So my wife Yao started asking around all the few people she knew for some builder recomendations, after a few days a couple came along and we agreed a price to start on the ground floor, it was basically straightforward, tile the floor, add a toilet room, sort out the drains and dismantle the old kitchen roof and add a strong base where the roof was for rooms above.

So a couple weeks later all done, then onto the rooms above and new stairway at the front as the way these buildings were designed was for to get to the above floors you have to go right through the ground floor to the back and up the stairs which means you have to be open 24 hours in the Bar/Restaurant/shop or what ever.
So out came the old stairwell and a new front stairs was built and door and canopy etc.

A few weeks later and a lot of headaches the rooms were done, after they re hung a few doors that were put on the wrong way round etc, with these guys you have to be around all day or things can get messed up, they are a bit slap dash and poor finishers.

So then the opening of Canterbury Tales Cafe, it was exciting of course but I was anxious as I had never taken part in anything like this before but I was determined to succeed, we did a cheap good quality breakfast and improved on the local competition so fairly quickly became very popular, this didn't go down too well with a couple of close rivals as they had the monopoly on this street or so they thought.

We used to have a pool table and came 2nd in the pool league but the league was run so badly we dropped out and the pool table was sold.

I did not intend to step on any toes but I needed to make a living and and a few would not accept that and got really bitchy, but after a few weeks we settled into a routine and although we had lots of teething troubles especially with finding reliable staff  we began to get a good reputation.

Soon after we began to get a few guests in the rooms and we were on our way, it was quite amazing when I sat for a quiet moment to reflect on my past as to how I ended up here in Pattaya but upward and onward we go.

So a few guests in the rooms and plenty of breakfasts later we are growing stronger and learning all the time, I am as keen as ever to continue as we had ideas of first buying the building, starting a business then selling it on but decided to go with it, then as we were outgrowing the first building, another became available which is the big one we are in now.