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Monday, December 1, 2008
Welcome to www.samuipropertyonline.com,
the online version of Samui Property, an independent monthly property &
real estate newspaper published by Siam Map Co. Ltd., Koh Samui,
Thailand.
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classified adverts and features about real estate, property, villas,
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A Winter Wonderland
What’s it actually like living here on Samui? There are differences, as Christmas will highlight. However, it’s those differences that make life on Samui so attractive.
Everyone’s talking doom and gloom about the world’s financial issues but it’s nearly Christmas, a time associated with goodwill and happiness. And maybe it’s also time to take a look at how good life is here on Samui, and how lucky we are.
For many westerners, Christmas falls in winter with cold, snow and frost being synonymous with the season. Here on Samui it will certainly be different for most foreign residents. It’s warm, sunny and, outside of places like Tesco Lotus, Makro, BigC and other places selling Christmas paraphernalia, Christmas is like any other time of the year. All the shops remain open and you don’t get annoyed by having carols playing in every shop for six weeks before.
If you want it you can have a traditional Christmas here, although a crisp frosty morning may be difficult to achieve. There are many bars and restaurants that will be serving a full Christmas roast dinner with all the trimmings. Most hotels too will have Christmas-themed parties. Christmas trees, decorations, cards and wrapping paper are all available to help you recreate your previous yuletide expectations, if you choose to.
But it’s not just at Christmas when life here is different. The tropical lifestyle is a term used frequently within the real-estate world. But what is that? What does it mean? Well, it means different things to different people. Many kinds of lifestyle exist on Samui and by default each of them could be called tropical. For instance, it’s now perfectly possible to experience the five-star living experience, with high-end restaurants, bars and beach clubs, yachts, prestige cars and exclusive villa residences all being plentiful. This playboy lifestyle is often what people associate with luxury tropical living. But for others it’s just about being able to walk on the beach at any time of the day or night in your shorts; to be able to sit outside and eat at night without the need for a jacket; having the freedom to do what you want, when you want and not be too restricted by the weather; and to be able to walk around and feel safe and secure from crime and violence.
One of the main attractions and noticeable differences of living here is that lack of fear. Not being intimidated by gangs of youngsters outside every shop; not constantly looking over your shoulder at night; not panicking that you may have left something valuable on the back seat of the car, or being paranoid about setting alarms and locking doors and windows. Obviously no one is immune from crime and commonsense needs to be applied but, statistically, crime levels here are lower than in most other places and the atmosphere is very relaxed and reassuring because of that.
There may be no snow or carol singers at Christmas but for the rest of the year more western lifestyle choices are now available. Shops now sell pretty much everything you could want; restaurants cater to all nationalities; better schools have arrived, and more job opportunities. Life for westerners has undoubtedly improved because of such additions. But, although some changes will provide familiarity, the main differences will always remain. Samui is a small and friendly island, your money here will definitely go further than in other places, and the year-round warm and sunny climate, give or take a couple of weeks in the rainy season, promote a happy, relaxed, low-stress and carefree atmosphere.
That is a major part of the so-called tropical living lifestyle that people find so attractive. This year has, on the whole, been better in many ways than the previous one. And, despite the local political and worldwide financial issues, the general atmosphere here is one of optimism for the future.
Real-estate on Samui has recovered well from previous issues. But now it faces other problems in terms of global finances and volatile oil prices leading to fewer tourists and potential investors.
It’s time to remain optimistic, and most real-estate professionals aren’t hitting the panic button just yet. In Europe, in the US, and in every other country, people with businesses, investments, savings and even those who just live life only spending what they earn could all face difficulties. Food and fuel prices are two things that affect everyone in the world. Not just those who are living and working on Samui.
So, if businesses and workers will struggle everywhere in the world, where would you prefer to be? Consider the positives. On Samui we need fewer clothes; there’s no need for expensive winter coats, hats, gloves and scarves and, in relation to the temperature, we don’t have the expense of having to heat our homes just to survive the cold of the night.
The island is small and so car journeys tend to be short and without traffic jams, so using less fuel; other easy alternatives exist with cheaper motorbikes and public transport available. And on Samui food is cheap and readily available; we should never starve here. Where else in the world could you go out to have a reasonable meal for Bt100 or its equivalent? On Samui, there are numerous places where that amount will get you a Thai curry with rice and a drink. So, even if you had three meals a day that’s only Bt300, which equates to Bt2,100 per week; and that’s eating out, if you stayed at home or ate from food stalls rather than restaurants you could reduce this further.
Cutting our spending on Samui is far easier than in other climates and in other economies. The financial situation may well get worse before it gets better but at least here on Samui it’s easier to save money, it’s easier to live, it’s less stressful and it’s always warm.
In the past, the real-estate problems have often been specific to Thailand or Samui. At such times it can be easy to focus on the differences of living and investing here as negative issues. This time the problems are worldwide and those lifestyle differences now make Samui a far more attractive option. However bad things might get, we can be sure that life in general will remain better here than in lots of other places.
So, despite the frightening media coverage about world finances and local political problems, December on Samui should be far from a winter of discontent. In fact, it should be the complete opposite and we should all feel privileged to be enjoying life in such a winter wonderland.
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