Dear steemit Community, I wish you good entertainment at the 5th part of "19 Years Southeast Asia". Learn about Thai business sense and follow me into the jungle of the elephant island, "Koh Chang".
After about three-quarters of my seed capital was stolen in Pattaya, the question arose as to what now? Flight back and live with a failed emigration? No, absolutely not! My wish to escape the monotonous life in Germany to start over in the wild beauty of the elephant island was too great. In addition, I didn't want to leave my new partner behind, because we had already gotten used to each other a lot.
So I had no choice but to go to my reserves, which I had let administered by my father in Germany. However, this would take some time for banking reasons. After this was done this by phone, we finally set off on our way back to the Elephant Island. Our first stop there was an islander whom we had already met during our previous stay. This man took care of a large forested plot of land with a handful of inexpensive wooden bungalows and a few home-made cottages where islanders lived.
We rented one of the bungalows for a whole month. Now we had to bridge the time until the money arrived. But instead of lying down on the beach and waiting, my partner became active immediately. Because she didn't like to go by boat, I got the order from her to go to the mainland, to the city to buy a few kilos of chicken legs. On the mainland, everything was of course much cheaper, but the tour took a good half day.
Immediately after my return, the chicken legs were put in a marinade prepared with freshly picked herbs. The next morning she started to fry the chicken legs in a wok over an open fire directly in front of our bungalow. After, she gave the now crispy brown and deliciously smelling chicken legs to one of the women who were underway on the island with a basket of homemade snacks which they sold to tourists and locals.
In the afternoon the woman came back, paid my partner the income and received a commission. If there was anything left, it ended up on our dinner plate. It wasn't a fortune, but the food costs of the day were covered every time. With the saleswoman and her family, who lived in one of the huts in the neighborhood, we were supposed to establish a close friendship. Years later will she bring us consciously into big trouble.
(please excuse the poor quality of the photo, this is an old analog photo I took digitally)
It was common that the manager of the property, the saleswoman, her husband, the son and some others who lived in the huts sat together for dinner every evening. We were very welcome from the first day because Thais are very hospitable people. Everybody helped for cooking and we ate in the hut on the ground, or just before in the outdoors. For me, the dishes were prepared even in a less spicy version, with correspondingly less Chilly.
During the day I spent a lot of time with these people, especially with the seller's husband. Since my Thai has been limited to a few basic terms so far, we couldn't talk much to each other, but that wasn't absolutely necessary. Often we were in the jungle together, where he was cutting some wood and showed me a lot of things, including some fantastic spots. There were several smaller and larger rivers and waterfalls as well as natural stone pools where you could swim and refresh yourself.
None of my new friends had a permanent job. The men worked as casual workers and day laborers on small island construction sites, the women sold snacks on a mobile basis or played cards. Whether man or woman, almost everyone drank, often schnapps, which I had noticed many times in Thailand before. Of course, I joined them from time to time. On such evenings we went to the hottest karaoke stall of the whole island, which I don't would like forget to mention here.
This was a building that was open on three sides and was marked by nature, which was located on the main road of the island but was otherwise rather remote. The equipment consisted of a stage, a dance floor, and a bar as well as long rustic wooden tables and benches. During the day the place looked lonely and deserted, but as it got dark, the disco lights went on and the speakers were turned up. Some nights the shop was cracking full of islanders and there was a great atmosphere. The other foreigners who lived on the island avoided the place because it was said that there were also sometimes gunfights. But I wasn't supposed to experience that until a little later.
The time passed and I became more and more accustomed to the island life until finally, the long-awaited call came from my father in Germany. This means that I have been personally informed by someone that my father has called and at what time he will call again. At that time I didn't have an own motorbike, so I had to get on my way to cover the 2 km to the satellite phone. I got to know that the money was now being transferred and would arrive on my Thai bank account in about one week.
On my way back to the bungalow, I almost hovered, because with this message I was relieved of a heavy load. Now finally the way was free for the next steps. First, a small plot of land had to be rented, then I wanted to have a small building on it for we can run a restaurant in it.
I had no idea of this industry, but my partner had proved over time to be a true artist in the preparation of national specialties. This solution also fit very well into my financial planning, as a small restaurant would not be too expensive. Before I wanted to invest more, I had to go through a peak season and see what was going on.
Dear Steemians, I have announced at the end of part 4 that I will report here in part 5 on my experiences of building on Koh Chang. Unfortunately, I miscalculated a little bit, because during the writing process I remembered a lot of things, which need to be mentioned before, to give you a complete picture.
How we rent a cheap piece of land with a hut on it and start building a restaurant, you will find out in the next part. I'd be happy to have you back in on it.
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