The Beach, based on the book by Alex Garland and starring Leonardo di Caprio (above), hit the screens this week amid a tidal wave of publicity and controversy. It is set in Koh Pha Ngan in Thailand. Ovingdean resident John Oade spent five years in the region and told Rebecca Drought what The Beach is really like.

SAT in the spacious living room of John Oade's Sussex home in February, overlooking roll-ing fields and the English Channel, the clear blue water and hot sandy beaches of Thailand seem like another world.

Fifteen years ago the father-of-two made one of the small tropical islands that make up the country his home, and at the height of the consumer boom of the Eighties was living out a fantasy many only dream of.

And like Alex Garland's anti-hero in The Beach he was tempted to find more and more remote islands.

He believes he found the perfect way of life in the far-flung corner of Asia and describes his time there as "one of the happiest periods of my life".

Now he is keen to return to the island of Koh Pha Ngan before it is spoiled forever by hordes of tourists.

He said: "I was working as a driver in the film industry but I got fed up with all the falseness. My life's dream had been to own a farm in Denmark, but once I had it I didn't want it anymore.

"I ended up in Hong Kong because it was the furthest away from Europe I could get with the money I had.

"I had been teaching English in the United Nations refugee camps, which were full of Vietnamese boat people, when I heard about the Full Moon Festival in Thailand and decided to go.

"When I first got to Koh Pha Ngan I was just travelling, passing through, but my bags were stolen and I lost everything I had in the world, my money, passport, everything, and I had to work."

John, now 49, got a job on a squid boat and it was not long before he became intoxicated with the way of life and decided to stay. He said: "I felt like I had come home to Thailand.

"It was like London in paradise. The people have the same attitudes to life as we did at home in the East End when I was growing up.

"If we had got some money we enjoyed it and didn't worry about working for more until we had none left. That's when we'd go out on the boat again."

Squid fishing was done at night and during the day John, who lived in an A-frame hut on the beach, would talk with friends or play with his pet monkeys, Puncho and Moomoo.

He said: "I have never done a run-of-the-mill factory job or done anything I don't enjoy and I find the more primitive life is, the nicer it is.

All you have to think about on the island is finding something to eat, which isn't difficult as the fish are jumping out of the sea, and then you don't have to do anything else.

"We only have the one life, why waste it? I believe I was happier on the island with nothing than a lot of people are in Britain who have everything."

But life wasn't all rosy on the island in the sun. Although there were only ever a dozen or so westerners on Koh Pha Ngan, most were treated as easy targets for crime.

John won the respect of local people by learning their language and living among them.

John said: "The Thai people thought all foreigners were rich and would be reimbursed by their insurance companies if they were robbed, so there was a lot of stealing and people were also thrown into jail, sometimes for no real reason, and only let out again when they had paid a huge bribe."

On one occasion John was shocked to discover his Thai friends were carrying guns to a beach party.

When he asked why, he was told they needed to protect him if other Thai people thought he was a target.

He said: "They are a race of opportunists and there is some violence but I felt most in danger on Thai buses. They are hair-raising."

Although life on Koh Pha Ngan was good, John was told by locals about the even smaller island of Koh Tao. Ruled by feudal landlords, having no vehicles and completely isolated from the rest of the world, it sounded like a utopian paradise no traveller could resist.

He said: "There were no regular boats over to the Koh Tao, you had to wait for a fishing boat going that way to take you and it meant it could be weeks until you got back.

"It was quite wild. People from the island would go dynamite fishing around the other islands, destroying all the coral and then come back and hide on Koh Tao.

"There were no roads and the only way to get around the island was by horseback. There was quite a lot of trouble between the islands fishermen and bigger boats from Bangkok.

"It's definitely not everyone's cup of tea and a lot of westerners have got into a lot of trouble - if you go against the ruling group they can do whatever they want to you. There's no one to stop them.

"But once you know the system these people live, they are a good-hearted race and will help you."

John left Thailand in 1985 when he discovered his father was seriously ill. He always intended to return but when his girlfriend became pregnant and he bought a house with the money his father left him, the ties of responsibility kept him here.

Now he wants to go back and take his two teenage children, but first he has been prompted by The Beach to record his experiences of the Thai islands in a book and is looking for someone willing to help write it.

He said: "Personally I feel very sad that so many people are going to Thailand now. They make such a mess of places and many of them should be going to Spain instead. They just want sun, sea and sand and don't want to find out about the culture.

"I learnt over there that money doesn't make you happy, it's quality of life. I learnt perspective."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.