The Best Place I’ve Ever Been That I Felt I Could Finally Settle

It Is Where I Wished It Was Forever: My Chok Chai Home

This was some challenge of Globetrotters to pinpoint the outstandingly best place I’ve ever been. I have been to so many beautiful places in the world. But for pure ambiance and the feel-good factor, it was a toss-up between this actual spot seen in the picture and the small Breton town of Sarzeau, Ouest France of which I’ve decided to write about another time.

I’ll be exact with this small bubble in the East Pattaya, Banglamung area on the outskirts of Pattaya, Thailand. The housing development known as Chok Chai Garden Home, Soi Khao Noi was where the second house that I bought in Thailand was situated, and it is just visible in the picture as the one opposite on the right, tucked behind the pool plant room.

The pool was excellent, maintained well by the owner of the poolside restaurant from where the picture was taken, that may even be my foot showing, although I can’t be sure. The owner of the pool business was a French chef named Patrice, who ran an excellent show from dawn until dusk along with his Thai wife and staff.

Thailand is still one of my favorite places on the planet, and I lived and worked from there for 13 years. When I bought that small 2-bed villa as…