Humans of Hua Hin

Welcome to Humans of Hua Hin! This writing series aims to spotlight the wonderful people who inhabit our local area, whether they are young or old, Thai or farang, man or woman.

First, let me say I love Hua Hin and living in the area, and I am very grateful to be able to enjoy the local lifestyle.  Hua Hin is full of unique human beings, each with an interesting back-story, dreams, passions and achievements, much of it unknown to even people who encounter them on a daily basis.

Each article aims to create a word portrait of a local person, in impressionist style, through my eyes.  In attempting to render the person on a page, I hope that they ( and their loved ones) see the glory and genuine goodness in themselves.  At the same time, I expect other readers to enjoy learning about a person who they would very much like to get to know, if they don't already.

I have had a variety of reactions from my subjects, from "Why me?  I'm not very interesting.", to happy tears on reading my article, to "I'm sure you've made me sound too nice." I've even been thanked for "the therapy" as my questions have prompted people to examine their feelings and motivations in a new light.

I am not a trained professional writer, but rather was a teacher for nearly 35 years, working with people from 3-years-old to 19-years-old. I started my post-retirement writing journey here in Hua Hin when I was approached by a publisher to write some more restaurant reviews and event reporting for him to publish. He had seen my writing in #huahinfoodies and saw potential.  For that, I thank him.

But my transitory lifestyle between Hua Hin and Sydney, Australia meant I couldn't review restaurants or document events here for half a year, each year.  So, I pitched the idea of a human interest series, knowing, (thanks Covid-19) that I could chat to people over the internet to write about them. This was how my writing first took baby steps.

Naturally, I prefer to chat to people in person if possible, but I persisted with remote interviewing from July 2022 until January 2023.  Another sojourn to Hua Hin from mid January 2023 has seen more changes and refinements to my writing series.

I reached the conclusion that writing for external publication came with constraints counterproductive to the creation of accurate word portraits.  So, I have launched this website, with its accompanying Facebook page, as a permanent home for the Humans of Hua Hin series.

I intend to publish a new article at least once a fortnight, from wherever in the world I happen to be. Liking the Humans of Hua Hin Facebook page will mean you are notified when each new article is published.  If you have a free moment, you might like to browse the back catalogue all the way to the delightful Wendy Herbert, my first subject.

I was once told that you need only 3 things to be happy.  One of them is a sense that you are contributing. (FYI, the other 2 are having a loving relationship with someone and having something to look forward to.)  Humans of Hua Hin is my way to contribute.  The articles are my love letters to Hua Hin to thank it for all it gives me.

Each person I write about recommends two further potential interviewees to me, guiding my path through the community and introducing me to people I might never have met otherwise.

I expect to take about 5 years on this exciting journey of exploration through Hua Hin, and invite you to join me on my adventure.  It makes me happy and I hope you enjoy it too.

Cheers,

Felicitee