by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
Rabbit Resort is owned by a very interesting couple, Paisan and Deborah
Bundityanond. Paisan has an interesting story, and revealed just how the
resort got its name.
Paisan’s father was a Chinese immigrant school
teacher who settled in Bangkok, marrying a Chinese-Thai lady. They had
five children, of which Paisan is the youngest. It was a traditional
Chinese family. “My parents were very conservative Chinese,” says
Paisan, “even more so than in China. In those days in Thailand, there
was a very minimum of Western influence.”
He was educated initially at his father’s school, but
finished at the Assumption School in Bangkok. He was unsure of his future
direction, but showed an interest in legal and business matters. To meet
this growing curiosity, he was sent to Taiwan to study international
trade.
In those days, trading was Taiwan’s major driving
force. “There were thousands of trading companies. My class-mates all
had trading companies, and since Thailand was exceeding Taiwan in
production, I began importing goods from Thailand to sell in Taipei,”
said Paisan. With such practical experience and assimilation of the
theoretical side from his tutors, Paisan graduated with a B.A. in
International Trade. By now he knew that he enjoyed the concept of
‘sales’. In fact he described being “turned on” by it.
However, rather than plunge into full-time trading,
Paisan knew that further education would be needed. To this end he went to
graduate school in America to do a two and a half year course in San
Diego, to become a Master of Science in Management and Organizational
Development. His family were behind this career move and helped
financially, but Paisan had to work too. “My parents did not want to
spoil me, and I wanted some additional income.” To this end he worked as
a delivery truck driver, a dishwasher and a kitchen hand. “I was a very
good dishwasher as I hated to cook.”
Following graduation, he returned to Thailand, where he
worked selling air-conditioners. However he did not enjoy the business, or
the business environment in Thailand at that time, and after a couple of
years went back to America. One of his brothers was in Arizona and Paisan
visited him. “The real estate market, and the climate, was the hottest
in the USA,” said Paisan. This did excite him.
He could see the growth potential in real estate, and
went to real estate school to get his real estate license. After three
very successful years he took his broker’s examination, becoming the
first Thai national to get the certification from the Realtor’s
Marketing Institute.
Following this he and some friends in Phoenix formed a
brokerage, and Paisan worked there as a marketing consultant, selling
commercial land and properties, getting involved in very sophisticated
marketing techniques for some very sophisticated buyers. This included
carrying out market analyses and demographics for supermarkets interested
in the demand for satellite stores. It was not a case of putting signs in
the window and waiting to catch the eye of passers-by!
He also sold a condo to a young American lady market
analyst, Deborah. They dated. He gave her tennis lessons. She cooked. He
washed the dishes. They got married!
The boom years in the Arizona real estate market ended
with a market crash, however, and Paisan felt it was time he returned home
to Thailand. They came back to Bangkok, where Paisan would begin to look
for opportunities. Again it was real estate that looked promising. “It
was natural that I would go back into real estate. It was very
unsophisticated then, with the owners and architects dictating the market.
But the real estate industry evolved so fast. We needed to educate people
about consumer needs, voids in the market and sales.” This was just what
Paisan had been doing in America for the previous ten years, and he
continued here, becoming the founding president of the Real Estate Brokers
Association in Thailand.
He and Deborah worked hard, 24 hours a day, seven days
a week (or that’s what it felt like) until the economic crash of 1997
happened in SE Asia. I was expecting him to say what a terrible time it
was, financial ruin and the like, but I was met with, “It was a good
time for us. We took two years off and traveled. China, Asia, USA, it was
a lot of fun!” After so many years of hard work, I can understand just
how the enforced break must have felt - a holiday!
After the two years of traveling, it was, as Paisan
said, “Time to do something for ourselves.” His family had land in
Jomtien which they had owned for many years and they decided to build a
house here. Jomtien had many happy memories for Paisan, as they would come
down almost every weekend when he was a young boy. In fact he even learned
to swim just off where the Rabbit Resort is today.
They built a Thai house in Isaan style. “We had seen
many cultures, but Thailand is my roots. Deborah appreciates Thai
architecture and we both like Thai arts. Our dream was one day to laze on
the beach and the economic crash helped us realize that dream,” said
Paisan smiling at the irony of it all.
However, they both knew they would be bored by doing
nothing, and since Paisan was born in the year of the rabbit, and the
first house was built in 1999, also a rabbit year, the Rabbit Resort was
born. They spoke to Habita, a resort development company, and five years
later the multi-house resort continues to delight its guests.
For Paisan, hobbies include T’ai Chi. “It is
fantastic exercise for the body and the mind. My parents have been doing
it for years. My father is 95 and my mother 82, they are the living
proof!”
Paisan is also living proof that with the right genes, and the right
application, success will always eventuate.
