How is IT life in Koh Samui (Thailand)
By the standards of the average reader Habr, our company is not so uniquely designed. But, nevertheless, the peculiarity is that we all work remotely, both with customers and with employees. The stories about Thailand did not pass us by, and some of us tried to spend some time on Samui. We made conclusions for ourselves that we would like to share with you. This post does not try to compare different places of the country, but tells about where we ourselves spend most of the time - Koh Samui.
The weather outside Moscow hints that a new season has begun in Thailand and everything that is written below may prove useful to someone.
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If you have not been to Samui, you still should have heard something about prices, food and leisure in Thailand. From the point of view of programmers, managers, marketers and other people to whom the Internet is more important than air conditioning, there are some things that need to be discussed separately.
First of all, on Samui, as in all of Thailand, there is a good 3G mobile connection. Enough to make Skype calls, work with the browser. As for quality and stability, I will say this - I personally had enough speed to do daily quests in World of Warcraft and to go to a healer in LFR. For a full-fledged reiding, this is probably not enough, but in order to quickly close working issues - quite.
WiFi Internet is in any bungalow, it can be bad, but it all depends on your ability to choose places. Thais listen to the client and, if necessary, change the equipment, as a last resort, you can ask for an additional line. I heard from someone that he was denied, but this is more likely a rarity, as the owners of the resorts hear a question about the Internet from every potential tenant.
Transport and shops, housing search and dozens of other issues that were discussed in thousands of other posts, it does not make sense to repeat. If you are interested in something specific, you can ask in the comments and answer. Separately, I will note medicine. It is better and better than the one that can be obtained in Russia or Ukraine, but buy insurance in advance.
Apple stores, ordinary computers, tablets and phones are sold in stores at reasonable prices; there is a place to fix broken screens and other breakdowns.
At the entrance to the Lamai district there is a beautiful office building, which stands out from the surrounding Thai buildings. There are some local IT companies in it, but the main feature is that it has a full-fledged coworking center - with WiFi, meeting rooms and computer-equipped workstations (in case you don't have a laptop or you like Windows XP with an interface) in thai).
Prices, I hope, will make other coworking owners think:
I hope this “advertisement” will not destroy the existing peaceful and working spirit of the institution, but will add new faces. The working day is spent in a quiet and cool room under the supervision of a cat. The atmosphere has to productive work, at least because those who were too lazy to do something, simply do not reach. The flow of people is small, and everyone quickly recognizes each other and continues to communicate outside of work.
By the way, we took several people to the team as a result of our acquaintance in the IT Complex.
The atmosphere consists of people too. In order to understand with whom we have to deal, it will be easier to talk about the event that we had in the middle of last season, in February. There are many people working remotely on the island. Someone writes music, mobile games and applications, websites, someone deals with SEO / SMM. Of course, there are realtors, and downshifters, who rent grandmothers' apartments in Moscow, and there are “enlightened”, and tourists, noisy companies. But they were not very interested in us. Those who came to live and work, in general, behave quite quietly and literally and figuratively.
Such people live quietly in their homes with their wives, children, and cats. They work in the time zone of their main team, go out for lunch and grocery shopping, but do not go to Chaweng discos. They have their own social circle, they are trying to settle in places designed not for short-term tourists. They, like us, build long-term relationships with people around them.
We decided to meet such people and get to know them better. Therefore, they made an event in BarCamp mode and modestly organized a meeting on Facebook. To avoid random people, they tried to limit advertising to only their friends and acquaintances. They personally warned everyone that they didn’t want to see bystanders. In a few days of such a partisan announcement, people sent each other more than 80 invitations. Honestly, we began to fear that we could not find a roomy enough room, as a result, exactly 50 arrived and everything, although with difficulty, fit in the hall. AiSamui literally immediately formed several sponsors (with T-shirts, drinks and other trifles).
The composition of the guests of the event pleased us pleasantly (in total, it turned out more than 100%, because some have voted several times):
Those who could not come were added to the group on Facebook . The level of reports was high, the speakers were preparing for serious events. Unfortunately, we didn’t do video reports, because we didn’t plan the success of the event. What then regretted, but there is a video about the event itself.
At the conference, the guys working in:
I am writing in such detail for those who may be, will think about whether your pair of hands and the head of a specialist can find a job. We do not give guarantees, but people who live and work on Samui often look for someone, or work in companies that know how to work with remote employees.
According to our estimates, only the Russian-speaking people form such a working community. According to reviews from people from other countries, they communicate, but have more fun together, and do not conduct business.
This season we plan to repeat aiSamui, and we will organize the second conference around mid-February 2014. Come, it will be interesting!
To make the article not look like an advertisement for the island, let's try to talk about some common disadvantages:
As an example, I will say that I once woke up in a room and found a brown snake under the bed (those that are dangerous but green, they say, are not terrible for a person). Agree with the snake did not work, and the hostess called a special person who killed her. Frankly, I never thought that the snake is scary, but was surprised to find in himself the natural fear of these creatures.
We are a small company, now we have only 7 people in our staff, we are engaged in SEO, and our employees are located in different parts of the globe. But on Samui we can meet more often. We have grown into a full-fledged company from freelancing projects, and we understand that the result does not always depend on a beautiful screen and representation expenses for secretaries. However, this should be clear to the majority of the Habrahabr audience.
Since we work very closely with customers, our lifestyle has begun to influence them. Honestly, at first we were afraid to tell clients that we were not in Moscow, but gradually we began to believe in ourselves, because when a client is satisfied, then he no longer matters where you are sitting. Now, out of several dozen customers, almost a third managed to come to visit us on the island, assess the situation and get to know the team members closer.
We will not invite everyone to immediately throw everything and fly here, we do not advertise Samui as the only place abroad or in Thailand that you can go to. There are several big places in the country where people go: Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Bangkok, Northern Chiang Mai and even Koh Phangan. Koh Samui is one of the places that has its advantages and disadvantages. But we like it here and would like to communicate with those who are engaged in business, to look for employees who would share our values, or invite guests to visit.
Welcome to Samui!
Mikhail Kashkin (@xen), specially for the blog of the Hyperacter company.
The weather outside Moscow hints that a new season has begun in Thailand and everything that is written below may prove useful to someone.
')
Infrastructure
If you have not been to Samui, you still should have heard something about prices, food and leisure in Thailand. From the point of view of programmers, managers, marketers and other people to whom the Internet is more important than air conditioning, there are some things that need to be discussed separately.
First of all, on Samui, as in all of Thailand, there is a good 3G mobile connection. Enough to make Skype calls, work with the browser. As for quality and stability, I will say this - I personally had enough speed to do daily quests in World of Warcraft and to go to a healer in LFR. For a full-fledged reiding, this is probably not enough, but in order to quickly close working issues - quite.
WiFi Internet is in any bungalow, it can be bad, but it all depends on your ability to choose places. Thais listen to the client and, if necessary, change the equipment, as a last resort, you can ask for an additional line. I heard from someone that he was denied, but this is more likely a rarity, as the owners of the resorts hear a question about the Internet from every potential tenant.
Transport and shops, housing search and dozens of other issues that were discussed in thousands of other posts, it does not make sense to repeat. If you are interested in something specific, you can ask in the comments and answer. Separately, I will note medicine. It is better and better than the one that can be obtained in Russia or Ukraine, but buy insurance in advance.
Apple stores, ordinary computers, tablets and phones are sold in stores at reasonable prices; there is a place to fix broken screens and other breakdowns.
Coworking in IT Complex
At the entrance to the Lamai district there is a beautiful office building, which stands out from the surrounding Thai buildings. There are some local IT companies in it, but the main feature is that it has a full-fledged coworking center - with WiFi, meeting rooms and computer-equipped workstations (in case you don't have a laptop or you like Windows XP with an interface) in thai).
Prices, I hope, will make other coworking owners think:
- Internet subscription per month 2,000 baht
- The cost of the negotiation is 150 baht (we have not yet used it, so the exact tariff must be recognized)
- The cost of the workplace per day 10 baht
I hope this “advertisement” will not destroy the existing peaceful and working spirit of the institution, but will add new faces. The working day is spent in a quiet and cool room under the supervision of a cat. The atmosphere has to productive work, at least because those who were too lazy to do something, simply do not reach. The flow of people is small, and everyone quickly recognizes each other and continues to communicate outside of work.
By the way, we took several people to the team as a result of our acquaintance in the IT Complex.
People
The atmosphere consists of people too. In order to understand with whom we have to deal, it will be easier to talk about the event that we had in the middle of last season, in February. There are many people working remotely on the island. Someone writes music, mobile games and applications, websites, someone deals with SEO / SMM. Of course, there are realtors, and downshifters, who rent grandmothers' apartments in Moscow, and there are “enlightened”, and tourists, noisy companies. But they were not very interested in us. Those who came to live and work, in general, behave quite quietly and literally and figuratively.
Such people live quietly in their homes with their wives, children, and cats. They work in the time zone of their main team, go out for lunch and grocery shopping, but do not go to Chaweng discos. They have their own social circle, they are trying to settle in places designed not for short-term tourists. They, like us, build long-term relationships with people around them.
It is very difficult to live in the mode of a permanent holiday, those who come for a week have other priorities regarding people who have come for a long time. And after some time it becomes difficult to listen to another drunken company at night, but it is even harder to part with people who turned out to be really good and pleasant to talk to, and, alas, it is time to leave home because 2 weeks of vacation are over. Keep in mind.
BarCamp “aiSamui”
We decided to meet such people and get to know them better. Therefore, they made an event in BarCamp mode and modestly organized a meeting on Facebook. To avoid random people, they tried to limit advertising to only their friends and acquaintances. They personally warned everyone that they didn’t want to see bystanders. In a few days of such a partisan announcement, people sent each other more than 80 invitations. Honestly, we began to fear that we could not find a roomy enough room, as a result, exactly 50 arrived and everything, although with difficulty, fit in the hall. AiSamui literally immediately formed several sponsors (with T-shirts, drinks and other trifles).
The composition of the guests of the event pleased us pleasantly (in total, it turned out more than 100%, because some have voted several times):
- Programmers - 40%
- Company owners / managers - 30%
- SEO / SMM / Marketing - 20%
- 20% of creative professions (designers, UI / UX specialists)
- Some number of people who did not identify themselves (probably from MMM / BM and other pyramids)
Those who could not come were added to the group on Facebook . The level of reports was high, the speakers were preparing for serious events. Unfortunately, we didn’t do video reports, because we didn’t plan the success of the event. What then regretted, but there is a video about the event itself.
At the conference, the guys working in:
- Neatpeak.ua
- Hewlett packard
- Homemoney.ua
- Giperactive.ru
- startup metamedia.com
I am writing in such detail for those who may be, will think about whether your pair of hands and the head of a specialist can find a job. We do not give guarantees, but people who live and work on Samui often look for someone, or work in companies that know how to work with remote employees.
According to our estimates, only the Russian-speaking people form such a working community. According to reviews from people from other countries, they communicate, but have more fun together, and do not conduct business.
This season we plan to repeat aiSamui, and we will organize the second conference around mid-February 2014. Come, it will be interesting!
Minuses
To make the article not look like an advertisement for the island, let's try to talk about some common disadvantages:
- On the island there is a relaxed atmosphere, even the workaholic has an internal summer switch, probably this is a genetic one.
- The island is located in the tropical zone, so that insects and snakes live with you, or rather you are visiting them. Many of them are dangerous. Cockroaches are so stressful that it sometimes seems that if they were a little more organized, they could not only give up, but also take your motorcycle and your clothes
- Bikes are a very dangerous form of transport, many people neglect personal safety, as a result, in the worst case, death
- On the island is more likely to get dengue fever. For some, even the first time there may be severe complications.
- It’s hot all the time on the island, some people don’t tolerate the heat
As an example, I will say that I once woke up in a room and found a brown snake under the bed (those that are dangerous but green, they say, are not terrible for a person). Agree with the snake did not work, and the hostess called a special person who killed her. Frankly, I never thought that the snake is scary, but was surprised to find in himself the natural fear of these creatures.
How has the island influenced our business?
We are a small company, now we have only 7 people in our staff, we are engaged in SEO, and our employees are located in different parts of the globe. But on Samui we can meet more often. We have grown into a full-fledged company from freelancing projects, and we understand that the result does not always depend on a beautiful screen and representation expenses for secretaries. However, this should be clear to the majority of the Habrahabr audience.
Since we work very closely with customers, our lifestyle has begun to influence them. Honestly, at first we were afraid to tell clients that we were not in Moscow, but gradually we began to believe in ourselves, because when a client is satisfied, then he no longer matters where you are sitting. Now, out of several dozen customers, almost a third managed to come to visit us on the island, assess the situation and get to know the team members closer.
Summary
We will not invite everyone to immediately throw everything and fly here, we do not advertise Samui as the only place abroad or in Thailand that you can go to. There are several big places in the country where people go: Phuket, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Bangkok, Northern Chiang Mai and even Koh Phangan. Koh Samui is one of the places that has its advantages and disadvantages. But we like it here and would like to communicate with those who are engaged in business, to look for employees who would share our values, or invite guests to visit.
Welcome to Samui!
Mikhail Kashkin (@xen), specially for the blog of the Hyperacter company.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/195502/
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