Last day at Phi Phi. Got up early as I had to catch the 8.30am boat to Phuket. I ate a delicious continental breakfast and then headed for the pier. I walked down the little road that led past the massage shop. Pi Amy and all the other massage girls were waiting outside.

"Goodbye Khun Jow Chew!" they called laughingly. "Come back soon...and bring your brothers with you!"

"In three months!" I promised.

I got on the boat, stowed my backpack in the hold and then went back up on deck. It was a beautiful clear day and the sun was already very hot. Someone was waving to me from a boat next to mine. It was the couple from Colorado that I had met on Long Beach.

“We’re going to Krabi,” they called. “We’re gonna spend another week there and then fly back home. Come and visit us at our ski resort!”

The woman (her name was Linda, I think) hastily scribbled down her email address and phone number on a piece of paper and then threw it across to me.

“Email me when you get home or give me a call!” she said. “We’d love to see you again.”

I pocketed her contact details. “Sure!” I said, knowing that by the time I got round to it, they would have moved on or I would. Travel is like that. You meet people somewhere and are best of friends while you’re in the same place, eating at the same restaurants, swimming off the same beach – but once you leave; it’s never the same.

In fact, I mused, as our respective boats moved off and we waved each other out of sight, life is a bit like that. You meet someone when you both happen to be on the same wavelength, the same plain for whatever reason…and then it isn’t long before you drift apart again. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s completely natural…but some people just don’t realise it. And then they wonder why their relationship isn’t what it used to be.

The big boat gathered speed. I went to the very front pointy bit and sat down in the bright tropical sunlight, holding onto the rail with both hands and letting my legs dangle over the edge. From somewhere over the horizon, the island of Phuket rushed towards me.