I come from Pennsylvania and I studied interior design before moving to Los Angeles for work. My husband, Justin, is from Chicago and studied architecture before taking the same step.
We met in 2010 at Walt Disney Imagineering, a segment of the Walt Disney Company which focuses on the design of the theme park.
Fifteen years later, we are based in Thailand and head our own business. We love the rhythm of life in Asia.
It was a pivotal moment for us. Not only were we working in another country, but we could travel throughout Asia.
We have started to find our love for travel and to live different Asian cultures, in particular by visiting Thailand on several occasions. We returned to Los Angeles in 2016, but we were impatient to find a reason to return to Asia.
I designed interiors for private jets in Gulfstream in New York, and Justin designed restaurants in Miami before his work takes us to Singapore.
We had a good life there, especially in terms of security, efficiency and cleanliness, but we still had not spent our business lifestyle based in the United States.
We worked 24 hours a day, barely spending a lot of time, because it was a question of earning money to afford to live the lifestyle of Singapore.
Our condo was nice, but we have a rottweiler named Raja, and sharing common walls was also difficult.
We immediately fell in love and started talking with real estate agents because we wanted to buy a holiday home there.
Then we started to think about the quality of life and our final goal. Did we want to continue to climb the business scale or focus on our happiness and our creative freedom?
We live where some of the last season of “The White Lotus” have been filmed.
We love the show and were delighted to learn that season three was filmed in Koh Samui. Several of our friends were on the set as extras.
We cannot wait for the final. It was exciting to recognize familiar places on the island on television.
Our visa is called an “intelligent visa”. Our program is designed to attract startup entrepreneurs who invest in targeted industries.
Moving our dog was the most important thing. We had supported with our relocations in Shanghai and Singapore, but we had to do it ourselves for Thailand.
Raja at the beach. With the kind authorization of Justin and Kelly Harris
Since we decided to move here, we haven’t looked back.
View of the house from the swimming pool of Justin and Kelly. With the kind authorization of Justin and Kelly Harris
House hunting in Koh Samui is very different from the. There is no centralized database; Less than 50% of the properties are listed online. Many houses are sold by word of mouth.
The renovations were also difficult. Coming from an urban environment with much more routine, structure and predictability, getting used to doing something on an island can be difficult.
Experience has made us much more adaptable and flexible. While things in the past may have been frustrating, we can now laugh.
We took Mandarin lessons when we lived in China and think they could help, but they made it more confusing, because some words are similar but have completely different meanings.
We want to be conversational in Thai, but English is quite widespread here.
We run a studio called Snobbirds. We work remotely, with Most projects based in the United States, Singapore and Hong Kong. We have a really flexible schedule and are available for customers whenever they need us.
Our work is entirely based on projects, so our hours fluctuate. Some weeks are intense (more than 60 hours), while others are lighter (20 hours). We regularly worked 70 to 80 hours per week in our business jobs.
The biggest difference is now control – we choose projects that fascinate us and transmit those who are not a good choice. When work slows down, we can fully kiss the island life.
We make a lot of trips on the road and make the ferry to the continent to go to Thailand.
Koh Samui is quite diverse. The exhibition to the international community is part of what has pushed us to come on this island because you have a taste of both worlds.
We came here because we wanted to discover a new culture and food and learn a new language. We didn’t want to be comfortable.
You can get excellent Thai cuisine for less than $ 10; Large seafood along the coast are a little more expensive.
The quality of food is excellent. However, cheese and beer, wine and imported spirits are 50% to 75% more expensive. There is also a variety because there is a lot of international food on the island, especially the expatriate community.
The community is very tight. We do not know many places where you will shop in the same grocery store in the morning with a local restaurant owner.
We bought our house in Los Angeles, now a rental, for just over $ 1 million in 2017 by contracting a 30 -year loan and mortgage. Koh Samui’s house was a third of the cost, and we bought it in cash in 2023.
Our cost of living in Koh Samui is considerably lower because our house is reimbursed and we share a car without car payment.
The view from the roof terrace of Justin and Kelly’s house. With the kind authorization of Justin and Kelly Harris
As we always have our house in California, if we have to divide our time more for our business or our family, we can.
Our families were great to visit us and love to have the excuse to live more Asia.
We imagine that we will go home at one point, but there is no end date for the moment.
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