The Four Seasons Koh Samui is one of the world’s best resorts

I have known Jasjit Singh Assi (JJ) for nearly two decades from his early days as part of the opening team at the Four Seasons Mumbai

to his years through various international Four Seasons properties to his current avatar as General Manager of the Four Seasons on the Thai island of Koh Samui.

 

I have written about the Samui hotel before so I won’t go over that ground again except to say that I have often called it one of the world’s best resorts. It is certainly the one I find most spectacular, luxurious and yet, immensely comfortable.

 

   The first time I went to Samui there was widespread speculation that the next season of The White Lotus would be shot there. If you have missed The White Lotus, it is a wildly popular American TV show (HBO in America; JIO Hotstar in India) which is a huge critical success because of the grown-up and compelling nature of its scripts, all conceived of by Mike White who created the show.

 

   What intrigues me is how much power it has to transform the fortunes of a destination. The first season, set in a Four Seasons in Hawaii was, I thought, so-so but it turned the hotel into a global rage.

 

   The second season shot at the Four Seasons in Taormina turned that part of Sicily into a craze. It was a great season and guests still keep flocking to Taormina in the hope that some of The White Lotus magic rubs off on them.

 

   When I first went to Samui I asked JJ about the rumours that Mike White had been staying at the resort and would shoot the third season there. JJ said he could not comment on the rumours which I took as confirmation: after all, if it wasn’t being shot there he would just have denied it completely.

 

   Then the Hollywood writers strike happened and shooting was delayed. By then it was clear that when the shoot did begin, the location would be Thailand; the Tourism Authority of Thailand said as much.

 

   I imagine that the Thais were eager to host The White Lotus because of how much it would to do for tourism. Thailand is one of the world’s great destinations but in recent years it has attracted a lower- budget kind of tourist along with groups of aggressive visitors from the Chinese mainland.

 

   The Thais are happy to host all visitors but they worried that they were losing out on wealthy Americans and Europeans who wanted top class luxury. Thailand has some of the world’s best hotels but people don’t always know that.

 

   Then I went back to Samui. This time JJ could tell me that The White Lotus had actually been shot in the resort. He could not tell me more about the plot but talking to the staff I was able to work out that the crew was coming back to shoot more scenes and that the villa I stayed in both times had been part of the shoot. (If you have seen the show it is the place where Walton Goggins broods and plots revenge.)

 

"There is a glamorous new White Lotus bar on the beach in Samui and HBO and the Four Seasons have hosted joint events in America."

   I went back last week. Pretty much everything that everyone had wished for has now come true. Thailand has seen a massive boost in luxury travel and American travel agents are booking guests in for White Lotus tours.

 

   All top Thai hotels have benefited but none as much as the Four Seasons Samui which now charges the highest rates in Thailand, higher than Amanpuri or the Oriental. (The spectacular new Aman in Bangkok is the only other hotel in that range.) Upmarket tourism in Thailand has a significant Russian and Chinese component but now the Westerners are back. At the Four Seasons Samui the guests were mainly Americans and Europeans.

 

   The show was shot in other hotels too (the guardhouse, the jewellery shop that gets looted and some of the beach scenes were shot in Anantara hotels in Phuket; Anantara is owned by Bill Heinecke’s Minor group which also owns, but does not manage, the Four Seasons Samui.) The Bangkok scenes, including the orgy, are set at the Oriental.

 

   JJ has been part of the The White Lotus from start to finish: he was at the red carpet in Los Angeles. But he is still a little close mouthed even though he can talk about the show now because the Four Seasons group has signed a marketing arrangement with HBO. Apparently market research showed that while savvy Americans had worked out that the show was shot in various Four Seasons hotels a significant proportion still believed that The White Lotus was a real chain and kept trying to book it. The Four Seasons hopes now to clear the confusion. There is a glamorous new White Lotus bar on the beach in Samui and HBO and the Four Seasons have hosted joint events in America.

 

   As a fan of the show I tried to pick up gossip about the shoot but the staff were very discreet. Here’s what I did learn: they all loved Jason Isaacs who they said was a very nice man. Many of the Thai staff had never heard of most of the American cast and were only overawed by Lisa the Thai pop star who is a member of Blackpink the Korean pop group. The Americans on the other hand had never heard of her.

 

   The staff reckon that White shot four different endings for the show but it was impossible to be sure because the moment the cameras would roll all hotel employees would be asked to leave. Even the actors got their scripts episode by episode and were not sure what fate held in store for their characters. There was a fair amount of improvisation during filming. The famous Sam Rockwell monologue was added to the script later, they think. There was talk of Jennifer Coolidge participating in the shoot but her bookings were cancelled later. As the Coolidge character was killed off in the last season this would have been a flashback or an imaginary sequence. At least one of the actresses was replaced during the shooting and her scenes reshot. And there are no monkeys at the resort. White smuggled them in one day and shot enough footage to scatter the shots throughout the series.

 

   According to those who watched the progress of the shoot a lot of scenes ended up on the cutting floor. The reason the finale felt so rushed was because White needed at least 15 minutes more to wrap things up neatly.

 

   The White Lotus will be back though there is no word on the location for the next series. Till then however we have Samui —and JJ’s hospitality!