Its funny how many people - caught up in the daily commute and endless crowds everywhere they go - will tell you they want to 'go and sit on a deserted beach somewhere'. The last time I visited the tiny fishing village south of Chumphon with a Thai ex-GF, a local resort manager went out of his way to take me around both of his resorts - brand new rooms, five-star accommodation and, from what I could see, a complete lack of guests (hence his enthusiasm). 'Tell your friends !' he said as we bade our goodbyes and headed back to my humble shack down the road.

One was comprised of just 4 villas, right on the beachfront, and each villa looked like something out of a magazine - they had spared no expense - and I expect that you could have an absolutely fantastic time there with 3 or 4 friends : little seafood restaurant nearby and literally miles of deserted beachfront. You could sit in the pool outside your villa and gaze at the sunset sipping whatever concoction you desired, but for all that luxury I thought it was a profoundly depressing place. Like it or not, I need to be in a town where something is going on around me, even if the downside of that something is that idiots run up and down 'your' beach all day long and occasionally wake you at 2am with their drunken antics. I'm not sure that has to mean Jakarta or even Bangkok, but I'm determined to find a happy medium - the whole 'sitting on a deserted beach' thing is severely overrated, IMO, unless you need to find somewhere quite to write the great SEA novel

Horses for courses.

Personally the ideal for me is completely undeveloped wilderness surrounding a completely empty beach.

A single place selling a handful of Thai dishes, maybe banana pancakes or shakes but not necessary.

All I need to bring is my hammock, a girl, MP3s and a few good books and I'm all set for 2-3 weeks, don't mind if the place doesn't have a single other guest all that time, but if they do hopefully no more than a handful, and quiet ones.

That's for when I really want a break from a hard work schedule, when I'm in travel mode then I prefer a bit more "action", but absolutely avoid like the plague any place with full-on development like bars & resorts catering to tourists, I'm really only interested in interacting with locals 90% of the time, can't stand Samui Phuket etc.

But that's me. . .

I live in the sticks maybe see two westerners a day, but I do have a circle of friends. We go out for drinks, eat Sunday lunch etc etc.

I would hate to be in Thailand with no friends if the poo hit the fan.