Hokusai Wave, Cyanotype Painting on Silk, 2005

I’m disappearing for a week or more to Ko Wai, a small island in Eastern Thailand with erratic electricity and limited internet access.

Why? To finish writing the book Sensual Papers: Through the Backroads and Rivers of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam – my quest to find the papermakers of Southeast Asia.

How does one finish a book without electricity?

Easy – that’s what paper notebooks are for; they’ve worked well for writers, for centuries.

The internet is a distraction for writers hard at work on a specific project. Instant messages, emails and Twitter are prickly intrusions to writing time, written in slapdash English.

I’m happy to go on an internet-free diet before I head back to the craziness of Bangkok and my final round of cyanotype prints there.

See you when I get back…