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Thailand · Thai

Koh Samui

The coconut island of the Gulf of Thailand.

Ploy

Your host · Thai

Ploy

Island host

Ploy wears sand-colored silk and a coconut-blossom pin. She will tell you Samui was coconut before it was a destination, and that the gulf has its own birds.

Koh Samui built its name on coconuts before it built piers. The gulf is calmer than the Andaman. Thai is spoken in the markets of Nathon, and flying foxes still leave the trees at dusk.

Field notes

10 fruits

  • Coconut

    มะพร้าว

    Cocos nucifera

    Samui's old name is written in coconut. Plantations still stripe the interior; young nuts are sold on every beach.

  • Mango

    มะม่วง

    Mangifera indica

    Nam dok mai mango with sticky rice, or green with chili. Season is a village event.

  • Rambutan

    เงาะ

    Nephelium lappaceum

    Hairy red, piled at the Nathon morning market after rain.

  • Durian

    ทุเรียน

    Durio zibethinus

    Gulf durian, creamy, sold from a pickup on the ring road.

  • Mangosteen

    มังคุด

    Garcinia mangostana

    Purple queens to eat after durian, cooling and precise.

  • Pineapple

    สับปะรด

    Ananas comosus

    Small gulf pineapples with chili salt, a scooter snack.

  • Banana

    กล้วย

    Musa

    Grilled in the skin at sundown, or kluai buat chi in coconut milk.

  • Papaya

    มะละกอ

    Carica papaya

    Som tam is a Samui lunch. Ripe papaya is breakfast.

  • Rose apple

    ชมพู่

    Syzygium samarangense

    Watery-crisp bells, pale green, eaten with chili sugar on a hot noon.

  • Longan

    ลำไย

    Dimocarpus longan

    Brown shells, cool flesh, a bag for the ferry.