I eventually arrive back in Cincinnati, once again
completely confused as to what day/time it is. The jet lag is always worse
after the return trip, compounded by the fact that one has to return to work. I
know that the next few days will be an uphill climb.
I am mildly annoyed when people ask me how my “vacation”
was. It’s not their fault that they don’t know what I packed into those few
days. For a time, I explain to them that it wasn’t a vacation, at all, but as
people continue to ask, I grow weary of explaining, so just respond by saying, “it
was great”.
Mr. Nut sends me daily business reports and does a
very good job of keeping things ship-shape until Mr. Long returns. During one
of my conversations with Mr. Long, he tells me that PP has not paid the previous
month rent, or the previous month water or electric bill, AND that some of the boys have
not been paid their commissions. So the lying little bastard managed to make
his exit with a final “Fuck You” that ended up costing me tens of thousands of
Baht. I hope that the people he owes money to, that are looking for him, find
him...and beat him. He's better hope they find him before I do, cuz I'll snap his little neck like a wafer.
Things become calmer the more I interact with Mr.
Long. I get income reports on most days, and business seems to be doing a
little better under his management. He has a very Zen approach to most things,
and usually accepts my instructions with a simple, “ok, I do it”. Or, if I ask
his opinion on something, he will simply suggest, “this way better I think”.
At one point, he sends me a copy of the menu from
his old spa, with the statement, “I would like to have this one”. It is a
beautiful selection of services. A great variety of massages and some really
beautiful body treatments that use the products of Thailand. I mean, a coconut
and honey body scrub? Come on! I love it. I want to adopt this menu if he is
willing to teach the staff all of the new treatments, which, of course, he is. I
tell him that I will rewrite the menu, to give new names to the various treatments,
and to correct the badly written English. (At the moment, the new, rewritten
version is waiting for attention from our graphic designer/webmaster who is
busy with TSG Samui.)
At the writing of this entry, it is low-season on Samui.
Tourists are normally pretty scarce this time of year, but it is particularly
bad this year. It is, in fact, the lowest low-season ever on Samui. There’s the aforementioned car bomb, the on-going new liquor policies
being introduced by the new government, the rise of MERS cases in neighboring Asian
countries, heavy monsoon rains and subsequent flooding, earthquakes, drought, another
outbreak of dengue fever at a resort on the mainland,... the list goes on and on. It
adds up to business really SUCKING.
My staff, along with many others on the island,
spend long days doing absolutely nothing. Against my better judgement, but
hoping to give them a project, I decide to hire them to paint the floor
upstairs. I have seen how Thai boys paint, and it makes my anal-retentive heart
shrivel into a weeping, quivering ball. There is paint splashed on everything within a ten meter radius of the actual painting site,
and there’s not a clean edge to be seen. Still, I figure, it’s the floor, how
bad could it be? So I send Mr. Long a colour sample and give him some very
specific instructions on EXACTLY how to proceed with the painting. All in all,
it looks like a pretty good job, though my eyes will probably see what the
pictures don’t reveal the next time I visit. At least it kept them busy for a
few days, the place looks better, and I don’t have to take the time to do it on
my next trip.
And speaking of my next trip....it will be very soon. I wonder what I will find...
