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20 May 2011
Webb’s Wining Balloon Chasers Classifieds Suicide Is Painless
whatever floats your 112 the mecca for boat soi floating markets HUA HIN THAILAND In stark contrast to the frequently poor preparation and marketing of local events and festivals (certainly to foreign visitors), the advance warning of the new floating markets coming to Hua Hin has been positively remarkable; anyone travelling around the area cannot fail to miss the plethora of blue signs, in both Thai and English, pointing the way from virtually all directions. However odd it may seem to create an artificial floating market in the first place, presumably to try and keep some of the local and foreign tourists from travelling to the original one just outside Bangkok, it does seem completely bizarre that two of them are going to open this year, and on top of that, both within a kilometre or so of each other on Soi 112. It can only be hoped that both will attract enough visitors to remain viable, as to see one or even both fail because of oversupply would be not only bad for the entrepreneurs, but also for the image of Hua Hin. Full details have been announced for the Sam Phan Nam Hua Hin Floating Market, which is another project of the group of Thai entrepreneurs who built the Ayothaya Floating Market in Ayutthaya last year. It was originally scheduled to open on May 5th, but reports suggest that it will now open in July, although there is understandable confusion as to which market is being referred to. What is encouraging though is that the area nearby is slowly becoming much more of a destination in its own right, with the Vic Hua Hin theatre, school and complex, the fairground, the Cicada Market a stones throw away and two brand new golf courses (Banyan and Sea Pines), along with a host of retail outlets, restaurants and other smaller attractions, such as the Mini Golf south of Soi 116, all opening in the last couple of years. The future’s bright, but is the future floating?
www.minigolfthailand.com 080 112 8003
GET RACING FROM ONLY 400 BAHT! OPEN EVERYDAY 10.30AM - 7PM, LATE NIGHT BY APPOINTMENT Call 032 547 199 (Office) or 081 817 3000 (Mobile) Soi 2, Phetchkasem Road opposite Hua Hin Airport
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