Days in the Life of a Pattaya Hotel Owner

Well, our new chef Chin has continued to turn up to work and cook. All the other staffers are here most of the time, so life at Jasmine Mansion Pattaya has continued its peaceful progress through the month. The boys are now on their school holidays and alternating between at home with either Mrs. Boss or me. I have been going to the Mansion with less and less frequency than has been the case since moving out to Thailand well over three years ago. I have to admit to thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to spend time with the children and just chilling out by our swimming pool.

Mrs. Boss arranged a day trip for us to take the boys to Koh Larn (a nearby island) and booked a private boat for the journey. We were due to be at the docks around 9:00AM and in order to ensure we were all up and ready on time, Peter came over the night before and stayed at our house. We had a couple of bottles of wine out on the terrace the night before and were in bed early and reasonably sober. At 7:30AM I was up and dressed while the boys were bathing and almost ready. Peter was also up and downstairs enjoying his morning coffee. It looked as though we were all ready to go on time! It was at this point I realised that Mrs. Boss was not only far from ready — she was, in fact, far from even having woken up! A quick shake of her arm and a nice cup of tea left by the side of her bed seemed sufficient to have, at last, woken her and I returned to sit outside and chat with Peter now thinking we would be only a little late.

30 minutes passed and there remained a distinct lack of appearance from Mrs. Boss. I returned to our bedroom to see that the cup of tea had been consumed and that Mrs. Boss had returned to a deep slumber. A more vigorous shake of her arm and my pointing out that it was now nearly 9:00AM seemed to do the trick and a slightly grumpy human being eventually appeared from under the covers and into the room, which was now bathed in sunlight after I opened all of the curtains. Almost one hour later we were on our way, although not taking the direct route to the docks that I had anticipated. For reasons that were a mystery to me before we arrived and remained a mystery after we departed our route took us to Jasmine Mansion. There was no apparent reason for us visiting the hotel as an earlier telephone call had confirmed everything was in order and under control.

We all decamped into the hotel and the boys headed directly to the computers as is their way. Peter and I decided to have another coffee as Mrs. Boss had obviously found some highly important work to undertake that I had been, hitherto, completely unaware of. Eventually the highly important work, the nature of which I still remain totally in ignorance of, was completed and we were heading off to the boat — it was now almost 11:00AM and we were two hours late!

We arrived at the docks and boarded a 30-seater (or so) boat — all seven of us! There was food for later and we had brought a supply of drinks on board. We set off and chugged across the gulf of Thailand on our one-hour cruise to Koh Larn and all appeared to be enjoying the journey. With land in sight, I started preparing myself as the boat started to slow down to a stop rather prematurely. It was now I was advised that we had stopped to do some fishing and were summoned from our seats on the upper deck by the crew who had already baited lines ready for us. Within a few minutes of sitting there fishing, a couple of Sam’s friends, who had joined us for the day, felt nauseous. One promptly discharged his breakfast into the ocean. Within five minutes I was headed for the upper deck, also feeling sea sick due to the perpetual sideways bobbing of our boat. James joined me within a matter of seconds and Sam followed soon after. Peter and Jin were now the only ones fishing as the rest of us, all a rather pale green colour, sat upstairs waiting for this torture to be over.

The fishing was fortunately curtailed, although I believe not until after Mrs. Boss had caught a couple of small fish, and we were soon on dry land and all feeling much better. The boys all went off on an inflatable ‘banana boat’ ride and Peter and I sat and enjoyed watching the world passing us by. Mrs. Boss, as is usual, headed off to find the temple on this small island and no doubt ask them for luck — which they would duly promise once they had received a few thousand baht in recompense.

After a few hours of very limited activity, save for the occasional dip in the sea, we were homeward bound and the vast plates of remaining food greeted our return to the chartered boat. We all took some food and adjourned to our preferred areas of the boat and sat to enjoy the ride home. All in all a very pleasant day out had been enjoyed by one and all and the lateness of our arrival something that had been long forgotten. Unfortunately what happened upon returning to our house made it perfectly clear that not everything had gone as smoothly as I had hoped. Mrs. Boss announced that the very next day she was going to Udon Thani to see her mother and that James would be accompanying her — Sam and I would, so we were advised, be moving to the Mansion for a week. I have no problem at all with Mrs. Boss going to see her family and, in particular her mother, although something more than 24-hours notice would be preferred. As I mentioned to her that this appeared to be something of a quick decision, she launched into a tirade about my feeling ill on the boat and spoiling her fun fishing. I, along with the vast majority of our party, felt seasick; it was not something we wanted to feel and we certainly did not feel sick on purpose! Very strange, all very strange and I was at a loss as to where this burst of anger had really come from. I decided, however, to say no more and believed that Mrs. Boss would soon calm down and this incident would become lost in the sands of time.