ko tao

Ko Tao is tiny - covering an area of just 21km and with a permanent population of just over 1,000. Despite this, it manages to pack within its shores all of the typical attractions of a Thai island.

The beach, and its mountainous jungle backdrop, is jaw droppingly beautiful. Watching the boats come into shore as the sun goes down is a special experience. Behind the beach are an extensive maze of streets and walkways, which are littered with hotels, cafes, restaurants and bars. The street food sellers, barbecuing corn on the cobs and kebabs, produce amazing aromas in the warm and humid evenings.

Ko Tao attracts a mixed crowd of tourists, many of whom come here because it is inexpensive to go diving and get a certificate, but the majority are young British travellers. What this means is that there is a multitude of drinking dens offering cheap booze. Some of these bars are actually quite good, but then there are others - normally those containing a prick plucking away at an acoustic guitar - that should be raised to the ground.

The availability of dirt cheap booze has surprised me somewhat on Ko Tao. On numerous occasions I have been approached on the beach or in the street and been given leaflets offering absurd amounts of alcohol at a ludicrous price. I was taken aback yesterday to be offered a 2 for 1 deal on buckets of whisky and red bull. A single bucket contains a lot of whisky and only costs a couple of pounds - to drink two of them would be the equivalent of necking more than half a bottle of spirits. And then when you've finished those, you can tour the bars offering happy hour prices on beer and cocktails all evening. Every time someone - almost always a young British girl - thrust a leaflet into my hand I shuddered to think what it was going to offer me. Buy one get one free on an intravenous injection of vodka into the eyeballs? Fifty per cent off a white wine enema?

I'm hardly a prude when it comes to getting pissed, but even I felt uncomfortable with the amount of alcohol people were being encouraged to consume. It was around the same time as I was being offered the chance to live my holiday like Paul Gascoigne that I happened to stumble across a very worrying and poignant statistic. Did you know that 269 British tourists died in Thailand last year? Two hundred and sixty nine. To add some context, that's the equivalent of around five 7/7 terrorist attacks. If you extrapolate the statistic, around 10 Brits will have lost their lives since my holiday began. The vast majority of these deaths are caused by motorcycle accidents, but in a way they are linked to the same carefree attitudes that go with the drink promotions. You don't need any experience of riding a bike in order to hire one here - you just need to tell the guy renting it that you have some. So in effect thousands of tourists come here and exploit the complete disregard there is in Thailand for 'elf n safety' - and the locals don't care so long as you are crossing their palm with bhat.

The fact Thailand has now become the most dangerous - in terms of fatalities - for British tourists to visit tells me something is not quite right here. What to do about it, I have no idea.