Fah Thai Magazine Sep/Oct 2017
"FAH THAI" is the in-flight magazine of Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited and is edited and published by MPMI Group Ltd.
"FAH THAI" is the in-flight magazine of Bangkok Airways Public Company Limited and is edited and published by MPMI Group Ltd.
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SAMUI REMINISCING<br />
If you want to listen to a nostalgic<br />
storytelling of a promising Koh Samui<br />
that’s grown into quite the beauty of a<br />
place, just ask Dr. Suwit Nantapanich,<br />
fondly called “Mo Tapu” by Samui islanders.<br />
‘Mo’ is doctor in <strong>Thai</strong> and ‘tapu’ means nail,<br />
a nickname given by family with its own<br />
esoteric history. Mention his name to longtime<br />
Samui residents and the enthusiastic<br />
response will be, “Mo Tapu? Yes, he was<br />
our family doctor!”<br />
Photo Thewin Chanyawong<br />
Clockwise<br />
from Right<br />
Samui still enjoys<br />
a strong coconut<br />
industry; with a<br />
little help from a<br />
friend, a reward<br />
for his labour is the<br />
sweet fruit of<br />
a coconut.<br />
Dr. Suwit’s clinic<br />
was a reassuring<br />
presence for ailing<br />
Samui locals.<br />
Mo Tapu remembers<br />
when the first group<br />
of foreigners visited<br />
the island and were<br />
in awe of its<br />
unspoilt beauty.<br />
As Samui’s first doctor – there<br />
was hardly a person on the island<br />
he didn’t treat– his astute eyes and<br />
calm manner makes him the best<br />
observer of island changes from his<br />
serene clinic on Chaweng. Although<br />
retired, he still keeps a close eye<br />
on the island happenings and<br />
developments.<br />
With a faraway look of<br />
remembrance, he remembers<br />
greeting the first foreign visitor to<br />
Samui in the 1960s when the island<br />
paradise was a relative unknown.<br />
“In the 1960s, the local patients<br />
I treated came to me because of dog<br />
bites,” he says with amusement.<br />
But adds with the seriousness of<br />
a physician, “Now, the cases are<br />
mostly of people falling off their<br />
motorbikes.” A lot of cases are<br />
surprise run-ins at sharp turns<br />
on the road and foreign tourists<br />
handling the unfamiliar power of<br />
a bike. Such is the Samui then and<br />
now, he points out.<br />
Sitting at home, he reminisces<br />
on a Samui that was less resort<br />
island and more a residential<br />
island with potential. Dr. Suwit<br />
is of Chinese heritage who came<br />
at a younger age to be a general<br />
practitioner.<br />
In archival information, the<br />
earliest maps of Koh (island in<br />
<strong>Thai</strong>) Samui go as far back as the<br />
17th century. “Accidental tourists”<br />
might be a better way to call the<br />
first group of visitors of fishermen,<br />
sailors and sea traders who chanced<br />
upon the island as they sought<br />
shelter from the storms and the<br />
treacherous waters along the Gulf<br />
of <strong>Thai</strong>land.<br />
So the first settlers of Chinese<br />
and Malay descent enjoyed the<br />
bountiful nature and natural<br />
resources that produced vegetation,<br />
fruit varieties, and fish and wildlife.<br />
Across the seas to other parts of<br />
<strong>Thai</strong>land, stories circulated that<br />
on an island called Samui, money<br />
can be made on coconuts that<br />
numbered in the thousands and<br />
luscious tropical plants and fruits<br />
could be harvested. So more people<br />
started trickling in, eyes shining<br />
with the hope that Samui’s fruit<br />
bounty becomes a lucrative move.<br />
These days, there are shrines and<br />
memorials that acknowledge the<br />
first settlers. Dr. Suwit’s clinic is<br />
in Chaweng, a town, he says, that<br />
used to be an oyster village. Located<br />
on a quiet street, the clinic in light<br />
green pastels showed the tranquil<br />
nostalgia of doctor’s visits. Nearby<br />
sits one of the oldest cinemas<br />
in a neighbourhood, while cosy<br />
restaurants offering local eats<br />
and an art gallery is situated near<br />
a market.<br />
Travel agency Kuoni brought<br />
the first group of foreign tourists to<br />
the quiet beauty of Samui, Dr. Suwit<br />
recalled. Then, there was no city<br />
planning, no roads or infrastructure.<br />
Part of the stream of visitors were<br />
on a quest for enlightenment in the<br />
early 1960s, a hippie crowd that<br />
ventured to Samui on their way to<br />
Kathmandu.<br />
He talks of the time that Swiss<br />
magazine Du Atlantis, interviewed<br />
him for their story of a picturesque,<br />
serene Samui. Together with<br />
photography by Rene Burri, the<br />
magazine’s editor and writer Samuel<br />
Gasser described how in Samui,<br />
“the heat and bountiful water<br />
supplies bring forth an inexhaustible<br />
abundance of fruit. Pride of place<br />
goes to the coconut. Then there are<br />
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