Phuket Begins To Return To Normal

[george]

Phuket begins to return to normal

PHUKET: -- A beach holiday is probably the last thing on the minds of most people on Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket today, but the province's deputy governor has insisted that the situation on the island is now returning to normal, and that the beaches are safe to play on.

With Phuket forming one of the nation's most important tourism destinations, local officials know they have no time to lose if they hope to avoid a huge loss of tourism revenue at the height of the holiday season.

Since the tsunami hit on Sunday, destroying whole swathes of the island's coastline, officials have been working round the clock to clear away the debris, creating a strange illusion of normality on an island which still feels far from normal.

Mr. Winai Buapradit, the island province's deputy governor, said that the restoration of the Patong, Kamala and Kata-Karon Beaches was being touted as a 'New Year's gift' to locals and tourists.

Tourists, he said, were now able to play as normal on some parts of these beaches.

The government has already allocated funding of Bt10 million to the provincial authorities for urgent restoration work, but local officials are insisting that despite the images of destruction which broadcast around the world, the province was not hit as badly as other areas such as Phang-nga.

--TNA 2004-12-30

[Pattayaguy1999]

I understand the Thai authorities wanting to get back to normal, but expecting tourists to pretend all is well four days after such a tragic event is ridiculous. They are still hundreds unaccounted for and their relatives are still hoping for good news. It is just too early to start promoting 'all is now OK'.

[TizMe]

Tragedy? We're here for the bar girls and beer

A family of four sunbathe on Kata beach in Phuket on Thursday.

Photo: AFP

Stefan Johansson, a 41-year-old air force officer from Sweden, is hoping tonight is the night. He is not concerned about aftershocks hitting the beach less than a kilometre from here, or about the haphazard rescue operation under way in southern Thailand.

Nor is he worried by the deaths of several hundred compatriots. Mr Johansson is anxious that the bar girl he has his eye on is going to keep holding out on him. "I'm having a good holiday," he said. "I went for a walk along the sand this morning, did a bit of swimming. Now I'm off drinking, and then we'll see."

Mr Johansson is not alone. Four days after the tsunami hit, normal life has returned to much of Phuket and surrounding resorts such as Patong. The girlie bars are reopening, the bazaars selling fake Rolex watches are busy, the tourists are streaming off flights and onto the beach. Here the request by the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, for the country to wear black and forgo New Year festivities seems likely to fall on deaf ears.

"I heard what was going on with the wave and so on, and I just thought it was a bit of an exaggeration," said Peter Anstiss, 48, from Sydney, as he shared a beer with his brother in a bar off Patong Beach's main drag. "I didn't think too much about it."

At Phuket's airport, Pornthip Sucharitcharan was preparing to welcome 200 new arrivals on behalf of the Phuket Hilton. Yesterday, 200 guests were due to fly in to stay at the hotel.

The only problem, as far as Mr Sucharitcharan was concerned, were delays to commercial flights by the unprecedented number of aircraft landing at the airport. The congestion was caused by aid flights coming in and planes bearing the dead, injured and badly shaken, going out.

Thousands of Thais are thought to have been killed when their flimsy bamboo homes were destroyed.

Many remote fishing villages are yet to be reached, though reports indicate severe damage. There is also little hard information on the effect of the tsunami on islands to the south of Phuket.

Yet the luxury Royal Lighthouse Villas is booked up for the rest of the season, and has had no cancellations following the disaster. And the sprawling Diamond Cliff Resort, set on a bluff directly above Phuket's debris-strewn Patong beach, welcomed 136 new guests.

One new arrival at the Diamond Cliff, who flew in with her family from Moscow on Tuesday, relaxed by the pool. "We are here on holiday, not to be sad," she said. "I know bad things have happened, but it's nothing to do with us."

Back in Patong, Elliot Reid, from Melbourne, was finishing his gin and tonic. "I heard the warning from the Government not to go to Phuket and just thought, f--- 'em," he said. "If your number's up, your number's up. By the time the next one happens in a hundred years, I'll be dead."

The Guardian

Edited December 31, 2004 by TizMe

[astral]

Sets a different "spin" on a still worsening tragedy!!

[tigertech]

I'm close to the thai population in this tragic moment, and I wish that soon they can overcome this hard time.

Phuket begins to return to normal

PHUKET: -- A beach holiday is probably the last thing on the minds of most people on Thailand's southern resort island of Phuket today, but the province's deputy governor has insisted that the situation on the island is now returning to normal, and that the beaches are safe to play on.

With Phuket forming one of the nation's most important tourism destinations, local officials know they have no time to lose if they hope to avoid a huge loss of tourism revenue at the height of the holiday season.

Since the tsunami hit on Sunday, destroying whole swathes of the island's coastline, officials have been working round the clock to clear away the debris, creating a strange illusion of normality on an island which still feels far from normal.

Mr. Winai Buapradit, the island province's deputy governor, said that the restoration of the Patong, Kamala and Kata-Karon Beaches was being touted as a 'New Year's gift' to locals and tourists.

Tourists, he said, were now able to play as normal on some parts of these beaches.

The government has already allocated funding of Bt10 million to the provincial authorities for urgent restoration work, but local officials are insisting that despite the images of destruction which broadcast around the world, the province was not hit as badly as other areas such as Phang-nga.

--TNA 2004-12-30

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[kasi]

I was out on Bangla rd last night and was amazed how quickly things cleaned up. It was definitely a subdued crowd compared to what a new years eve should be but most of the bars were open and life was going on as best as we all could.

There is still a lot of fear and sadness. Life goes on. I doubt this holiday will ever really be forgotten.

[tdo]

One of the worst media inaccuracy so far during this phenomenal tragedy by AFP (Agence France-Presse), Patong was nothing like what this lame article described on new year's eve. Muted? I still can smell firecrackers smoke in my hair and clothes.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/050101/1/3plis.html

Raucous Thai island bar strip is muted on New Year's Eve

In Patong Beach's normally raucous and riotous nightlife strip, the music and the party mood were replaced by quiet hugs and tears on New Year's Eve.

"No one is in the mood for celebrating," said British customer Julian Burgess, five days after tidal waves slammed into Phuket island and other southern Thai resort areas with massive loss of life.

"People think life should go on but also think celebrating too much is disrespectful. People will be sitting here getting quietly drunk."

As midnight struck, hundreds of foreign tourists in Thailand's top resort island joined their Thai hosts in tearful hugs and spontaneous candle-lighting.

Customers, bar girls and shopowners emptied the beer halls, to join other somber and emotional holidaymakers in the streets for the first moments of 2005, many of them weeping or breaking down in tears.

"I was here when the wave hit," Graham Francis, a fortysomething Australian with tattoos on his arms and tears streaming down his face, told AFP.

"My son called and said 'Dad, come home'. I said I can't, this is when the Thais need us here the most. The best thing tourists could do is stay and help the Thais any way they can."

One minute after midnight, the first rains since the killer tsunamis struck began to fall on Patong.

The mood was similar across much of the country.

Traditional countdowns in Bangkok and the northern city of Chiang Mai were cancelled, replaced by Buddhist merit-making ceremonies for the dead on New Year's morning.

Several New Year's eve buffets and parties were only half full in the capital's major hotels. Bands played but the dancefloors remained empty.

In the once-idyllic resort island of Phi Phi, where hundreds died, a candlelight vigil and Buddhist ceremony were to be held.

Back in Phuket, many businesses opened Friday night for the first time since the waves smashed into the resort. Every second or third business was still shuttered.

Australian Garry Russell, owner of the Gaz Bar, said local business owners had a long debate about whether to reopen and decided to do so to save staff jobs.

"People around here and tourists are trying to focus on normal things like enjoying themselves because they also have to face the grim reality of what has happened here," Russell said.

More upmarket outlets were also toning down celebrations.

"We are having a gathering of the staff and all our guests are invited to light candles with them at midnight for the people who have died," said Thanarat Jadpatananon, who owns the Sawasdee hotel on Patong beach.

"We are giving everyone free food and drinks but there will be no alcohol. This is definitely not a party or time to celebrate," she said.

Some resorts said the government had urged them to cancel celebrations.

"In Thailand, the government office announced that there shouldn't be any party or festival," said a front office assistant at the Phuket Merlin Hotel.

"Lots of people died. We cannot celebrate."

Some people nonetheless were making the best of the situation.

In Patong, nine elaborately dressed drag queens carried relief collection boxes. Several tourists contributed.

"Make the new year better by helping the victims," said one of the ladies, who identified herself as "Ice Cream".

Many businesses are still in ruins but some of the beaches themselves -- which last Sunday were strewn with bodies and debris -- now look idyllic again. There are even sunbathing tourists.

"We arrived yesterday and weren't sure whether to come or not or even lay on the beach but the Thais just seem really happy to have us here," said Texan dog trainer Laura Weenig, 29.

For some the hunt for friends continued. American Ian Sobieski said he would keep scouring checklists across the island until he traced his friend, 38-year-old Carol Shellhorn.

"I flew out 12 hours before it happened and then I flew straight back and have been searching for her since," he said.