Mistreated coconut money gaines revenge... kills owner

A Samui born and trained coconut-harvesting monkey turned on its abusive master last week and killed him with a well directed coconut, kicked from the top of a 50m palm. It's reported that one of the nuts hit Luelit Janchoom who died from the resultant blow to the head, before reaching hospital.

Luelit is said to have beaten the monkey, named Brother Kwan, when he showed reluctance to climb a second high palm. Forced to climb by the thrashing and cleary bent-out-of-shape, Brother Kwan began forcefully kicking the ripe nuts from the crown of the tree instead of using the twisting motion that coconut monkeys are taught to detach the nuts from their tough stalks.

The incident took place in the mainland province of Nakhorn Si Thammarat where Luelit and Brother Kwan had been hired to harvest nuts by a coconut farmer. Each nut would earn the pair 2Bt and on average the monkey would harvest around 300 nut a day.

A monkey expert told the Samui Express, who reported the incident on 9th March, that a monkey is a special animal that respond well to kindness, but become furious if harsh treatment and words are used against them. I'm not sure that you have to be much of an expert to figure that out.

This coconut monkey makes ready to twist the stalks to remove the nuts. Angry and humiliated, Brother Kwan is reported to have kicked the nuts furiously sending them to the ground. It is tragic that Khun Luelit's head got in the way of one on its way down, but we have to hope that a lesson has been learned by others with abusive tendencies. We're optimistic that Brother Kwan is not punished for his action and goes on to work with a more humane handler.

A belated and rambling New Year update...

I've finally uploaded all the Christmas and New Year photos and have an hour to call my own, so a shortish, belated update on our recent visit.

Christmas Day and lunch was spent with Lucy and Jonny at their lovely house with guests Mark and Tan. Used to bigger facilities, cooking and keeping warm all the components of our traditional lunch in Lucy's galley style kitchen was much, much harder than cooking for the 25-30 guests and friends we've catered for at the hotel in past years. But well worth the effort and ... we all felt better after a lie down.

Lucy's goddaughter - Maisie - came over to open-up her presents, and morphed into a mischievous looking imp the instant she pulled on her new angel outfit.

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As previously posted, the weather was atrocious for the rest of our stay and I really felt sorry for our guests, but Brits and Canadians are a hardy bunch and they would shuttle in and out of their rooms several times a day to catch whatever weak rays would appear, and in spite of the

chilly onshore wind. When it was too overcast or even during rain, two stalwarts - Brit Colin and Canadian Al would invariably join me on 'beach watch', the mesmerizing and wholly pointless occupation of observing and trying to second guess what the sea would next do to the beach.

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Concerned at what the high winds might do to our coconut palms or, more properly, what our coconuts might do to our guests, we used a few hours break in the weather to have the nuts and over-abundant fronds cut back. We normally need this treatment three times a year to ensure the safety of unsuspecting visitors, and now seemed like an opportune time.

In a previous post, I described how trained monkeys are often used to twist-off ripe nuts at harvest time. One of our guests already in possession of this information and anxious to share his knowledge asked, as we watched the old boy that had just finished his romping free-climb to the crown of a 25m palm, start to hack away at the heaviest fronds, why a human was doing this work. I took some small satisfaction in reminding him of the first rule of coconut men everywhere - you don't give a machete to a monkey.

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New Year's was lovely. The wind dropped and the drizzle stopped long enough for our staff to enjoy their 'Secret Santa' gift giving to each other and a beer or two with the seldom indulged northern Thai delicacy of fried duck tongues (yummy!)

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The evening stayed calm and balmy, and so did we. I'd made pea and ham soup - tongue shrivelingly salty, but it disappeared down the necks of many of the guests who decided our bar was as good a location as any to watch the village's firework displays. And so we remained for really, quite a special night with some wonderful guests.

Viv, Jonny, Olwen, Colin, Brit/Greek artist and Paxos shopkeeper Hartley, Tik, who finally left at 03h30 and Canadian Cathy, who's husband Al, was doubtless beach watching.

Lovely people Viv and Colin - absent, son Garrulous Greg

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And finally, to update recent posts...

The palm was rescued and, since this pic was taken, relocated to replace the old stump - foreground; camouflaged with plants.

The villa next door was finished, so no more noise... from that direction.

The beach is almost back to normal, the sun has come out and today, Baan Bophut has a full house.

Congratulations to Lucy on finally getting her Thai motorbike driving licence, after 5 years on the island.

WARNING: May contain nuts...

On tropical islands and shorelines everywhere, local people call the coconut palm by a variety of names, which reflect its usefulness to these societies - Tree of Life, Tree of Abundance, Tree of Heaven. Almost every part of the coconut palm is used. It's a source of food, drink, oil, fuel, animal feed, wood, shelter and cocktail mixer. In writing this post it's difficult for me to know what information to include; the end-uses of this botanical miracle are so diverse, and interesting...but hey! This isn't Wikipedia so I'll confine this post to my usual facile skimming of the facts, as they apply locally.

As I've noted in a previous post, coconut cultivation and processing now takes a backseat to tourism and fishing as primary employment within the Samui population, but it must still enjoy the number two position, after tourism, in value to the local economy. Although in decline for years as plantations have been destroyed to make way for real estate developments, Samui still is home to around 2,500 different varieties of coconuts - the world's largest diversity in one location and ships some 2 million nuts a month to Bangkok.

To many visitors the coconut palm is an enduring symbol of the tropics and for me, almost any vista worth viewing, when framed by coconut fronds is made special by their inclusion.

Beautiful Baan Bophut from the beach, framed by coconut fronds

Just about every part of the coconut tree - trunk, fronds and fruit is useful to man, but the process starts with harvesting. Plantation workers use various devices to detach the nuts, either by hand, after climbing the tree; by means of long poles or the employment of monkeys trained to select and pick nuts from the highest trees, removing them from their tough stalks with a twisting motion. Retired monkeys don't really get to retire on Koh Samui. Instead they continue to work performing for visitors and have become a popular and valuable tourist attraction.

The harvested nuts are stockpiled and allowed to dry out, making it easier to remove the 'meat' which shrinks away from the inside of the nut. The coconut meat can be grated and soaked in water to produce coconut milk, and coconut cream, the higher solids milk which quickly rises to the surface after standing for a while. Alternatively, the meat is dried in ovens or on racks above slow burning fires where it is converted to copra, from which oil is extracted.

It usually takes 12 months for a nut to mature from pollination to harvest, with husk colour the best indicator of coconut maturity. Nuts harvested at the tenth month or colour-break stage are stored or seasoned for up to a couple of months to increase copra and oil yield.

Dehusking is a manual procedure employing a sharp-pointed shard of steel positioned vertically with the point up. The nut is impaled with a strong determined downward movement. A few strokes loosen the husk, making it come off (usually) in one piece. Impaling requires accuracy and nerve.

Car insurance in Samui will almost certainly not cover coconut damage, so it's wise to avoid parking in coconut shade. Even sitting beneath one of these fully loaded palms is foolhardy and potentially life threatening.