Life goes on as tourists return to fun and sun
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-01-03 09:08

Foreign tourists frolicked on Saturday in the gentle waves of the Andaman Sea, riding jet skis, posing for snapshots and sunbathing topless on the sand.

A Swedish tourist walk along with vegetation and debris strewn beach in Havelock island, the popular tourist spot, January 2, 2005. [Reuters]

Such scenes were common on the resort island before a deadly tsunami hit six days earlier. But after the devastation, Aime Yodkaew, sweeping away debris, can't quite believe that, for some, life goes on as usual.

Just behind the relaxing foreigners is a store whose windows are gone, blasted out last Sunday.

Along the beach, students from an international school were clearing up debris and stuffing it into garbage bags.

Yodkaew, a Swede who has lived here for years with her Thai husband, said she felt angry at the tourists indulging in the sort of fun Phuket was famous for before the waves hit.

"I just figure if everyone uses about an hour of their holiday time (to help clean up), this would help a lot for the locals," she said.

But she acknowledged that the sooner more tourists return to the resort island's fabled beaches, the sooner her husband's sailboard and catamaran rental business will be able to start making money again.

Tourists are the lifeblood of this beautiful island in southern Thailand and this is the peak season for overseas visitors, Thailand's warm, dry season coinciding with the depth of northern winters.

"Definitely less than 10 per cent of hotel rooms in Phuket are closed," said John Everingham, who publishes Phuket Magazine, which gives tourists information about the island. By contrast, another popular but much smaller island, Phi Phi, was wiped out almost entirely, he said.

Despite the devastation, some tourists are determined to make the most of their vacation.

On New Year's Eve, hundreds of people quietly clutched white roses and candles as they reflected on the tragedy at a vigil, but elsewhere on Phuket scantily clad women danced in nightclubs while Western tourists drank and partied to loud music.

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