Samui Profile
The following is an extract of an interview between Samui Traveler magazine and Jean Buisseret from O Soleil resort in Choeng Mon.
How did you first come to Thailand?
I was traveling in Nepal when I was 29 and became infected with dysentery. I was very sick and my weight came down to 35 kg. The doctor flew from Belgium to meet me and then took me to Bangkok from where we'd fly back to Europe. It was at the airport in Bangkok that I first encountered Thai hospitality. I was in desperate need of a coke and didn't have the energy to walk so the Thai person next to me bought me one and wouldn't except my money. He was either being very generous or just treating me to what he thought would be my last ever coke. After a blood transfusion on the plane to Paris I somehow managed to survive.
When and why did you decide to make the move to live in Koh Samui
When I understood that you don't live for work but work to live. Six months after I had got better, I came back to Thailand and after a few days in Bangkok and up North trekking I came to Koh Samui, where I stayed for 3 months and then kept coming back every year. I had never quite fully recovered from dysentery as the eggs of the bacteria are always in the stomach and the anti biotic only killed off the live bacteria. I met a Swiss couple in Koh Samui who stayed in India a while and they told me to eat five papaya seeds a day for one week and the dysentery would disappear. I did that and remarkably it worked.
How did you meet your wife Lek?
I used to stay at Choeng Mon bungalows every time I came to Samui but after a disagreement with the manager there I moved to P.S. Villa resort where I met a beautiful young lady called Lek, who was the owner's sister. I tried to speak with her but her Father saw me and came racing towards me with a big machete used for chopping the coconuts. I had fallen in love with her so they told me to leave the resort and locked her in the room for a week so she couldn't see me. Then after a week the brother told me to leave the resort and don't come back and so I said I'll leave if you let me speak to Lek for just half an hour. I had 30 minutes to talk, so told her I wanted to marry her. She also felt the same way and we agreed to meet in Bangkok the next time I came to Thailand.
About three months later we met in Bangkok and stayed in the hotel for three nights but we didn't do anything. When we got back to Samui, to my dismay Lek told her Father we had stayed together in Bangkok and I thought I was a dead man but because we didn't do anything I instantly gained the Fathers trust and things improved from there. We are now married with two beautiful children and have our own resort called O Soleil next to the PS villa where we met.
Do you ever go back to Belgium?
Yes I still keep everything there and my children are studying there because of the good education system. I live about six months here in the high season and six months in Belgium. I miss my kids a lot, along with live music, and I also miss hunting for antiques in Belgium which is my main hobby and passion.
How is everything at the moment?
Not so good. Mine and Lek's relationship has been tested this year because the big 5 star hotel next door, The Sala Samui, want to rent our land and expand onto our property. I would like to continue with my friendly business and cheap bungalows and rooms for rent, but the pressure is very strong and my wife Lek wants to give up and take the money. The representatives from the Sala Samui came the other day and agreed to pay us 30 million baht in compensation and 6 million baht a year rent over 20 years. They said "we are giving you more than double the money you make in one year and you don't even have to work". It sounds good but not on my ear or in my heart. O soleil was built slowly over 20 years with patience and love and to give up "my child" will be very painful. We started with 10 wooden bungalows renting them for 200 baht a night with a fan, but when the termites started to eat them we changed to concrete. I will cry for sure when it all gets demolished.
How do you see tourism developing in the future in Koh Samui?
Well, I'm pessimist. Following the Tsunami a huge amount of money arrived in Samui and since then the big investors are destroying the charm of the island. Many who have borrowed heavily will not survive. There is a limited number of customers who can spend a hundred euros everyday. I know of one resort owner who borrowed nearly 100 million baht to develop apartments and now they are empty, even in the high season. Phuket and the Andaman have recovered quickly and many people thought the boom here in Samui was permanent. On the customer's side a growing element of tourists have high expectations and are greedy. They want 5 star standards for very cheap prices.
Where are most of your customers from?
Before it was a lot of Germans, but now there are more French. This is because the French guide books recommend us and the French feel better when they know somebody can understand them.
What are the strangest requests you've had in your hotel?
One guy asked me to pick him up from the airport in Bangkok. Another asked can I guarantee the sunshine at Choeng Mon. I said you can contact colonel Gadafi and he will guarantee the sun for you in Libya.
Thank you Jean.
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