Word: hin
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...TRAVEL Hua Hin: The Next Beach Thing...
...TRAVEL Hua Hin: The Next Beach Thing...
...Hin, about three hours south of Bangkok, hardly looks like a 21st-century getaway. The country's oldest resort rose to fame in the 1920s, a decade after British engineers punched a railway through deep jungle, eliminating the long elephant rides from Bangkok suffered by the royal family on their beach outings. (Commoners went by canal and oxcart.) For the ensuing half-century, Hua Hin was the place to sun and be seen by upscale Asians and resident expats. But the onset of group travel sent beachgoers to a succession of swank, new beach resorts, leaving Thais largely alone...
...Hin is defined not so much by what it is, but what it isn't: overdeveloped and overrun. It remains a quiet seaside community with an authentic, provincial flavor?street-side Thai eateries instead of Pizza Huts. But it's no bush-league backwater. In fact, no beach in Asia can claim quite the bloodline. Dotted with palaces, steeped in history, Hua Hin celebrates the grandeur of old Siam. You feel it with every creak of the teak floorboards at the old Railway Hotel, built at the Queen's command as a guesthouse for royal parties. Nowadays, it's been...
...royal connection is a common refrain around Hua Hin, illustrated by ubiquitous billboards depicting the Queen and King. His image is everywhere: on posters by the market, holding his camera in front of the photo shop, promoting swimming safety with an inflatable life belt. These are not only signs of local admiration, but firm reminders that this is the King's beach, unblemished, as a consequence, by the blight of jet skis and girlie bars. The King couldn't save the skyline, marred by a scattering of concrete towers?the detritus of a short-lived condo boom derailed...