Okay, you can all read the posts here and anyone with a bit on intelligence can read between the lines. There are clearly those with personal interests in you NOT postposing your holidays versus those of you who find it a bit too creepy to be swimming on the west coast of Phuket just days or weeks after so many people died where your sun bed is located.

So what to do?

I think it's true, as far as I can tell (from the Thai tv reports here in Thailand, and what Thaivisa and Phuketgazette.com people have reported (grain o sand here) that most of Phuket is okay. Forget Kao Lak and Phi Phi.

If you are a tourist..it's up to you. 5-10 thousand people died in southern Thailand on 26th December. Half of them were tourists. Will it happen when you come? Probably not. Will you swim in the same water if you come? Well of course. Will a body float up on the beach. I don't know. So again, you decide. These guys telling you it's okay (and safety-wise it probably is..more or less) have a vested interest. But the Thais (and these Farang bar and restaurant owners), guides, bar girls, etc, do need your tourist money..so make an informed decision. Check your resort..and use common sense. Thais are great and Thailand is still a great place. But the decision is difficult without question.

i personally wouldn't visit so soon out of respect for the people who died and their relatives, it wouldn't feel right holidaying on a beach that so many people had died on weeks before and i wouldn't enjoy it at all

why not visit chiang mai, pattaya or samet instead?