Beautiful Ann from Charm Beach

Ann the owner of the active yet comfortable Charm Beach Resort tells us how it all began.

“It all started six years ago, I went to Samui for a holiday, it was my first time in Thailand and I stayed for five weeks. I had been thinking for many years that I wanted to live abroad and I just fell in love with Thailand. I am originally from Sweden and I thought that Thailand in general could be a place to live and be good for my kids, I have three.

I decided on the plane home, on the spot. So I went home, packed everything, sold my business and moved to Thailand four years ago.

We started in Bangkok, for eight months the children went to school there. We tried to start a business but it was all a bit of a struggle, especially with the kids, there’s lots of traffic and we were not living the life we wanted. So we came here for a weeks holiday and never went back. It was hard knowing and learning Thai business culture, Bangkok was not suitable, we were spending hours in the car with kids and it was quite expensive to live there. I really fell in love with island life, it all came together here on Koh Phangan. At first I was here doing nothing for a few months then I started to think we should have some small bungalows and came across Charm Beach and felt that this was the place I wanted”.

How did you get into running charm beach?
We drove past Sage estate agents and decided to go in one day, they showed us around a few places but nothing caught my heart. But then we went to Charm Beach by accident, I saw the tree house and knew it was the right place.

What have you brought to the place?
My idea is to make it a place with activities and sports, a healthy way of thinking. I have been looking for people to do exercises on the beach and yoga. We do boot camp three times a week, paddle board, wind surfing, the divers from Haad Yao come and volleyball.
This is the goal is to make it an active beach with lots of stuff going on, the water is shallow so people go elsewhere for snorkelling so this is another way of thinking of utilising the space. We also have Snowy the french Bulldog, everyone knows him, he's the star at Charm Beach.

What are your current and future plans for Charm Beach?
I want to work on the restaurant, a more healthy concept still with Thai food. We will cut down on the sugar, no msg and change the oils. Also for the farang food to be more healthy, maybe in the future we will have things from our own garden and be more organic.

What do you offer at Charm beach resort?
We have twenty seven bungalows, half are fan and half air conditioned. They are the old Thai style, mostly wooden bungalows. I also have four hotel rooms, the beach bar, swimming pool etc. We offer massage and all of the activities are just a small extra price. We like to be friendly and homey, not pushy but calm and friendly. We are letting people enjoy their experience and it is more like a family.

What do you do in your free time?
I exercise a lot and spend a lot of time with friends and my three kids! I go to the gym, do boot camp and running.

Do you have any favourite places or parties on Phangan?
Than Sadet for sure and Bottle Beach. I really like hiking up to Kao Rha.
I like MerkaBar parties but then I like the more quiet ones like Chill n Deep and Jeff’s Mondays. My favourite sunset place and restaurant is L’Alcove.

What is your life philosophy?
In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take.