Meet Your Hosts
Good things come to those who wait! Eddy was 45 and Jai 39 before they they both tied the knot for the first time. Together, Eddy and Jai welcome you to come explore this paradisiacal corner of the globe with them. see life through a new lens, and refresh your headspace forever.
Jai
Sayjai, meaning "Long Road to Heart" was born in Kamphaeng Phet and took care of her family before leaving home to find work at the age of 16. Self-educated and driven to succeed without sacrificing tradition, she returned two decades later to re-discover Kamphaeng Phet, a true treasure that had been right in front of her nose the whole time!
Jai is well grounded and has never forgotten her roots. Humble, caring, and resourceful, she honors life and tradition with the small things she does, whether it's setting some food out on a leaf in the garden for her deceased mother, ceremonially bathing an elder's feet, or making a pair of sandals from a banana tree.
Jai was born here in Kamphaeng Phet and is the youngest of five children. Her parents couldn't afford to send her to school, so by age 8 she was already gathering food and preparing meals for her working family.
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Jai didn't have a pair of shoes until age 14 (her mom always "forgot" to buy them), and in the few photos of her childhood that exist, she can be seen hiding her feet behind small bushes!
At 16, Jai went off to the big city to work in factories, forwarding her meager earnings back to her family. Her employers saw her serious work ethic and selflessness, gave her time to learn to read and write, and soon promoted her to supervisor. Jai saved up to attend massage therapy school and later opened up her own business with her sister in Pattaya.
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It was there that Eddy, a professional American inline speed skater and coach, met Jai through a mutual friend. When Eddy got his first treatment from "Dr. Jai," he knew he had found pure magic.
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"Jai" means "heart", but her full name, "Sayjai" means "long road to heart." And a long road to her heart it was! Wary of suitors, Jai fended off Eddy's advances for two years before asking her father's permission to pursue a relationship.
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Even a seasoned traveler like Eddy knew he had found the ideal mate and the perfect place to settle down and continue plying his passion for sports and the outdoors. Jai was able to discover the beauty of the land and people she had always taken for granted but never taken the time to truly appreciate.
Eddy's the world traveler. Stricken with elemental wanderlust at an early age, he's traveled many roads in his discriminating search for the ultimate adventure travel experience.
Born in San Francisco and majoring in Geography and Dutch Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Eddy caught the wave of inline skating in the late 80's after a family trip to Holland.
In the early days, Eddy spent every last penny on skate equipment and resorted to scavenging and volunteering for the Food Not Bombs. His job was to skate around town and collect usable produce from markets and restaurants and then help prepare hearty stews to feed the hungry.
Eddy's first breakthrough came in Las Vegas when Rollerblade took note of his race performance and began sending him to their own race series. The bearing company TWINCAM had a bigger vision and signed Eddy on to represent them worldwide, an unprecedented arrangement would endure more than 20 years.
Since lacing up his first pair of inlines, Eddy's skated up and down Mount Kilimanjaro, Pike's Peak, Mt. Fuji, and the Great Pyramid, glided across the Indonesian archipelago, bladed up and over the highest paved road in the world, rolled in the Running of the Bulls, powered rickshaws around Victoria Harbor and the Taj Mahal, raced camels in Africa, covered vast expanses of frozen lakes and waterways in Holland, circumnavigated Tahiti on inlines, traversed the lava fields of Hawaii, and skated the Great Wall of China.
After 30 years of perpetual motion in more than two dozen countries, Eddy finally found a corner of the globe that topped his list, a truly special place on which to focus his quest.
And the winner? Kamphaeng Phet! Make us #1 on your bucket list.
Take it from Eddy & Jai. You can bet on Kamphaeng Phet!
Dubbed the "undisputed king of inline skating," a "gentle giant," and a "living legend," Eddy Matzger is a professional athlete, coach, ambassador, entertainer, motivator, and friend. Eddy has been omnipresent on the world skate scene since 1988 and will put you at ease while you conquer challenges and expand your horizons.