THE SPA CHRONICLES....My Way, Not The Thai Way

Any logical person could come up with a long list of reasons as to why it’s a crazy idea to start a business in a foreign country.  But why would I ever let logic or common sense hold me back from an adventure. Certainly it's difficult to run a business from the other side of the world, especially when it's a brand new venture that has not yet found its feet. But perhaps more importantly, there are a whole host of cultural differences that become shockingly apparent over time, particularly when it comes to business interaction. 

The logo I doodled before leaving the island

 

Thailand, like other Asian countries, has a lot of rules. Most of these rules are treated by the Thais as general suggestions....like obeying traffic signals and no smoking signs. However, the rules of social politeness are deeply ingrained and breaking them is viewed with great distaste. Even the Thai language itself is constructed so as not to cause offense or upset anyone, which makes it difficult when you want something to be very, very clear. As an example, when a Thai says, "Don't worry", what they really mean is, "I can't give you the answer you want, let's move on". If they say, "I'll call you tomorrow", they really mean, "I'll call you at some point, but probably never."

I say all of this in the hope of giving some understanding of the intense frustration of trying to accomplish things from the other side of the world when your Thai business partner constantly responds with, "Don't worry", and, "I'll call you". To be fair, I am admittedly Type-A-anal-retentive, but if we accept that, then we also have to accept that Ajay is exactly the opposite.  

Ajay and I on the day we signed the lease

 

It was very difficult to leave my new project, my pet, my baby in Thailand and return to America in order to make the money to pay for it. 

 The state of the place shortly before I had to leave

Of course I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish before I left, but instead, I had to drop them in Ajay's lap…. Sell the bar fridges and flat screen TVs, get uniforms for staff, install internet, buy curtains and decorations yadda, yadda, yadda. 

 TV to be sold, stereo speakers to be moved and rewired

Bar fridge to be sold (it's still there as I write this)

And being who I am, I wanted a report on the progress of these things.... EVERY DAY. Well, that never happened, so it wasn’t long before Ajay and I began bickering like an old married couple. In fairness to Ajay, he had recently started selling insurance as a side business and was apparently so good at it that it was fast becoming his primary business. So, in a way, he also had a new project, a new pet that needed tending and so, my pet suffered. 


I quickly learned that no tactic, no amount of pleading, cursing, yelling, crying or threats of bodily harm can move the Thai island-time-mind-set to move faster or more efficiently. I like to think of it as a way to apply what I've learned from meditation....."Let it go".

And so, I was stuck. I had no choice but to continue to prod Ajay for updates and communication of any kind while the spa kind of just ‘existed’, without any real growth or guidance, and the list of tasks that I had left undone remained mostly undone. The joint business bank account that Ajay and I had opened remained unused. The manager that Ajay had installed seemed unable or unwilling to communicate on a regular basis, and Ajay seemed unable or unwilling to go to Sairoong and shake the living shit out of him. He preferred to over-see the place from afar, expecting the staff to deliver money and financial reports to him on a daily basis. 

Through this period, I was also receiving frequent communications from one of the owners of the bar next door to Sairoong, whom I had become friendly with. He had no qualms in telling me that he thought I was completely crazy to leave a brand new business untended, and that Ajay never visited, leaving the staff to do as they pleased. More than once, in fact, he said some completely outrageous things to me. And once again, there was precious little I could do about any of it from the other side of the world.

In my on-going fantasies about how this spa would be, I had numerous plans and schemes for treatments, decorations, customer service extras, website marketing, staff training etc. The one thing I had never imagined was being told that the police had arrested three of my staff.

Next chapter: NO, I AM NOT A DRUG LORD