After The Big Wave

If you have been locked away from civilization for a couple of years, you might not notice that this island, just over a year ago had been devastated by the mighty tsunami. From the airport to the highway, to the hotels and resorts and to the beaches you can see kuai lou luai poh everywhere. The beaches are packed with these kuai lou kuai poh.

This was not what I expected but nonetheless it was a good surprise. At least I wouldn’t feel eerie when swimming in the sea.

The government has definitely done a good job to turn the table around within the short period of time to lure back the tourists. There’s even a big billboard outside the airport that read “Phuket is Back”. And I couldn’t agree more. Furthermore, everywhere you go, you can see signboard alerting the people of the evacuation spot if the tsunami ever occurs again.


So far, however, we have only managed to explore Patong, Kamala and Phuket town. These are the places considered to be tourist concentrated. The impact of the tsunami seemed irrelevant. On the forth day, we drove up north to the main land… to Khao Lak crossing the Sarasin Bridge, which connects the island and the main land.

Khao Lak, drew a different picture as those seen at the Phuket island. The stretch of beaches up north here is filled with many 5 stars resorts and hotels. But the number of tourists was amazingly small. Most of the resorts we visited were so deserted that it felt peculiar and ghostly. Big resorts such as Merlin saw a handful of tourists sun bathing at the beach but other than that, the lobby, the restaurant (lunch hour) and even the pool side was totally empty. Some smaller resorts especially those nearer to the beach were totally destroyed. Some of the resorts look brand new but most were still under reconstruction. It is here where the impact of the tsunami seemed so profound and overwhelming. I reckon it will take another few years before this place could emerge back to its past glory.

Say No to tsunami okieeeeeeee…