After a long overnight journey from bangkok i finally arrived on the island of koh tao. After setting up my hotel i took a walk over to the beach and sat to admire the azure blue waters that greeted me there. The beach was quiet with lovely white sand and i took the day to relax and swim in the waters there.
That afternoon i decided to explore the island and after walking up the main beach i headed up the steep roads towards the summit of a nearby hill. The way was extremely heavy going going and i ran out of water about halfway. Luckily some local builders took pity on me and offered me a bottle of iced water. Energized i attacked the slope with renewed vigor and made it to the top of a nearby view point. The spot was stunning with a great view across the island and i chilled out with the backpackers at the top. Afterwards one of them offered me a motorbike ride back down and i arrived back in town victorious. The sun was just setting as i arrived back in town and i walked down the beach and relaxed on a swing as the sun sunk into the sea.
The next day i booked a snorkeling tour around the island, the boat stopping at several sites throughout the day. The fish were beautiful, all greens, yellows, blues and reds. Some were stripped, some were multicoloured and some were just purely one bright colour, I even saw a (small) shark. What struck me though was just how bleached and faded the coral was. A few years ago I had taken a trip to Hawaii and there I had found the coral to be the brightest most vibrant colours, here was just broken brown and dead coral. I heard that diving on the island was better but the sight of all these beautiful creatures decayed and dead just made me sad.
That night I chilled out at the local beach huts, had a few drinks and enjoyed the spectacular fire displays that were put on by the local Thais.
As a note coral bleaching as it is known has been occurring more and more frequently in recent years. Its caused by the coral ejecting the photosynthetic plant that they co-exist, which in turn causes the coral to die. It is caused by a a number of factors such as global warming, disease, pollution and people standing on or taking pieces of coral back with them. I even had to tell a group of people not to stand on the coral as they were killing it. Please remember if you go to these places that coral is a living and very delicate creature and that by littering and standing on the reefs that you are killing them.
In doing so I was able to find buildings that really accentuated broken lines and strange vectors. This along with the almost sickly light that fell on the nearby trees was able to create a series of images that were by turn strange, jarring and distinctive in the extreme.
To this point I was able to create a series of unnatural vectors, ones that would pose troubling questions about our effect upon the fragile world around us.
