Thailand Trails

Many of the locals have referred to the recent earthquake and tsunamis as Black Christmas. Our bus from Kuala Lumpur took us to Krabi, our original destination for a sunny New Year celebration. The damage in Krabi was not nearly as extensive as we were expecting. Very few of the shops and restaurants were affected, although the beach was still cluttered with debris. Halfway down the beach we saw a crane pulling a sunken boat from the water, and many of the Thais examining the damage done to the longboats which serve as their livelihood. There were actually a handful of foreigners reading books on the beach and swimming in the water (which was full of metal scraps and seaweed).

From Krabi we travelled to Phuket where the damage was much greater. Phuket is Thailand's largest island and most popular tourist attraction. On Phuket, the most heavily touristed area is around the beach "Patong" which was one of the hardest places hit in all of Thailand. Patong is a very long, arched beach (maybe 1.5 kilometers wide). We arrived very early in the morning and were quite surprised by what we encountered. The beach was literally torn up and there were only remnants of the cement wall that separated the beach from the town. Large pieces of concrete were scattered all over the beach as were numerous (and quite large) overturned boats, some of which were literally wrapped around the palm trees. The street just beyond the beach was uneven and covered in sand and the first row of shops was completely destroyed. We saw several cars along the road, all crushed from the waves and the debris. The smell was unforgettable: moldy heaps of people's houses and shops were rotting in the street. We spent a few minutes chatting with a news crew from FoxNews who were filming a segment in front of an exceptionally demolished car. The whole experience was very surreal. (See photo album).

However, we were quite surprised to see that the damage was not as widespread as we thought. Most of the shops within a couple blocks of the beach suffered severe water damage. However, about 3 blocks from the beach we found little to no visible damage. In fact, restaurants and bars were still open for business. The contrast was very distinct with damage to stores on one side of a street, but none on the other. In addition, we were quite pleased to see how quickly the streets had been cleaned, with large piles of trash neatly pushed out of the way for local traffic. It seemed very much like the community was in control of the situation.

While much attention has been paid to Thailand because of the number of tourists that vacation here, the damage seems very minor compared to reports we have read about Banda Aceh, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Today, the death toll stands at 156,000 less than 5% of which were on the beaches of Thailand.