Thursday, Koh Chang
The walk from the bamboo hut to the edge of the sea takes a few seconds, From the edge of the sea, it is a lengthy wade through warm, clear water before I am far enough cut to turn around and contemplate Koh Chang. The white beach is lined with palm trees and bamboo buts, and beyond thern, the jungle hills rise Greeley to the deep-blue sky. I like on my back and Boat around wherever the wares take me. This is a holiday within a holiday : interlude of drifting from but to beach to sea and back again.

Koh Chang (which means Elephant Island - it is named after its bulk rather than its inhabitants) is close to the Cambodian border. It is Thailand's second largess : island, and it is a haven. It is also a holiday destination and, although there are no crowds here, I discover the extent of my travel snobbery In particular there is a gang of girls from Jersey who have the audacity to be have like young holiday makers rather than earnest travelers. They hang around the Tantawan bar and watch the resident tattoo at were and talk about what their parents would say to they get one.

My travelling companion, Brendan, and I are venturing inland. There is a waterfall seven kilometers away, I am contemplating how hot the walk will be when Brendan strides towards a man who is hiring out motorbikes. Within few minutes we are away, me hauging on the buck.

The tattooist is hard at work and you can see people clenching their leech, screening up their eyes, and being brave. I Nick through the tattoo book Just Out of curiosity.

2.30pm: perhaps it would be nice to do something rash. Just a small one. "What do you think about a little daisy?" , I ask one of the Jersey girls. "Lovely" , she says vacantly.

3.00pm: "A daisy on my back, so I can't see it? I ask Derek a Canadian. Then I realize no one else cares.

4.00pm: I am clenching my tooth and screwing up my yes, but still - agony. I want to squirm away but am worried about the effect on my daisy, so I use some expletives instead. The Jersey girls gather round to keep asking: "Does it hurt?" It is like being branded with a red-hot poker. I think.

"You realize you've got that forever?" asks a jersey girl. I do and I like it. "When I'm old I'll be able to look at it and remember Koh Chang. It'll probably be hidden by rolls of flab anyway.

8.00pm, Torh's Palace : "You're two beers behind," chastises Derek, who has had three wives and five children and advises me to steer clear of men like him (I fully agree) We are sitting on the ground at Torh's restaurant, on the beach and although I don't know it'll am about to have the best meal "of my life". But one tattoo ahead, I remind him.

Torh takes our order. He is a fantastically-camp Thai man who is everyone's mend and who runs an establishment so wonderful that we are compelled to go there every day.

Conversation flows with the drink. "Sometime I forget that I haven't known anybody very long, that I haven't seen anyone from home since last year. Strangers become friends very quickly. We discuss the pyramids. "I like the theories about them being put there by the aliens, "I venture. Derek's cyes light up, he announces dramatically", have seen the aliens! I was camping in the crater of a volcano in Hawaii, when there were blinding lights. They have seven entry points on earth, you see, and Thai was one. So they came towards me and I was literally blown to pieces. But they let me survive. No one really knows what to say, so we just cal.

Late at night, we stand at the edge of the water and look out to sea. Then we swim again. There are billions of stars, the water is warm, and I have a tattoo. I don't know what my mum II say...