Recent News About The More Remote Islands

[Ingrid]

At 15:42 07/01/05 +0100, you wrote:

Hello,

If you have the time can you inform me about the situation on these islands?

I visited many times and I saw on a forum that someone knows people living

there.

Thanking you in advance.

Kind regards and wishing you a lot of strength

Ingrid Beckers

during the days passed, media all around the world followed the saying that "only bad news is good news" and reported about the Tsunami event and the aftermath in a way that did not differentiate between the different locations. It is correct, that the Tsunami hit the Khaolak coast hardest and this holiday resort has been completely gone on 26DEC04; there was no watersupply, electricity and telecommunication for several days and many people lost their lives. The center of Phi Phi Island, the long existing Muslim Fishing village on Ton Sai Bay has been similarily effected, but there are several places that have seen little damage or have not been affected at all.

All island resorts on Lipe, Bulon, Kradan, Libong, Sukhon, Muuk and Ngai did not receive any damage and so did the coast of Trang Province. On Lanta Island SriLanta will remain closed during January and on northern Khlong Dao Beach, Kaw Kwang Resort, Twin Bay and Costa Lanta have been destroyed, Twin Lotus Resort will remain closed for this season, but all other resorts are in full operation.

The coast of Ao Nang and Khlong Muang was obviously protected by a coral reef and damages were reported only from Railay and Phra Nang Beaches. While the Rayavadee will remain closed until further notice, all other resorts on Railay are in operation.

The island of Koh Yao and the 2 up-market resorts did not receive any damage and the same applies for the resorts on the northern coast of Phi Phi Island.

On Phuket, where only the first row of houses along Patong Beach Road and Kamala Beach were damaged, life has been back to normal 3 days later. Guests are enjoying the beaches of Kata and Karon that are looking as clean as they have been 20 years ago, a fact that was confirmed by locals as well as a survey team organised by the TAT. Most local tours on the island, but also trips to Phi Phi Island and into Phang Nga Bay are running on normal schedule and so are the inter island ferries to Phi Phi, Lanta etc doing. Dive Schools on Phuket and Lanta are going out to the respective locations daily and confirm reports by the survey team that the water has never been so clean and the underwatersight is an impressive 90 metres around the Similan Islands.

While medical doctors from Germany report about the professional way, the Thais are handling the rescue works and the hygienic conditions, foreign embassies ignore such reports and warn their citzens not to travel to Thailand and fear an outbreak of epidemic diseases. There is nothing of this at any place, were foreign tourists might travel right now.

We highly recommend to have a look into the following pages, were some information is put into the right context. http://www.image-asia.com/post_tsunami_phuket_krabi.htm

Meanwhile, we are looking forward to the year 2005 that will hopefully spare the world such incidents and wish you

a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.