Floating in the middle of Than Sadet bay, you turn and look back towards the shore. Palm trees tumble down the limestone cliffs, a harvest of coconuts roll onto the beach. There's your villa, framed against the pulsing jungle, a trellis of creepers and tropical flowers hanging off its sides. A trail of footprints leads out from the shady veranda, across the blazing powder sand and into the cool jade sea.
The discarded swimwear in the sand is yours. The beach is deserted so you may as well live the cliché to the full. Deserted beaches, island retreats; in Thailand this is still the rule, not the exception.
The rich scent of the jungle is a reminder that beyond beach life, beyond the papaya milkshakes and grilled tiger prawn salads, the pineapple dawns and daquiri sunsets, there is another holiday.
Land and sea have their parallels. The barracudas, rays and turtles around the dive islands of Koh Tao and Surin have their terrestrial counterparts: spider monkeys, sloths and monitor lizards. Trekking into the wilderness around the remote outpost of Chiang Rai, in northwest Thailand, you enter a different kind of underworld. Giant vines sway like seaweed and parrots dart through the forest canopy, a mirror image of the kaleidoscopic underwater life of the coast.
Miraculously, the Thais have squeezed their own extraordinary dwellings into this dense environment of sea, sand and forest. The uncanny spires and forgotten stupas of the 14th century royal citadels of Sukothai and Ayuthaya rise out of the foliage like cities of coral. And in Bangkok's Pahurat market, jungle and sea one last appearance. The produce, some of it still wriggling, is laid out on stalls with precision and flair. Everything that is edible is celebrated, and everything that isn't is chewed and spat out.
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