Restaurant owner skateboards and follows Buddha

July 14, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Nong Hastanand follows the way of the Buddha, which means he has nothing to prove.

Every day, Hastanand and his sister, Cherry, put out three offerings at Sabai, the Wasilla restaurant they opened a year an a half ago. One offering is for the Buddha, one is for an angel and the third, sitting outside the entry door, is for the monks.

Hastanand arrived in Los Angeles from Thailand in 1969, when he was 4 years old. From there, the family moved to Anchorage, where they opened Thai Cuisine downtown. For a while, Hastanand lived in Sutton with his then-fiancee and their daughter, commuting to work in Anchorage.

&#8220You had to be in the Flats by 7 a.m. to make it to work on time,” he said. &#8220On black ice, people would be going 65 to 70.”

To be at the Flats by 7 a.m., Hastanand had to leave Sutton at 5:30 a.m. With his daughter in his car, Hastanand always tried to drive by the three-second rule, which means leaving enough space between cars so he could stop in three seconds and not hit anyone else.

&#8220But people always cut in,” he said. &#8220And I was always slowing down.”

Hastanand looked at several places in the Valley, planning to move here. One of the first was a house out on Knik-Goose Bay Road that was about 70 percent finished. When he got to the house, the people looked at him skeptically, and he and his fiancee backed off and tried to call instead. Their cell phone died, so they drove to Fred Meyer to make the call. When they did, they found the building that would become Hastanand's Valley restaurant.

&#8220It was a wreck,” he said. &#8220The stairs were a mess. There were holes in the ceiling and walls. It took us three months to fix it up.”

Hastanand does Tai Chi and breathing exercises, although not strict meditation.

He skateboards, plays video games and rides dirt bikes.

&#8220I feel like a 12-year-old,” the 41-year-old said. &#8220I can still do all the tricks on a skateboard the kids do.”

Riding a dirt bike, he tore his shoulder so severely the doctor called it a second-degree separation. Facing an expensive surgery with no health insurance, Hastanand decided to use visualization to heal himself.

&#8220I did self-healing,” he said. &#8220I pictured those Chevy workers like in the commercial. Only they were welding my shoulder 24 hours a day.”

Three weeks later, Hastanand's shoulder X-rays looked the same and the doctor said he had to have surgery.

But then the doctor noticed Hastanand using his right arm, something he shouldn't have been able to do.

In spite of the injury, and the lump that is still there, Hastanand showed the doctor he had full range of motion and full strength.

&#8220He said I had more movement than people who had surgery,” he said.

Hastanand never found the acreage he wanted in the Valley, although he looked seriously at a few properties.

He moved to Anchorage and commutes to work at Sabai, but he spends more time here than many commuters.

&#8220We head out at 9 a.m. and buy fresh produce everyday,” he said. &#8220We go home at 11 at night and start all over again the next day.”

Running a restaurant in the Valley has been a good thing for Hastanand.

&#8220The Valley is great,” he said. &#8220People are really nice, not cranky like in Anchorage.”

Contact Mary Ames at 352-2284 or mary.ames@frontiersman.com.