Baan Phuen means “Friend’s House” in the Thai language. We really hope and pray it’s a friendly place that feels like, well, your friend’s house ESPECIALLY if that friend love Jesus.
Before full time ministry, before I even considered that there is more to life than the present, one thing I knew was that I loved to be in the hospitality industry. There’s just something about being in a people-centric environment that is so captivating. My practicular preference have always leaned towards the Food and Beverage side of the industry. Humbly, while it’s great to have studied and learnt the tricks of the trade wrapped in glamour like obtaining my diploma from a Swiss hospitality institute, some of my certifications from American and English brand labels, ultimately, when time and finances allow, I’ll all to happy to spend my the rest of life running even something as simple as a burger bar.
Great and fantastic burgers, definitely. I can talk about burgers the whole day long.
Anyway, I “left” the industry in 2005 when I entered full time ministry. So now, in 2023, the LORD presented me with an interesting proposition: takeover and run a hostel.
Now, in a sense I always had a foot in. The place was owned by my wife’s adoptive family i.e. the other set of in-laws I have by virtue that this person took my wife on as a “god daughter” while she was a kid. The hostel opened in 2018 but the pandemic in 2020 and then the couple of years of flip-flopping by the government meant that the original team running it decided to move on with their lives.
The hostel sat dormant for awhile, doing nothing but collecting dust. We would give it a clean up every once in awhile but that’s it. It’s a quadruple storey building which, admittingly, isn’t the most disable friendly so that’s a portion of potential guests we have to say sorry to. A small, ground floor entrance room, a decent enough 1st floor living area and a couple of rooms with more rooms and beds on the 2nd floor before a rooftop setup that is the 3rd floor with quite a lot of space, very nice except for the hot afternoon sun.
As you know, late 2022 I came into fellowship with the Karen Baptist City Church of Chiang Mai. There, I met many people, many of whom have been displaced by the troubles in neighbouring Myanmar.
Myself, haven’t really and truly found a stable footing in Thailand, was open to anything especially since everything I had going for me before the pandemic is now academic.
When offered to takeover, I thought and prayed about it, and thought even if I couldn’t bless myself, at least be a blessing to others. So, I took the deal.
The first month was hectic. Sometimes, I wonder when the original team disbanded was it out of frustration at the current (pandemic) situation or maybe at one another? Everything wasn’t so much as packed up and stored for future use, but slammed, cramped and, well, disposed of and gotten out of the way you would expect if you expect to never revisit something again.
I had to dig out piles after piles of stuff, separating the usable from the unusable. I had to have the heartbreak of seeing perfect good equipment rendered spoilt by poor storage (imagine stacking heavy material over an innocent deep fry cooker? Philistines!). I worried about snakes and other insects that made have made all these piles of “rubbish” home but thankfully I guess they don’t like what they see either.
So, the 1st month it was a lot of sweating cleaning up and trying to create order in the chaos. There’s also the reality of it that I discussed with my wife: Hostels are a niche. Hotels aren’t terribly expensive in Chiang Mai and you could get a complete hotel room with TV, ensuite bathroom, etc… all to your own for barely more than we can offer. That’s the other conumdrum: offer a low price and struggle to run the place, or offer a “not so low” price and find people looking elsewhere.
But as mentioned, it’s also a place to bless others. The hostel has the aforementioned restaurant setup. It also has a decent sized meeting room with airconditioning. Likewise, just because it began life as a hostel doesn’t mean it has to remain a hostel. I pray it will become a safehouse, a training centre, etc. In the name of Jesus Christ, may the place be used that God alone is glorified that His humble servant be blessed.
As of August 2023, we are blessed to be partner with our friends from Myanmar – they have opened a fantastic Myanmar styled pork noodle store that brings good foot traffic into the hostel as well.
Enojy the pictures below and for more information, please visit our hostel’s website by clicking here.