The State of Phuket
Simon J Hand, editor of Asia-Pacific TROPICAL HOMES and a long-time resident
of Phuket, reports on the remarkable resilience of the island following
Sunday's tsunami and the speed with which those areas worst hit are
recovering.
It is now the fifth morning after the tsunami – which locals are
calling the “Andaman Wave” – struck the beach resorts and
fishing port of Phuket Island and many areas on the west coast of Thailand.
Rescue workers in Khao Lak, north of Phuket, and returning from the popular
island destination Phi Phi, to the south, speak of unparalleled destruction
and loss of life. It will be many months, indeed years, before these places
recover.
However, things on Phuket are returning to normal at a remarkable rate.
Much of the island's administrative and emergency services were untouched
by the devastation along the coast and it is likely that this is one of
the chief reasons why the island has been able to bounce back so quickly
from this terrible ordeal.
Since the afternoon after the tsunami, I have been touring the areas
of the island hit by the wave, to check on friends and report on what I
have found there. Below is an area by area breakdown compiled from these
reports. Artasia editors will continue to update these as the days pass
and new information comes to light.
PHUKET INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
Though seawater did breach the protective wall and initially flood the
runway at Phuket International Airport when the wave – in fact waves
– hit, airport emergency crews quickly brought everything under control
and it was re-opened by early Sunday evening and receiving flights from
Bangkok, including one carrying Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who came
to personally supervise the early stages of the rescue and clean-up efforts.
I have visited the airport on several occasions since then. There are
no signs of the chaos and madness some news agencies have been reporting.
There is more an air of mild perturbedness and it's a little busier than
usual for a high season. It's as busy with people arriving as leaving.
While some of these are people here to search for lost relatives and friends
and the rescue workers arriving from Bangkok and international agencies,
many more are holiday-makers who have checked with their hotels and found
them to be fully operational.
NAI YANG BEACH
Nai Yang Beach, just south of the airport, is decimated. I was up there
the day after the wave and, along the road closest to the beach, there
is not a single shop, bar or restaurant that has not been destroyed –
some are simply not there anymore. However the two major hotelsCrown Nai
Yang Suite and Pearl Village – set some way back from the beach –
have received only nominal damage and will be back in full operation with
a week or two. I revisited Nai Yang on Thursday and the clean up operation
was in full swing. Some places have even started rebuilding.
NAI THON BEACH
I visited Andaman White Beach Resort the day after the wave and was amazed
at the recovery. Staff from the hotel had returned the beach to its usual
pristine condition. When the wave hit here staff had already removed all
of the guests from the beach and they were safely back in the hotel, which
is set fairly high up the hillside. The only damage was to the resort's
dive centre and new beach bar – both at beach level – the latter,
ironically, only having opened on Christmas Day.
I have heard reports that the new Trisara resort received only nominal
damage to its beachfront buildings.
LAYAN BEACH
While there was significant damage to the beach area – with seawater
surging back some 400 metres from the beachfront, there is little development
on or near Layan Beach and so, fortunately, little damage except for the
downing of a few electrical poles. Layan Beach Resort is set well back
from the beach and received no damage whatsoever.
BANGTAO BEACH
Despite claims that it was totally destroyed in some TV news broadcasts,
the internationally renowned Laguna Phuket complex, which fronts onto the
centre of Bangtao Beach, has reported that only fifty of its 1100 rooms
have been put out of action by the wave. One guest was killed when the
water hit the resorts.
The five hotels are reporting that they will be fully operational in
less than a month with damage restricted to ground floor rooms close to
the beach and a number of their beachfront restaurants and pools. When
I visited Laguna Beach Resort the day after the wave, many guests languished
not in misery but upon sun-loungers, baking beneath the clear blue skies.
The south end of Bangtao Beach was not so lucky and took a huge hit.
Bill O'Leary – an Aussie who runs the famous Aman Cruises operation
from here – reported a surge of two metres plus, that did not withdraw
for well over an hour. Everything is damaged, much beyond repair. To describe
the power of the wave at Bangtao, after it had smashed across about 200
metres – through trees, holiday bungalows and hotels – it ripped
layers of tarmac off of the road and flung great chunks of it into the
shops and bars behind. Eddying waters did further destruction, eroding
large sections of the waterfront and causing further property damage and
loss of life. Many of the bungalow operations and hotels in this area will
not be fit for tourists for several months. Some may never re-open as they
are just not there anymore.
Fifteen of the bungalows at the Chedi Phuket resort were damaged, management
believe they will be able to re-open these to guests in about two months.
While Rydges Beach Resort had water damage to between 10 and 15 of its
rooms closest to the beach that will require a weeks work to repair.
SURIN BEACH
By complete contrast, Surin Beach is back to business as usual. On the
day I visited – two days after the wave hit – the detritus on
the beach had been neatly swept into large piles and the quaint rows of
wooden bars, restaurants and food vendors were open to a busy stream of
tourists.
KAMALA BEACH
Kamala received the heaviest and most widespread damage of any of Phuket's
beaches. Much of what was there isn't anymore and the central beach
area – once filled with happy bars, restaurants and shops – is
today barely recognizable. Only the police station stands relatively undamaged
at the centre of a crushed community. The waters destroyed virtually everything
as far back as the main coast road, with flooding reported in the Phuket
Fantasea compound. The roads closest to the beach are still closed to traffic
and crews are working hard to restore basic amenities.
Many people died at Kamala, and accurate figures are not yet available.
Thai locals and some tourists, seeing the tide go out over three hundred
metres very quickly, ran onto the beach with buckets to collect the fish
that were flopping around on the sand. Though the wave did not come for
over fifteen minutes, many were caught out on the sand when it did and
were lost.
KALIM BEACH
Here there was serious damage to two major real estate offices and the
local school, which sits across the beachfront coast road. There is also
some damage to the road itself, but – as of Thursday this was under
repair.
PATONG BEACH
Patong beach road is still closed to traffic today (Friday) as crews
work hard to bring back some semblance of normalcy to this once vibrant
street. There is not a single business along this stretch that has not
been very badly damaged. It will be several months before all the scars
have healed. The premises of major chain stores and name businesses –
among the many others – that are now just shells, include McDonalds,
Starbucks, Watsons, KFC, Molly Malones and countless restaurants, jewellery
stores and tailor's shops.
However, by 150 metres up the famous Soi Bangla things are getting pretty
much back to normal. Even the well-known Kangaroo Bar has re-opened, though
bars on either side have been badly damaged. By the end of Soi Bangla and
onto Rat-U-Thit Road, all the major nightclubs and restaurants are still
open and busy. Standing at the Bangla Junction at midnight, just three
days after the wave, you would not even know that anything had happened.
Music booms, lights flash and the party is very much still hot.
We have so far not been able to make contact with those hotels nearest
to the beach in Patong and are unable to comment at present on their status.
However all hotels set further back, beyond Rat-U-Thit road are still fully
open.
Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort – on the small bay between Patong
and Karon – has been evacuated and closed. The hotel is reporting
damage to its pool and beachfront restaurants and plans to re-open by January
15.
KARON BEACH
The layout of Karon saved it from receiving the same level of property
damage as other beaches. Almost all of the big hotels here are set well
back from the beach and on fairly high ground. Some shops and bars along
the beach road – including the small local market – received
nominal damage, but as of Thursday most were under repair and the market
was back in action. There was serious flooding at the stadium at the south
end of Karon. All hotels we have contacted have reported that they are
fully operational.
KATA BEACH
There was significant damage to the south and north end of Kata Beach,
with restaurants and bars smashed into rubble. Club Med – which dominates
the central stretch of the beach road – was inundated at one end but
untouched at the other. For safety the hotel was evacuated. We have not
yet been able to contact anyone from the hotel to confirm when it will
be ready to re-open.
At the south end, the famous beachfront hotel Mom Tri's Boathouse
was also badly damaged. Over 3000 bottles of wine destroyed, and the grand
piano blasted 100 metres up the street. The entire ground floor restaurant
and lobby washed away. I met with owner and architect Mom Tri Devakul,
who was touring the scene of the damage yesterday (Thursday). He reported
the hotel rooms will be open again before this weekend and that he will
take this opportunity to remodel the restaurant. “It was due for a
renovation anyway,” he said with a wan smile.
The Kata Thani Hotel and resort on Kata Noi Beach received damage to
its ground floor and swimming pool.
NAIHARN BEACH AND ENVIRONS
At the southern tip of the island, Naiharn Beach was also badly hit but,
with little waterfront property, damage was limited. The same cannot be
said for Ao Sein Beach (on the northern tip of the bay and Yanui Beach,
a tiny inlet at the other end. On both guest house bungalows and private
homes have been wiped out. The damage to Yanui stretches several hundred
metres inland.
To try to describe the power of the wave here, about fifteen metres above
sea-level on the hill road from Yanui to Naiharn and about forty metres
inland from the beach, the road was partially blocked by a log about the
size of a small car, that I recalled had previously rested on the beach
just in front of Leone's house
RAWAI BEACH
There was moderate but extensive damage along the sea wall at Rawai and
several boats were destroyed. The well-known Nikita's Bar was also
damaged, but was back open for business two days after the wave. The Sea-Gypsy
village did not fare as well with significant damage and loss of life.
The Evason has announced that it is still fully operational, though there
are reports that the hotel's jetty was washed away.
CHALONG AND AO YON BEACHES
A heavy wash ran up the lower east coast of Phuket, Chalong Bay, making
a bit of a mess and leaving large chunks of boat propped up along the beach
wall, but only a few light injuries. There was water damage to a couple
of the beach front bungalow resorts, including Friendship Beach, but this
has since been cleaned up and the restaurant is operating on an almost
complete menu as of Friday. Chef Charlie says everything will be back on
in the next few days. Guests were returning to there rooms just three days
after the flooding.
The wave went on to hit Ao Yon hard, but caused only moderate property
damage, mainly to the premises of CoralSeekers, which bases its tour and
yachting operations from there. The clean up there was well underway the
day after the wave hit.
PHUKET CITY
The island's business and administrative centre received no damage
whatsoever. The city's fishing port was not so lucky. A huge swell
roared up the channel past Rattanachai boatyard, dragging dozens of large
and small fishing boats off their moorings and thrusting them into a tangled
mass against the bridge to Sirey Island.
The Sea Gypsy village on Sirey was also hit hard, with many homes destroyed.
One lady from the village reported to me that, fortunately – and surprisingly,
considering the damage – there were no dead or missing, only a few
injuries.
BEACH CLEAN-UP AND REBUILDING AROUND THE ISLAND
As of yesterday (Thursday), Royal Thai Army engineers from Ratchaburi,
staff from many hotels and villagers from both seafront and inland communities
had completed total clean ups of many of Phuket's beaches, including
Kata, Karon and Naiharn. Others are expected to be finished before the
weekend is out.
Conservative local estimates put the loss of rooms on Phuket in the low
hundreds – rather than the several thousand claimed by the Tourism
Authority of Thailand. Most of the hotels and resorts that were damaged
are reporting very minor damage – averaging between 15 and 20 rooms
each. Only a few have been completely closed down. All that we were able
to contact claim that full service will be returned in just a couple of
weeks. It should also be noted that damage caused by the tsunami on Phuket
has directly affected less than ten percent of the island.
The weight of human loss and loss of livelihoods that it has wrought,
and that which is still yet to come to light, is of course immeasurable.
To all those people affected, we send out our most heartfelt condolences.
We know you are many and we hope that we can be as strong as you and stand
beside you in the months to come.
It is the Thai people who, in what would be considered overwhelming circumstances
for many westerners, are quietly, stoically, cleaning up and beginning
the rebuilding work on Phuket. It is a scene repeated up and down the coast.
There are no scenes of wailing desperation, so beloved of CNN and BBC,
despite the enormous tasks that face them. Where foreigners have fled the
“terror”, the Thai people are still here. Despite their immeasurable
losses – and that's not just a few suitcases of clothes –
there are no mercy flights to whisk them away. They will be here throughout
all that is to come. The Thai people of Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga are
the heroes here, for it is they who have lost the most and they will be
the ones who take on the task of rebuilding the Pearl of the Andaman.
With additional reporting by Kerrie Hall, Scott Murray and Hayley
Windsor
Simon J Hand
Associate Editor
Asia-Pacific TROPICAL HOMES
www.trophomes.com
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