Beverly Beyette
Jan.
15, 2006 12:00 AM
PHUKET, Thailand -
As I sipped a tropical drink seaside at Mom Tri's
Boathouse at Kata Beach, gentle waves lapped at the
sand and a couple walked hand in hand along the horseshoe-shaped bay. From here,
all seemed idyllic on Phuket, a well-loved resort island about 500 miles south
of
I spent time in early November
in southern Thailand to see how - indeed, whether - the area had rebounded from
the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami that slammed into the Andaman Coast, leaving about
220,000 people dead or missing, including about 8,000 in Thailand. I wanted to
know what tourists would find when, and if, they returned.
Many places on
Phuket have made a remarkable recovery. Hotels and restaurants are open, the
beaches are clean, the water is clear and green.
Tourists will see little physical damage, but economic damage is significant.
"We lost about
half of our (tourism) income" in 2005, compared with 2004, Pattanapong Aikwanich, president
of the Phuket Tourist Association, told me. "And we had to repair
everything."
Then there are places such as Phi Phi Don island, a 90-minute ferry
ride from Phuket, where the waves' full fury was felt. Rebuilding on Phi Phi Don has barely begun; the catastrophe's legacy is all
too apparent.
Officially in Krabi province, 721
people died, most on Phi Phi Don. Many bodies were
never found.
Flashback to the morning of Dec. 26, 2004: Some guests were
asleep, others were taking a Thai cooking class when
two waves hit at Mom Tri's Boathouse, a 36-room
low-rise hotel. One wave almost reached the top of Koh
Pu island, a short distance
offshore, where diving students suddenly found themselves sitting on the bottom
of the sea.
The Boathouse Grill was inundated with seawater and sewage.
"Total devastation," said French-born managing director Louis Bronner. "The grand piano was found in the street in 16
pieces. The long-tail (fishing) boats landed in the
ground-floor rooms," where water was waist-high.
Three people on
this beach were among the 279 people killed on Phuket, but there were no
casualties among hotel guests or staff. The Boathouse mopped up, refurbished
and, exactly two months later, held its grand reopening. Today, it's as good as
new.
At Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort, on
The waves destroyed the beach bar and restaurants. They smashed
tiles in the enormous swimming pools and flooded ground-floor rooms in one wing.
Water reached the lobby and shops, which sit back from and above the
beach.
No one was seriously injured, but damage, including destruction of
the below-ground central operating facilities, kept the hotel closed until Aug.
15.
Ibrahim Ngankaeng, 64, sat on the beach of beautiful
Before the tsunami, this, the southern side of
the island, was a magnet for divers and snorkelers,
typically, 2,000 a day. They are returning slowly: about 600 a day. "I wonder
how I can survive," says Ngankaeng, whose shops,
bungalows and restaurant were swept away. Far worse, he lost his wife and two
grandsons.
Much of Phuket island was spared,
although there were pockets of devastation on the less-sheltered western shore.
Still, many people suffer from the "economic tsunami." Tourism is Phuket's lifeblood; 100,000 of its population of 280,000
work in an industry that hosted 4.6 million visitors in 2004.
Today,
billboards proclaim, "Phuket Is Back." To an extent, that's true. Of Phuket's 530 hotels, "only about 20 percent cannot be
operated," said Aikwanich, of the Phuket Tourist
Association.
Phuket's major hotels are up and
running but are not fully booked. For about eight months after the tsunami, most
had less than 10 percent occupancy, Aikwanich said.
Gradually, tourists have returned. He projects major hotels "will run about 80
percent for the high tourist season," which began in November and runs through
April.
Daniel Meury, Swiss-born general manager
of the Chedi Phuket, on the island's Pansea Beach, said established hotels such as his, part of
the Singapore-based Chedi chain, had the resources to
cope after the tsunami, unlike many smaller hotels.
Sithi Tandavanitj, president of
the southern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association and owner of Phuket's Metropole, which was
unscathed, sees this as a time of transition.
Although Phuket has made a
remarkable recovery, he said, things are still "very bad" on Phi Phi and Khao Lak. He is aware that foreigners see photos of devastation
there and think it's Phuket.
"We have to work
harder to explain," he said, so the tourists will come.
Said Aikwanich of the Phuket Tourist Association: "If people want
to send money, clothes, thanks. But what we need now is
tourists."