While we talked of many things, we re-visited the topic of buying another spa many times. Ultimately, Kate's take on it was that I must trust my gut feeling about it. And, overall, my gut was sending me a resounding "no". And yet, there was a niggling something in the back of my mind, a glowing ember that would occasionally flare. A "what if?".
Upon returning to work in North America, even though I had decided against buying another place, I kept thinking about the idea. I had a discussion with Ajay via text about it, and he thought it was a terrible idea. "Oh Patrick. Not good. Bad location. No walk-in customer. Better to put all that money into Sai Roong instead." (Ajay can always be counted on to announce that the sky is falling). The topic would come up when Jen and I were enjoying an after-show cocktail, where I would again hash through the pros and cons.
I spun the idea around in my head for more than a week until I admitted that I must have some level of interest or I wouldn't still be thinking about it. So, I decided to let fate decide. Knowing that the owner wanted to walk away from the business to start a new life, I resolved to make him an offer of what I thought I could afford with the proviso that the purchase price would include everything: furnishings, appliances, decor, linens, website, domain name, Trip Adviser account, signage....absolutely everything. Oh, and I would pay him half the money immediately and the other half in three months. And to my great surprise, he accepted it. As it turned out, I didn't need the extra time to pay the second half of the money, which actually made the transition quick and seamless.
This new baby in the family meant some extra work for Mr. Long in the beginning, mostly administratively, but I didn't feel too badly about that since the lack of customers over the past few months left him very little to do to earn his salary. There has also been a little internal re-structuring in terms of staff. My initial plan was to run the new place as very exclusive, by appointment only, sending my boys over from Sai Roong only when there were appointments. But Mr. Long started keeping it open for regular hours and business was great. So I now have Mr. Long at the new place but still managing both spas. Mr. Sit has also joined him, and we inherited Mr. Tom with the place as well. Mr. Nut is still at Sai Roong and his friend from Phuket will join him there soon. We've been running the new place since the beginning of September and it's been going very well, even with the massive rains that Samui has been having.
So, may I present the newest acquisition in my expanding empire, Prince Samui Spa...
Because I was not there for the actual hand-over of Prince Samui, I asked Mr. Long to do a photographic inventory of everything that we bought, and send me the pics. I woke up one morning to 29 pics sent to my phone. I scrolled through them, making a mental list of artworks, lighting fixtures, appliances, brick-a-brack,....and then had to double-take when I got to the last photo.
I immediately phoned Mr. Long,
Me: Um.....did we BUY the cats?
Long: Yes. Have to.
Me: Have to?
Long: Yes. But is ok. Live out back not in shop.
Me: Ok. So, comes with cats.
Long: Yes.
Anyone who saw the cat picture immediately wanted to know the cat's names, which, oddly, never even occurred to me. The next time I spoke with Long, I asked him if the cats had names. His response was characteristically economical, "No. No name." And so I have named them Ng, Saam and Song, the Thai words for one, two and three.
