Page 40 of The Beach Holiday

THEN

Journal entry

We’ve arrived on the lovely Island of Kenco.

It’s so quiet here. I cannot believe how quiet it is here.

Maybe it’s too quiet, but then I have been used to the louder life.

I like distractions. There aren’t so many here.

There are a few families living here and a bit of a community. I’m not sure how long we’ll stay.

I like the kava, we’ve drunk it nearly every day.

Is that bad? It makes me really relaxed.

It comes out most nights. Although sometimes we have drunk homemade beer, which made a nice difference, I am craving a nice, sweet wine or a cocktail.

I wonder if someone could pick up some rum from the mainland and we could make pina coladas.

There are enough coconuts here to sink the Titanic .

Hey, if all else fails we just live on coconuts, ha ha!

Things seem to work here, and I am really happy we came.

I have wanted to travel for so long and now I am doing it.

There’s this guy, Deny. He keeps eyeing us up, like he has never seen a woman before.

I’ll see if he wants to join us for drinks later.

Every one here does seem to be very ...

what is the word I am looking for? Sedated?

I don’t know if that is the word, but they seem to be very unaffected.

Numbed even. Is that the right way to describe it?

I guess that is a good thing but if I am being honest – and if you can’t be honest in your own journal then where can you be – I find it a bit unnerving.

I know I shouldn’t and that is just the Western side of me still coming out.

I just need to get used to the idea that people can live somewhere on the planet and not be affected by the stresses of the world and life.

People on Kenco Island are not living by modern standards here, it’s like I’ve stepped back in time. I know I should feel wholly comfortable with that but there’s a small part of me that doesn’t.

But island life has captured me. And I could stay here forever.