‘Living My Best Life on Sunny, Affordable Samui’

“Fortune favors the bold.” This oft-quoted proverb is the mantra that drove Sharon Lane to her new home in Koh Samui, Thailand. Most expats thoroughly scout an area before they relocate, but Sharon embarked on this adventure without ever having even stepped foot on Samui.

“I decided to live overseas to experience a different style of life. A less stressful, more relaxed life with better weather,” says Sharon. “I sold my home, sold my car, and put all my furniture and personal belongings in a storage container and came to Samui with two suitcases.”

How has fortune rewarded Sharon’s leap of faith? With gorgeous, powder-white sand beaches, where the cyan tide laps against the shore in a rhythmic beat; lazy rows of palm trees jut out in the direction of the ocean, leaning into the warmth of the sun. Overlooking the impressive Gulf of Thailand, beach chairs face the water, scattered haphazardly with ice blue and orange cushions. Nearby, a sophisticated restaurant awaits, disguised under a bamboo thatched roof.

It’s picture perfect…and for Sharon, this is just a regular day in her new overseas home. She walks into resorts just like this on the island of Koh Samui with a handful of girlfriends who get together regularly to chat, have a few glasses of wine, and swim in the glorious sunshine.

A bikini, colorful sarong, and a ponytail are now regular attire for Sharon, who moved from Vancouver, British Columbia last year.

In Canada, Sharon knew that life wasn’t what it was supposed to be. She wanted more. She was tired of spending her energy worrying about money and struggling to get her mortgage paid.

“I was living in Canada as a single senior retired at 61, and the cost of living is quite expensive there. On a pension in Canada, you have to go without,” says Sharon. “I even had a part-time job to supplement my life. I needed to work 25 hours a week. That enabled me to live a pretty good life, but it would have been tough without that part-time job.

“I was always concerned about household emergencies, and I didn’t want to live on credit. I didn’t want those stresses. They were always at the back of my mind.”

What’s different about Sharon’s venture into an expat life was that she didn’t visit Koh Samui before she took the leap; “I had a friend who was here in Samui, and he arrived pre-COVID,” says Sharon. “Instead of coming home, he decided, ‘I’m staying.’ He was the only person I knew here. I’d never been to Thailand or Koh Samui before. He convinced me that the lifestyle, the weather, and the cost of living were all things I should consider.”

Before she left Canada, Sharon decided to look for a place to live on Samui. “I needed to know I had a place when I got off the plane,” she says. And finding an apartment was relatively easy. “I went online and found a real estate company, I just researched within my budget to find what I was looking for. Post-COVID there were oodles of properties. I had a lot to choose from.

“I found a place online before I left and organized the lease. I got myself a two-bedroom, two-bathroom duplex. It has a pool shared between 16 units and we have covered parking. My rent is $500 a month and I am very happy here.

“My place has a full Western kitchen and an oven. It’s lush and tropical, and in a great location. I’m close to everything I need—coffee shops, banks, supermarkets, and fresh markets—and to the ring road that runs around the island. Everything is within walking distance.”

Once Sharon arrived on Samui, things fell into place rather naturally. She found it easy to make friends, and in fact, the island is renowned for a strong expat sisterhood, with many single women choosing Samui for their island home.

“When I decided where I would live, a woman who lived across the street from me came over the next day. She said, ‘Hi my name is Julie and I’m from Wales. Would you like to go out for a beer?’ And I was like, ‘I like beer!’

“We walked down the road and there was a neighborhood Thai bar in the front of a Thai family’s house. We drank some beers and talked about our lives. We’ve become great friends. Through her, I’ve met more people and a whole circle of incredible women.”

Julie belongs to a group called the “Sisters of Samui.” It’s a charity group, run by expat women, that funds food drives. “I’m not ready to be fully committed to a group yet, but there are lots of things here if that is what you want,” Sharon says.

Although Sharon has been bold in her choices, she was also strategic about her move. Before she left Canada, she bought a yearly health insurance package that costs $400 annually. And as it turns out, it did come in handy.

“I did what everyone else did and got a scooter. But, I had a crash. It wasn’t terrible, I was just practicing on my scooter before I was good enough to go out onto the road,” says Sharon. “I tipped the bike and it fell on top of me. I hurt my entire left side. I didn’t have to go to the hospital but that was my last time on a scooter. The scooter rental place came and picked it up.

“Two months later I woke up with a large lump on my elbow. I went to a fabulous, meticulous, top-notch clinic. The doctor thought it was trauma to the joint from the scooter accident. I was prescribed an anti-inflammatory and some antibiotics. That visit cost $14, and I was very impressed as there were no queues and no waiting.”

Even though Sharon was happy with the treatment, her doctor was still concerned and wanted to ensure things were going well.

“I was sent to an orthopedic specialist. They fussed over me at the hospital. I had an assistant offering me a wheelchair, my temperature and blood pressure was taken, and then she walked me to the orthopedic section,” says Sharon.

“The doctor had perfect English. He looked at my elbow and explained that it was an inflammation of the bursa-sack. He drew a diagram so I could really understand. He wanted to drain it and gave me a cortisone shot. That visit was about 90 minutes and cost only $50.”

After that initial issue, things began to fall into place nicely for Sharon. Some might imagine that living an island life offers little except beaches, but Sharon has proven otherwise. Although she was ready to retire from employment, she still wanted to have a purposeful life.

“I have done some volunteering, teaching English to the monks at the local temple. There will be a new group coming soon. Teaching the monks has been the most heart-warming and rewarding thing that I have experienced so far,” she says. “It’s humbling when the monks go up to the board to use their words in their sentences and try to use English.

“Recently, I signed up at a gym. I haven’t done this just for intensive workouts but to also get out and meet like-minded people and have conversations,” says Sharon. “It’s fun because it’s in a group of four women and they are all from different places. I’m from Canada, one is from Sweden, another from Australia, and one is Thai. You don’t have to be alone here, if you don’t want to be.”

Sharon has also used living in Koh Samui to her advantage as a base to travel to other exotic places and dive into new experiences. She considers Samui the perfect springboard to other adventures, beginning with Thailand.

“Last month I went to Bangkok for six days. I stayed at the Old Capital Bike Inn,” says Sharon. “And I visited a sky bar on the 55th floor of the Centara Grand Hotel. Watching the sun go down and taking pictures was phenomenal. The elevator was on the outside of the building and the floor was made of glass. It was an incredible place to be.”

Sharon has nothing but gratitude for her new life. “It’s awful to think that if I was back home, I would still be working at Home Depot, stressing about interest rates and re-mortgaging,” says Sharon. “I would not be living my best life.

Before coming to Thailand, Sharon put her belongings into storage in Canada. She paid for storage for a year to give her time to evaluate her situation and see how things would work out. She still hasn’t decided if she wants to ship her belongings over or if she’ll just buy new things. But, she has made one definite decision. “I know now that I’m not going home,” she laughs.

“If I have any advice for others, it’s to simply do it. Take the leap. Don’t listen to anybody else. If I could do anything differently, I would have done it 10 years ago.”