He fell in love with Thailand while traveling in his 20s. Now 40, he's back and has built his dream 'James Bond' luxury villa.

20.05.2024 - 02:35 / insider.com

The first time Johnny Ward went to Chiang Mai, Thailand, he was 22.

He paid for his one-way flight with money he earned from participating in a five-week-long medical research study. It was the first time he had traveled anywhere in Asia.

Over the next year and a half, Ward taught English at a local school and fell in love with Chiang Mai's laidback lifestyle.

When that stint was over, he moved to Australia to take up a sales job. Although the pay was good, he was dissatisfied with corporate life. He decided to quit his job to travel and ended up starting a blog to document his adventures.

"I was living a fun, cool life, and I just wanted to show other people from working-class backgrounds that you don't need to come from a rich family to live a cool life," Ward, nowa travel blogger who also runs a online media company, told Business Insider.

But after traveling the world, Ward realized that Chiang Mai still had his heart.

"If you ever Google things like '10 best places to live,' 'Best place to be a digital nomad,' 'Best place to retire,' Chiang Mai often features in top 20 of all these things," Ward said. "It's so nice."

That's why in 2019, he decided to return and build apermanent home.

"I always wanted a James Bond villa — Miami-style, Ibiza-style. So I kind of think that's exactly what I did," Ward said.

In late 2020, Ward bought a 13,000-square-foot plot of land with his wife, Jaa, who is from Thailand, for 6 million Thai baht, or about $160,000.

The land is located in a gated community about 15 minutes outside the city center, he said. Chiang Mai is the largest city in northern Thailand and is surrounded by mountains.

Ward then found a local luxury developer to help design his home. They broke ground in early 2021.

"The entire process was very smooth," Ward said. "He's like a one-stop shop. He did everything from the architectural drawing to the actual design — he's got a team of interior designers."

In Thailand, there are strict criteria for taking out property loans as foreigners. Being self-employed made it difficult for Ward to get financing, so he paid for the entire project in cash.

Ward said he spent 13 million Thai baht building the home and another 3.5 million Thai baht furnishing it, or about $460,000 in total.

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The two-story villa has a pool and seven bedrooms, of which three have been converted into an office, a home cinema, and a man-cave.

Growing up on welfare in Ireland, it had always been Ward's dream to own a large house.

"When I was like 12, I used to watch all those real estate shows in Ireland," Ward said. "I thought, 'I'm going to build myself my big dream house one day.'"

It would have been difficult for him to have all the things he wanted if he had