... and the living is easy

Spent the day being beach bums out at shark bay. Rented scooters to get over there again, but this time I was careful to not permanently scar myself (by the way the wound has gotten much uglier with puss and blood). Anyways... can't leave island paradise without a few days of just laying out in the sun, reading a good book, and jumping in the water to cool off. Shark bay is a stretch of beach that is as picturesque as they come. Giant boulders rising out of the sky blue water to mark the bay on both the west and east ends. Across the stretch of fine white sand beach, there are small bushy trees spaced perfectly apart to provide the occasional shelter from the sun. The water is a refreshing 75 - 80 degrees. None of this is too much to ask for on Koh Tao.

As much as I love it here, it is difficult for me to picture myself here for more than a few weeks. Knowing myself, I would probably get bored of the easy island living. I remember reading one of those chain emails about "life explained". From my vague recollection it was about a dialogue between a businessman and a fisherman of some remote fishing village. A long story short, the business man tried to explain to the fisherman how he could make greater profits by expanding his small fishing operation into a conglomerate of many fleets of fishing vessels. To the businessman's suggestions, the fisherman replied with a string of "then whats". The epiphany is suppose to come when the businessman says "then you can retire and live the rest of your life on a small island and just fish all day". I guess the story never made much more sense to me. I can see how to some people fishing all day on a small island may seem like the ideal lifestyle. However, I feel like I need much more from life to be entertained, to quench my thirst to see the world, to have a sense of accomplishment, to connect with people, and just to feel more alive.

The point is that while spending some time at a island resort might be exactly what someone needs sometime, people too often think that it would be all they need... not that an island resort is the worse way to spend one's time. Here are some unrelated photos from the last few days: