The Best Place I’ve Ever Been That I Felt I Could Finally Settle

It Is Where I Wished It Was Forever: My Chok Chai Home

This was some challenge of Globetrotters to pinpoint the outstandingly best place I’ve ever been. I have been to so many beautiful places in the world. But for pure ambiance and the feel-good factor, it was a toss-up between this actual spot seen in the picture and the small Breton town of Sarzeau, Ouest France of which I’ve decided to write about another time.

I’ll be exact with this small bubble in the East Pattaya, Banglamung area on the outskirts of Pattaya, Thailand. The housing development known as Chok Chai Garden Home, Soi Khao Noi was where the second house that I bought in Thailand was situated, and it is just visible in the picture as the one opposite on the right, tucked behind the pool plant room.

The pool was excellent, maintained well by the owner of the poolside restaurant from where the picture was taken, that may even be my foot showing, although I can’t be sure. The owner of the pool business was a French chef named Patrice, who ran an excellent show from dawn until dusk along with his Thai wife and staff.

Thailand is still one of my favorite places on the planet, and I lived and worked from there for 13 years. When I bought that small 2-bed villa as a newly built semi-detached on the estate, I added a few personal touches, like extending the roofline across the parking space and at the rear which gave us more shade and a utility area, our own water tank was added to take advantage of the rainfall via new wider guttering and that meant that we could pump our own water for showers and baths, without the need to top up with the water from the local reservoir at Maprachan Lake outside the town. Drinking water was provided via a filter system in our kitchen, from which we would fill liter bottles to keep in the fridge. The extra roof overhang gave us an entertaining area at the front for barbecues or just sleeping on the bench when the weather was too hot, or if I’d come home late and drunk from a foray into the city itself.

With the addition of remote-controlled electric gates, the house was secure and large enough for all my needs. The pool was a short walk and I soon fell into a relaxed routine.

I would rise in the morning and put on my swimwear, grab my small backpack containing a laptop, swimming goggles, book or kindle, wash bag, some cash, and that was it. I’d choose my spot early and swim my customary 10 lengths up and down, before showering at the poolside washroom, towel off and dry very quickly in the sun. Once the restaurant area behind me was open I’d wave to one of the girls and often order my early starter of espresso and cognac.

Once thoroughly dry I’d get off the sunbed and move to a higher table and stool under the canopy of the restaurant area, fire up my laptop, and utilize the free wi-fi, check my emails and make any global phone calls via skype. Any writing work required followed and I had invariably finished real work by mid-morning and read some more.

On alternate mornings, I’d jump on my small Yamaha 125 automatic motorbike and head about a mile away to the gym, where I’d follow my cardio workout, before heading back home and showering before strolling back to the pool restaurant. I was fitter than I had ever been, tanned as much as this pale-skinned white man dared, relaxed, and very happy with my life.

Other times I could take a short walk out of the estate with our dog and take a cappuccino and croissants outside a small patisserie, or get dragged into another local bar, one with blacked-out windows where anything goes from the women in there. Not always as it seemed, because they were part of the local scene, I’d be treated like any other local and shared food as any friend or neighbor. I’ll admit to not always fighting them off when they ganged up on me for their own enjoyment, but that is all the description you’ll get in this article.

Often, I would take lunch at the pool, where Patrice had an excellent menu, even as far as producing a traditional rare beef or tuna steak tartare, the kind that had that raw egg yolk in the center, along with a choice of both French and Thai meals at very cheap prices. On a Sunday he would have an ‘as much as you can eat buffet barbecue,’ which even as a resident I would have to reserve a table for.

Once work was done, fitness taken care of, and even a short doze by the pool, I could jump on my Yamaha and head out to one of my favorite bars that would open around 3.00 pm and play some pool with the bar girls that called themselves ‘my family’ to chill out even further. By around 4.30 pm I might get some calls from the UK or Europe which could dictate my evening for a while, and I would head home and do whatever was necessary on the laptop for a couple of hours.

At about 7.00 or 8.00 pm another shower and change of clothes and we might head into the town for a dinner at our favorite restaurant or do some people-watching. There was always something to do, to visit, or to see. Whether it was the Buddhist festival like Loi Krathong where you sent your wishes for the coming year out to sea in a small flower decorated Krathong, or drive to a temple and get a blessing from a Monk, anointed with holy water from a bash over the head and shoulders with branches of a tree.

Further out from my small housing bubble, the best restaurant was “Leng Kee’s” halfway to the beach on Pattaya Klang (Middle Road), the menu advertised Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese/Laotian/Cambodian, and Vientiane food in an extensive menu, the kitchens are all on view and have a huge staff, with everything freshly cooked in a very short time. The only dish we had to wait a short while for was the Sea Bass in Chilli, Lime, and Ginger which came bubbling hot in a steel pot kept warm with nightlights under, surrounded by the fiery soup, and where Dao would fight me for the first take of the fish eyes with her chopsticks. The fish was so meaty, so spicy and we’d invariably struggle to finish it all, but it was amazing. I’ve tried varieties of the same dish elsewhere since but never has it come close to the perfection of Leng Kee. Dishes like Prawns with Shitake Mushrooms would fill us up for starters and we got to know the owner quite well over the years, an affable Chinese Thai with a twinkle of mischief in his eye, he would often show us around his extensive wine collection, which was unusual out there. When my pal from England came over to visit he would gladly accept a couple of the blue tablets, given with a nod and a wink, as a tip to give us special treatment.

We’d visit the well-known Walking Street, or Soi Buakhao market, or some friends at other bars around town or back nearer home. In that way, I would find characters for my books, plots, or stories. Sometimes I might have local clients, or visitors from overseas and have to entertain them with dinner and a night on the town.

There was always a foot massage or many other forms of massage, to make you feel lighter than air and many other benefits that are not allowed in the west. Computers that can be fixed, mobile phones unlocked, pirated software, perfect copies of designer clothes and other goods for a fraction of the exorbitant western prices if that was what you wanted. As Dao, my Thai ‘Mia Noi,’ used to say, “In Thailand can do anything.” Even bribing the cops for a traffic offense was about 100 baht (£2), whereas in the UK it was a legal fine of £60!

It was an idyllic lifestyle and I lived variations of that for a few years, in between picking up contracts elsewhere in the world or eventually a steady j.o.b. for a large multi-national company which let me base myself there and travel the Aseatic and Australasian regions to develop their business.

As the old adage goes, “nothing is forever,” and despite my wanting it to be, everything came falling down like a house of cards in the big financial crash of 2012. I am still suffering from the knock-on effects of that even now. The only thing I have now is my writing, my novels, and my memories of many places and circumstances.

However, I do know that many of those places around the pool are for rent these days and as soon as I get back on my feet, I’ll be heading back to see if Patrice survived the ravages of the last few years.

As an article about the best places ever been I could not be more specific, but where else could you get a French chef, swimming pool, free wi-fi, Thai food, along with all the other pleasures that country has, on your doorstep or within a few square miles, with a property that cost the equivalent of £26,000 at the time. Perfect, just perfect, and I miss it tremendously.

@brianfeutz Amanda Sexton