How we found Koh Mak
We are a German-Swiss couple who first discovered Koh Mak in 2008. My wife is German, I am Swiss, and after that first visit the island somehow kept pulling us back. Over the following years, we returned again and again — probably 15 or 20 times. We travelled to many other places in Thailand too, but eventually we stopped looking elsewhere. Koh Mak had become the place we wanted to come back to.
From holidays to a new life
Over the years, the idea of one day living and creating something on Koh Mak slowly grew. By the summer of 2019, with our children grown up and little keeping us in Germany, the idea finally became a decision. In July 2019, we decided to sell our house, pack up our lives and move to Thailand.
During our last visit in December 2019, we began making the practical preparations for our new life on Koh Mak. The final move followed in March 2020 — just as Covid was beginning to change everything. We moved our flight forward and arrived shortly before Thailand closed its borders.
It wasn’t quite the beginning we had imagined, and many of our original plans had to change. But we stayed — and during those unusual Covid years, Corsita slowly began to take shape.
Building Corsita
Building Corsita turned out to be an adventure of its own. Even after so many visits to Koh Mak, actually living here and building something was a completely different experience.
Building on an island also has its own challenges. Materials and equipment have to make their way across from the mainland — sometimes literally by the boatload. We had a lot to learn, but gradually an empty piece of land began to look like the place we had imagined.
Corsita today
What began as an empty piece of land is now Corsita — our home on Koh Mak and a place we are happy to share with our guests. Over the years, the garden has grown, the buildings have settled into their surroundings, and Corsita has become the place we once imagined when we decided to make Koh Mak our home.