Koh Samui - Thailand

Thailand is a country of over 65 million people living under a constitutional monarchy. The Thai Baht is the currency. Koh Samui is a small island on the south-western coast of Thailand in the same geographic area as the island of Phuket, a more recognized tourist destination. Ko Samui is inside the Bay of Thailand and Phuket is in the Indian Ocean.

Ko Samui is a recent arrival on the tourism map. The first backpackers only began arriving in the late 70’s by paying locals to paddle them out to the island that was one large coconut plantation. An airport was finally built in 1988 and, sadly, resorts began to replace the coconuts. Today, a large car ferry arrives daily from Don Sak as well as many direct international flights.

There are two major beach resorts in Lamai and Chaweng on the east coast  and it only takes an hour to circumnavigate the island by road. There are some excellent, but scary, four-wheel drive tracks over the mountains that have become thrill-seeker tourist attractions. The four wheel driving further erodes the coconut plantation areas and turns the economy further towards tourism at the cost of it’s historical cropping.

As the coconut and latex plantations are in the mountains, I ventured onto the four wheel drive tracks in my modest fuel efficient, low impact, Suzuki “wanna-be” four wheel drive. As I stopped to photograph the latex sap running from the trees, a fleet of twenty large diesel jeeps roared past me with young tourists hanging off the roof top racks, the rear step treads and anywhere else considered dangerous. A flurry of dust, noise, suntanned sweaty flesh and diesel fumes temporarily consumed my world. The dirt and dust settled over the latex rubber pots slowly collecting latex tree sap. 

  

The commercial source of natural rubber latex is the Para Rubber tree ( Hevea Brasiliensis )
which originally grew in South America especially in Brazil , Charles Marie de La Condamine is credited with introducing samples of the rubber to the Academie Royale des Sciences of France in 1736.

Rubber trees originally were a new world plant originating in Central or South America forests. Like corn, Cassava and spicy capisicum peppers, rubber plants were moved by European colony rulers to South East Asia. Now 90 % of the world's rubber is produced in South east Asia with 80 % grown in Thailand , Indonesia and Malaysia. 

 

In Koh Samui, known best for its coconut plantations, the farmer gets up at midnight to cut the 7 year old rubber trees. The sap runs out of the trees in the cool of night and in the early morning the farmer collects the latex and mixes it with Acetic acid or formic acid to make the fluid thicker. The latex is then rolled to expel the water, then dried by the sun till it turns brown and is ready to sell the merchant or factory.

I reached into my ice box for a local beer and let the convoy get as far in front of me as possible so I could continue to enjoy the natural beauty of Koh Samui.

At the other end of the four-wheel drive track was my next quest. I wanted to see the

famous “Mummified Monk”. Dang Piyasilo, born in 1894, lived as an ordained monk until 1973. He predicted his death and further predicted that his body would not decompose. His body did not decompose but rather dried akin to Egyptian mummification. 

He died in an upright sitting position and gave written instructions that his body be displayed to become an inspiration to future generations to follow Buddhist teachings and be saved from suffering. His wishes were honoured. The sunglasses that Dang is wearing are the original American1950’s Ray-Ban’s he was wearing at the time of his death, priceless.

I found this to be a deeply reflective experience, and also serendipitous as the street stall out the front of the Temple sold the cutest little salt and pepper shakers that will make excellent gifts. I won’t tell you the price in case you are a recipient.  

The day was drawing to a close so I headed back to the ship via the beach for a quick swim. There is no doubt that Thailand and Koh Samui have some beautiful white sand beaches.