"Thank you for picking Poppies," reads the beguiling management message.

Poppies Samui, sister to Poppies Bali, "is the younger, more beautiful sister," said Michael Holehouse. That is a bold claim made by the Poppies Samui general manager, who is understandably partisan. Poppies Samui, Thailand, and Poppies Bali, Indonesia, are both idyllic complexes of resort cottages, each one tucked away behind its own screens of tropical trees, hedges and flowers. Family likeness shows in curving walkways in the gardens, streams and miniature bridges. Poppies Samui, Thai in decorative theme, claims its own stretch of white, powdery sand and expanse of clear, warm sea in the Gulf of Siam. Profligate, it scatters orchids at every turn. Look no further than the foliage of dusky green and dusty pink to know the origins of color schemes for Thai silks.

A genial, available, humorous host, Holehouse says that managing Poppies Samui is retirement for him. He came here from a long career with major corporate hotel giants, his most recent position having been vice president of marketing for the Dusit Hotels and Resorts. "From Bangkok I used to come to these islands a lot," he said. "When the man who was managing retired, I took over Poppies." He has been here more than four years, "retired" in Poppies' relaxed holiday atmosphere, but still putting in "10 hours a day, six days a week." He has still not yet dipped in Poppies' rock-basined swimming pool and Jacuzzi.

Originally from northwest England, Holehouse said that for him in his boyhood "the end of the world was Manchester." He was born and bred with the intention of going into his father's shipping business in Liverpool. "I began at the bottom, sitting at a desk, filling in customs entries. It was awful. But it did give me a taste for other things. I begged to go to Liverpool Airport and work on air freight. That was really exciting. The airline representatives were heroes to me. From then, my life has been being in the right place at the right time."

That kind of luck combined with his own bounding enterprise to help things go well for him. "I wrote to every airline based in London saying I wanted to be a sales rep. Only one replied. It named me its representative for northwest England, including the Isle of Man." His luck held when in a group of seven equally eligible applicants he drew the winning straw that made him regional manager for Kuwait Airways.

At 19, he went to Kuwait. "I might have passed for 21, but fortunately no one ever asked my age. I used to stay in top-class hotels, and they gave me new aspirations." At 23 he was offered a sales and marketing position with Sheraton, and was involved with the first Sheraton Hotel at London airport.

He married "the girl next door," Sue, who is actively a steady helpmate. When their children were small, she stayed at home as her husband was constantly traveling "all over America and Europe, to conferences, meetings, for business education. I was away one week in every month." Most of the time the Holehouse family was based in London.

He remembers his nine years with Westin Hotel as his most exciting time. "That was the beginning of the computerized side of our business. There were many firsts, the development of many of the things we take for granted now." He left Westin to become director of marketing for Sun City, working for the hotel division of the South African casino complex.

"Then, lo and behold! Westin asked if I would come back, to be vice president of marketing for Westin Hotels and Resorts. I was involved in the team that opened the Westin, Ebisu. I lived in Tokyo for 15 months." He keeps lively memories of his Japan experiences, and of the friends he made here.

Singapore came next, then the Shangri-La in Beijing, then the Dusit Hotels and Resorts in Thailand. After his career in marketing, Holehouse is conducting with aplomb his first fully operational undertaking in Poppies Samui. The husband-and-wife team give Poppies their personal touch. They love the outdoor life on this Thai island, and love the visits of their son James from London and their daughter Kate from Melbourne. They mingle with guests, who become friends, in Poppies' restaurant and bar, seafront facilities that do without walls and settle instead for pillars and steep, pointed roofs. They hold cocktail parties on the beach, when they invite guests to go barefoot. Poppies, they declare, is unique.