Hi there, I'm Lale Arakoglu, and in this episode of Women Who Travel, I'm talking to actor, writer and producer Natasha Rothwell about what it's been like starring in not one, but two seasons of The White Lotus.

We'll chat about how Thailand is a character in the show later, but here's Natasha describing her first impressions when she arrived at the luxury hotel that the cast would call home for several months.

I arrived to Thailand under the cover of night, and so I got the four-season Kosovoi. It was pitch black.

And I didn't see like the vistas that they show in the pictures and of course I'm jet-lagged

and exhausted so I go straight to my room. I go to sleep for what felt like four years and I wake up

and I open up the curtains

to my room and I cried.

You know, I was

overcome

with the beauty that is there.

And it's, you know,

it's hard to describe.

It's just this pure place.

In White Lotus Season 1, Natasha's character, Belinda, is a hotel spa manager on Maui,

and her dreams of setting up her own business are viciously dashed.

In The White Lotus Season 3, Belinda is on a wellness training retreat in Kosovo, an island in the Gulf of Thailand.

You were a season one favorite. I have to ask, but what made you return to the show for season 3?

What made me? Yeah, I was like, who forced your hand?

Wild horses could not drag me away. I mean, you meant you wanted to stay at a luxury hotel

for another few months? Well, I mean, just, yeah, I mean, it was a really tough sell, but I, you know,

dragged my feet. No, I've been such a huge fan of Mike White. I mean, freaks and geeks and, you know,

enlightened and Beatrice at dinner and good girl. It could go on and on. The opportunity to work

...