Ko Samui, Thailand

Ko Samui is located in the Gulf of Thailand and is Thailand's third largest island.  It is about 9.3 miles across.  It was first settled by fisherman from the Malay Peninsula and Southern China about 15 centuries ago, and was quite isolated and self sufficient.  Historically the economy was been based around fishing and coconut production.  From the 1980's tourism developed and is now the main industry, due to it's white sand beaches and clear warm sea.


 We did a fairly quick tour of the island, and it was generally quite undeveloped, but has a few expensive resorts which were not visible from the road.

  Our first stop was a demonstration of how "Pig Tailed" monkeys are trained to pick coconuts. About  3 million coconuts are harvested each month on Ko Samui.  There are about 200 monkeys who work daily climbing trees and dropping the coconuts to the ground. The males can harvest up to 1200 a day, while the females can harvest around 800 a day since they are not as strong. The monkeys used to be captured in the wild, but now are bred in captivity for the task. Training begins at around a year and a half, and takes about 6 months to be fully trained.

It was pretty amazing to watch them at work. Each monkey has a handler who tugs  a rope attached to the monkey's collar as well as using voice commands to direct the monkey. They will work for extended time in the morning, stop for a lunch break and then continue to work in the afternoon. They become like a member of the handler's family and are well treated.  A handler  usually has two monkeys. 


The first task the monkey learns is to kick and spin the coconut. Notice his cute short "pig tail".


Nest they learn to grab and twist the coconuts loose, and drop them to the ground.


Finally he climbed to the top of a high tree and quickly dropped about 5 coconuts. They are also trained to sort the ripe ones that are ready to pick. They are much faster that a human who would use a long bamboo pole to try and dislodge the ripe coconuts or who would have to climb high up the tree. The monkeys are also able to jump from tree to tree without  having  to return to the ground after harvesting each tree. It only takes 3 months to grow a coconut to be ready for harvest.

A view of a  beautiful beach from  the hillside resort where we stopped for lunch.

The Plai Laem Buddhist Temple. There are many more elaborately decorated halls and buildings in the temple complex. The curved lines on the roof are meant to prevent evil spirits from entering the dwelling.






The principal Buddha in the temple.


The "Laughing Buddha"  beside a small lake at the temple.

A statue of the Goddess Guanyin, who is believed to be the protector of all beings, and a source of unconditional love.

Our last stop was to the temple of the "Big Buddha" which features a 36 foot high Golden Buddha perched on top of a wide staircase leading to a high patio overlooking the bay below.


The "Big Buddha".


The view from the patio overlooking the bay.



Comments

  1. LindsayFebruary 26, 2023 at 7:09 PM

    Adalea says "those monkeys are funny."
    Super cute monkeys! They look healthy and happy

    ReplyDelete

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