Sok Sabay dear Steemians, in the last part of "19 Years Southeast Asia" my partner and I have rented a plot of land on "Chang" island in Thailand. We also found a local master builder who would build our restaurant on it. At first, everything looked good, but things turned out differently than expected.
Our master builder brought his construction team which consisted of 6 people on the loading area of his pickup to us. They all wore beach slides and had no other tools apart from some basic things with them. Shortly after, the first building material was delivered on a flatbed truck.
Construction work finally began. It was a simple construction, in typical island style, which did not require any great demands on structural engineering skills. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to see how these people did their work by hand, with the simplest means, and without any safety measures.
Concrete was mixed by hand on the earth, sawing was also done manually, and if some wood was needed, they took it out of the jungle with an ax. During construction work, I learned then that in Thailand you have to live with smaller and bigger deficiencies and that it is useless to get upset about it. After all, we were in the land of smiles and basically, everything was going great.
I had also got used to the fact that the master builder was not there whenever he was needed. But when he began to bring every morning fewer construction workers to us, and on some days he didn't appear at all, I lost the smile. Also, his obscure machinations concerning the building material did not correspond to my German thinking. Sometimes he brought material of indefinable origin with him, and sometimes there were a few boards or other things missing at our building site.
We wanted to open the restaurant as soon as possible and start earning money with it, especially as the main season was approaching. At the moment, however, it looked like, that I had to search the island not only one time for the master builder just to find out when things would finally continue. This was not an easy task because the man had a construction site at almost every inhabited place on the island and also had a few concubines where he could stay.
Asian calmness or not, I and my partner had enough of that guy. After a few days, he came back to see us again to ask for money. On this occasion, I told him that his working time at our place is over. I paid him the amount he was in my opinion entitled to until then, and with that, the case was closed for me.
However, the master builder saw it quite differently. He was upset and made further financial demands. At first, he discussed with me in English, but then the whole thing changed to Thai, only between him and my partner. I couldn't follow them anymore, but I got to see how my partner expels the master builder out of the property. He was cursing and left but in the course of time, he should return many more times to shout loudly in front of the restaurant about us.
Now we stood there with our half-finished restaurant. The base plate had not yet been cast so that the iron lattice was visible. Kitchen, toilet, and bathroom were finished bricked but not plastered and tiled yet. At least the roof was already on it and the water connections were working. But where could we find now someone who might finish the restaurant for us quickly? The solution to the problem was right across the street.
Our friend, the husband of the mobile snack seller, worked occasionally on building sites and was perhaps able to finish our small building. He agreed to what was probably his biggest independent project so far, but the matter had a snag. We learned that he had taken a job on the mainland for the next 3 to 4 weeks, so we would have to wait.
Although this didn't fit into my schedule at all, I agreed also, especially since he made me a really good price. I was already prepared for the waiting time, but my partner had the idea to open the restaurant right now. She had already announced everywhere that she will start to cook courts from her home region, the Isaan, soon. Everybody now is waiting, and the Islanders wouldn't care at all if they were to be served the food on a construction site, she said.
Until then, I was always able to rely on what my partner had recommended, so we drove back to the mainland, bought the basic restaurant equipment and transported everything back to the island. Instead on wooden benches which I designed already on paper, the guests would have to sit for the beginning on plastic chairs.
How it continues with our unfinished restaurant in the jungle of Elephant Island and whether guests have really visited us you will read in the next part of "19 Year Southeast Asia", the story of my expatriation.
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