The Beach   T A B L E_T A L K Hot summers and spicy food! Meditate on the thrilling pleasures of Spain in the Wanderlust area of Table Talk   R E C E N T L Y Storming "The Beach" By Rolf Potts A backpacker in search of adventure in Thailand puts the moves on Leonardo DiCaprio (02/09/99) Looking for Abdelati By Tanya Shaffer An unexpected journey into the heart of a family in Casablanca (02/07/99) This week in travel Wanderlust's selective guide to travel-related news from across the globe (02/05/99) Dead ends in London By Laura Billings Jack the Ripper returns to life on a grisly but gripping tour (02/04/99) Korea's no-man's-land By Rolf Potts The DMZ is one of the planet's oddest tourist attractions, where visitors can pick up everything from propaganda to perfume (02/03/99) Browse the Wanderlust Feature archives Wanderlust's Official Travel Book Partner		Backstage on "The Beach" A backpacker's quest to storm Leonardo DiCaprio'smovie set ends in an epiphany that won't play in Peoria. [ READ PART ONE ] BY ROLF POTTS Second of two parts Day five: Jan. 21 -- Heart of dork-ness I'm starting in on my second day on Phi Phi Don island, but (for reasons that will become obvious) I didn't write anything yesterday -- day four -- so I'll try to cover both days in this dispatch. To put it succinctly: Things have gone sour in a way that I had not expected. From a tactical standpoint, my mission is progressing nicely. The soaring cliffs of Phi Phi Leh stand just two and a half miles across the sea from my roost on Long Beach. A few casual conversations with some Phi Phi Leh dive-tour operators have provided enough physiographical clues for me to devise a landing strategy. I even found a deserted beach (Lomudi) where I can make a quiet departure in the dead of night. The problem, however, is that I'm having trouble explaining why I want to go there in the first place. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I arrived here yesterday morning to discover that all the affordable lodging on Long Beach had been sold out. Welcoming the ascetic novelty of sleeping on the beach itself, I left my backpack with a friendly restaurant manager and set off to scope things out. Technically, the island of Phi Phi Don is part of the same National Marine Park system that protects Phi Phi Leh from permanent tourist development. A person could never tell by looking, however, as an unbroken progression of bungalows and beach resorts lines the entire southeastern seaboard. Ton Sai -- an old Thai-Muslim village on the isthmus that connects the two halves of the island -- is clotted with luxury hotels, dive shops, restaurants, souvenir peddlers and discos. The only evidence of Muslim heritage is that some of the women selling cigarettes and Pringles wear veils. When I met a Danish pair on the longtail taxi-boat from Ton Sai back to Long Beach, I was immediately struck by their similarity to a couple of characters in "The Beach." In Alex Garland's novel (and, I am certain, in the movie script), Richard travels to the beach utopia in the company of Etienne and Francoise, a young French couple he meets on Khao San Road. Granted, Jan and Maarta aren't French, but they certainly seemed graceful, companionable and adventurous enough to merit a comparison. When I discovered that they, too, were being forced to sleep on the beach that night, I took this as a sign that I should invite them along for my adventure. I pitched the idea over a pad-thai dinner on Long Beach. Since they were both familiar with the novel, I skipped straight into my plans to rent a boat and steal over to Phi Phi Leh. When I saw how this idea entertained them, I backtracked a bit and told them about my experience with Andrew MacDonald the day before. By the time I got to my fantasy about the bikini-clad lynch mob, I had the Danes in stitches. "You Americans have wonderful thoughts," Jan said between gasps for air. I saw this as my chance. "Why don't you two join me?" "Yes," Jan said, still laughing, "why don't we join you?" "Perfect," I said. "This is too perfect. Let's find a boat and leave tonight." The Danes stopped laughing. "Are you serious?" Maarta asked. "I am 100 percent completely serious. Let's leave tonight." "But we thought you were telling, kind of, a joke." This threw me a little. "Would you rather leave tomorrow?" Jan and Maarta exchanged a raised-eyebrow look, which I took to mean either "This guy is really daring" or "This guy is a total dork." Judging from the exchange that ensued, I'd put money on the latter. "If you really want to go to the movie," Jan said, "why don't you just wait until they finish on Phi Phi Leh and go to work as an extra when they film in Phuket or Krabi?" "That's not the point," I insisted. "The adventure is in going to a place where you aren't supposed to go. The charm is in living the novel backwards -- going to an exclusive and secretive beach that also happens to be famous." "The island is guarded like an army," Maarta said. "You'll never make it." "Even if you do," Jan said, "what will you do when you get there?" By this point, I felt like whipping out the novel and showing Jan and Maarta that they were saying the wrong lines. The issue was getting unnecessarily complicated. In the story, Francoise and Etienne were much more agreeable. "I don't know what I'll do when I get there," I said. "Walk onto the set, I guess. You know, see what happens when I violate their community. Like in the book." Jan and Maarta conferred for a moment in Danish, then turned back to me. "Why are you doing this?" Maarta asked, with a tone of concern. Since I thought I'd already answered that question, all I could do was stammer. Ultimately I changed the subject -- to the relief, I think, of everyone present. In my own mind the reason why I'm doing this should have been obvious. Or, even more accurately, the reason why I'm doing this should be irrelevant. N E X T+P A G E | Traveling behind the curtain - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.   DETAIL OF ILLUSTRATION BY KATHERINE STREETER _________________________________ For more information: _________________________________