Sunsetburi Resort, Koh Tao

No updates in a while as I’ve been doing bugger all on the beach. Have gone from creme to cafe creme to creme brule in just a matter of days. (Thai keyboards don’t have French characters - ทฟะไ รทิพสำ ฟะ นะนท นด.)

Slow night boat was six hours in a tin sauna, mattresses covering the floor and lying between four generations of fishermen. Never have I been more sympathetic to the refugee cause. Arrived in Koh Tao at 05.00. Never seen more dogs in one place at one time. I took a sunrise stroll along the beach, crystalline with dried sweat and no sleep, only to look like the Pied Piper of fucking Thailand with fifty mongrels snapping at my heels.

But the next day, Koh Tao is gorgeous. Its name means Turtle Island, either for the rock formations or the marine life. Forty dive schools leave the beaches empty during the day for me, a bowl of noodle soup and the occasional army of red ants. Found a bar where you order a beer for 50 cents and drink it horizontally on beanbags looking up at the stars. It would never work in Brussels.

The Spanner arrives on Tuesday morning. I told him to meet me at my hotel. He told me I was a “rancid Gaye” and I should meet him at the pier to help him with his bags. I said yes, but anticipate a propensity for sleeping late.

I haven’t been bitten, mugged or injured. I haven’t been arrested, deported or kidnapped. I haven’t been duped, drugged or scammed and I am already twenty-two days into my adventure. My new camera has exploded, however, so there’ll be no more pictures for a while. Follow up to follow.