Throughout my travels, I’ve had my fair share of problems – but I’ve had my fair share of luck as well. A life on the road is a life of the unknown, and that’s part of what I love about it. One day you might find yourself getting pickpocketed by Bosnian gypsies, but the next, you maybe falling asleep in the spare bedroom of an Internet billionaire’s private oceanfront villa.
Yes, it really did happen. Thanks again to Stefan and our wonderfully generous new friend Kelly.
Kelly is another Internet programmer and entrepreneur from the states. Like myself, it didn’t take him long to realize that, with a profession which enables him to live wherever he wants, there’s little point in confining himself to the US. So he picked up his life and moved it to Asia, never once looking back. The first few years he spent in Manilla before ultimately deciding to settle in Bangkok, where he now lives with his Thai model girlfriend Wan.
But despite moving across the world, Kelly’s never lost touch with his old American friends – including one particular friend who went on to become an unimaginably successful online businessmen. So successful that it’s enabled him to buy countless multimillion-dollar homes throughout the world – many of which he’s yet to even visit. Like this one. So in his absence, he generously lets his friends enjoy the fruits of his success.
“Hey, after the Full Moon Party, wanna meet up in Phuket for a bit?” Stefan invited a few weeks earlier. “My friend’s got access to a villa where we can all crash for free.”
“Sure, sounds great!” we said.
Never could we’ve imagined what he had in store for us.
This place was, without a doubt, the nicest place I’ve ever stayed. Nicer than my cousin’s enormous cabin in Telluride, nicer than Andy’s marble-floored condo in China, nicer even than the penthouse in Hong Kong where I ended up living for nearly a month back in 2008. Perched on a cliff less than 5 feet from the ocean, with its all-glass facade, infinity pool and waterfalls, plasma TVs and jacuzzi bathtubs, this place was, quite simply, amazing.
I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to own a place like this, yet have so many others that it wouldn’t even be worth visiting. All I can say is “wow.”
It was here that Herb, Stefan, Kelly, Wan and I spent the following week, hanging out by the pool and ordering roomservice by day, hitting the clubs on nearby Bangla Road by night. Located in Kamala Beach, the villa is just a cab ride from the action – but still far enough to give you that “tropical paradise” feel each and every morning.
Life is good. Real good.
The following is a promotional video shot at our villa. Not another unit mind you, but the actual one where we were living:
Good right up dude. Let me know if you need more pics. i have so many..
I am surprised you found the sales video.!!!
Party with you soon.
Wow, looks amazing!
Btw, looks like Stefan is about three seconds from tipping over the edge there 😀 You should have grabbed the table fan and put it on the house-side of the pool, giving him a little push 😀
Kelly, i gave Justo the video back when you gave it to me. Im inspired to be a billionare too now so i can own villas.
Man that was a sweet crib. I almost want to cry watching that video…
@Kelly: Actually, if you have photos from our trip I’d love to grab em from you! Wan posted some GREAT ones on Facebook, but of course I could only get the low-res, exif-stripped versions from there…
@Peder: Haha yeah, I knew someone would mention that 😉 The board would never make it over though. In addition to a huge fin going down into the pool, not nearly enough water overflows the ledge to support a surfboard + person.
@Stefano: I was just gonna say that you sent it to me…beat me to it! 😛
looks awesome!
looks so sick
Hi Justin – just purchased your Premium version of FB connect.
If you like Thailand a lot you may one day decide to visit our neck of the woods in Mae Phim to the east of Rayong where we run a real estate business…
http://www.sunrisepropertythailand.com/#tw-content-4-2
Whilst here you can take a boat trip to Koh Man Nai and help with the release of baby turtles into the wild, take a series of zip wire rides high up in the forest canopy, and visit the holiday island of Koh Samet to party…. could be something interesting to write about in your blog!
Cool, the baby turtles thing sounds awesome! Not sure exactly when I’ll be back in Thailand just yet, but it’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind 🙂 My friends from BKK go on vacation to Samet quite often, actually 😉
Koh Samet is a popular party island, a bit like Haad Rin on Koh Phagnan in one part – but it’s a little quicker to get across to being a very short ferry ride from Ban Phe, or a longer boat trip from Mae Phim 25km down the coast.
By the way, can you tell me, is the feature which pops up a blow up of your blog pictures something which comes with the suffusion theme, or a separate plugin effect?
Neither – it’s my own custom code.
Nice effect, I like it.
Thanx 🙂
Justin, just wanted to drop a note on your page, the villa is up for sale, check it out here, and its a better video too. 🙂 http://www.kamalavillaforsale.com
Hope all is well & see you soon.
Yep, I actually saw that on your FB wall…it’ll be sad to see it go! :/
It’s also the best place I’ve ever stayed in. Thanks again Kelly!