While Doomsday Preppers have been busying themselves mostly in the West, it appears the trend is turning East into Asia. A new luxury estate in Chiang Mai Thailand called The Sanctum is featuring private fallout shelters in each villa and if that isn’t enough there is also a panic room.
While some may call this over the top, others see it as an emerging niche. North Korea’s recent spate of nuclear tests have been making international headlines, so perhaps Kim Jong Un is becoming a key unique selling point for the real estate trade. Who knew?
Of course one has to wonder if indeed tranquil Chiang Mai is in danger of any imminent threat of being nuked by North Korea. One only has to view the fairy mixed results of Kim Jong Un’s intercontinental ballistic missile program. Most of these barely make it off the land and fall helplessly into the nearby coastal water. But again in this screwy world, could some misguided North Korean missile man confuse Thailand’s Jewel of the North for say – San Francisco or Seattle?
According to the Sanctum website nuclear shelters description touts that “safety and security comes first, no matter the circumstances”, while the panic room offers “an impenetrable shelter for all eventualities.” Certainly this is doomsday delight to get focus on Google Ad Words during the villa sales campaign.
Taking a step backward as goofy as this may sound, maybe this project is onto something, as in an overcrowded marketplace finding micro-segments and niches can be rewarding. Or a disaster. Remember Disney’s Utopian vision for the Stepford-esque lifestyle at the Celebration master planned community in Florida. Wait I think I just heard a body falling off the 26th floor.
Wrapping this up, I’m still not sure that underground space wouldn’t be better as a wine cellar but the panic room could work for me, as an escape route when engaging in a pitched battle with my wife. North Korea, game on. Welcome to the new niche of Armageddon property.
