a story

Like getting all the meat from the coconut shell...this is going to require an enormous amount of effort.

OK, so, here I go:

Long before this trip even began I had dream, a vision, you might say, of how our vacation would end. On a white sand beach with turquoise water, with a book and a cocktail and the sound of waves crashing...

The dream was perfect. The reality was hard to find.

It stared in Phuket, but we didn't stay there long. All trip we'd been hearing how crowded, touristy and commercialized Phuket was, so we just passed through the airport there, then headed north to Koh Lak, where we were it. For three days we didn't see a single other tourist.

We enjoyed the peace and quiet, but got bored of staring at just each other's faces, so we moved on, across Thailand to the island of Koh Samui. And for three days we saw nothing but tourists.

You know Goldilocks? You know where this is going. But we're not there yet.

We thought we were there when we stepped off the boat in Koh Tao, a tiny island in the Gulf of Thailand lush with palm trees and bright blue seas.

But for a while, a short, panicky while, it wasn't it. We couldn't find the place. We went to six different hotels all around the island. They weren't right. After trudging around in the midday heat we were both stinky and cranky and beginning to turn on each other when....!

We found it.

And it's (say it with me)

just right.

Goodnight.