Housing, Land, Schools, Farang Food?

Post by **Mark** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am

Hey All,

I have lived in Thailand for about 12 years now, married to a Thai and have two kids. At present I live on the outskirts of Pattaya, far enough away from the riff raff, but close enough for the amenities.

As the kids are getting older now, I would like to move to somewhere more "respectable", that is with less of the bar life, mass of tourists, and all the associated bad elements that go with it.

My questions are:

1. What are the land prices and housing prices like when compared to Pattaya. I would not be looking at living on the beach, but would like to buy a couple of Rai of land and build my own house, not too far from all the amenities.

2. What are the international schools like in Hua Hin? Are there any good schools there? What sort of prices per term can be expected? Pattaya has quite a choice of schools, but the best ones are very expensive as they relied on the expat companies paying for employee kids education during the build up of Maptaphut and Leam Chabang. The companies are going but the prices have stayed.

3. What are the shopping facilities like? Pattaya has Foodland, Big C, Lotus and the likes. If you like to have your own farang food it is easily available.

4. Lastly, what are the roads like?

I will be visiting Hua Hin later this year, but would like to get a bit of an insight into the place first. Appreciate any help anyone can give.

Regards,
Mark.

Post by **Lev** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:45 am

Hi Mark, welcome to the board.
I can't help you with the first two questions as I don't have kids and I don't know what land prices in Pattaya are like.

I can tell you though that shopping here is pretty dissapointing, the nearest proper department store is Big C in Phetburi (an hour north). We have a small Mall here in town but its very basic, *hopefully* a bigger one is in the pipeline. There are a number of smaller places that cater for western tastes though.

The roads are fine (as long as you don't want to live in Khao Takiab

), the best stretch of road in Thailand is between Cha-am and Hua Hin IMO.

Post by **easy for me** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:51 pm

That road from chaam to hua hin is a nice surprise if your on a decent bike. That tunnel is dark but coming from the sun.

Hua hin has a tesco express on the main road which is handy and has all the basic nessesities and there are plenty of local markets also. One thing all the prices have names in thai which for a tourist town is a bit thick on tescos part or maybe not.

I think a real tesco or big C has not come yet because of the land prices and maybe it would be bad for the local buisness people as well who don't want competition.

one thing here if you have a thai wife is that the local everyday seafood is very cheap compared to inland or bangkok or phuket.
I get a real tasty cow pad seafood for 20 baht beside my home and it's loaded with thick chunks of seafood. they do good buisness with that.

maybe it would be an idea to look at renting for a few months before you buy to get a feel for the place.

i'd like to know where is a good place to get good 2 hour massages same as the thai men.

Post by **poosmate** » Thu Nov 04, 2004 10:14 am

I have moved to HH full time now for two weeks. I have a 10 year old daughter who has started at Somtawin school last week ( 70000baht per year)The school is english speaking and the standard seems as high if not higher than uk (private school 8000baht per WEEK). Also the class sizes are small -- only 9 in year 5!! any further details please ask

Post by **alleykat** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 4:29 pm

There are no international schools in Hua Hin for this age group. And I would not send my kids to Somtawin. They have a real high turnover of farang teachers, due to the low salaries,some of these teachers are not properly trained either.

It is definitely not worth the fees that they charge. This school claims to be the top school in the area but in reality they are serious lacking in lots of things.

The government schools in Bangkok have far better resources & equipment. Apparently the classrooms at Somtawin do not have any air-con, & usually the toilets in the classrooms have no water after lunchtime.

Post by **bld** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 3:24 pm

Mark,

Me and my family noved to Hua Hin from Pattaya in March this year, after living in Pattaya for over 4 years. Have a 7 year old son, so I do understand what You mean about "respectable", I actually moved due to the same reason.
For Your questions:

1. Always difficult to say. Land is always expensive in Thailand, but for houses to buy/rent, I belive that Hua Hin is cheaper than Pattaya.

2. Not so many International schools to chose between. Our son started at Somtawin, but I can tell You "Big Mistake". Please see what "alleykat" says, and it's all true and even more then that.

3. No Big C or Lotus available. Nearest Big C is in Petchaburi, an hours drive from Hua Hin. Hua Hin have a Lotus Express, and just recently a Supermarket opened near the railway-crossing to Pala-U. According to my wife, it's very good.

4. Roads...!!! Well, if it wasn't for all the motorbikes, the roads would be safe and the driving would be easy. The standard of the raods are in general good.

Good Luck!

Post by **neilgs** » Sun Jan 09, 2005 7:41 pm

Any news on any International Schools coming to Hua Hin ?. I moved to Phuket in 2002 (Dulwich) as the schools in HH were so bad. Still have house at Palm Hills however?

Post by **Boris** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 9:52 am

I have a child at Somtawin School and I have to say it is absolutely diabolical, they held a sports day last month it was held over a two day period, of the two days a very very small percentage of falang children were actually involved. A week later they were due to go on the annual scouts camping trip, all well and good.............only problem being they hired ARMY TRUCKS to convey the children, so after getting up at 6am to get to the school early as requested we were kept waiting until after 9am.
The management of the school will not give a direct answer about the finances of the school............but you havent got to be a genius to work out that it has 200 children at 71,000 Baht a year well actually the two siemesters last 178 days (work that out) I have!!! take away the teachers salary (12 teachers at 30,000 Baht a month, 100,000 for rent etc) they are making about 44,500 Baht PROFIT A DAY!!!!
There has been a turn over of 5 teachers in the past siemester, which they say isnt bad!!
The teachers are NOT QUALIFIED to teach anything except English, however there are some hard working teachers there...........I have a Thai friend who has a child in the Thai side she noticed that his work was being marked as correct, when checking she found that it was ALL incorrect!
The school is just a racket.............last year not a single 7th or 8th grade passed the maths exam! what actually happens is that because of the lack of recogintion by the Thai Education Authority the students do not get a recognised passing out exam which would enable them to progress to another recognised school, so what the school does is to add another grade, please please be warned this school is not what it is made out to be.............trouble is that it is the only school of its type in the area at the moment!

Post by **Bamboo Grove** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:52 am

Boris wrote:

because of the lack of recogintion by the Thai Education Authority the students do not get a recognised passing out exam which would enable them to progress to another recognised school, so what the school does is to add another grade

Do you mean both Thai and International sections with this or just the Int?

Post by **ajarnfrank** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:04 pm

As for supermarkets, I'll have to go inside the Lotus Express; I thought it was just a gas station and convenience store. The V. P. supermarket downtown is 1950's style, terribly overcrowded, old, dirty, the hired help just getting in the way, I could go on and on. The newer store over the railroad tracks has more space, but no diet drinks at all (that's my golden standard!). The new Tesco Lotus should be ten times better, if it ever opens.

I don't have kids in school any more (the last four couldn't complete ninth grade in the USA), but those opinions about Sumtawin are very condemning.

When the OP asks about the roads, does that include main thoroughfares through downtown? They're wide, yet crowded. And yes, the two laner that snakes through Kao Takiab is bad even in the low season.

Can't compare Hua Hin with living in Pattaya as a family. I thought Jomtien Beach was the nastiest , narrowest beach I'd seen in decades, though. The beaches north and south of Kao Takiab are far from perfect, but much better than Jomtien.

I can't imagine raising kids in Thailand. Not teenagers, anyway. But I'm prejudiced by my failures!

Post by **alleykat** » Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:19 pm

Check this thread out, it's under "Ask the Expats".

Post by **Limey711** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:18 am

I was told that there were good international schools in the area of Hua Hin, but after reading some of the comments on this forum, I am having second thoughts.

We are moving out there in September and we are bringing our 5 yr old grand daughter with us and I was under the impression that education for her would be no problem and of a high standard, but all I see on here are negative comments and probably rightly so, so now I am getting a little concerned.

Can anyone offer me any advise on any decent schools in the area or within travelling distance of Hua Hin.

Thanks.....

Post by **Lev** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:26 am

There are a bunch of threads regarding schools in the area on the board. Try the search to find them.

There are no international schools here.

Post by **Big A** » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:09 pm

While not a true Intl school Salasian which is affiliated with the Catholic church has better reputation than Somtawin at least that is what I infer from the Thais. Salasian is located South of the main intersection of town and San Paulo Hopsital behind the large white fence running next to the road.

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