The transition to Samawi was the right decision; In Thailand, I felt at home

This exciting article depends on the conversation with Ralph Bell, 60, the British -born founder Lama Mai Thai camp In Koh Samawi, Thailand. His words were edited for length and clarity.

I never felt at home in the West and I always know that I wanted to leave.

It was born in the United Kingdom with a mixed European Asian heritage. During a trip to KoH Samui in my thirties, I could say that Thailand was where I belonged.

Now, after 27 years, I built a life here – I helped develop Muy Thai at the international level of the motherland itself, raising a family, and witnessed the transformation of the island.

I have no remorse.

A future in Thailand

By the early 1980s, I found my reform: Thailand, specifically Muy Thai.

At that time, few in the West knew the brutal elegance of Thai boxing, and I was a drug addict. She wore between the United Kingdom and Thailand, training, learning, and absorbing everything I can.

The country had a magnetic that I could not get rid of, and by 1998, I stopped trying. I opened a small camp of Muay Thai on Lamai’s Koh Samui Beach when there were more palm trees more than tourists. For a few years, my time was divided between England and Thailand.

My wife, who was initially one of the Thai Mouay students in the United Kingdom before joining a training trip to Thailand, was just as you were.

After marriage on the island in 2003, we agreed that our future was not in the UK but in Thailand.

Raising children in Samawi

When we moved to Samawi in early 2004, our son was 6 months old.

Raising children in Samawi means giving them something that the western life of the city – space, freedom and outdoor presence. My son and daughter, now in the twenties, had occupied their childhood full of sun and sea, in addition to the education of Cambridge.

I live in Lama with my family, in a house I was sofa 18 years ago, located on a coconut garden. Through my background in the construction, I designed it as a house that gathered in the Western Thai-five-bedroom on the top floor, and two on the ground floor.

Discover Paradise

Of course, nothing remains without touching. In the late 1990s, a private airport had changed the Samuet of everything, making it easy for tourists to reach the island.

What was one day “if you know, you know” the island became a primary player on the World Travel Department. The beaches are still glowing, and the sea is still shining, but Samawi evolved – it was.

More expatriates arrived, and more high -end resorts opened, and with them this creeping feeling came that heaven, which was discovered as soon as it remained the same.

The “white lotus effect” has not yet reached

Then came the “White Lotus”.

If the device led by Leonardo DiCaprio around the “beach”-which was issued 25 years ago-did the wonders (and damage) to the Gulf of Maya, a coffee on the island of southeast Foucape, what can HBO shiny, satirical, luxury on the island to Samawi?

The short answer: It is too early to know. There is gossip. There is curiosity. But the real effect will not be affected until the next high season – usually between December and April.

If it is dealt with properly, this may be a boost. If it is dealt with incorrectly – well, you have seen what the unlimited tourism of fragile ecosystems is doing. Let’s hope to learn our lesson.

SAMUI’s party scene has always been a draw, although the wild highlands of nearby places such as Phuket or Pattaya have not been reached. The island has its vibrant beach clubs, bars late at night, and of course the legendary moon is a journey on a boat on KoH Pha-ngan- a monthly scene of neon, firefighters and thousands of celebrities dance until dawn.

One of these parties appeared in an episode of “The White Lotus”.

If the exhibition attracts a new wave of visitors, let us hope that they will come to more than Instagram cocates.

Despite the changes, Samui still has a rare thing: restraint. There are restrictions on construction. Nothing longer than a coconut tree. There is a commitment to preserving nature as part of the island’s identity. He is more expensive than before, but he did not lose himself.

I never want to leave

Life was built in a logical Thailand. I am free of mortgage and work because I want it, not because I should.

Muay Thai has once passed my passion, my contribution to a sport now recognized globally. I still travel, but Samawi is fixed.

If I stayed in the United Kingdom, my life would be different – perhaps more financially stable, but may not be satisfactory.

At some point, you really realize what matters. For me, that was the quality of life. I was lucky enough to make this decision early.

I appreciate my health on wealth. I have done a good job enough to care for myself, and these days, not my focus on the banking balance. I am still working, but much of it is voluntary.

Samawi gave me a life that you do not need a break – this is for me the real success.