For those who don’t get luu’s emails, she has a new photo site: luu.livster.net

no sandflies! i imagine there are plentiful moskitoes in the evening though.
considering that there is a airport in krabi, i see no reason why i won’t be coming back to ko lanta. it’s generally agreed by all that this is the best island ever.

my virgin sim works in tailand. i seem to have run out of credit though, and can’t top up from my phone. is there some way of doing it online? —-scratch that i just registered and topped up. its all good.

we went on many walks in the camaron highlands, and got completly lost in dense jungle. good fun though and no leaches.

of minor interest: dave mckean (who drew many a neil gaimain comic) has just illustrated a john cale box set. which is apperently rather nifty. he and gaiman are both big cale fans.

In fact, the more I look at that beach, the more I wish I was there. What’s the sandfly quota?

That sea looks deliciously warm. Unlike Bracklesham Bay.

Dear god Solidus, your days seem to consist of staggering, in a state of abject decadence, from one foul pit of guesthouse to another, whilst swilling the product of a crafty shop owner’s still and annoying all and sundry with your rather-too-loud “happiness” / drunken jollity.

What price the culture and sights of the country?

The highlands look good – have you done a “tame” walk?

By an odd coincidence, Han and I just watched The Beach… watch out for sharks!

so, ko lanta seems rather nice and we may stay here for a week or somthing. we have vague plans to go to the full moon party on ko panghan and then head to cambodia. the other day Carson turned up out of the blue and a dutch couple we had met in melaka turned up as well! our reunion was merry. yesterday we hired a bunch of bikes and went in search of a hidden secluded beach. after a few mishaps: lucy drove into a fence before we even started, no harm done apart from wrecking the guesthose fence. trying to take a short cut we got lost in a jungle, got scraped to shreds and Carson had a tussle with a spider as big as a plate. we eventually found an idylic beach in the middle of nowhere populated by a wierd old naked guy who kept himself to himself thankfully. on the beach was a wreck of sticks where someone had tried to build a shelter, Tom (the dutch guy) Carson and i decided to rebuild it, to make a hut. we salvaged rope and bamboo, and had to sneak into a bull’s field to harvest palm leaves. the results speak for themselves:

cosy interia

Carson doing something dodgy

Carson and i then fashioned spears from bamboo in the true survivor spirit and went fishing. we had little spear making stuff, so carson sharpened his with a pair of scissors and i had to painstakingly sharpen mine with a bit of correl. finished, our respective spears were pure art. i took to the rocks and him to the sea. i failed to see anything larger than a minnow and carson saw quite a few but broke his spear. today we are going back better equiped. we may have a bonfire and im buying a snorkle to better take on the fish. this is as close to being “the beach” as one could really want.

the cameron highlands.

KL. our table was a murcurial flow of wit and social sophisticated.