The Beach

∨ The Beach ∧

11

Spaced Invaders

The next morning the sky was still clouded over. As I walked out on to the porch, scattered with rain-soaked joint butts, I had the bizarre sensation that I was back in England. There was a slight chill in the air and I could smell wet earth and leaves. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I padded over the cool sand to Étienne and Françoise’s hut. There was no answer, so I tried the restaurant and found them eating breakfast. I ordered a mango salad, thinking an exotic taste might compensate for the feeling of being at home, and sat down with them.

‘Who did you meet last night?’ said Étienne, as I pulled up a chair. ‘We saw you talking outside your room.’

‘We watched you from our window,’ Françoise added.

I pulled out a cigarette to kill time before breakfast arrived. ‘I met a couple of Americans. Zeph and Sammy.’

Françoise nodded. ‘Did you tell them about our beach?’

‘No.’ I lit up. ‘I didn’t.’

‘You shouldn’t tell people about our beach.’

‘I didn’t tell them.’

‘It should be a secret.’

I exhaled strongly. ‘And that’s why I didn’t tell them, Françoise.’

Étienne interrupted. ‘She was worried you might have…’ The sentence trailed off into a nervous smile.

‘It didn’t even cross my mind,’ I replied irritably, and stubbed out my cigarette hard.

It tasted like shit.

♦

When the mango salad arrived I made an effort to relax. I told them about how the Americans had fooled me with their surfer act last night. Françoise thought the story was extremely funny. Her laughter partially defused the tension and we began making plans for the day ahead.

We decided that we had to hire a boat. The normal tour agencies wouldn’t do because they’d be too organized, and we doubted we’d be able to slip away from their supervision. Instead we would need to find a fisherman who was unaware of or unconcerned about the rules on tourists in the marine park.

After breakfast we split up to improve our chances. I went north, towards Ko Mat Lang, and the other two went south, aiming for a small town we’d passed on the jeep ride. Our rendezvous was in three hours’ time, back at our huts.

The sun came out as I set off down Chaweng, but it did little to salvage my mood. Flies buzzed around my head, smelling the sweat, and the walking became increasingly laborious as last night’s rain dried off the sand.

I began counting the guest-houses I passed along the shore line. After twenty minutes I’d counted seventeen, and they were still showing no signs of thinning out. If anything, the palm trees were more cluttered with Ray-Bans and concrete patios than before.

♦

In 1984 I was in my sitting room, playing on my Atari, and listened to the babysitter talk about Ko Samui. As I mopped the screen clear of space invaders, names and places stuck in my head.

Pattaya was a hell-hole. Chiang Mai was rainy and cold. Ko Samui was hot and beautiful. Ko Samui was where she had stayed with her boyfriend for five months, hanging out on the beach and doing strange things she was both reluctant and keen to talk about.

A-levels out of the way, my friends and I scattered ourselves around the globe. The next August we started coming back, and I learnt that my babysitter’s paradise was yesterday’s news. Ko Pha-Ngan, the next island along, was Thailand’s new Mecca.

A few years later, as I checked my passport and confirmed my flight to Bangkok, a friend telephoned with advice. ‘Give Ko Pha-Ngan a miss, Rich,’ she said. ‘Hat Rin’s a long way past its sell-by date. They sell printed flyers for the full-moon parties. Ko Tao. That’s where it’s at.’

♦

After an hour of walking I gave up trying to find a fisherman. The only Thais I met were selling gemstones and baseball caps. By the time I got back to my beach hut I was exhausted, sunburnt, and pissed off. I went straight to the restaurant and bought a packet of cigarettes. Then I chain-smoked in the shade of a palm tree, looking out for Étienne and Françoise, hoping they’d had better luck.