First light grows to the east. Down at the dock the fisherman are in full swing, sorting their catch of prawns. Teams of two throw empty blue baskets up on deck, each toss making a slow arch against the rising sun.

The travelers have their first cigarette of the day and chatter in Italian. One of them spots the outline of land, hazy in the distance. Rows of palms appear. Whitecaps on the blue-green expanse of water.

The horizon makes a perfect line. A sarong wiggles, snaps like a flag from a bamboo post.

It rains briefly. Squalls of wind spreading out over the surface of the water like Japanese fans, indifferent clouds blooming in the distance.

Longboats filled with Germans extinguish their engines and float into the blue-green lagoon, or stutter on the horizon, props barking up foam behind them. Underwater, a symphony of streamlined shapes, a forest of coral, splash of jellyfish yellow, neon, blue, turquoise and green parrot-fish, mottled groupers, anemones, clown-fish dart through swaying tentacles.

The morning sunlight resonates in the green hills to the west, dances on the blue water and the tethered longboat. Angelfish, moving in pairs. Rain textures the surface of the water as the wind picks up over the Gulf of Thailand.

Under the palm-leaf roof the day gets off to a lumbering start with chocolate-banana pancakes. The Thai fisherman talk in a rambling flow of words, then eat in silence. Silvery minnows hang in the shadow of the longboat. The divers stand, hands on hips, looking down at their gear. Plastic fins slap at the water as a Thai boatman reads a paperback on the prow.

The boat's engine cuts a white, frothing swirl into the bay like a wound that quickly heals. Clouds bunch up in tall, nimbus formations over the island of Ko Phangan, moving in slow-motion across the powder-blue dome.

Using fishing line, a previous guest has constructed a coral wind-chime, but instead of chiming, it barely clinks. The clouds do tricks, high and rippled, catching the last light over the island. Sound of waves working against granite rocks. The moored longboat washed in fading, orange light.

Night speckled with stars. Then a meteor shower, reddish streaks flame through the dark, Asian sky.