Panya Niewenhuijs

Panya and her Dutch husband love animals almost as much as they love people.  The motivation to start their business was more than financial.  They were keen for their children to grow up treating all living creatures with compassion, as well as teaching them, an 8-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter, just where their food came from.  Panya delights in sharing the planting and tending of seedlings with her two youngest children and gets a kick out of them proudly showing their produce to their Dutch Opa, their paternal grandfather.  Panya is glad that her young ones are so interested in the outdoor life, as it allows her to protect them from too much screen time and exposure to the dangers inherent in modern technology usage.  She would much prefer they become addicted to a healthy outdoors life style, caring for the animals and plants on the property. For Panya, “family time needs no phones”. Panya’s elder daughter, from her first marriage, is now 24 years old, and is also actively involved in the family business, happily working in the café alongside her mother.

Panya was born and raised until the age of 20 in Suphanburi, in central Thailand, not too far to the northwest of Bangkok, the oldest of three siblings, with both a younger brother and sister.  Her parents owned, and still operate, a factory producing images of the Buddha.  When Panya was young, there were happy times travelling around on a motorcycle with her father as he sold his products.  By a decade or so ago, when Panya was in her early 30s, the business had grown and her father had many employees and he was making much bigger icons of Buddha, out of a wide variety of materials, all with superior craftsmanship. Panya explained with pride that her family’s factory is responsible for one of the beautiful large Buddha sculptures at Wat Khao Din, on Phetkasem Road in Khao Tao. When Panya was young her family were not as well-off as they are now, but neither were they poor. Another childhood pastime Panya remembers with fondness was learning handicraft skills from the cousins of her grandparents.  Few people would know just how adept Panya is at sewing, as well as designing and making things with her hands, and it is likely this has assisted her in her more recent addiction: baking, for which she is becoming renown.

Although Panya was a focused and hard-working student from the age of 3, she finished her formal education at the end of her two years of senior college, and got married and embraced motherhood at quite a young age.  Panya’s parents were keen for her to be self-sufficient and encouraged her to move to Chiang Mai at the age of 20, where she was able to work with her aunt and Italian uncle who had opened an Italian restaurant. Beginning as a waitress and then learning most aspects of the business while learning English with the assistance of a tutor, Panya worked in the restaurant for 17 years, the last 3 as restaurant manager.  One job she didn’t undertake though was as chef, however that hasn’t stopped customers of Parrotdise highly recommending Panya’s homemade pasta dishes such as ravioli and lasagne.

It was in Chiang Mai that Panya met Jef when she was single again at the age of 32.  The pair were introduced by a friend of Panya’s who owned a Burmese restaurant that Jef visited frequently.  Panya recalls their initial meeting in great detail.  It was the 26th October some eleven years ago now, and the couple took it slowly at first.  The following March, Panya was invited to The Netherlands to meet Jef’s parents and extended family, but it was not until 3 years later that Panya and Jef married, with her travelling between Thailand and The Netherlands for 3 month stretches in the interim.  Panya admits she was lucky to have such accommodating employers at the time.

After their marriage the couple set up home in Chiang Mai, with Panya continuing working in the restaurant, while Jef worked remotely.  This allowed the pair a great deal of flexibility to travel, especially when Panya gave up her job to start her family with Jef.  Although it is traditional for new Thai babies to be cared for only in the home during their first 3 months of life, Panya was happy to buck tradition. She and Jef headed to the Philippines with a 6-week-old baby and had the time of their lives on the beach and snorkelling in the pristine waters of Paradise Beach. Travel has been a joint passion that the family likes to enjoy together, whether it be local getaways or travel abroad to places such as the US, the Philippines, The Netherlands, Belgium, German and Spain.  Still on Panya’s bucket list is a trip to Switzerland, an ambition since watching The Sound of Music as a girl.

Around 6 years ago, the young family holidayed in Hua Hin, finding it a very relaxing place, yet a small city that could meet all their needs. Later the location came to mind when the air in Chiang Mai began to exacerbate their daughter’s asthma.  In 2021, the family came to live here in Hua Hin, a place much closer to her family’s home in Suphanburi than was Chiang Mai. At the time, Panya’s eldest was studying Hotel Management in Bangkok, though now graduated, she is putting her learning to good use at Parrotdise. Panya is proud of the self-reliant young woman her eldest child has become. She certainly takes after her mother, despite her straight dark hair.

During the second wave of Covid lockdowns, Jef and Panya settled on the idea for their current enterprise. Panya’s 43 years have been full of significant achievements, yet she is most proud of being an independent woman and making good decisions.  One particularly apparent strength for Panya is the courtesy and respect she naturally shows for all the people she encounters in her day-to-day life.  She has no trouble hiring and retaining staff as she treats them as family members.  Jef has been known to remark that Panya is too sensitive and too nice at times, helping others to her own detriment, whether they be people or animals.  Panya recounted an anecdote from her first few weeks of residence in Hua Hin, when she fronted up at an animal welfare service to report far too many stray street dogs needing rescue near her home, only to be told that soi dogs are an ongoing fact of life in Hua Hin, and there is no easy, quick fix to the problem.

In her future, Panya wants to see her children all grow up to be good people and have nice lives. In the short term, Panya is determined to make good choices for the environment such as using cardboard rather than plastic straws in the café. Some new glass walls have just been installed at Parrotdise so that there is a large indoor airconditioned area for customers during the hot season. Panya wants to remember to treat herself to a regular massage on her day off, and be as good a role-model to her children as her parents are to her, never once speaking badly about anyone else. She is now learning to take time to smell the flowers, to relax on the beach, to indulge herself just a little with her favourite spicy Southern whole fish curry followed by mango sticky rice. She has everything she needs: a devoted husband, 3 lovely children, a couple of close friends to confide in and a prosperous business. All these give her a reason to wake up happy, looking forward to whatever joy her day will bring. Her kids chewing loudly or making loud scraping noises on their plate with their spoon are luckily the worst annoyances Panya encounters on a daily basis.