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The following page scans have been reproduced here with permission from Mami Shimomura. They come from her excellent book "Catching Leonardo DiCaprio in Thailand", published in Japan during June 1999. These pictures cannot be used on the internet without the permission of the publishers first. It is suggested that in order to avoid copyright infringements, webmasters (and people posting pictures on message boards) should link direct to this page rather than to the images:

https://members.tripod.com/leofans/mami.html

p. 107-112

Next morning, we got up at 5:30. We were to meet Joe in the beach at 6:00. We had chartered his boat to take us to and from Maya Bay for a day at 1,000 Thai Baht. It was before daybreak and it was still dark. Being prepared for the long-hour stand, we got bottles of waters and some bread. Everything was ready, but Joe ... where is Joe? He eventually appeared about 30 minutes late.

We got aboard Joe's long-tail boat and we set sail for Phi Phi Le Island. That was a maiden voyage of our "OKKAKE" boat! In 15 minutes, we arrived at the pier in Maya Bay. Besides our boat, two more boats were already moored there. They were the boat for the international press journalists, Reuters, and the other for Thai journalists. Reuters and Thai tabloids, don't you think that we, OKKAKE-TAI are also now international journalists?

After waiting for an hour or so, three big speedboats came into view and arrived in the bay. From the speedboats, the production team got off, and began to bring down the shooting equipment. We saw that some actors and actresses were getting off the boats and crossing the pier to the location site. Our apprehension rose higher and higher!!! Joe was looking through field glasses to catch Leonardo, and he said.....

to be continued.....

P.113 - 116

Looking through the field glasses, Joe said.....

" Leonardo comes in!"

Yes!! Getting off the boat, Leonardo eventually showed up!! This was the moment which our long-cherished dream has come true!! We were impressed with the figure of Leo. He was just walking behind his bodyguard with his face turned away from the watchers. He was watching the surface of the sea on the other side of the pier all the time. Obviously, he didn't want anyone to take his pictures. Neither the press photographers nor OKKAKE- TAI were in his sights. He came closer to us, passed by and walked away up to the shooting site. The distance between us was 15 meters at the shortest.

Leo looked like an ordinary American boy. He was wearing white underwear, and the way of his walking was very cute, just like a school boy. He looked much younger than his real age. And he was slender.

In these few days, it seemed that Leo didn't let anyone get closer to him, Joe said. We were very happy that we could see Leonardo for the first time in our lives. But at the same time, we felt sad. What made him do so?

This was the just beginning of the OKKAKE-Tour. But the thorny path followed ahead...

to be continued.....