I’m Thai, grew up both in Bangkok and abroad, and remember American classmates confusing Thailand with Taiwan.
This is why, when Parker Posey’s character in the third season of “The White Lotus” said, “You want to live in Taiwan?!” in response to her daughter’s plan to spend a year in Thailand, it felt spot-on.
The third season, set mostly in Koh Samui and Bangkok, incorporates cultural nuances and clichés. As a local, a few details stood out in the show that foreigners may have missed.
The hotelier character is based on a real person
A well-known Thai actor, Lek Patravadi, plays the hotel owner Sritala on the show. The character was inspired by Kamala Sukosol, Thailand’s real-life singing hotelier.
A fixture in Thai high society and the matriarch of the Sukosol Group, the 86-year-old is as well known for her jazz performances as she is for her award-winning hotels.
Her boutique hotel, The Siam, by the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, was previously scouted as a potential shooting location for the third season of “The White Lotus.”
In October, during an interview on “Trends” for TravelDailyNews, Sukosol said she met Mike White when he visited her hotel and spoke to her about possibly acting in the show.
“He said, ‘Khun Kamala, do you act?’ I said, no way. He said, ‘You sure you can’t act?’ I said, I’m positive, I’m a singer,” Sukosol told David Barret, the show’s host. She went on to explain that White continued trying to convince her for the next few months.
“He wanted me to act as me, as the singing hotelier,” she said.
In February, her hotel posted a photo on Instagram of Mike White with both Patravadi and Sukosol. “Step behind the scenes with Khun Kamala, the heart and soul of The Siam, whose legendary performances inspired the character Sritala in The White Lotus Season 3.”
Some of the song lyrics are tied to the show’s plot
Season three’s Thai soundtrack includes national bangers as well as more folksy sounds from all regions of the country. In several instances, the lyrics have emphasized or foreshadowed what happens next.
Atchariya Pinitsanpirom, the show’s Thai producer, told Business Insider that she originally sent the sound director a playlist of around 50 Thai songs.
“I translated for them when we watched the final cut because I wanted them to know it fits perfectly,” Pinitsanpirom said of matching song lyrics to plot developments.
In episode 7 of “The White Lotus,” Sritala shows Frank (Sam Rockwell) a video of her younger self performing “Lamthad,” both the song title, as well as a type of folk rap in Thai. Lamthad is also a compound word — and “thad” means cut.
On the TV, the actor is shown in her younger years singing the word “lamthad” repeatedly and making a chopping hand motion. This matches well with Rick’s (Walton Goggins) inner turmoil and a decision he is on the brink of.
The song also includes the phrase “wing gun utlalood,” which translates to “run their asses off” — which in turn lines up with Rick and Frank’s actions in the episode.
The security guard doesn’t speak Thai clearly
The security guard, Gaitok (Tayme Thapthimthong) has a foreign accent when he speaks Thai. That’s because the actor was born and grew up in the UK.
“When I speak Thai with others, I tend to throw in English words when I can’t think of the Thai word in time. In one scene, I answered, ‘Yeah,’ and the team’s feedback was, ‘Okay, you just revealed clearly that you’re not a Thai security guard!'” Thapthimthong told the Thai media site Standard Pop last month.
I also found him a little too international to be portraying a shy, provincial security guard.
Lalisa Manobal, also known as Blackpink’s Lisa, plays Mook, the security guard’s love interest who also works as a hotel staff member. She pronounces Thai well despite moving to South Korea when she was 14 to become a K-pop trainee.
Thapthimthong credited Lisa for helping him out with his lines. “Lisa and her assistant helped me out so much and I’m really thankful for it,” he said.
Another character appears to be inspired by an American-born Thai businessman
While much of the show was filmed at Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui, additional hotel scenes were filmed at three Anantara properties in Phuket and Koh Samui.
This luxury hotel chain is owned by William Heinecke, an American-born business magnate whose company, Minor, oversees over 500 hotels and resorts.
The name “Minor” is fitting — Heinecke started an advertising business and an office cleaning company in Bangkok at age 17. He later gave up his US citizenship to become Thai, a move that let him own land in Thailand.
With a net worth of $1.5 billion, Heinecke ranked 17 on Forbes’ 2024 list of Thailand’s 50 Richest.
Although Heinecke is not married to Sukosol in real life, his persona appears to have influenced the character of Sritala’s American husband, Jim Hollinger.
“I think Mike drew from a lot of prominent people like Jim Thompson and William Heinecke. This character is a mix of all those figures,” Pinitsanpirom, the show’s producer, said.
Jim Thompson was an American entrepreneur who revived Thailand’s silk industry in the mid-20th century and mysteriously disappeared in Malaysia in the 1960s.
Two details in the show didn’t add up
During a scene set in Samui, Lochlan Ratliff (Sam Nivola) says the tsunami happened on a nearby beach. However, the 2004 tsunami affected only Thailand’s western coast, including Phuket. Samui is on the east coast of Thailand and was not affected by the tsunami.
In one episode, Rick and Chelsea (Goggins and Aimee Lou Wood) catch a ride on a tuk-tuk to a snake farm. However, unlike other parts of Thailand, tuk-tuks are not a common mode of transportation on Samui. Due to the island’s many hilly roads, the three-wheeled motorized rickshaws are not ideal. Instead, songthaews — shared pickup truck taxis —are the more typical means of getting around.
Commenting on this detail, Pinitsanpirom said, “It is impossible to be 100% accurate, but in the end, the factual inaccuracies are not too off. Narratively speaking, Rick and Chelsea are in a rush to go out, but using a taxi would be too boring. We had to think of visuals and the tuk-tuk gives a more dramatic flair.”
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