���� Da�s intelligence and interest in the world are apparent at first meeting. She has a bright and open personality and quickly establishes a rapport with everyone she meets. She is also determined to improve her skills and to get a "proper" education. Although she left school at the age of 12, she is studying part-time to get her high school certificate, and of all the staff at the Laem Ta Sae resort, she is the only one that speaks English really competently. When we arrived at the Laem Ta Sae Resort, she rushed down the path to greet us and showed us around - the arrival of a European was a signal that her language skills would be needed.

We spent quite a few hours chatting over the next couple of days at Laem Ta Sae. Da was happy to tell us about herself, and opened up about her family life, friends and hopes for the future. At 21 she is more serious than most people she knows. She has had her share of emotional pain and struggle, and she is focused on getting on with her life. Yet, in many ways she is very accepting of what the world delivers. She has no plans for a boyfriend or marriage yet. She wants to complete her education and move on to new places. In the past she has had her own business as a food vendor on the tourist island of Langkawi in Malaysia. As a Thai national she was working illegally, and eventually she had to give up the business. Growing up in Satun, which borders Malaysia, Da speaks Thai and Malay as well as English.

But while she is studying and working she is very focused, stable, and very responsible. She had been unable to visit her family recently because she had been so busy with work and keenly felt this lapse in her filial duty.

Her ability in English is partly a reflection of her work experience. Da began working as a waitress in the tourism sector at the age of 12, just after she had left school. For her first job she worked at the Phi Phi islands at a resort where the majority of the guests were not Thai. At the beginning, she found her age to be quite an advantage - most foreigners seemed to feel sorry for her, and tipped her better than the older waitresses. 12 was the legal working age then in Thailand, and Da saw nothing wrong in working so young. In fact, with a large family at home, and her parents divorced, she had little choice about looking for a job.

Da�s family tree is a little confusing. Her parents divorced when she was quite young, and both have children by more than one partner. Da has not seen her mother since she was a little girl. She grew up with her father's family in a small fishing village right on the coast of Satun province.

Her father is a captain of a trawler - well-respected by his crew as a fine sailor. The ships he crews are owned by a large Sino-Thai company. Although her father and brothers are all in the fishing industry, and Da has spent all her life by the sea, she can�t swim. One of her most terrifying experiences was when she took a small boat to Langkawi with her father and they became caught in a storm. She lay on the bottom of the boat as they were tossed about in the waves. A journey normally a couple of hours'� long dragged on and on from afternoon through the night, until finally they arrived at the island just after dawn. Her only comfort was that she was with her father and not alone.

One of her brothers has spent his whole adult life on the trawlers. Da says his early experience and natural gift make him one of the best sailors on the trawler he now works on with his father. He knows the ways of the wind and the sea, but he also has his stories of terror. Only recently he was off the coast of Kalimantan during the catastrophic fires of the last dry season. Smoke filled the air, and there was a sea mist and no wind. During the night the sailors on the trawler could barely see as far as their own hands. He described the experience to Da as the most terrifying of his life. And this from a sailor who has survived capsizing in Typhoon Gay at the age of 14 - he swam 4 miles to the shore with his father during the storm.

Da began work at the Laem Ta Sae resort through connections. Her boss�s wife comes from the same village as Da, and she asked Da to work at the resort. All the other staff are Da�s friends from the same village. So although Da is quite a long way from her home in Satun province, she is not lonely. Her only complaint is that of many working in the hospitality industry - peak season at the resort is also holiday time when she should be home with her family.

Nonetheless, she enjoys working at Laem Ta Sae and intends to stay at least until she has her high school certificate (in a couple of years� time). Although her boss is a Buddhist, and all the staff, including Da are Moslem, he is sympathetic to their religious proscriptions - no pork is served at this resort. She is a little disapproving that alcohol is served, but her disdain is reserved more for the Moslems who come to drink than for her Buddhist boss. He is a kind man, she says, treating his staff like family, and concerned for the health and welfare of his guests.

During the peak season the resort takes on several temporary staff, but at quieter times of the year there is only the cook and Da. On the weekends when the resort gets conference guests, she is exhausted. All the bungalows have to be cleaned and prepared, and the guests have to be served food. On the weekend we were staying, there were two other girls helping too, but Da is the key assistant at the resort - the real organiser - and after one evening helping a group of government employees with a beach barbecue she looked completely exhausted.

She is also keenly interested in the environment, and very conscious of a need to keep the resort and the beach clean after so many guests have visited. Over Songkhran the resort was full night after night, and there were lots of guests on the beach during the day. By the end of the Thai New Year the beach was covered with litter. It took Da and her friends three days to pick up all the litter and burn it. There is no garbage collection where the resort is located, so they have dug a pit just near the resort entrance and collect and burn all their garbage in this.

When it is quieter, the resort is a pleasant place for Da to stay. She likes to watch the footballers on the beach in the late afternoon, and to notice how the wind changes between night and day. She wouldn�t chose to live anywhere but by the sea, and thinks sometimes of returning to Phi Phi or some other islands.