Now that he has his own studio and has over a decade of Ghibli work under his belt, he is about to release a new film which is slated to air in the summer of 2017 in Japan.

A trailer for Studio Ponoc's new feature film "Mary and the Witch's Flower" just released and it's looking a whole lot like a Ghibli film. Seeing how most of the staff from this new movie is from Ghibli, we can see why it looks just so similar to a Ghibli film. Is Studio Ponoc the second coming of Ghibli?

You can watch the Mary and the Witch's Flower trailer here.


Here are some information on the upcoming animation :

Screenplay by Riko Sakaguchi and Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Based on "The Little Broomstick" by Mary Stewart
Music by Takatsugu Muramatsu
Produced by Yoshiaki Nishimura
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Ride sharing service for schoolkids Schoolber

There is not a new ride-sharing app for schoolkids in Singapore named Schoolber Pte. Ltd. Positioning itself as school transportation service in Singapore, 3 months old company has just released its app and started operation before the new school season. Schoolber app allows parent-drivers and subscribing parents to find each other and negotiate rates between $70 and $150 per month, based on one or two-way rides and the distance traveled. The app also alerts parents when their kids are dropped off and picked up and track their kids through the journey.

The app has 800 subscribers for now and to increase it to 2,400; they are planning to pair up with car rental companies like WhizzCar and Popular Rent-A-Car. The elevetor pitch of the company is simple :

Private school transport for your child at affordable rates. Say goodbye to waking up early. No more long detours to pick up many students. No more paying fee for school holiday months. Go to www.schoolber.com.sg to register your interest now!

Parents would ask a lot of questions before letting a stranger to pick up their kids. For example, What happens if a driver does not turn up as scheduled? Schoolber says the drivers are profiled based on their commitment. Priority is given to parent driver with their child in the same school or nearby schools. This would highly reduced the chance of drivers not turning up as scheduled.

TodayOnline reports one schoolber driver on the service, a housewife named Wendy Loh. According to the news article, she will fetch two other children going to the same school — Tao Nan Primary — as her two children. The passengers live no more than 500m away from her house, the 37-year-old said. For sending the children to and from school, she expects to make S$220 per month.

Under Road Traffic Act (Chapter 276) Road Traffic (Car Pools) (Exemption) Order 2015, a car owner can now accept payment from passengers who carpool. It is however illegal for drivers to solicit for passengers on the road, in public spaces or parking lots. Destinations of passengers must be clarified before the journey and drivers cannot offer more than two rides per day.

The Great Singapore Penis Panic

In 1967, a strange series of events unfolded on the island of Singapore. Hundreds of men rushed to the hospitals of the island with the terrifying belief that their penises were shrinking. Each feared that if his penis shrank away completely, he would die. Some came with lucky red strings tightly wrapped around their penises to prevent the lethal disappearance. Others had clamps holding their wayward organs in place. Most often it was a firm grasp of a hand, their own or a frightened family member’s, that prevented the shrinking penis from slipping away and taking their life with it.

This was "The Great Koro Epidemic of 1967". According to American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Koro is a culture-specific syndrome delusional disorder in which an individual has an overpowering belief that one's genitalia are retracting and will disappear, despite the lack of any true longstanding changes to the genitals.

Oddly enough, about a dozen women also fell victim to the panic.

This strange penis attack is now recorded in a book : The Great Singapore Penis Panic and the Future of American Mass Hysteria. Available on Amazon. The Great Singapore Penis Panic and the Future of American Mass Hysteria explains the basis of koro in Chinese medicine, and how and why something so peculiar as the Singapore Koro epidemic could have happened when it did.

Reina Club new year countdown just 75 minutes before terror attack

A video of 2017 new year countdown in Reina Club in Istanbul is released in youtube today. Just 1 hour 15 minutes later, a terrorist with a machine gun attacked the night club, which is one of the most famous and popular nightlife spot in Istanbul.

According to the authorities, the terrorist first killed a 21 years old police officer and a civilian at the door and then entered the night club and shot more than a 100 people. 39 people were dead and 69 people were injured.

Craft Beer in Singapore - The Good Beer Company

One of the best places to drink craft beers in Singapore is interestingly in a hawker centre in Chinatown. The Chinatown Complex hawker center is quite a well known place in Singapore but in a relatively difficult to find corner of it you will find The Good Beer Company, a stall which brings in a range of great beers and ciders from brands never previously seen in hawker centres. You can also find some very nice Asian brands here and the bonus is that you can drink your craft beer with hawker center food!

Whenever I go to Chinatown (which is usually to bring a guest to visit Chinatown), I try to visit this stall. The Good Beer Company is not very easy to find in this large and complex hawker center but don't give up. The beer is certainly worth the find! Since it is in a hawker center, you will sit in a standard hawker center table but this also means that the imported, craft beer you drink is relatively cheaper compared to your usual restaurant or bar. Unlike many people, I am a fan of fruit beer and Taiwanese (NTW) Lychee Beer (which is sometimes available in supermarkets) is a must try and you would probably like it even if you are not a fan of fruit beer. Anyway, the stall has really great selection and if you are not sure what you should try, ask the uncle : he will make great recommendations.

Located in Chinatown Complex hawker center, The Good Beer Company offers nice selection of craft beer with reasonable prices

The Good Beer Company is at #02-58 Chinatown Complex, 335 Smith Street, 050335.

Singapore beauty Melody Low

22-year-old Singapore beauty Melody Low has more than 102,000 followers on Instagram. Low, who is 1.60 meters and 47 kg, has started modeling at the age of 15. Before gaining online fame in 2014, she joined Miss Universe Singapore in 2012 and was one of the top 14 finalists. In March 2015, appeared in local rapper Shigga Shay's ShiGGa Morning music video.

In an interview with The New Paper in August 2015, she said: "I upload sexy pictures of myself on my Instagram account and sometimes, I have secondary school kids posting lewd comments. I feel a bit offended, but I just delete them. There is no point in replying. Some people feel that I deserve to receive these comments because I post those pictures. But I feel that as long as I have a hot bod and I take care of my body, it's okay to upload them when I still look good."

Melody Low regularly appears in Jonathan Cheok's popular YouTube channel cheokboardstudios. Melody Low's Instagram account is withlovemelodylow and Facebook account is Melody Low.

❤HAPPINESS is ... When you're told that you have an amazing and contagious smile 😊 Cushion by @allthingsdeco , enjoy 10% off with the code 'melodylow10' from now till 31dec :)

A photo posted by MELODY LOW 🦄 (@withlovemelodylow) on Dec 20, 2016 at 2:41am PST

❤️ Well, i bet you can tell it's party time! A little party never hurt anybody @touchpartysg is a 3 days event from 4th - 5th and 8th August, tickets are selling off at only $27 for all 3 days entry! All 3 venues are different, located at Baliza on 4th, Hotel Jen OrchardGateway (Sunset Pool Party) on 5th and 8th August's venue will be updated again. Hold on, i'm not done yet. Did i mention a $1000 lucky draw will also be drawn for you to pocket them home?! Lastly, a 15% off voucher for Founder Bak Kut Teh is also attached to all tickets. (Only available @ Hotel Boss Outlet) You can say they're thoughtful to take care of your stomach too after a good night of partying! #touchpartysg People who are interested can contact 96429865 [Clement] for the tickets . Also, kindly quote my name "Melody Low" to Clement for cheaper rate! 😊 https://www.facebook.com/TouchPartySG/?fref=ts https://www.facebook.com/events/1230094023667477/

A photo posted by MELODY LOW 🦄 (@withlovemelodylow) on Jul 29, 2016 at 3:55am PDT

At new diner&bar @rooseveltsdinerbar. #roosevelts #chocolate #cake #chocolatecake #dinerbar #chinatown #instafood #dessert #sweets

A photo posted by MELODY LOW 🦄 (@withlovemelodylow) on Mar 14, 2014 at 1:12am PDT

Instagram beauty Francesca Tan

22 years old full-time blogger/model Francesca Tan is from Singapore and is listed regularly in Beautiful Singapore Girls To Follow On Instagram lists. According to her website, Francesca participated in the world’s most prestigious international modelling contest – Elite Model Look and clinched the title ‘Face of Make Up Store 2012′. As an Elite Model, she worked with clients like Samsung, Toni & Guy, Olympus, Volkswagen Singapore, Noël Caleb, Maybelline and more. She has also walked the runways for local and overseas designers such as Rêvasseur, Artelier Fang, Chun Ting Liu and Dusk Till Dawn.

You can find Francesca Tan's instagram account here itsfranxcesca. Her website is here http://francescatan.com.

I am just a dreamer and you're just a dream

A photo posted by Francesca Tan 陈姿伶 (@itsfranxcesca) on Jan 8, 2016 at 1:33am PST

🙂

A photo posted by Francesca Tan 陈姿伶 (@itsfranxcesca) on Dec 25, 2016 at 3:11am PST

Thank god for @flutterssg ❤️

A photo posted by Francesca Tan 陈姿伶 (@itsfranxcesca) on Oct 20, 2016 at 1:31am PDT

One of the many locations I knew I had to visit while on the way to Bali with @jetstarasia. Still pretty much in awe with this view... #ItsfranxcescaGoesToBali

A photo posted by Francesca Tan 陈姿伶 (@itsfranxcesca) on May 20, 2016 at 7:39am PDT