Surin Beach: We met up with the film crew on Wednesday 24th March 1999 on location on Surin Beach on the western coast of Phuket island. This beach is not so crowded as others and is an ideal location to shoot a movie. We arr
ived just before lunch time to hear the news that we had just missed Leonardo DiCaprio's scene. Never mind. What we had come for was to take some pictures of the beautiful beach and sea. At the northern end of the beach we found a group of beach bungalows where Leonardo's character stays with the French couple before renting a boat to go and find "the beach". Each bungalow has its own balcony with a wonderful view of the sea. Really beautiful location. Palms trees, white sand and fantastic sea.
Whilst we waited for the film crew to eat their lunch we decided to go for a swim. We put our clothes and things on one of the beach chairs. We couldn't find anyone to pay for this so we didn't worry about it. However, later we found out why as the beach chairs are part of the movie set!
The swim was fantastic only spoilt by the rain which also hampered filming during the afternoon. It looked like they were also going to do some night shooting as they were setting up some giant spot lights but of course no-one was allowed to tell us anything - security reasons. However, if you know who to ask you can find the answers to anything. Although the majority of the key members of the film crew are British, about 70% of the team are Thai - so we were able to ask some people in Thai about what they were going to do next.
Hat Surin is a quiet beach on the western coast of Phuket island. (photographs by thaistudents.com) The Thai students: Nattawud, Sakdipat and Suthiphong relaxing in front of Seashell Bungalows that were made for the movie. (photographs by thaistudents.com) A fake refreshments stall set up for the movie. (photographs by thaistudents.com) Hat Surin was used as Koh Pha Ngan (Koh Samui in the book). The above shots show the songthaew which Richard and the French couple rode on the way to their beach bungalows. (photographs by thaistudents.com) A close-up of the board on top of the bus shows that it is heading for Hat Rin on Ko Pha Ngan. (photographs by thaistudents.com) [ Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 ] [ On Location: Phuket | Thai Students in Phuket City | Hat Surin | Hat Kata | Other ] [ On Location: Thailand | Picture Index | The Beach Homepage ] The pictures taken on location on this page were photographed by students and teachers at Sriwittayapaknam School, Samut Prakarn, Thailand. The copyright belongs to the school. The pictures cannot be used without permission from the webmaster. The trip to Phuket, Koh Phi Phi and Krabi was financed by the school owners.
