Fah Thai Magazine Sep/Oct 2017

SAMUI REMINISCING
If you want to listen to a nostalgic
storytelling of a promising Koh Samui
that’s grown into quite the beauty of a
place, just ask Dr. Suwit Nantapanich,
fondly called “Mo Tapu” by Samui islanders.
‘Mo’ is doctor in Thai and ‘tapu’ means nail,
a nickname given by family with its own
esoteric history. Mention his name to longtime
Samui residents and the enthusiastic
response will be, “Mo Tapu? Yes, he was
our family doctor!”
Photo Thewin Chanyawong
Clockwise
from Right
Samui still enjoys
a strong coconut
industry; with a
little help from a
friend, a reward
for his labour is the
sweet fruit of
a coconut.
Dr. Suwit’s clinic
was a reassuring
presence for ailing
Samui locals.
Mo Tapu remembers
when the first group
of foreigners visited
the island and were
in awe of its
unspoilt beauty.
As Samui’s first doctor – there
was hardly a person on the island
he didn’t treat– his astute eyes and
calm manner makes him the best
observer of island changes from his
serene clinic on Chaweng. Although
retired, he still keeps a close eye
on the island happenings and
developments.
With a faraway look of
remembrance, he remembers
greeting the first foreign visitor to
Samui in the 1960s when the island
paradise was a relative unknown.
“In the 1960s, the local patients
I treated came to me because of dog
bites,” he says with amusement.
But adds with the seriousness of
a physician, “Now, the cases are
mostly of people falling off their
motorbikes.” A lot of cases are
surprise run-ins at sharp turns
on the road and foreign tourists
handling the unfamiliar power of
a bike. Such is the Samui then and
now, he points out.
Sitting at home, he reminisces
on a Samui that was less resort
island and more a residential
island with potential. Dr. Suwit
is of Chinese heritage who came
at a younger age to be a general
practitioner.
In archival information, the
earliest maps of Koh (island in
Thai) Samui go as far back as the
17th century. “Accidental tourists”
might be a better way to call the
first group of visitors of fishermen,
sailors and sea traders who chanced
upon the island as they sought
shelter from the storms and the
treacherous waters along the Gulf
of Thailand.
So the first settlers of Chinese
and Malay descent enjoyed the
bountiful nature and natural
resources that produced vegetation,
fruit varieties, and fish and wildlife.
Across the seas to other parts of
Thailand, stories circulated that
on an island called Samui, money
can be made on coconuts that
numbered in the thousands and
luscious tropical plants and fruits
could be harvested. So more people
started trickling in, eyes shining
with the hope that Samui’s fruit
bounty becomes a lucrative move.
These days, there are shrines and
memorials that acknowledge the
first settlers. Dr. Suwit’s clinic is
in Chaweng, a town, he says, that
used to be an oyster village. Located
on a quiet street, the clinic in light
green pastels showed the tranquil
nostalgia of doctor’s visits. Nearby
sits one of the oldest cinemas
in a neighbourhood, while cosy
restaurants offering local eats
and an art gallery is situated near
a market.
Travel agency Kuoni brought
the first group of foreign tourists to
the quiet beauty of Samui, Dr. Suwit
recalled. Then, there was no city
planning, no roads or infrastructure.
Part of the stream of visitors were
on a quest for enlightenment in the
early 1960s, a hippie crowd that
ventured to Samui on their way to
Kathmandu.
He talks of the time that Swiss
magazine Du Atlantis, interviewed
him for their story of a picturesque,
serene Samui. Together with
photography by Rene Burri, the
magazine’s editor and writer Samuel
Gasser described how in Samui,
“the heat and bountiful water
supplies bring forth an inexhaustible
abundance of fruit. Pride of place
goes to the coconut. Then there are
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