Testimonies
Our testimonies reflect the satisfaction of those who have experienced life at Santikhiri. Hear from residents who value the serene environment, exceptional quality, and community spirit.
Patrick & Frederique
Our Journey to Samui and Santikhiri
Beginning. We bought our beautiful land on Santikhiri in 2003, the early days of the estate’s development. In 2004, we began building our holiday home here. By October 2006 we finished our villa and moved in for a one-year trial to give it a soul. After 15 years we are still living here and loving every minute.
Our secluded estate in a jungle-like part of the island is located on a high mountainside. We have an exquisite view of Bang Kao Bay and the Gulf of Thailand beyond. We never tire of the ever-changing views with warm days and cool breezes coming up the hillside in the evenings.
The Estate. 60% of our development is green belt common land. The gardeners keep the estate looking natural and uncluttered. We have a magical community pool set in nature at the top of the mountain with a majestic view of the bay below. The estate has a small security force (we seldom lock the doors to either our house or our truck). There
are massive granite volcanic boulders strewn about on our mountainside that look a lot like nature’s sculptures. We look out across the bay below us to an ever-changing beach where the tides come in and out each day. The tides create tidal pools where, in the afternoon, locals walk along the beach picking up little snails and crabs and fish from the pools to flavor curries and other local dishes.
Lifestyle. Life here is unpretentious, serene, and close to nature. Over the two years, it took us to build our home we fell in love with the place, the people, our expat friends, the beaches, many restaurants, and resorts. As Frederique says, “Since we turned the page and moved on from our hyperactive life in Hong Kong and embraced the slower natural paced life on Koh Samui, we’ve never looked back”. We traded in our Hong Kong days of moment-to-moment excitement, rapid-fire social networking, and addictive adrenalin-filled lives for the natural, pristine alternative of island life. And that has made all the difference.
Our mornings start with stretching and yoga on our front veranda with our two precious pets—a small adorable adopted dog named Foxy and a cute calico cat named Garfield. We enjoy a magnificent view from our verandah looking out to Bang Kao Bay. Through the palm trees, we can see the entire beautiful unspoiled beaches and sea beyond.
At the beginning of most days, Frederique does her yoga practice and I do my stretching. Several afternoons a week I work out at a nearby gym. We both enjoy swimming in our community pool. Many days we drive around the island in our black pickup truck, shop at wet markets for fresh fruit and vegetables, occasionally enjoy lunch at a little seaside restaurant. We love Thai food yet only eat it about 3 to 4 times a week. The rest of our meals are simple but more international. Almost everything we eat is fresh, and because she is mostly vegetarian, we eat lots of fresh veggies.
We have three villages close to us. Each of the nearby villages has a wet market where locals bring their meat and vegetables to sell. Wet markets here are akin to farmer’s markets in the US. Food is not very expensive and almost all homegrown.
We love to travel, entertain friends from near and far, and spend time together doing almost nothing at all. Many evenings are spent watching a good movie, reading books, having friends over for dinner, and keeping up with friends and events over the Internet.
We live a simple, healthy, tranquil, balanced life, yet filled with community activities on the island. Each day brings excitement and joy to our lives. Frederique loves being a part of a theater drama café in Nathon. She takes regular classes in Pilates, dance, and yoga along with other creative activities like painting, and creative writing. When we are home most of our days are serene, calm, peaceful, reflective, tranquil. Everything about our lives speaks to simplicity, joy, a slower, more natural pace of life. Clean air, bright days, stunning sunsets, and shining fishing boats lights across the horizon, evening skies filled with bright stars.
Some nights I wake up, wander out on our deck, stare up into the starry sky, and marvel at the absolute and utter beauty that surrounds our lives.
Marc Chartrand
I had been coming to Samui for holidays since 1999, when I moved here in early 2014 for what I thought would be a 3 month mission to restore the Waterfall Villa which we had just bought in late 2013. I had no plans to live here full time.
But life has it’s way with you sometimes with happy little accidents and all my plans turned around. I’ve now been living here full time for 7 years. I think that when you come here for holidays and stay in fancy resorts, it’s a wonderful experience. Living here, being a homeowner, a member of a friendly community is a different kind of experience. You don’t just visit this place, you become part of it. It took me a while to appreciate the way of life here, to adjust to the values. It was a slow and subtle movement of my soul, a healing from the life I had been living for so long.
Here at Santikhiri, one’s life is somehow controlled by nature and the weather. It’s not like we don’t have all the conveniences that you have anywhere in the world. It’s that the rhythm of your body and nature start to become one. The speed of life, the busyness that is predominant in many places, is replaced by the rhythm of the seasons, the sunrise, sunset, the rain, the wind, the incredible jungle sounds.
You start to take a more personal interest in your life, you become more aware of your body, your movements, your breath – many people seek that experience with meditation and yoga and I also do that but in any event, it happens here anyway.
Interestingly you might even find out that your feelings, your ideas and opinions also evolve and open up into areas you didn’t even know were possible. It’s like that saying that humans only use 10% of their potential. Here I have found the other 90% starts to open up and reveal itself naturally.
These are personal things that I have experienced and I write them down as my attempt to share with you that becoming a member of our community, if you are open to it, has the possibility to enrich your life in ways you can’t imagine. Now about some practical things. When you become a member of Santikhiri, in addition to becoming owner of a house and land, you are actually part owner of the entire Estate. This means that there are no outside owners who make decisions about the community. Those people are you and your neighbors who approve practical matters like the annual budget, improvement projects, the future of the community!
The value of owning the property far exceeds that property itself but most people don’t see or understand this very important quality of Santikhiri. In addition the ownership options are 100% legal in Thailand and in my opinion, the safest arrangement you can get in this country.
With the year 2020 coming to an end and all the changes that have affected the entire planet, the world knows that Thailand and particularly this island, has been just about the safest place on earth.
Samui is now at somewhat of a turning point. People from around the world will return and be encouraged to maintain the standards that have kept us safe in this challenging year of 2020. The Samui Municipality has been spending the last 12 months making major improvements to all of it’s infrastructure (water, electricity, roads, drains, etc.). The quality of life in the practical aspects is definitely improving every day.
The future is bright and from many participants in Samui life (foreign private homeowners, local service businesses, tourism & resorts), there is an appreciation and interest for moving into a more sustainable future.
At Santikhiri, this means that we are going to improve our infrastructure, reduce our carbon footprint, install up to date systems using less energy while providing adequate water and power, storing and treating natural sources of water for use in gardens and common areas, creating better recycling and composting programs and providing support to all homeowners to install appliances which will put less of a demand on the island’s supply of power and water.
In closing out this testimonial of how I am inspired by my life here at Santikhiri I want to simply say that we have a very interesting and wonderful community of people. One can choose to enjoy the opportunities for social contact but also find one’s own balance that attracts peace, happiness, good health and harmony into one’s life.
Robert Guilhem
Ne venez pas à SANTIKHIRI si vous recherchez principalement l’ambiance des zones animées bruyantes et festives des centres villes.
Ne venez pas à SANTIKHIRI si le calme la sérénité et tranquillité vous sont insupportables.
Ne venez pas à SANTIKHIRI si le respect du voisinage vous est étranger.
Ne venez pas à SANTIKHIRI si vous ne souhaitez pas faire partie d’une communauté de membres responsables et actifs soucieux du biens de tous.
Ne venez pas à SANTIKHIRI si vous ne souhaitez-vous impliquer dans le développement et l’amélioration générale de notre cadre de vie.
Voici quelques éléments vous permettant de faire un choix en toute connaissance de cause.
Notre famille ayant coché toutes les cases positivement, nous avons été convaincu de poser nos valises à SANTIKHIRI qui est réellement la Montagne de la Paix, Tranquillité, et Sérénité ou chacun s’épanouie à sa convenance dans le respect de cet environnement idyllique qu’il nous faut préserver, protéger et améliorer
Si nos valeurs correspondent à votre sensibilité n’hésitez pas à nous rejoindre pour un séjour dans une des villas que certains membres de Santikhiri peut vous louer et profiter de nos équipements collectifs.
Si vous êtes convaincu de vous y installer, vous pourrez trouver quelques villas susceptibles d’être céder ou quelques parcelles restantes à aménager dans le respect du site et environnement.
Personnellement ayant trouvé ce coin de paradis nous ne le quitterons pas mais serons heureux de pouvoir en faire profiter lors d’un séjour.