ไทยDr.Visa’s Family Story
(Special Edition Celebrating Dr Visa’s Birthday)
Back in the 1970’s, kidnapping and bombing were common in the 4 southern provinces in Thailand, life was meaningless and was unpredictable, one could be shot dead while riding on a motorbike to a morning market to buy food, or a shop could be bombed with no warnings.
I was born in the Southern part of Thailand in a small town called Su-ngai Kolok, a border town next to Rantau Panjang of Malaysia. I had a nice memory of my simple and happy childhood growing up with my kind grandparents, uncles and aunties, Mum and Dad, 4 brothers and 1 sister, not to mention good neighbours and friends. We are a traditional Chinese family speaking Hakka as our communicating language with our elders and speaking Thai with our friends and siblings. Like many Chinese families in this fascinating little town in those years, Mum and Dad sent my eldest brother and I to attend a Chinese primary school in Rantau Panjang, therefore, I also speak fluent Mandarin (with Malaysian accent) since young.
My grandpa is a descendent of a Governor of a prefecture in China, and a celebrity chef, he used to work as a famous chef in Hong Kong and migrated to Thailand in a boat landed in Su-ngai Kolok. Grandpa later opened a famous Chinese restaurant called “Ju-Kong” which his customers, apart from local Chinese and Thai residents in our hometown and nearby towns, would fly all the way from Singapore and Malaysia just to eat and taste his food. Grandpa’s restaurant was always packed with customers- young and old, it is indeed a place for family gatherings, for government officials to enjoy scrumptious cuisine and to relax, all the customers were happy and full of joys as far as I could remember. Everyone in our family, kids and adults, all worked hard for Grandpa’s restaurant and the time I enjoyed the most when I was a kid was to gather around at the family’s round table and enjoyed delicious Hakka food my grandpa whole-heartedly cooked for us with love. Life was really simple and easy back then, but everyone was happy
My beautiful mother, who is exceptionally intelligently brilliant, dedicating, frugal, hard-working and a most filial eldest daughter of my grandpa and grandma. She sacrificed her whole life looking after her parents, her siblings, her husband and children. She worked extremely hard as a cook and a restaurant manager at the same time for my grandpa and grandma – she cooked, she chopped, she mixed sauces and she collected money from customers with her genius abacus skills so fast and accurate that she never missed a single dish, a single cent, to the admiration and impression of all who met with her including customers. Later under the encouragement and blessings of our grandpa, Mum opened her own restaurant on the ground floor of a local Merlin Hotel in Su-ngai Kolok, she was in her 40’s, she worked so hard and so dedicatedly, Mum’s restaurant was a great success, and it was the starting point of our family started to make some money of our own and I remembered for the first time, Dad was able to buy his first car driving Mum between restaurant and home.
Sadly and tragically, it is said that “the good dies young”, my beloved Mum’s case proves this saying to be so true! One day in 1978, a kidnapping terrorist placed a bomb in Mum’s restaurant as the hotel owner refused to pay him the demanded ransom money. My Mum, a woman with the most beautiful heart, an innocent victim, was bombed and suffered the tragic pain instead. Mum lived 2 more years after the bombing incident, she died at the age of 50.
Before Mum died, she suffered indescribable pains, all kinds of diseases and illnesses as the results of the poisons from the bomb penetrating all over her blood stream and body. The life for everyone in our family went upside down, we were all so lost – the strong and beautiful woman with the most pure and gentle heart had collapsed into a pale and weak body she couldn’t even walk properly. We all took turn to go home to nurse Mum. Even then, Mum tried hard to give each of her children the last wish she could give in her last breath, like my eldest brother wanted to go to the USA, she granted his wish. When it came to me, I told Mum I had no any wish but to be near her and nursed her, taking care of her, and that I love her very much! Mum admonished in her weak voice, apart from her worries about our youngest brother who was only about 10 years old at that time and what future asset she could give to him as her only son without any asset allocated to him yet, and that she might not have time to do it before she left this world; she wanted to send me to Australia to study as she said I was a female scholar of our family. Mum said she learnt from her Malaysian and Singaporean customers who sent their children to study in Australia that this is a good and safe country, and she said, “Don’t come back to this dangerous land, and bring your Dad and all siblings with you to start a new life there!”, and “Treat Australia as your second Motherland, do good to pay back what the motherland has given to you, to our family”. I was only 27 at that time, and Mum placed her trust and such heavy burden on my shoulders, I wasn’t even sure if I could do it, but when I looked at Mum’s kind face, her frail body and her conditions, I said yes to all her last requests. I would never forget the happiness and hope in my Mum’s eyes on that day!
So that was my first journey in my life to “Australia”
So that was my first journey in my life to “Australia” with a huge mission on my shoulders as a young lady. I did my Master of Commerce degree at University of New South Wales and met my beloved and dedicating husband, Khun Chris, in Sydney, we were married in our hometown in 1980 with Mum’s blessings. On our wedding day, I could see again, the happiness and eyes full of hope, she was relieved and happy. Grievously a year later, the saddest tragedy took place in our family – Mum passed away!
CP International
So began my missions under the support of my caring and loving husband. We sacrificed over 15 years of our life sponsoring and settling my belated father, my 4 brothers and sister (some with family members) to successfully settle down in Australia permanently. Chris and I have two beautiful children, Aaron and Karen, and waited until all my brothers and sister have successfully settled down with their family, had good jobs and homes, then it was time to “pay back to the country that is good to you” as Mum asked in her last wish. In 1997, my husband and I decided to start up a business in “Education” in recruiting overseas students to study in Australia, contributing to part of the country’s economic success under the encouragement of my husband and support from the then Royal General Consul of Thailand, Dr Chaiyong Satjipanon in Sydney. Our business was a great success, we expanded branch offices to Bangkok, Melbourne and Chiang Mai to follow within a short period of time.
Dr.Visa and CP International
As I am also an accredited NAATI Professional translator and interpreter in the Thai-English languages since 1983, our business brought in the translation and interpreting services conducting the people within the community so they could liaise effectively with each other – governmental, public or private. And when the Australian government regulated the migration/visa industry in Australia back in 1990’s, both my husband and I took up the course and registration processes and became licensed as “Australian Registered Migration Agents” – with Chris registered in 1993 and myself in 1998. Currently, our company, the CP International, has 4 branches in Melbourne, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, with our Sydney office under licensing agreement to J&J Professional for 10 years, due to Chris and I wanted to take a break to travel the world since back in 2013 onwards.
As a young woman landed in Australia in the late 1970’s with only a few dollars in my pocket, through endless hard work, diligence, patience, dedication and never giving up approach, I am proud of being able to deliver what I had promised to my beloved mother as a filial daughter, and I’m sure Mum would be proud of me and that she could rest in peace in heaven now that all her children have settled well in this “Land of Golden Opportunity” as a doctor, as an architect, as successful business people making contributions to Australia in paying back to “the country that has been good to us”
Passed our 20th year benchmark of CP International
Have questions about your Australian visa application or status? Want to apply to study, work or live in Australia? Get in touch with the Dr Visa Team at:
- LINE: @cpinter (Thailand/global) or @cpintermel (Australia)
- Phone: +6622781236 (Thailand) or +61396025355 (Australia)
- Email: migration@cpinternational.com
- Or Book a Consultation with an Australian Registered Migration Agent or Offshore Migration Consultant today!
