Tesco Lotus

[Big A]

I heard this one the other day. Comparing Hua Hin to Ladue, Missouri a ritzy hi-dollar neighborhood outside of St Louis.

Are Caernarfon, Blackpool in Wales the uppercrust or are they tourist towns?

Alot of the street names in Ladue are butchered up Welsh and English place names trying to sound all distinguished or something.

There's a few people from St Louis in Hua Hin and they would know what I mean.

On the list of best things in life was listed an English house and an American salary but that was about it for those two countries. All the other good stuff was from somewhere else.

[david83]

Just curious, why would anyone want an english house? The building standard over there is about the same as in the poor thai places, damn plumbing is on the wrong side of the wall

[Jaime]

Are Caernarfon, Blackpool in Wales the uppercrust or are they tourist towns?

Caernarfon is a historic, mediaeval walled town in North Wales, whilst Blackpool is a 'seen-better-days' Victorian beach town in the North of England.

Just curious, why would anyone want an english house? The building standard over there is about the same as in the poor thai places, damn plumbing is on the wrong side of the wall

Presumably a tongue in cheek remark - the 'side of the wall' would depend on which period of house. Which period and which side of the wall are you referring to? There is absolutely no comparison between building standards in Thailand and the UK, where our building 'codes' as you would call them have become so stringent that these days you need scientists rather than builders to put the things together! As far as I know, there are no comparable locally enforced standards in Thailand, even for the 'best' houses.

[bill]

May Joy And Happiness abound in your day. I had both while i spent over 2 years in hh, but, i don't think they worked in the same bar. Hh will never be Pattaya and that's a good thing, i think it will morph into something much better and the sooner the better. The Village mart is on it's way and other amenities are sure to follow. Oh yah i had a blast in my time in hh althought i had to curtail my boozing after awhile or else i would become Australian. Now here's a thought for all you lazy rat-bastards[i was the founder and past president of the Rat-Bastards association of hh, we had no meetings, except for drunken debacles at Hog's Breath, and even a secret hand shake] the Mall while you might not like it has provided ,a guess here, over 1,000 thai people good jobs that they never had a chance of ever getting. That's alot of happy thai people who now can have a better life. No cynical shit thought's here boy's , you arn't Thai so you don't know how delighted they are to make 5-6000 baht a month. It's changed life in hh not just for you but for the poor native folk and that can't be a bad thing. Tell you what get off your collective lazy fat farang backsides and go to the Mall and ask them or ask your housemaid, gardner, cook, tuk-tuk driver. See what they say.

[ajarnfrank]

Never having walked from Cardiff to wherever, let me be so rash as returning us to our topic. Unless you want to walk from Alamo Heights to Brackenridge Park in San Antonio...

Yes, Hua Hin has now reached the late 20th century, with a mall about equal to what many of us enjoyed in 1979. Wow, a movie theater! And in technicolor, gee whiz, how "Wizard of Oz". A bowling alley in the province of Prat's your chop, Kerry, are you kin? A clean shopping mall, in place of Vanna's Prawn. Yes, indeedy. A doughnut shop - perhaps several. Yeah, lots of things that we farang-bangers wanted and missed.

The beach is still there. Buddha still stands at Khao Takiab, saying softly, "Whoa, horsey - don't come here and bother my monkeys!" And the bars and cabarets and the you-know-what-kind of personal services are still available. You can still buy Thai food in Hua Hin, and the taxis and rental motosais still take up half the parking spaces.

Hua Hin improved itself. Now, if we could just keep all those cocky Bancockyians away.

Okay, one complaint: the motorcycle parking mess on the north end of the property. You have to make 87 turns in a tiny space, walk yourself down a 3-foot wide aisle with a 3.125-foot motorcycle, and then squeeze your handlebars between two sets of other people's mirrors. If at all possible, park on the right side, next to the side of the building.

[billseymour]

Some of you may like this story from Scotland.....

http://www.sundayherald.com/54688

[essbee]

I was amused that the checkout area seems to have been ill thought out,
No moving conveyer and tiny areas to put the goods from a Hypermarket type trolley. On top of that you have a massive booze section from which they will not let you buy anything until after 5pm.

[seasider]

Well I was very impressed with it.

HH sure isn't the same place it was when I first went there in around 1991 but honestly that is no bad thing. I probably would not have considered living there then. I am now and things like having a decent supermarket will, I know, make life as a Farang easier.

And the comment about decent jobs for the locals is spot on.

SS

[ajarnfrank]

Okay, now it's been another 45 days, and how do you like the Mall, now that 99 clothing stores have opened up, along with Sizzler, a sit-down S&P, the bowling alley, 49 mobile shops, and Lord only knows how many more? My latest thought is, "Where do all the locals get enough money to shop, or are they just window-shopping?" And, "What do all the shop clerks do all day long, inbetween the hourly customers?"

The auto show was great; I'm still thinking about a new Nissan NV. But now the shops have already started their cheap discount sidewalk sales. I thought this was a luxury mall? It reminded me of Central Kad Kaew in Chiang Mai, where the front steps of a luxury mall are nightly converted into a souk or bazaar, Thai-style. Oh well, the HHin mall is still very new and clean. Love that Sizzler!

[STEVE G]

The most positive thing about having Tescos in Hua Hin, is that it will hopefully reduce the number of farang housewifes in the main market.
I have nothing against them in concept, but my girlfriend complained that they were forcing prices up.
The effect of this was I had to drive her to remote, secret markets located in out of the way places. No real complaints so far.
Now the problem starts, these secret markets sell all those strange foodstuffs from Issan that I thought I was safe from in Hua Hin.
So its back to dining on frog and hedge trimmings!

[The understudy]

Ahh the last time I was there @ the New Teco Lotus/Hua Hin Market Village was a week after it was officially opened. The Tesco Lotus was a I expected crowded and things sold was reasonably priced. Ahh I liked that place and became Ironic, "Whhy wasn't this place opened when I was still @ Stamford? this place could have been the solution for some boring weekends." I'd asking my self when I strolled around the Mall and walked the shops overthere. Now I'm asking my self are all the shops ioen yet? and how is the Bowling alley. The most Important is has traffic too and from the mall omproved allready? I don't want to spend a half an hour to get out of the undergraound parking lot.

[buksida]

The most Important is has traffic too and from the mall omproved allready? I don't want to spend a half an hour to get out of the undergraound parking lot.

I did a rather bizarre experiment on this, it has to be done on a weekend or long holiday for Thais. Going from my house 2km north of Hua Hin and spending exactly one hour in the shop itself (not including checkouts, parking and general navigation of the place) its faster to drive to Big C in Petchaburi and get back.

[MartinJ]

Hi

can you give me more details of the Big C. ?

Do they do the same thing a tesco i.e sell every thing

Thanks

[Guess]

Hi

can you give me more details of the Big C. ?

Do they do the same thing a tesco i.e sell every thing

Thanks

Not at all, In fact they don't really sell anything that you can not get anywhere else around Hua Hin. For certain items they are cheaper but for many others such as fresh produce they are more expensive.

If you have to sit and wait at a cafe while the missus carries on spending you will be charged an arm and a leg unless you are happy to stand in alley way for two hours.


PS. I can not believe that we have had nore than 100 posts over a sodding supermarket.

[MartinJ]

We all have to eat

My lady hates going shopping with me, i look at each aisle, every counter just to see if i want it or not

I think she the one who be site in the cafe.

I dont know any other shopping place other that the Tesco one, where are the other shops?

ta