Not since the poor management at Icon Medialab have I ever thought that I would be coding for food and shelter. Then it was kind of the "laugh of the week", normally after the latest budget number was released. But I guess coding for food and shelter can be quite ok sitting in a bungalow with your laptop, sipping a banana shake and listening to the ocean.

A few weeks ago I arrived at Koh Chang, a small paradise Island just west of the Cambodian border. Same setup as most Thai Islands. Shitty death defying minibus for a few hours,  packed in some rebuilt fishing boot for another hour or two, and finally sitting on the backpack in the back of pickup truck. So far nothing new under that lovely sun.

I got a tip from a friend about this place that was to be a bit off the backpack map(read: anything that is mentioned in the Lonely Planet). 

The place was lovely, hidden away on a lonely beach. 14 old school bungalows high up among the palm trees all with sea view. And now we are not talking the sea view that you need a complex setup of about 18 mirrors to see;) The place is called Bailan Hut and is run by a really cool family. Its one of those places that you just feel right at home at. You are mysteriously drawn to the hammock with a book in your hand.

The next morning I settled down with my laptop to finish of the www.nordicexposure.com site and  in the middle of the muesli with fruit the English barman Rob asks me what the heck im doing. Guess they don't get to many of those computer geeks that wake up 8.00 to get a few hours of good programming before the beach;) Anyway when Rob figured I was not just hitting the keys by random he asked me if I could not make a website for the hotel. As ex-money sucking bloodthirsty evil consultant I started to count the $$$ but kind of figured that it was of no use. I told him I get back to him and dived back into the pool of 1s and 0s.

While lying under a palm tree sharing a Singa beer with a few Swiss girls the stupidity hit me in the face like a car door hits a speeding motorcyclist looking the wrong way. I will code for a part of paradise. How sweet.

The next morning we made up the deal. I code a site, they provide me with food and shelter. How different wasn't this from the normal suite and tie 6 digits talkes.

But making a site for someone that had NO contact with computers is a bit hard when your unique selling point is the advanced CMS that allows for the customer to update the site themselves.  Here we need to start with turning on the computer. After a few daunting computer classes I realize that I will never finish this. It will be 98% computer training and 2 % coding. And I would probably get old doing it. Fair enough but have a few friends that might think differently;)

So we had to re-adjust the plan a bit and find someone with computer experience. The criteria in this case being, "know how to send a email". Lucky us that Tik has a sister that knows a bit of computers. She even made flashing lights in HTML I was informed.

Works for me, you got a job;)

So now we are on our way. Me and Tha, planning the WEB site. We get up early in the morning and get to work. I show her some sites and how it works and we do basic WEB skills. Then I give here some homework and Im off to the beach. A few hours later im back for the afternoon class and holy cow the menu is done. What a great student. We sit in front of the laptop and then we basically just build the site together. So cool!!

Then we need pictures as well. Lucky me I just bought a new camera. So in order to get the pics I have to do the following in one day(also to be noted that I stayed out until 04.00 the night before drinking beers):

1. Snorkeling
2. Cooking class
3. Jungle treking
4. Elephant trekking(here we cheated abit taking foto of the actual poster for it)
5. God knows what more..

After a few funny moments and discussions the site actually turned out ok. It pink, but hey the Thais love colors;)

You can check out the site at:

www.bailanhut.com