Yahoo Finance They’re filming The White Lotus at the Anantara in Thailand – I checked in too
The Anantara hotel group is rumoured to be where The White Lotus will be filming its third season, set in Thailand – Felicity Martin checks in and chills out
I’m lying on a beach with a small handful of people dotted along the white sand, plus a happy puppy who is lying sleepily by my side. A longtail boat is bobbing in the water, waiting to take me to another neardeserted area of this island to view its famed fish and coral collection. It’s almost totally silent.
You wouldn’t believe this was Koh Phangan, home of the Full Moon Party where 50,000 tourists wash up on Hat Rin Beach each month, glow sticks and plastic buckets of booze in hand. The Thai island is mostly, unfairly, known to Brits as a well-worn pitstop on the gap year route. But the island has increasingly been shaking the idea that it’s just a destination for backpackers, ravers and hippies. The area has lots to offer beyond sticky pub crawls and fishbowl cocktails, with thick rainforests, coconut groves, dive sites and waterfalls to explore, and plenty of resorts that offer a quiet stay away from the hostel crowds, not a psytrance melody in earshot.
In June 2022 Thailand legalised weed, an additional draw for certain travellers and a sudden surge of Bob Marley-themed bars and dispensaries popped up on Koh Phangan. In nearby Koh Samui these stores are even more ubiquitous, with cannabis entrepreneurs who are seeing green popping up everywhere – there I meet one Dutch man who has moved to the island to start his own weed lounge. But recently, the country has done another U-turn on its drug policy, as Thailand’s new prime minister has said he wants to limit its use to medicinal purposes.
Thailand has also this year seen a huge increase in Russian visitors who are understandably keen to dodge the economic woes back home and possibility of conscription. And Koh Phangan is about to get absolutely smashed by Brits and US ‘TV traveller’ types, known as ‘set-jetters’, because the island is to appear in the third season of comedy satire show The White Lotus. Filming should be underway right about now. To put The White Lotus’ popularity into context, the Hawaii hotel featured in season one received a 425% percent year-on-year increase in web traffic after the episodes featuring the property went out.
Approaching Tong Nai Pan Noi Beach by speedboat en route to the Anantara Rasananda hotel, a row of staff await our arrival, like they famously do in the first season of the show. It would have been impossible for the series that rips into luxury tourism not to spring to mind. So much so that one guy takes out his phone and starts playing the theme tune to the HBO series. When we hop off board there’s a foot washer on standby to de-sand our toes with a wooden ladle. Sounds about right, given Bloomberg has reported that the Anantara Mai Khao Villas Phuket will be one of three hotels where filming takes place.
I was at the sister property on Koh Phangan, but it was immediately clear why location scouts have chosen to haul expensive equipment on boats to the Anantara properties. Walking through the lobby of the Phangan property, corridors of lush green foliage lead to spacious private villas. It’s laid out like a traditional Thai village, with each residence separated by pools and streams, plus the gold spirit shrines that are built to bring good luck on most streets in Thailand. Each villa is designed with dark local wood, with outdoor showers and a private jacuzzi pool – not quite big enough to do laps in, but who wants to do that when you’ve got a bottle of sparkling wine on ice?
Strips of wagyu were expletive inducingly good – butter-soft on the tongue.
The villas come with their own personal host – ours helpfully shows us around and we exchange numbers. We’re told we can Whatsapp her for bookings, trips, anything at all. The Anantara staff’s attentiveness is on another level – our host seems to pop up in communal areas at the exact moment we want to ask something, and other members of staff ask how my trip to the gym was earlier that morning, hopefully prompted by my running shoes not my sweaty face.
When I go to the bar for a pre-dinner margarita it was rammed, but the staff seemed to conjure a table out of thin air so I could sit facing the sunset. Step outside the hotel’s perimeter and you’re greeted with the Thailand many travellers come for – mouth smackingly spicy food at unbelievable prices, and low-lit bars with tie-dyed hammocks. When we leave the Anantara for a more wallet-friendly dinner one restaurant puts a faux cannabis leaf on each plate of food. But we’re on the calmer, northeast coast of the island. Want to party? Head south to Hat Rin, where the all-night raves take place almost every evening.
When it comes to dining at the Anantara, Yukinoya is the hotel’s Japanese restaurant and the sole teppanyaki spot on the island. Thailand has a noticeable influence of Japanese culture, thanks to historic migration and long-standing trade between both nations, and exports are everywhere from Asahi on draft to ramen eateries. But Yukinoya is a salute to Japanese cuisine at its very best. Despite the menu’s slightly strange assertion that ‘there’s no such thing as a bad meal when you’re hungry!’ (funny misuses of the English language are everywhere in Thailand, such as ‘Let It Snow’ being played at a beach club) the food is exquisitely prepared. A nigiri platter comes with dabs of truffle, caviar and tom yum mayonnaise resting on fresh salmon, tuna and yellowtail. The hot plate offerings were the highlight: strips of seared wagyu were expletive inducingly good and butter-soft on the tongue.
But the hotel’s most impressive offering – visually, at least, is its spa. Treatment suites and a tropical steam room are built into dramatic hillside boulders, and fat koi carp swim calmly around giant stepping stones. After being given robes and a welcome drink of tea while discussing our massage preferences, we climb up to the highest point of the spa where we’re met with a floral milk foot bath and a restorative signature massage using eastern techniques.
The hotel also offers excursions and day trips including private boat charters to nearby Angthong Marine National Park. On a clear blue day, a longtail boat takes us out tosnorkelling hotspots where we peer at colourful coral, angelfish and striped zebra fish, like sticking your head in an aquarium. Below our feet, a shoal of what looks like thousands of colourful little beings form a huge, amorphous blob. Our excellent guide, who calls himself “X” – hopefully not inspired by the shambolic renaming of Twitter – points out the best spots to swim while also pranking us by pretending not to have any snorkelling gear. It’s symbolic of the cheeky Thai humour that helps make the country so lively.
The Thais are just so unbelievably friendly, all of the time. Koh Phangyan is 25 miles wide around the perimeter, and there are dozens of beaches with their cute little shack restaurants to explore. But after a tiring day trip I’m sticking with my silence. Thankfully I found that lazy puppy on the beach right where I left him.
How to visit Thailand
Rooms at the Anantara Rasananda start from around £300 per night; Thai Airways fly to Bangkok for around £800 per person return. You take an internal flight to Surat Thani from Bangkok and then a boat to Koh Phangan.
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