Wednesday, March 28, 2007
GUEST SAY'S "Love the AKWA guesthouse!"
I loved this little guesthouse. For the most reasonable of prices (especially in Ko Samui), it provided amenities that are difficult to find in Asia for the same price. Tim was so helpful! As a woman traveling alone, he took such good care of me. The rooms were adorable, immaculate and had everything from a blowdryer to a duvet. Totally will recommend it to anyone I know traveling there. The only negative was how far it was from Central Chaweng Beach in terms of eating and drinking, but its distance was a plus when it came time to sleep! -----------http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g293918-d620300-r7702561-Akwa_Guesthouse-Ko_Samui.html
I only wanted to ask do you like Dire Straits?
I know it has been a while since i have been able to send a email! One of the issues has been that the Thai Jail I checked into did not have WiFi or a dial up internet Connection!. So let me ask. Have you ever been detained, had your wrists cabled tied and placed in a Thai Jail? I can now say I have! What a life, Corruption is of course rife here. Bribes are all the way and the only way to get things done! In early February Thai Immigration did a raid of every western owned establishment. Basically looking for any one working illegally. I was not working illegally but like almost 100 other owners they found something which was not in order! I apparently was not taking the correct names in the correct format, in the correct way, with the correct Bic Pen Colour, for people staying in the guest house. So to cut a very very, VERY long story short, I was dragged off to the police station where i stood in the tiniest room with 55 others mostly Laos, or Burmese, cable tied and all, Think of the scene from Bridget Jones Diary 2. That was me, except i was not dancing to Madonna in a red bra! After 8 hours, my Lawyer eventually found the correct dude within the Police to bribe in order to get me out. $5,000 Aussie dollars later and it was as if it never happened! Money talks and Bribes work!
"What Peak Season?" it was like some one had told you about an amazing movie that was just the most amazing thing they had ever seen! Then you went along and even pre booked your tickets to make sure - "as it was a sure bet" you had a prime seat! Well that is exactly what it felt like here in Samui for Peak Season! Yeah sure there were more people, many many more, and yes my little hotel was fully booked! But wow - I was waiting for a mud slide of Burger orders and Breakfasts each and every day! We did well, thou the chocolate river of mud never arrived!
So we are now what is called High Season! - Have no idea whether that means every one else around here relaxes and maybe gets right up there with the alps (not that they have had snow this year) so who knows! i am still 100% full - actually 109% full if that helps any one. I always dread when a Mini Bus or a Taxi turns up at the front door (not that there is a front door - thou it does sound good!) the other day i died inside! Literally! A double booking! Nice to be popular but a nightmare to explain! yet if it is the clients stuff up it is easier yet they need a bed! HELP! This time was totally mine! Me Mine, Son Of Brian, Brother of Stephen, and Father of 4 Aussie Cats! ..... I completely !@#$%^&*&^%$#$%^ up! How embarrassing! I never do this! I pride myself in being PC/Mac/IT together! I Screwed it all up! And just to rub it in like Tiger Balm or Deep Heat - they were the most beautiful couple!!!! They had read every thing on the Internet about AKWA and me - and yes they were mortified that I had no room in the Inn. I know know what Jesus and Mary felt like. I saw it! The Body language said it all! I died inside. Even my staff said to me that they felt my internal anger with myself about what i had done! Yet I was honest. I told them it was Me, Only Me! and no one else than Me! but that did not help! I found them another hotel - even thou i have been told it is nice and have seen it - they dont think it is any thing on my place! ("$%* #$& $()(%(*!@#$%^*()%^&!@#$%") I have done my utmost to make them happy. God love them they still come back for cocktails, Dinner and a afternoon drink! I keep asking myself why? My brain has been working overdrive in what I can do in order to make amens. Time will tell.
Rack Rates, Bulk Rates, Discount Rates, Corporate Rates and then you have to "Up The Rates". I have increased my room rates 8 times in the past 9 months, not in one month or each month, yet in the past 6 months, most of my rates have gone up by almost 100% - People like AKWA that much, we are popular. The reviews have been astonishing even to me. I am constantly embarrassed by what people write about our itty little tiny place. I personally get a mention more often that not, thou I it is the other staff that really do all the work ( i am good at design and organising ) My night manager Lee White gets some great grabs as well, which is great for his ego and style! He does a great job. So AKWA is now a touch exclusive, and a little expensive. Yet AKWA is worth it, as they say the Bed has 11 Pillows! Ho Hum!
Many people all over the world have no and or little water. Here on an Island we have water! I have no idea how! There is no Dam, They say we have a Lake - but I have seen Chaffey Dam out side of Tamworth (Australia) and the lake here in Samui is a Pin Prick compared to a real dam! Very little houses are designed for rain fall collection. Some places like my new home has a bore! (Bore Water = Yuk) Thou when it rains here it $%^&* RAINS! it is sad all that natural water goes to waste. Yet I know in Sydney and many many parts of Australia, that is exactly what happens. The other month the local council, government, or province fixed a long term leak in the main street (leaking for 22 months) and when I say a leak A #*&*^%$% HUMUNGOUS @$%$(* LEAK. So when they finally fixed it, all the pressure in the entire main chewang road lifted! AKWA's main feed could not cope - so at 4-am it said @#$%^&* IT! and burst! Not that i had a clue as i was in a deep sleep from nothing else than pure cotton sheets, 100% feather down pillows with a 100% feather quilt cover, perhaps maybe too much Vodka (only the cheap stuff - as I am in Thailand) and I know someone else cuddling next to me. My wonderful staff decided to do another thing right and solve it all before I even decided to look in the mirror and yet again decide not to shave for another day! ( I hate shaving - and I hate a beard - again mixed up - not sure which way to go sometimes) I arrived to find at 10-am the floor tiles still wet???? Fon was quick to inform me of what happened before i flew off the handle - not that my handle flying is what it used to be in the good old days! All was good! But then there was the hotel water pump! And this pump does not warrant boring you all with yet another Thai disaster story!
I moved house in December! I again had a huge cleansing process, I threw more and more things out, Gave things away. The interesting thing in Thailand yet the same in any other country, yet maybe not as transparent. One mans trash is another mans treasure. Almost all of the items which do not fit me, or I dont need, are out of fashion or decor, my staff are very happy to take off my hands. When I replaced all the Air Conditioners in my little tower you have no idea how many people would have been in line to collect the rejects. A good thing i think. I do know being from Sydney, one would place these things on the street for the local council to collect and take to the rubbish dump, to find even a hour, or 2 after i had placed it out the front of my home it had been taken by some one else - and yet they would think that I was crazy in getting rid of it! I know i am a cleanser and I like to dispose of what i dont need or like to keep. Being in a country where these things mean so much is a huge eye opener. It keeps you human, or less than a human, so you understand what you throw is to someone else gold.
Moving house again for the 10th time in 3 years was full of throwing out fun. I have moved from Balmain (Sydney) to Woollahra (Sydney) to Balgowlah Heights (North Shore, Sydney) to Waukivory (Hunter Country - New South Wales ) to Detroit - Michigan Lake (USA) to New York (USA) to Randwick (Sydney) to Bangkok (Thailand) to Chon Mon (Koh Samui - Thailand) to Chewang (Koh Samui - Thailand) ........... Moving house is a great cleansing, cleaning and exfoliating clarins facial experience. You have no idea how much crap i have got rid of. You all would die - I find it very interesting to reflect on what you have collected, and then decide what you want and if you want it and then to decide to get rid of it. Yet moving house this time was great! I now have a small one bed room house, and like any home it has assets and liabilities! I soon learnt what these were! The assets are it is nice and close yet far enough away from my guest-house, I negotiated a nice large enough garden that i paid to be landscaped and enclosed for my cats, the interior is all wood (makes my sound system and 30 speakers rock!!!) is nice and large. includes water at no cost. And i have 3 year lease unless I get screwed over! The liabilities are I live right smack next door to a C O C K Fighting Training School, ( not sure how i seem to find this place something attracted me! ) as in these Roasters are all looked after in order to fight each other! Training each and every day just like Thai Boxing! They do not fight next door, just training! - but I tell you there is an automatic wake up call every morning! Which is good as i work days, thou it is amazing that you get used to it so quickly - I dont even hear it any more. Thou one of my Cats "Rexxy" Loves to sit on the brick wall each and ever morning preening himself and looking and scouting the training sessions next door! Speaking of my Cats "Patrick", 'Ginger", "Rexxy" and "Spike" all coped very well moving again. My Cats are my god send in this world apart from my Mum, Dad and Brothers and Sisters and close friends. Yet you do not get to travel with your Mum, Dad or Siblings. All my Cats have jumped right on my bed just like normal. They love the Garden I created for them, they sleep with me every night. Patrick being some 17,19 or 20 human years (i forget hoe old - yet it was his birthday on St Patricks Day) has pride of place every night night next to me - we look and talk to each other during the night. He is my joy, He is my love. He has gone through hell at his age with me. Yet he accepts. He is still happy pawing my cheek with love each and every evening no matter what state i am in when I arrive home. I Love him too much.
I travelled back to Sydney almost 4 months ago for 2 days to attend a funeral - My Grandmother "Alma Condon" passed away. WoW she lived a long life! I was always so young when she and her husband worked. In our way she and I were very close, she was the first person i ever told I was Gay - there was always a connection. I saw so many musicals from her base in Ashfield. I was not the perfect grandson. I was me. I can still spot the Parramatta Road Terrace Shop House she and her Husband Maurice lived. I remember very few memories of my Grandfather Maurice (her husband) - a "Barber" just like my Dad, My Father trained under my Grandfather as a barber apprenticeship and then did a Female Hairdressing apprenticeship in Double Bay ( in those days ) - where he met my Mother Eunice Thompson ( getting her hair "DONE" for of any electrical firm that she worked at for a while attending Sydney University). I always got confused by my Nan telling me how to get to the city by bus, or train. Yet I can remember the Parramatta road shop layout. I can even sketch it out for you. The glass fronted stainless steel fridges to store food in order make sandwiches. The Ice cream flat freezes. The clients from the local car yards coming up for their "normal regular" lunch, Just like my clients now. I could never forget my Grandfather and his walking stick. That walking stick scared the crap out of me. Yet there were many idol threats. I loved my Nan, The funeral was a challenge for me, no crying for me there, not sure why, yet there was much before and far too much after, I guess i grief in different way; I miss her telephone answering "Well" to greet you on the phone. I miss sending her roses on her birthday. I inherited her love for evening talk back radio. I love and will miss her dearly. I love you Alma.
The other day I came home sleepy as I had just had a massage, I stopped a 7/11 and grabbed some Gummy Bears (jelly teddy bears) drove home and sat nibbling the bears while lying in bed watching the movie "Little Mary Sunshine" bliss, happy and a great movie. I guess it is the Same Same But Different! I think we all know i love music, my taste is not always the main steam, Musicals and Classical is usually the drill for me. But i do have over 76,000 songs on my computer. And I think it is interesting how music brings up so many memories. I am never able to write these huge monologs unless i have ear phones in, a song playing in my ear and a vodka close by. I was never able to do any work at my desk unless i had music playing in the background. I have never liked Dire Straits, I really had no idea who they were to be frank. But the other day a song came on the speakers in my hotel playing from my 76,000 song list, and it sent some shivers down my spine, It was "Romeo and Juliet" from Dire Straits, this song my brother Stephen played over and over and over again when I guess it was first released. Steve would play it over for the weeks he was back from boarding school. The song then drove me crazy (as i was a Lloyd Webber fan at he time) But when it played recently - I could see my past, my history, the room we shared, how he would migrate to his room and play Dire Straits, the wonderful house my Mother and Father designed and built, My first cat "Moses" who i trained to jump in my window and then open the fly screen in order to jump on my bed and sleep with me. The Family Labrador "Duke". The in ground pool we (kids) all said we would use if it was built, but we never did. My Vegetable Patch. The monkey bars. The garage, My Brother Phillips's Dark room under the house - he loved taking and developing pictures. I am now addicted to "Romeo and Juliet" just like growing and loving a good wine, It has played on repeat while i have written and re written this email, Just like my brothers addiction.
What happens in my life now! Many people think that my life is just perfect. That it is! Yet my life has always been perfect! And yet it has never been perfect. I think we are all like every one else, no money, no one person, no one country, no one job makes our life perfect. I have not found any thing yet that makes me 100% complete ( Patrick the cat is close thou ) yet life is hard as i have found and I love and hate the challenges it delivers. I can not wait for the next one, whenever it arrives.
Even when there are cable ties around the wrists, and I may be in Dire Straits, I love my life when it is delivered with a challenge.
love
tim
xo
"What Peak Season?" it was like some one had told you about an amazing movie that was just the most amazing thing they had ever seen! Then you went along and even pre booked your tickets to make sure - "as it was a sure bet" you had a prime seat! Well that is exactly what it felt like here in Samui for Peak Season! Yeah sure there were more people, many many more, and yes my little hotel was fully booked! But wow - I was waiting for a mud slide of Burger orders and Breakfasts each and every day! We did well, thou the chocolate river of mud never arrived!
So we are now what is called High Season! - Have no idea whether that means every one else around here relaxes and maybe gets right up there with the alps (not that they have had snow this year) so who knows! i am still 100% full - actually 109% full if that helps any one. I always dread when a Mini Bus or a Taxi turns up at the front door (not that there is a front door - thou it does sound good!) the other day i died inside! Literally! A double booking! Nice to be popular but a nightmare to explain! yet if it is the clients stuff up it is easier yet they need a bed! HELP! This time was totally mine! Me Mine, Son Of Brian, Brother of Stephen, and Father of 4 Aussie Cats! ..... I completely !@#$%^&*&^%$#$%^ up! How embarrassing! I never do this! I pride myself in being PC/Mac/IT together! I Screwed it all up! And just to rub it in like Tiger Balm or Deep Heat - they were the most beautiful couple!!!! They had read every thing on the Internet about AKWA and me - and yes they were mortified that I had no room in the Inn. I know know what Jesus and Mary felt like. I saw it! The Body language said it all! I died inside. Even my staff said to me that they felt my internal anger with myself about what i had done! Yet I was honest. I told them it was Me, Only Me! and no one else than Me! but that did not help! I found them another hotel - even thou i have been told it is nice and have seen it - they dont think it is any thing on my place! ("$%* #$& $()(%(*!@#$%^*()%^&!@#$%") I have done my utmost to make them happy. God love them they still come back for cocktails, Dinner and a afternoon drink! I keep asking myself why? My brain has been working overdrive in what I can do in order to make amens. Time will tell.
Rack Rates, Bulk Rates, Discount Rates, Corporate Rates and then you have to "Up The Rates". I have increased my room rates 8 times in the past 9 months, not in one month or each month, yet in the past 6 months, most of my rates have gone up by almost 100% - People like AKWA that much, we are popular. The reviews have been astonishing even to me. I am constantly embarrassed by what people write about our itty little tiny place. I personally get a mention more often that not, thou I it is the other staff that really do all the work ( i am good at design and organising ) My night manager Lee White gets some great grabs as well, which is great for his ego and style! He does a great job. So AKWA is now a touch exclusive, and a little expensive. Yet AKWA is worth it, as they say the Bed has 11 Pillows! Ho Hum!
Many people all over the world have no and or little water. Here on an Island we have water! I have no idea how! There is no Dam, They say we have a Lake - but I have seen Chaffey Dam out side of Tamworth (Australia) and the lake here in Samui is a Pin Prick compared to a real dam! Very little houses are designed for rain fall collection. Some places like my new home has a bore! (Bore Water = Yuk) Thou when it rains here it $%^&* RAINS! it is sad all that natural water goes to waste. Yet I know in Sydney and many many parts of Australia, that is exactly what happens. The other month the local council, government, or province fixed a long term leak in the main street (leaking for 22 months) and when I say a leak A #*&*^%$% HUMUNGOUS @$%$(* LEAK. So when they finally fixed it, all the pressure in the entire main chewang road lifted! AKWA's main feed could not cope - so at 4-am it said @#$%^&* IT! and burst! Not that i had a clue as i was in a deep sleep from nothing else than pure cotton sheets, 100% feather down pillows with a 100% feather quilt cover, perhaps maybe too much Vodka (only the cheap stuff - as I am in Thailand) and I know someone else cuddling next to me. My wonderful staff decided to do another thing right and solve it all before I even decided to look in the mirror and yet again decide not to shave for another day! ( I hate shaving - and I hate a beard - again mixed up - not sure which way to go sometimes) I arrived to find at 10-am the floor tiles still wet???? Fon was quick to inform me of what happened before i flew off the handle - not that my handle flying is what it used to be in the good old days! All was good! But then there was the hotel water pump! And this pump does not warrant boring you all with yet another Thai disaster story!
I moved house in December! I again had a huge cleansing process, I threw more and more things out, Gave things away. The interesting thing in Thailand yet the same in any other country, yet maybe not as transparent. One mans trash is another mans treasure. Almost all of the items which do not fit me, or I dont need, are out of fashion or decor, my staff are very happy to take off my hands. When I replaced all the Air Conditioners in my little tower you have no idea how many people would have been in line to collect the rejects. A good thing i think. I do know being from Sydney, one would place these things on the street for the local council to collect and take to the rubbish dump, to find even a hour, or 2 after i had placed it out the front of my home it had been taken by some one else - and yet they would think that I was crazy in getting rid of it! I know i am a cleanser and I like to dispose of what i dont need or like to keep. Being in a country where these things mean so much is a huge eye opener. It keeps you human, or less than a human, so you understand what you throw is to someone else gold.
Moving house again for the 10th time in 3 years was full of throwing out fun. I have moved from Balmain (Sydney) to Woollahra (Sydney) to Balgowlah Heights (North Shore, Sydney) to Waukivory (Hunter Country - New South Wales ) to Detroit - Michigan Lake (USA) to New York (USA) to Randwick (Sydney) to Bangkok (Thailand) to Chon Mon (Koh Samui - Thailand) to Chewang (Koh Samui - Thailand) ........... Moving house is a great cleansing, cleaning and exfoliating clarins facial experience. You have no idea how much crap i have got rid of. You all would die - I find it very interesting to reflect on what you have collected, and then decide what you want and if you want it and then to decide to get rid of it. Yet moving house this time was great! I now have a small one bed room house, and like any home it has assets and liabilities! I soon learnt what these were! The assets are it is nice and close yet far enough away from my guest-house, I negotiated a nice large enough garden that i paid to be landscaped and enclosed for my cats, the interior is all wood (makes my sound system and 30 speakers rock!!!) is nice and large. includes water at no cost. And i have 3 year lease unless I get screwed over! The liabilities are I live right smack next door to a C O C K Fighting Training School, ( not sure how i seem to find this place something attracted me! ) as in these Roasters are all looked after in order to fight each other! Training each and every day just like Thai Boxing! They do not fight next door, just training! - but I tell you there is an automatic wake up call every morning! Which is good as i work days, thou it is amazing that you get used to it so quickly - I dont even hear it any more. Thou one of my Cats "Rexxy" Loves to sit on the brick wall each and ever morning preening himself and looking and scouting the training sessions next door! Speaking of my Cats "Patrick", 'Ginger", "Rexxy" and "Spike" all coped very well moving again. My Cats are my god send in this world apart from my Mum, Dad and Brothers and Sisters and close friends. Yet you do not get to travel with your Mum, Dad or Siblings. All my Cats have jumped right on my bed just like normal. They love the Garden I created for them, they sleep with me every night. Patrick being some 17,19 or 20 human years (i forget hoe old - yet it was his birthday on St Patricks Day) has pride of place every night night next to me - we look and talk to each other during the night. He is my joy, He is my love. He has gone through hell at his age with me. Yet he accepts. He is still happy pawing my cheek with love each and every evening no matter what state i am in when I arrive home. I Love him too much.
I travelled back to Sydney almost 4 months ago for 2 days to attend a funeral - My Grandmother "Alma Condon" passed away. WoW she lived a long life! I was always so young when she and her husband worked. In our way she and I were very close, she was the first person i ever told I was Gay - there was always a connection. I saw so many musicals from her base in Ashfield. I was not the perfect grandson. I was me. I can still spot the Parramatta Road Terrace Shop House she and her Husband Maurice lived. I remember very few memories of my Grandfather Maurice (her husband) - a "Barber" just like my Dad, My Father trained under my Grandfather as a barber apprenticeship and then did a Female Hairdressing apprenticeship in Double Bay ( in those days ) - where he met my Mother Eunice Thompson ( getting her hair "DONE" for of any electrical firm that she worked at for a while attending Sydney University). I always got confused by my Nan telling me how to get to the city by bus, or train. Yet I can remember the Parramatta road shop layout. I can even sketch it out for you. The glass fronted stainless steel fridges to store food in order make sandwiches. The Ice cream flat freezes. The clients from the local car yards coming up for their "normal regular" lunch, Just like my clients now. I could never forget my Grandfather and his walking stick. That walking stick scared the crap out of me. Yet there were many idol threats. I loved my Nan, The funeral was a challenge for me, no crying for me there, not sure why, yet there was much before and far too much after, I guess i grief in different way; I miss her telephone answering "Well" to greet you on the phone. I miss sending her roses on her birthday. I inherited her love for evening talk back radio. I love and will miss her dearly. I love you Alma.
The other day I came home sleepy as I had just had a massage, I stopped a 7/11 and grabbed some Gummy Bears (jelly teddy bears) drove home and sat nibbling the bears while lying in bed watching the movie "Little Mary Sunshine" bliss, happy and a great movie. I guess it is the Same Same But Different! I think we all know i love music, my taste is not always the main steam, Musicals and Classical is usually the drill for me. But i do have over 76,000 songs on my computer. And I think it is interesting how music brings up so many memories. I am never able to write these huge monologs unless i have ear phones in, a song playing in my ear and a vodka close by. I was never able to do any work at my desk unless i had music playing in the background. I have never liked Dire Straits, I really had no idea who they were to be frank. But the other day a song came on the speakers in my hotel playing from my 76,000 song list, and it sent some shivers down my spine, It was "Romeo and Juliet" from Dire Straits, this song my brother Stephen played over and over and over again when I guess it was first released. Steve would play it over for the weeks he was back from boarding school. The song then drove me crazy (as i was a Lloyd Webber fan at he time) But when it played recently - I could see my past, my history, the room we shared, how he would migrate to his room and play Dire Straits, the wonderful house my Mother and Father designed and built, My first cat "Moses" who i trained to jump in my window and then open the fly screen in order to jump on my bed and sleep with me. The Family Labrador "Duke". The in ground pool we (kids) all said we would use if it was built, but we never did. My Vegetable Patch. The monkey bars. The garage, My Brother Phillips's Dark room under the house - he loved taking and developing pictures. I am now addicted to "Romeo and Juliet" just like growing and loving a good wine, It has played on repeat while i have written and re written this email, Just like my brothers addiction.
What happens in my life now! Many people think that my life is just perfect. That it is! Yet my life has always been perfect! And yet it has never been perfect. I think we are all like every one else, no money, no one person, no one country, no one job makes our life perfect. I have not found any thing yet that makes me 100% complete ( Patrick the cat is close thou ) yet life is hard as i have found and I love and hate the challenges it delivers. I can not wait for the next one, whenever it arrives.
Even when there are cable ties around the wrists, and I may be in Dire Straits, I love my life when it is delivered with a challenge.
love
tim
xo