19 Years Southeast Asia - the first money comes in (Part 8) 🌴
Sok Sabai steemit community, today it continues with my adventures on the Thai island of Chang. In the previous part, the construction work for our restaurant started, with which my partner and I wanted to earn a living in the future. However, because the master builder did not take his work very seriously, so I canceled the job without further ado.
The completion of the small building was to be carried out by a friend of ours, but it took 3 to 4 weeks before he could start. In Germany, one would probably have waited for this time, but not in Thailand and certainly not on Koh Chang. We wanted to earn money as soon as possible so we implemented my partner's idea and open the restaurant in an unfinished state.
We did not make an opening party and we had no special offers, but it was simply a day to day event with normal business activities. We had taken care of it beforehand, where we could buy food and beverages at reasonable prices so that everything was prepared. Now only the guests had to come and they actually came.
That my partner is a good cook, she had already proved on several occasions, which was quickly spread on our side of the island. Eating and preparing food is of above-average importance in the life of the Thais. They don't spend only a lot of time with eating but also talking a lot about food. A good cook, who can also prepare the much-loved dishes from the "Isaan" region, has already a bonus in advance.
At that time I had no idea how to run a business like that and I was just happy that we suddenly had guests in our half-finished restaurant. First, the people came who lived near us, then the pick-up taxi drivers and several islanders who regularly traveled on the island road. Some of them ate in the restaurant, but many took the food packed to home, as usual in Thailand.
We opened the shop in the morning and closed in the evening when no guest came for more than an hour. There were peak hours, where my partner had all her hands full in the kitchen, especially as she was still cooking over charcoal fires with a kind of clay oven (she refused to switch to gas) but most of the day it had been quiet.
During this time my partner mostly took care of her herb garden and I sat in my restaurant and read books, which were left behind by tourists at some point. As a foreigner in Thailand, I was not allowed to work without a work permit, not even in my own business. I knew that to get such a permit was for me an unrealizable task, so I didn't even need to try to get one.
This meant that I was condemned by law to doing nothing. Although the island has always been a little out of the state's jurisdiction, there were a handful of local officials who visited us from time to time. Following the advice of my partner and other foreigners living there, I was only able to look after the restaurant in the background. Most of the work had to be done by my partner.
This was not a problem at the beginning, but it should become one with increasing business operations. But for the start at least we could be completely satisfied. After closing time in the evening, we sat on the small veranda of our dilapidated hut, behind the restaurant, enjoying the tranquillity and listening to the sounds of the jungle around us.
Sometimes when the karaoke place shut down the staff came yet over in the middle of the night, to eat. Then we turned on the lights again in the restaurant and my partner put again some charcoal in the oven. Mostly it was Bar Girls who worked there, including some transgenders, in Thailand called "Kathoeys". We all knew each other, everything was relaxed and sometimes we all sat together for an hour more, had fun and laughed.
The time approached that I had to cross the border to Cambodia once again to get a new visa stamped in my passport and also the friend who was supposed to build the restaurant was already in the starting blocks.
How the restaurant was finished on time for the main season and how I served moonshine to tourists, you will find out in the next part of "19 Years Southeast Asia".
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STOPReally like reading about your adventures in the Southeast Asia. I know exactly what you went through because of my adventures in living in El Salvador and they all seem so similar. Thank you for sharing.
You are welcome :)