New Butcher in Hua Hin

The Boucherie - Jean Pierre is now open on Petchburi Road.  It is at the Hua Hin Tansamai intersection, next door to the Sri Ayudhya Bank on the east side of the road. They carry Thai French Beef from Sakhon Nakhon along with pork and poultry and home made sausages.

Open mornings and evenings with a late afternoon break.  Closed on Tuesdays.  Phone 032-511-894.

Great looking beef. FBF is having pot roast tonight.

Art & Culture Come to Hua Hin At Wik (Vic) Hua Hin

The brain cells must be going faster than realized. Had driven by Vic Hua Hin several times in the past few weeks and couldn't figure out why they would build a club/disco so far south of town. It looked like something more for the Bangkok crowds so didn't think much more about it but did note that at least it wasn't as ugly as Plearnwan and certainly had much better parking facilities.

Then last week observed that the new buildings going up just south of Vic were to be a school for the performing arts--Patravadi High School no less and couldn't imagine why anyone would build a high school next door to a club/disco.

But then late, late last night had an epiphany and realized what was what.

It had been years since FBF had commuted in Bangkok. This was long before our current wireless days with iPhones and netbooks so there wasn't much to do while stuck in traffic but read. Long traffic jams often made short shrift of magazines and books and sometimes one had to resort to reading the Post. Even on a good news day it didn't take long to read the first section and one was then stuck with their Arts section. That's where he'd seen the name Patravadi.

The Judy Garland of Thailand. Hair the opposite of Khunying Porntip, often on TV in a special with her name in the title. The name that comes to mind when putting the words Thailand and Broadway together.

The Vic isn't going to be a club or disco. It's either a super club or theater, in the live, so close you can smell them, sense of the word. Original name too, if ว was pronounced like a V.

Late night/early morning research then led to the fact that the Fringe Festival 2010 will be held at the Vic. (It was so late that FBF kept reading the venue in the Thai flyer as Wat Hua Hin rather than Vic Hua Hin and was wondering why all these concerts where being held in the Hua Hin Temple...)

The festivities kick off on the 22nd of January and continue most weekends through late February. There will be concerts, plays, musicals, puppet shows and comedies. Tickets are from free to 1,200 Baht, depending on the show.

There will even be a Thai-US Country music battle with the US represented by a Kyle Dillingham from Enid*, Oklahoma, that little zit off the panhandle of the Great State of Texas.

Kyle ain't no Johnny Gimble or Doug Kershaw but he's one of the featured performers in Patravadi's Phra Lor which debuted last summer at the Patravadi Theater in Bangkok and will be presented in Hua Hin January 29-31, 2010.

So, polish your shoes and iron your suit and get ready to get cultured. If you have teenagers who are aspiring entertainers, check out the high school.

Art and Culture are coming to Hua Hin.



*Two old wildcatters, Wiley and Will, had dug their last dry hole and had just gotten plumb tired of Champlin getting all the good leases. They decided to head west where they'd heard that Okies were treated right nicely in CalifornIa. It was a particularly windy day in the Dust Bowl, and as they headed west they passed a wide place in the road and noticed a couple of buildings almost covered in tumbleweeds. Wiley asked his buddy, Will, "What in blazes was that?" Will was driving as it was the only way he could get even with Wiley for the way he flew, so he looked in the rearview mirror and replied, "eniD."

Curiouser and Curiouser

FBF has two ISPs, one is the TT&T/CAT combo and the other a fallback Hutch CDMA dongle. The latter tends to go out when there are two many folks down from Bkk using theirs and the system is apt to get overloaded. The former goes down whenever someone at either organization takes a coffee break.

They seldom are down at the same time.

This afternoon, they both shut down at exactly the same time, around 1530. Both were not allowing traffic but there was a signal from both.

Was sure that TETCBM had occurred. Paces for a bit and then called a buddy using TT&T. No problems at his end so paced a bit more.

About 1615, all was back to normal...

Who's paranoid?

Hua Hin Rock Festival Review

Would anyone who went to the rock festival be willing to write a short review?  Very interested in learning how it was.

Thanks

Children's Day: January 9, 2010

Children's Day is coming up on Saturday, January 9, 2010--not that the other 364 days wouldn't be considered pretty much the same, but on Children's Day there are special activities.

Local schools and the city government usually have a small fair at 19 Rai where local school's have displays and games to play. There is free ice cream, cakes, balloons and other treats for the kids.

Problem is, some years they hold this in the early morning, and other years, just after lunch. Your child's school probably has better information than this old Dad.

In addition, there will be activities at the Hua Hin Market Village and many government offices, especially military camps have shows for the children. With as many forts, bases and camps as we have in this area, there's bound to be something going on.

If anyone knows of any specific activities being held for Children's Day in Hua Hin, please leave a comment here and FBF will update the post.

Also, Teacher's Day is the week after so keep your eyes out for a pretty apple...

Long Boat Racing at Khao Tao 24 - 27 December 2009

Long Boat Racing will be held at the Khao Tao Reservoir, about 12km south of Hua Hin from the 24th through the 27th of December.

There hasn't been much any news about this but FBF has been able to learn that the event will be held with the following schedule:

• 24 December: Opening ceremony and music
• 25 December: Judging of boats for beauty and craftsmanship
• 26 December: Boat Races
• 27 December: Boat Race Finals

Khao Tao has beaches, restaurants, sea temples and is convenient to Hua Hin. If you're looking for something to do after too much Christmas stuffing, a trip might be in order.

Hua Hin Countdown & Food Festival 28 December - 5 January

The Hua Hin Countdown & Food Festival will be held at 19 Rai from 28 December 2009  through 5 January 2010.

These events are usually pretty good.  There's plenty of space and ample parking. The music might not be the Luk Tung headliners like at the music festivals but there's usually a different band or two each night doing Thai and Western covers. Other entertainment is also provided by various schools featuring dancing and singing by students.

All types of foods are available from the stands surrounding the seating area offering everything from satay to burgers to grilled seafood, somtam and chicken. Portions are small and inexpensive so it's an ideal opportunity to sample a variety of dishes without breaking the bank. Singh and Leo beer are in abundance and there are plenty of tables and chairs. The facility has improved greatly over the years as it's now sealed, has a large permanent stage and toilet facilities.

It's also very family friendly and there are small toys, balloons and other trinkets for sale to keep the children busy while the adults munch out and people watch.

19 Rai is near Queen's Park, across the road from the beach, roughly behind Klai KangWan Temple or Index, accessible from Phetkasem Road via Soi 19 or Soi 35.

UPDATE--Odds and Ends for December

The Hua Hin Bike Week 2009 was a raging success. Many, many bikes and bikers from all over the country and Malaysia and Singapore. Lots of Chang, food, music and old friends catching up. Hats off to the Vampire MC of Hua Hin.

Billy's Birthday party was also quite a night. Biggest crowd this party goer has seen since Randy's Birthdays at Goldfingers. The band was excellent and still had the crowd going long after FBF headed home. The biggest surprise was that locals were heavily outnumbered by tourists and passersby. Will try to post some photos on the Billy's Bar page. Can't wait til next year.

The Hua Hin Rock Festival is this Saturday, the 19th, and there are sound trucks up and down the Sois reminding folks. Posters are everywhere so the road to Khao Takieb should be quite backed up all day Saturday. Too bad the road to Khao Takieb is the only road through Hua Hin...

It looks like the Intercontinental Hua Hin is finally open. At least all the trucks are off the street and traffic is much better in that part of town though the Marrakesh down the road has a long way to go and the earthmovers are still quite busy.

The new golf course at the Suan Son Army Camp seems to be coming along. Sprinklers are going full throttle and the heavy equipment seems to have all moved up to the Marrakesh operation in town. Shouldn't be too long before the course opens.

Speaking of the Intercontinental, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams will be celebrating New Year's Eve at the new resort before facing off in the Hua Hin Centennial Invitation tennis match next year. This event is being organised by the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand under the patronage of His Majesty the King and the city of Hua Hin.

The Hua Hin Centennial Invitation will be held at Centennial Park* (currently under feverish construction at Soi 112), on Saturday 2 January 2010 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the seaside resort and usher in the New Year in exciting fashion with two of the most popular tennis players in the world.

After their singles match, Maria and Venus will combine with local stars Paradorn Srichaphan and Danai Udomchoke for a set of mixed doubles.

There are other activities and festivals coming up over the holidays so there are places to go and things to do other than the mandatory gala dinners at the big hotels. Additional posts will be added soon with the details.

*Centennial Park is south of town at Soi 112, just past the big curve to Pranburi. It's just south of the ramp of the overpass, across from the Mobil station. As it's still under construction, it's difficult to be sure, but it appears that parking will be limited.

Too Much Work Getting Done

Started to call this Thai Government Declares All of April Songkran Holiday but guess should better leave that story to NotTheNation.

However, the government has just announced that in addition to April 13, 14, and 15th being official holidays for Songkran, Friday the 16th will also be a government holiday.  So, by merely taking the 12th off without pay, one can enjoy from Saturday the 10th through Monday the 19th as the mother of all long weekends.

Make your travel plans accordingly and think about getting out of Dodge for a while.

You Are Being Monitored by MICT

FBF uses a utility that allows JavaScript, Java, Flash, and other plugins and scripted content to be selectively executed. In other words, activities other than just cookies can be monitored before they have access to the browser or the computer while surfing the web. For example, whenever a web site tries to inject HTML or JavaScript code inside a different site, this utility filters the malicious request, neutralizing its dangerous load.

Yesterday, when accessing the Bo Fai Blog, a flag went up saying that our friends at mict.go.th were watching that website. This obviously was a bit of a surprise as had always assumed they were watching the bad guys like Youtube and welovetaksin.com and had better things to do than monitor nonpolitical sites like this one. It was quite a jolt to see that the Bo Fai Blog was now on their radar.

A little later, the same flag came up when going to Yahoo so will now assume that some engineer over at the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology isn't putting enough cream in his coffee or that they are even more paranoid than we thought they were.

You might want to check your cookie folder to see how many cookies you have from mict.go.th.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't watching.  The question now is, why?

Baja Taco Is Back in Hua Hin!

A very reliable source tells FBF that the Baja Taco Mobile starts touring the Sois of Hua Hin tonight, the 14th of December.

It was rumored that the Baja Taco Mobile was seen at the Hua Hin Bike Week on the 5th but that may have been a practice run out of sympathy for the bikers.

Here's hoping for all the best for Fred and that he will send a menu this way for posting and give us an idea where the Baja Taco Mobile might be found.

At the very least, keep your eyes out on Bintabaht and probably near Billy's Bar in the Hua Hin Bazaar.

Rotary Club Hua Hin Festivities 28 December 2009

From: Admin Chair, Provisional RCRHH

FESTIVE FELLOWSHIP

Dear Fellow Charter Members, Rotarians and potential Rotarians.

The Provisional Club Rotary of Royal Hua Hin invites you, your friends and family for a festive fellowship at Sunset Boulevard Bar in Khao Takiap on Monday 28^th December 2009 from 7.30pm

There will be live music from Howard Harper with his guitar and his famous repertoire of blues and old classics.

Why not come and get to know your fellow members a bit better and have a great evening out!

We will have a complimentary buffet and 10% of all receipts for the evening will be donated to the Rotary Club of Royal Hua Hin.

We would be grateful if you would let us know if you are coming and how many guests so that we can cater for the right amount of people.

HOW TO GET THERE!

Sunset Boulevard lies directly opposite Wat Nong Kae just past the Chiva Som on the left hand side of the Khao Takiap Road. There is ample parking on the main road.