Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The synopsis Few shows lend themselves to set-jetting quite like The White Lotus, writer-director Mike White’s brutal satirical drama, with its ennui-laden one percenters heading to a titular luxury hotel, from which someone inevitably will not leave. For the third season, exploring spirituality and darker undercurrents in Thailand, Jennifer Coolidge’s Tanya won’t return from the dead, but there will be a new all-star ensemble cast of characters who sit somewhere on a spectrum between sympathetic and monstrous — including the likes of ’90s indie queen Parker Posey, Fallout’s Walton Goggins and Lalisa Manobal of K-pop mega-group Blackpink. On location While the show’s pandemic-impacted first season in 2021 was shot exclusively at the Four Seasons Maui at Wailea, Hawaii, the Sicily-based second season was a little more expansive, with principal shooting at the Four Seasons San Domenico Palace in Taormina, a converted 14th-century convent, and excursions to spots such as Palermo’s lush neoclassical Villa Tasca. The ambitious third season covers much more ground, with scenes in Bangkok, Phuket and Koh Samui — the last of these home to the principal location, the Bill Bensley-designed Four Seasons Koh Samui (fourseasons.com; from £1,037 per night), with its infinity-pool villas hugging the steep hillside of a lush former coconut plantation on the island’s northwestern corner.Other Samui scenes were shot at the Anantara Bophut (anantara.com; from £149 per night), on the beach about 11km to the east, and the nearby Fisherman’s Village, with its open-air beachfront restaurants and backpacker-boho night market (CoCo Tam’s beach bar and restaurant was a favourite with the cast, who mostly stayed at the Four Seasons during filming). Phuket plays a big part, too, with beach scenes at the island’s Anantara Mai Khao Villas (anantara.com; from £200 per night), with its Thai-vernacular villas and glass-walled pavilion in a lotus-filled lagoon. Characters also take a boat ride past the evocative limestone stacks at Phang Nga Bay, between Phuket and Krabi, home to the villain’s island in 1974 Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun. And in the capital, there are scenes at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok (mandarinoriental.com; from £440 per night), the iconic riverside grande dame that was a favourite of Joseph Conrad and Noël Coward, and still frequently tops “best in Asia” lists (it was 12th on the World’s 50 Best Hotels list last year). Other filming locations include the 69-metre golden Buddha at the Paknam Bhasi Charoen Temple, the backpacker-infamous Khao San Road and the vast Chatuchak Market, with more than 15,000 stalls, where the cult coconut ice cream at Coco JJ is more palatable than the exotic pet section. Behind the scenes According to location manager Sam Hutchins, White (“a workaholic and a genius”) considered as many as 10 Asian countries for this season. But while India’s vast palace hotels didn’t quite work on screen, Maldivian resorts were too one-dimensional and Japan proved logistically complicated, Thailand ticked all the boxes — with world-class crews and equipment in place, generous tax rebates and a tantalising cultural cocktail of native spirituality and imported licentiousness.Hutchins, White and a small team did a five-week recce in autumn 2023. “It was a trip where the line between work and pleasure became very blurred,” says Hutchins. “We’d get these elaborate welcomes like they have in the show, and there were so many 13-course meals that I almost had gout at the end.” Many of their experiences influenced filming: like the Muay Thai boxing bout they attended in Phuket, or a visit to Bill Bensley’s eccentric Bangkok home, Baan Botanica, with its 1,500 species of plants and roaming Jack Russells. Bensley didn’t just point the team to his hotels, but to two private villas that he’d worked on in Phuket, where White ended up staying for an immersive writing stint, and eventually filming scenes. Hutchins says there was no prior deal to use a Four Seasons hotel as the principal location for the third time, though there is now an official partnership, with Four Seasons resorts around the world running themed events. “There was a grandeur to the common spaces that just felt right for what we needed,” says Hutchins, who nevertheless admits he stays at the more affordable nearby Anantara when he visits with his family. Recreating the vibe The White Lotus may satirise Eat Pray Love tendencies, but Koh Samui boasts an impressive series of highly regarded holistic wellness resorts, with personalised programmes at the likes of Absolute Sanctuary (absolutesanctuary.com; from £140 per night) in the north and Kamalaya (kamalaya.com; from £210 per night, minimum three-night stay) in the south, and a more intense focus on yoga and breathwork at Samahita (samahitaretreat.com; from £143 per night, minimum three-night stay), a former yoga teaching school. And lest the Sanskrit chanting, euphoric hugs and colonic hydrotherapy get too much, it’s only 20-30 minutes on the ferry from Samui to Koh Phangan, where full-moon parties, terrifying mushroom shakes and all the makings of an existential White Lotus hangover await.‘The White Lotus’ season 3 is on Sky Atlantic and Now in the UK and HBO and Max in the USFind out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and sign up to receive the FT Weekend newsletter every Saturday morning
