Living the Dream in Thailand in 2010

When I was in Thailand over the Christmas and New Year holiday, I had a reading by a numerologist who lived in a stunning wood house up on a hilly patch of jungle amidst a forest of coconut trees. The place had view of the sea, a bed hung with mosquito netting, some retro Thai furniture, and a completely open kitchen which was exposed to all the elements. There was a hammock strung up on some trees which allowed you to gaze at the endless Zen view while blissing out.

Um Yeah, I think I can get used to this!

He said that this was going to be a number 8 year for me and that the number 8 is the number of material wealth and success. He said that this year I was going to want to work hard, make money and be a success. He said I needed to allow myself to do that this year and that humans are material creatures after all and that I needed to follow this path. I knew with such great certainty- even a few months ago, before this reading, that I needed to expand my network of websites to cover a few other places in Asia. Then when he finished my reading, he played this song for me on his guitar. It was about finding love and inspiration. It was so cool!

Thailand is my haven, a place I’ve repeatedly returned to when I needed a break from the breakneck pace of life in Hong Kong, or when I needed to sort my thoughts, renew myself or get over some heartbreak. For me it is a place of spiritual energy, a place with magical healing powers. It’s a place which captured my heart a long time ago- so I decided in 2010, I’m going to uproot myself from the clenches of this fast paced city and run my internet business from the beach and live my dream!

The holiday season in Thailand was so amazing. I spent endless days on Silver beach, drinking coconuts, laughing with friends playing futbol, paddleball and getting a deeper shade of brown. (As I write this, I want to be back there right now.) I discovered some awesome new places like Acoustic Café which overlooks grandfather Rock. Acoustic Cafe is owned by this fascinating guy who also plays guitar. All his stories, including the one about how he built the café, are so interesting and his venue is such a great place to loiter over the sunset with a Singha beer in hand.

There were also day trips to Nikki Beach, sing-a-long nights at a dive bar in BoPhut and party nights in Chaweng or Lamai where big groups of us would get together, smoke shishas under the moonlight while reclining on Thai pillows and make wishes on the shooting stars. Then we'd literally dance the night away at Soi Green Mango where the music was so loud it was ear deafening. But it didn’t matter cause we were all having so much carefree fun.

The girls at Nikki Beach

Phuket for New Year’s was very posh. I met up with Hong Kong friends, some of whom rented a massive villa in a place called “Millionaire’s row”. There was an infinity pool overlooking the sea and we spent the last day of ’09 watching the sun go down in the pool. A few of the guys are DJs and music aficionados so we had groovy tunes and someone even brought lasers lights which transformed the entire villa into a private disco! For dinner, there was a big table set up in the center of the villa strewn with flowers and candlelight. There were oysters, lobsters, prawn curry and the piece de resistance was when two of the male helpers came out with pomp and circumstance carrying and an entire roasted pig garnished with decorative fruits. At the stroke of midnight, everyone went to the backside of the villa where there was a view of fireworks going off in three different bays. People were launching paper wish lanterns from the beach and the sky was filled with them. It was an incredible sight as hundreds of paper lanterns floated over the Thai rooftops by the light of the full moon. Now if that’s not magic, I don’t know what is!

The Villa by day and night

The night ended at the Aman resort where the hi-so crowd hob-knobbed with the likes of Kevin Spacey, Paula Abdul, Kate Moss and Martha Stewart. Everyone was dressed to the nines in sequined mini-dresses, backless designer gear and stiletto heels. It was such a scene. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous to be wearing high heels on the beach in Thailand and it’s even more of an outrage to pay 180 baht for a tiny bottle of Evian but whatever floats your boat!

Anyway needless to say, I was crying when I got on the plane to leave Thailand. I had to drag myself kicking and screaming on that plane back to cold dreary Hong Kong. Luckily I have been too busy to be sad or bored since I’ve been back.

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