Occasionally during my travels, I meet some people who are really special - people who are uniquely talented and who make a positive difference in this crazy world of ours. On my most recent trip to Thailand, I met two such people “Nick and Onn”, the young proprietors of Mochaccino, a very stylish and cozy Internet café located in the resort community of Kai Bae on the beautiful island of Koh Chang.

On my first night in Kai Bae, I inadvertently stumbled upon Mochaccino after a frustrating and troubling experience at another Internet cafe. Upon entering Mochaccino, I was greeted with a warm smile and friendly hello by Onn, a very attractive Thai lady who was working behind the counter. I admit to being a relative newbie with wi-fi and laptop computers and I couldn’t figure out “for the life of me” how come I couldn’t access their wireless Internet connection (wi-fi). Nick, Onn’s boyfriend, helped me resolve this problem within minutes he discovered that my wireless switch was set to off. Something very simple, but I needed Nick to point it out to me. Hmm go figure!. Later on, I learned from him that I did not need to use a converter to power my new laptop as most notebook AC adapters today are actually “universal” power supplies, making them safe to use without a converter, handling voltages between 100-240V. I was a somewhat reluctant of plugging my cord into the AC wall socket without a converter for fear that I would fry my motherboard, but Nick’s explanation assuaged my fears. I was really impressed by this young man - not only did he have perfect command of English, but he handled himself very graciously and took a genuine interest in me.

For the next week, Mochaccino became ‘my office’ - I would park myself on their outdoor patio with my laptop computer taking care of my business affairs and updating my blog. Over the course of the week, I learned a lot about Nick. He emigrated to Greece with his mother from Thailand at the tender age of 9 and lived there for 17 years, working as a tour guide for English speaking groups and as a waiter in a number of restaurants. During his years in Greece, Nick had very little contact with people from his homeland as very few people of Thai descent live in Greece, but he learned to speak both Greek and English as well as receiving a college education. And in Greece, he acquired his name of Nicholas (Nick for short). Moving to England where he lived for almost six years, he met the lovely Onn and received his master’s degree in computer networking and security. After graduating from the University, he worked very long hours for a number of large companies for almost two years - sometimes up to 12 hours a day. Tired of slaving away for somebody else and losing himself in the process, Nick and Onn decided to return to Thailand and reconnect with their Thai roots and heritage, in addition to using their education and experience in the western (farang) world to further themselves in their own business.

Having lived in Europe for many years, Nick in particular understands both the Farang and Thai mentality; in addition both he and his ladyfriend are able to communicate perfectly in English. Customers return to Mochaccino primarily because of the exceptional service and warm hospitality of this delightful couple not to mention the comfortable, aesthetic ambiance and the wonderful coffee and espresso drinks, the delicious fruit shakes and tasty pastries. Onn and Nick are very attentive to all their customers - as soon as a customer sits down to work at one of the computers, Onn (or Nick) immediately will offer them a glass of purified water to drink. In Hanumann’s opinion, Mochaccino is definitely Koh Chang’s finest Internet cafe-hands down!

Mochaccino is just a start - Nick and Onn have plans to open up a very unique hillside villa resort at Bang Bao, a small fishing village at the southern tip of Koh Chang. Every time I entered Mochaccino, Onn warmly greeted me by my first name while Nick was feverishly working behind one of the computers, fine tuning the design and layout of his ‘new project’. Nick allowed me to look at a blueprint of the resort design - it looked great! In the not too distant future, Nick will be submitting the blueprint to his landscape architect for some final tweaking, then construction will begin. Nick is an immensely talented guy - not only did he create the concept, design and logo for Mochaccino but he has an excellent touristic vision for this new resort, and his ladyfriend, Onn, is a perfect complement to him. Grand opening of “the resort” is scheduled for December 2007!

Mochaccino - Kai Bae Plaza, Kai Bae Beach Tel: 039-557354

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 10:43 am and is filed under Thailand, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.