Notes from the Andaman Sea

Ko Lanta, as of 2003, was one of Thailand's less developed resorts. Further down the claw-like peninsula of the south than Phuket and other islands, it takes the better part of twenty-four hours to reach from Bangkok, and consequently has been less exploited as a tourist destination.

The hotel we were staying at, and the entire cluster in this bay, were a case in point. There must've been an average of three or four guests per hotel. At night the staff outnumbered the customers in the bars. To my vivid imagination it felt kind of apocalyptic. Here was a paradisiacal place: crystal clear waters at a temperature perfect for a newborn baby; gentle breezes rippling through the palm trees; miles of golden beaches. So where was everybody?

A vision of the future?

People, tired of dying, will slough-off their physical forms and upload themselves into virtual immortality, emptying the land. Or, the age of cheap flights having ended, every Englishman will holiday at the Great British seaside just like his Victorian forebears instead of in the global village.

The lazy feel of the place quickly gets under the skin and everyone seems to loll around in a daze. Very cool in its own laid-back way, but for me, with my propensity to take the easy option at every opportunity, it just meant I spent the first full day on the island covering my own little Bermuda triangle where I was lost to the world. Its apexes? My beach hut, a small strip of beach, and the hotel's bar-cum-restaurant.

Swinging in my veranda's hammock, I spent a good part of the day reading 'The Diary of Anne Frank'. Probably not an ideal location to try and empathise with Anne's terrible plight, it was nonetheless, an inspiring read and a kick-up-the-bum to take every opportunity life and these travels bring--except the ladyboys, perhaps. To not do so would be an affront to people like Anne, and millions of others whose circumstances deny them the freedom to pursue their lives as they wish.

In my diary I wrote a quote from the book. If I remember rightly it was said by one the neighbours Anne was annexed with.

"The Spirit of the Man is Great,
How Puny are his Deeds."

When I read it I thought this would be perfect for a motto to live life by.

Tomorrow will be a day of action, I decided.

We booked three tickets on a luxury boat trip.

Perplexed bar personnages