Travel Letter

Hi Dad,

I’m replying to an email from a few days ago, in which you were hoping that my stay among the archipelagos of Southeast Asia would inspire another travel notebook. Unfortunately, no, but only because of the nature of this vacation, not because of its quality. They were sixteen pleasant and relaxing days, but essentially lazy ones.

In Thailand, on the tiny remote island of Koh Lipe (an area that doesn’t even reach two square kilometers), we spent a week self-confined within a hedonistic triangle: at one vertex the coral beach, at another the foot-massage parlor, and of course at the last a peaceful little restaurant where we stuffed ourselves with simple but delicious dishes.

For the second half of the vacation we moved fifty kilometers to the southeast, crossing the border into Malaysia by boat and landing on the island of Langkawi, where we had been last year as well. Loyal, we returned to the Berjaya: a resort of a few hundred wooden cottages scattered along a stretch of rainforest coast.

Stepping out onto the small balcony of our chalet, we find ourselves surrounded by vegetation with an almost alien look: tufts of leaves as large as umbrellas sprout from the ground; imposing trunks soar for dozens of meters, ending in enormous crowns; century-old lianas cling to them and form nets that connect the forest. Just a few minutes are enough to spot a giant squirrel hopping from branch to branch, or a group of dusky leaf monkeys pausing to pluck the ripe fruit of a ficus.

In this tropical paradise the days blur into one another. At 9 in the morning, the breakfast buffet marks the start of the day. I then go back to the chalet and spend a couple of hours tinkering away on my personal project. Around noon the cleaning staff arrives, and I head out for a run or a walk along the resort paths. It’s midafternoon when Goda and I go to “lunch”. After eating, a nap, another walk, or a stop at the beach, and that’s how we reach the evening. Lazy, relaxed, satisfying days.

Tomorrow we’re heading back, though. At 5:25 p.m. local (10:25 in Italy) we take the flight back to Singapore, where we’ll spend another two weeks. Goda at the university, me in some café pounding keys. But we’ll certainly carve out time to explore the city a bit. Who knows—maybe I’ll be struck by literary inspiration.

Have a good afternoon and a good evening,

Paolo