Late post: My recent trip to Hua Hin. There were some pending stories for me especially on my trip to Hua Hin sponsored by Royal Brunei Airlines with the support of Tourism Authority of Thailand. My followers on my instagram would know of my updates on my travel logs but I have yet to share my complete experience here on my blog. Another reason for the delay is the recent situation at Thailand where curfews were imposed. So now, not to worry and this is a major boost to increase the numbers of tourism in Thailand especially in Bangkok. The media, bloggers and travel agents were treated to a 5 day trip to Bangkok and Hua Hin so we can share with you all the places of interest in both places.

Hua Hin itself is a 3 hour bus ride and yea, I bet most of you are familiar with Phuket and Pattaya but Hua Hin is one of the most under-rated places in Thailand. I remember heading there back in 2010 and this time, things have changed rapidly and slowly it’s beginning to pick up the pace in bringing more attraction to the foreigners. I myself was impressed with the recent developments and after visiting many places of interest in Hua Hin, I’m beginning to appreciate the city more.

One of the places that we visited at Hua Hin is the Premium Outlet Cha-Am which was quite a fair ride but it’s worth it for sure. You will be able to look for tons of brand items in a discounted price and I did some shopping of my own too. You can find brands such as Adidas, Levis, Samsonite and Diesel to name a few.

Good news for travelers and if you ask me frankly, the situation was calmer than what was reported in the papers. But this is a huge boost that the curfew has been lifted just last weekend

Our Bangkok-Hua Hin trip last may sponsored by Royal Brunei Airlines

One of my favourite shopping place at Hua Hin is the factory outlet at Cha-am. It’s fair ride from Hua Hin city (about 30 mins or so) and there are tons of big brands too

Of course, this was my first pitstop at the factory outlet 😀

Since I’m blogging about my experience of the FAM Trip, I would like to acknowledge my huge thanks to Pinky who handled us pretty well. She’s such a committed and dedicated ground handler.

Swiss Sheep Farm. I really don’t know why these places are getting popular. When we reach there, there were quite a number of tourists there. It is located on Phetkasem Rd. opposite Santorini Park on the way to Hua Hin – Cha-am. The scenic views are pretty good and yes, you get to experience some sheep feeding too. Anyway, there weren’t just sheep there but you will get to see horses and ponies too. This is also an ideal place to take photos. I saw a billboard saying that there will be having sheep racing soon and I don’t know how that works *lol*

Group photo with the Brunei representatives at Swiss Sheep Farm

It’s feeding time…

The weirdest thing at the Swiss Sheep Farm is that you will find things not related to ….. sheep *lol* Here you see Azim and KC hogging on to a Hulk sculpture

Another odd thing to see this classic car at the area

I’m not sure what character is this

You can go on a horsey ride

Santorini Park Cha-am. This is a humungous park and very ideal if you come as a family or big groups. If you heard of the word Santorini, well, it’s a city in Greece and the theme park is structured in a way that it will give a Greek impression too. You will notice from the classic whitewashed buildings, colourfully painted windows, down to stone-paved paths and domed towers which will give you a feel of being in Greece. What more can you ask for? Impressive lineup of shops, restaurants and an amusement park and it feels it’s like one stop centre. The Santorini Park Cha-Am is open everyday too. Just check out the pictures below.

There’s a trick eye museum as well

This slide is awesome.. You slide on a tube and land on a bouncer.

Now this is interesting but we didn’t give this a try since we didn’t have enough time

The Thai Boxing machine was pretty cool. I had a run with @marul69 which lasted for 3 minutes and it’s cheap too.

There’s also a haunted house

Good thing about the Santorini Park is that they have small shops, a few of them including an Adidas store 😀

It had desserts at one of the cafes at Santorini Park

The restroom at Santorini Park is pretty unique

The Venezia Hua Hin. This was one of our pitstops and we were given a short period of time to wander around. It’s also one of the newest theme shopping and attraction village in Hua Hin. This is like a shopping village and compared to the rest, this is a great place to take photos with (add plenty of romantic photo opportunities) plus a couple of attractions and entertainment venues. A great place to eat and shop and take awesome pictures.

With 73,600 sq.m. and 316 shops, the park is immense and even includes a 200 meter ‘Grand Canal’ on which you can actually get a ride on iconic Venetian gondolas. Colorful mediterranean houses, shops and terraces are lined up on each side of the canal which ends in front of an Italian looking garden and two large church-like buildings: one is a Villa-Market (imported products supermarket) an the other a mini zoo. So if you happen to be at Hua Hin, do drop by these places.

How Venezia in Hua Hin looks like

There is also a mini train that bring you around. It’s not as happening as Santorini since there isn’t any theme rides

At Venezia in Hua Hin

A shopping area at Venezia but somehow lacking the traffic despite having good brands

Yay!! Another Adidas store at Venezia in Hua Hin

 

Acer Liquid Smartphones

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Want to win a GoPro Hero 3+? Check out #kickItBrazil Peugeot Brunei competition. Competition starts 12th May. Click image to enter Facebook page for more details.

 

Check out the debut podcast of Dugout Treble which is dedicated to World Cup highlights, news and opinions starring Rano Iskandar and co-host Jason Rumpun.

Not a convincing performance from Argentina as a whole but sometimes when you have a world class player like Lionel Messi, that’s all you need. He finally scored his World Cup goal and it has been 8 years since he broke the duck in the World Cup. A great goal too but loads of homework for Argentina if they want to get pass the group stage. Argentina beat Bosnia 2-1.

Karim Benzema has done it. He scored twice, one from the a penalty as they beat Honduras 3-0 in their group match. It seems France won’t be missing Frank Ribery as much who couldn’t make it to the big stage due to injury. I’m also glad that he is my captain on my fantasy league (McDonald’s FIFA) and he has 28 points for his effort last night.

A very entertaining match between Switzerland and Ecuador but it was the Swiss who stole the final laugh when substitute Haris Seferovic scored in the dying minutes of extra time for an important 2-1 victory over Ecuador. The match could have gone either way. Very entertaining indeed.

A match that needed spark when Ivory Coast was searching for an equalizer after Honda had scored an early goal. In comes Drogba but though he didn’t score or assist, his presence changed the flow of play and gave the team more confidence and in the end, Ivory Coast came out victorious with a 2-1 score line against Japan. Amazing what one man can do!!

Joe Hart fell into the net after Balotelli scored a header from close range. It proved to be the winner but my favourite team England showed lots of promise especially with a very young team which lacked experience. Apart from captain Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney, the first 11 were pretty much a very young team. Pirlo, Italy’s maestro proved his class once again despite being 35 and Italy prevailed in another exciting clash. Italy won 2-1.

A Costa Rican fan enjoying his moment as Costa Rica caused a major upset against Uruguay with a 3-1 victory. It will be interesting if Suarez will be back in time for the match against England.

 

The Minister of Education, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong officiating the BIBD Perdana Lounge

BIBD launched its new “Perdana” Privilege Banking experience at the new BIBD Perdana Lounge, located at the first level of BIBD’s Kiulap branch in Komplex Setia Kenangan. The new “Perdana” banking segment will further enhance the banking experience of BIBD’s affluent cutomers by providing them with exclusive new products, banking facilities and services.

The new Perdana lounge allows members access to public and private meeting rooms, conference room. e-magazines, a dedicated parking service, concierge services among other amenities – all supplemented with Perdana’s warm hospitality.

Javed Ahmad, Managing Director of BIBD said “The new BIBD Perdana banking proposition aims to enrich the banking experience of our affluent clients through dynamic banking solutions and experiences. The market was always expectant from BIBD to offer a competitive proposition to this segment and we have heeded that call. The Perdana Privilege Banking platform is second to none and we believe that it provides affluent banking customers in Brunei with the best solutions to their banking needs as well as preserving and enhancing their wealth.”

In his speech, the Minister of Education, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong, “The new Perdana branch symbolises the great efforts made by BIBD to always have the capability and capacity to cater for a specific market segment in Brunei Darussalam. Their Bruneian at Heart tagline anchors them to what is important, yet their ambitions pave the way for their future success.”

Apart from having a dedicated Relationship Manager to cater for their needs, each Perdana customer will benefit from the new product range which includes Perdana Platinum Debit and Credit Cards, access to the exclusive Perdana Contact Centre hotline and website, access to airport lounges worldwide through complimentary Priority Pass membership, and a list of other features.

The event was officiated by  the Minister of Education, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Kerna Dato Seri Setia Haji Awang Abu Bakar bin Haji Apong in the presence of BIBD’s Board of Directors and Shariah Advisory Body, along with its Managing Director, senior officers and staff. Also in attendance was previous BIBD Chairmen, Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Haj Awg Abdullah bin Begawan Mudim Haji Bakar, Minister of Communications, and Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar, Minister of Industry and Primary Resources.

Also present was Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Haj Awg Abdullah who was the previous BIBD Chairman

Javed Ahmad, Managing Director of BIBD, in his welcoming remarks

The associates handling BIBD Perdana customers

The interior of BIBD Perdana at BIBD’s Kiulap branch

 

This week, Galleria YMRM will have crazy sales this week at both branches – Batu Satu and Tungku Link. These prices especially for textiles will be sold at ridiculously low prices