If you have already read the About Us page you know that we will move from Berlin to Zanzibar in a couple of days. You may like the idea or you may think it is a crazy step and that we are out of our minds.
Whatever you think we have aroused your interest in our adventure and that is why you are still reading that blog entry 🙂
Let us explain how it all happened. What has actually been the key trigger for us?
It all started in 2014 when we went for the first time as a happy couple to Thailand, Koh Tao. Mustafa and I were still in the process of getting to know each other although we have beend married for more than a year. Does that sound strange? Maybe yes, so we explain it. We met each other in the summer of 2012 in Turkey while I was on vacation with my sis – and tadaaaa, we fell in love. Since I am a person who is everything but not patient at all I decided to take the big step to marry Mustafa only four months after we met for the first time. Since he could not speak German and I did not understand a single word in Turkish our communications was……intense 🙂 So he started learning German while I went to Turkish classes. That is the reason why in 2014 we still got to know the other persons character.
And this trip was our dream vacation. We talked about our wishes in life, about our future…and after a couple of Sangsom Cokes we were dreaming of moving to Thailand to open a chillout beach bar as many other Europeans have done before. At that time we were just dreaming and enjoying our tipsiness.
9 months later then we decided to go on vacation with our best friends Sandy and Markos. Travelling in a small group was fun and we discovered many other beautiful places in Thailand. And then finally on Koh Lanta close before Christmas 2014 Sandy met her boyfriend Hank in our favourite beach bar, Cloud 9. Again after a couple of drinks we started to fantasize about opening a bar in one of Thailand’s beautiful islands. Hank was very interested in that idea and so it came that always during our vacations together with Sandy and Hank we talked about business ideas on the beach. In Port Barton (Phillipines) after a private speedboat tour we were already creating our business plan 🙂 You cannot imagine how much I got on my colleagues‘ and friends‘ nerves. Since our friends listened to our dreams for a couple of years noone really thought that Mustafa and I would really just do it.
And then we betrayed our beloved South East Asia with the beautiful island of Zanzibar in October 2017. Mustafa and I were travelling alone that time. It was so easy to get into contact with the village people and other expats. Everybody is smiling, enjoying their lives and open for a chat on the beach. After only a few days on Zanzibar it was clear that the place we would move to is Zanzibar. On one of our last days we met a Turkish couple in Jambiani. They opened a small beach hotel and a great Turkish restaurant. Of course we were curious how a young Turkish couple ended up on Zanzibar – so we asked. Gül and Ulvi just fell in love in Zanzibar as we did, so they decided to leave Istanbul and their great jobs to start a new life in Jambiani. They were our heroes because they have fulfilled their dream while we were still daydreaming…. Meeting that couple triggered something in our minds. Finally we were not only talking. We started to gather all info we could get regarding work and resident permits, possible costs etc. We finally started to make a saving plan. According to our plan we would have enough money in Summer 2019 to quit our jobs and move to Zanzibar…..2019 HAHAA.
Since I am writing that blog in October 2018 you may realize that we sped things up a lot. We stayed on Zanzibar this summer to check out our opportunities for 2019….but there it was…..the place which we now call paradise on earth. We were there at the right time. Edmond decided to rent out Evergreen Bungalows.
And it was now or never…….Oh my God how much did I do recalculations….Could we really afford it? May maintenence costs kill us? To hell with all that. This was a once in a lifetime decision. So we stopped finding excuses why our plan may fail……
We are trying to be a bit more Zanzibarian and keep the „Pole Pole / Hakuna Matata“ attitude. Pole Pole means slowly slowly….If we cannot afford everything at once we just take our time and make it step by step. Hakuna Matata means no problem. How often are we racking our brains over problems which quite surely do not exist.
So my friends, now you know the HOW of our journey.
The WHY will follow 🙂
Lots of Love,
Musti and Claudia