sticks and stones

It's been over 6 years since I was here. I remember walking up a hill in sweltering heat, cutting down through a forest where there was barely a path, eventually coming to a house overlooking a 170 degree view of a flat,warm sea. In front of the house the hill sloped away steeply down to the sea and left and right and centre were the huts built mostly from driftwood and panelling perched precariously on rocks that were each the size of these small houses, blown out and deposited, in geological terms just yesterday, from a now extinct volcano. The place was Ko Tao, barely touched by tourism, a genuine oasis in the Gulf Of Thailand protected by virtue of being 30 miles from the next nearest island. Electricity was in short supply and lighting came from a tiny petrol lawnmower engine which flickered the 40 watt bulbs until eventually running dry and leaving the hillside in perfect darkness except for the moon and stars. No tv. An honesty bar up at the house (where the only fridge was) and food growing all around (the owner's husband caught daily what you wanted for dinner). I'm sure times have moved on for it (I hear it now has 24hr seven eleven stores) and that it's less of a secret nowadays but I'm glad I sampled it's uncomplicated serenity before it's inevitably lost to development and "progress".I must think I'm working too hard!