Hua Hin After Sunset

So I was back in Hua Hin starting June 6, 2025, whose beaches, the temples in the nearby and wider surroundings, and the Monsoon Valley vineyard I have extensively described in previous blogs. But Hua Hin has two faces. As twilight descends, the center of activity shifts to the narrow alleys behind Naresdamri Road, where the iconic “Hilton” stands, and restaurants, tailor shops, massage parlors, cannabis shops, and clothing stores vie for customers.

The Soi Bintabaht is the epicenter of nightlife. In the late afternoon, it becomes the “Walking Street,” closed to cars but still clogged with motorbikes and mobile street kitchens. In high season, crowds jostle through the alleys; in low season, like now in June 2025, the small nightlife quarter seems somewhat desolate.

Along Bintabaht and adjacent narrow streets, as well as about ten minutes further south in Soi 80, bars line up, brightly advertised with neon signs. From the open venues, a deafening cacophony of Thai pop and Western rock from the 1970s and 1980s spills out. If you go out several nights in a row, you always hear the same songs; “Hotel California” is the unchallenged super hit. Women in short dresses or hotpants sit on bar stools, trying to lure potential clients into their establishments.

Increased Average Age

The average age of the guests is significantly higher than on the islands in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. While I, being well beyond seventy, appear like a grandfather in the wrong film there, I can still feel somewhat youthful in Hua Hin. Hua Hin is a haven for retirees; many retired Germans, Swiss, British, French, and Australians live here; they have purchased or rented houses or apartments (“condos”) in Hua Hin, where pensions stretch further than at home, and the sun shines longer, or even receive care in nursing homes.

Many of these retirees, some with a young Thai woman in their arms, drink their Chang or Singha beer in the bars. (That alcoholism is a serious issue among both the Thailand expats and bar women, I only mention in passing here. I lack the expertise to go into it further.) In the back areas of many bars, billiard tables stand; you play against the bar women and mostly lose, as they practice daily. You buy them so-called lady drinks, a percentage of which the bar gives to the women, usually 50 baht per drink, which is about 1.30 euros. The women live off this; many receive only a tiny wage from the bars, perhaps 100 or 200 euros a month, or even nothing.

So here too in Hua Hin, the nighttime entertainment industry reigns, known for Thai holiday destinations, but on a smaller scale – less aggressive, as mentioned, than in Patong or Pattaya. Nevertheless, occasionally behind the nighttime hustle, a certain melancholy emerges when the discrepancy between the worlds colliding here becomes apparent, highlighting the superficiality of human relationships and one's own mortality.

But then another feeling takes over: men who sink into insignificance and loneliness at home when they are retired, perhaps divorced or widowed, suddenly experience human closeness, affection, and interest here. The uncertainty over whether the manifested sympathy is genuine or just a business basis is conveniently pushed aside, except in honest moments, or they drown it in alcohol.

From Street Food to Michelin

Culinarily, Hua Hin, as a cosmopolitan holiday destination, offers everything you could wish for, from the finest and most expensive restaurants in five-star hotels to the street food from mobile food stalls, from which the girls in the bar streets get their meals.

A few steps away from Soi Bintabaht, at the night market, huge prawns and lobsters lie on ice beds waiting for guests. They are grilled right by the street and served in open-air restaurants. At the stalls lining the street, fake branded products are offered, from Rolex watches to Louis Vuitton and Gucci bags to Nike shoes and Lacoste polo shirts. You see few locals here; the night market is mainly an attraction for tourists.

Particularly popular with locals, but also with expats and tourists, is the huge food court Ban Khun Por (“House of the Father”) on Soi 88 behind the train tracks, accessible by tuk-tuk in ten minutes from the “Hilton” (where I, of course, did not stay; that is outside my budget). Dozens of stalls here offer everything from Bavarian pork knuckles to sushi, fried fish, papaya salad (a favorite dish of many health-conscious Thai women), or grilled skewers to popular hot pots.

Hot Pots

When someone says “hot pot,” they are always talking about a cozy meal surrounded by friends or family. There are two different variants: Mu Kratha (“Pan Pork”) is a fusion of Korean BBQ and Chinese Huoguo (“Fire Pot”). It uses a metal pan with a dome in the middle and a groove around it, sitting over a charcoal grill. Thinly sliced meat is grilled on the dome. The meat juices flow into the groove, where a broth with vegetables, herbs, and mushrooms simmers, gradually developing a rich flavor that is enjoyed with a spoon.

In the traditional Chim Chum, originating from the northeastern Isaan region, a small clay pot with a lid is placed on a clay plate over glowing charcoal on the table (or often on a mat on the floor, as food is often eaten sitting on the ground among family or friends). This broth, infused with herbs, is also very aromatic. One dips pieces of meat and fish, often shrimp, into the boiling herbal broth, fishes them out with chopsticks, and dips them into a spicy sauce. Both variants are offered at Baan Khun Por.

Further outside, there are other similarly functioning food courts, such as the Tamarind Market, which is open Thursday to Sunday from 6 PM. Or the slightly more upscale Cicada Market almost right next door, where, besides food and drink, fashion, crafts, (tacky) oil paintings of elephants, temples, monks, and young women, cheap watches, and jewelry are sold.

Everywhere, I almost forgot, the feeding of the hungry is accompanied by Thai live bands. At Baan Khun Por, they play at nearly painful volume, turning every conversation into a shouting match.

Memories of Home

According to experience, authentic food tastes best. In cosmopolitan Hua Hin, there are also plenty of foreign offerings: Besides the Italians, who clearly represent the majority, there are also various French establishments, some at very high quality and price levels, such as the “Brasserie de Paris” with a terrace directly over the sea, where I celebrated New Year's Eve on December 31, 2025, with friends. 

Across from the luxury hotel “The Standard,” there is the “Treffpunk” with German dishes (alongside Thai ones). And a bit further out, at the “Market Village” shopping center, Bernard Condrau runs the upscale restaurant “This and This” with a cozy terrace.

The name is a playful homage to Condrau's origins: the village of Disentis in Graubünden. There is a special menu with various differently prepared cordon bleus. Condrau's establishment is almost fully booked every evening, and at every second or third table, German is spoken. Even those living in or traveling through Thailand, a country offering one of the best cuisines in the world, seem to develop a certain longing for their distant homeland. In my case, this nostalgia has not yet manifested: I have only been to “This and This” once.