Phuket: Remembering the Tsunami
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2008
1
42
76
Trip End
Jul 21, 2009
Phuket,
Thailand
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Overdevelopment of Phuket
I arrived in Phuket early in the afternoon of January 26th after my overnight boat and bus from Koh Tao. Phuket is a teardrop shaped island that sits on the Andaman Sea. It is Thailand's largest island (roughly the size of Singapore), but is reachable by a short bridge from mainland Thailand. Phuket was formerly a major trading destination along the old colonial trade routes between India and China, but in modern times derives nearly all of its income from tourism. That being said, it is a large island with a significant native population that drives a much larger-than-expected local economy, especially for a beach destination. It is a world renowned tourist destination and is the quintessential Thai beach destination that boomed over the last 25 years.
My first impression of Phuket was the rampant overdevelopment of this island/province
Kata Beach 1
. This is always a double-edged sword as visitors always want paradise preserved, but when paradise is in a poor and developing country, one cannot expect anything but an explosion of business and development. However, much development in Thailand has been inconsiderate of the environment and is not long-term sustainable. While this is certainly true of Phuket as many of the beaches are fairly dirty and there are colossal eyesores everywhere along the water's edge, the boost in tourism has certainly helped the infrastructure of this large island. There are phenomenal and well maintained roads throughout the region. However, there are strip malls everywhere with international name brands, a veritable concrete jungle in many of the beach towns with rows of McDonalds/Starbucks/Subways/Burger Kings that make you easily forget you are in close proximity of beautiful hills and beaches, tremendous overfishing of the coasts that has dramatically and permanently altered the marine life of the area, the stench and view of diesel fumes from all of the jetskis and motorboats that have cruised the waters over the last 30 years, the destruction of locally owned and operated businesses (most businesses are foreign run with a local business partner for licensing purposes) and a complete eradication of any Thai culture and heritage that may have existed at one time. It was really quite disappointing, especially compared with the relatively-lesser-developed Koh Tao and the expectations I had of the pristine Phuket paradise I have heard about for years
Kata Beach 2
. Mary grabbed a room near Kata beach on the western coast of the island, a trendy, but lesser developed beach than the nearby and disgusting Patong Beach (the party and destination capital Phuket, why I do not know, it sucks). Nonetheless, gone were the untouched mangrove segmented white sand beaches of Koh Tao and instead were the rows as far as the eyes can see of umbrellas and beach chairs. Thankfully, all of this cannot take away from the pristine sand and water at Kata beach. However, instead of viewing a palm grove while in the waves, you have supreme views of grotesque hotel structures literally steps from the sand.
Despite my disappointment, I had a great time spending days lying on the beach with Mary, splashing around and skin diving in the water, going for runs along the long streches of sand and enjoying the fantastic Thai sunshine. I only thought what it would have been like to visit this island 25 years earlier. I was also surprised by the amount of Scandinavians both vacationing and running businesses on the island. Virtually every restaurant, bar and dive shop is run by someone from one of the four northern European countries.
Remembering the Tsunami
December 26, 2004 is a dark day in the history of the world
Kata Beach 3
. A tremendous gash at the floor of the Indian Ocean, very close to Sumatra in Indonesia and measuring between 9.1-9.3 on the richter scale (2nd largest measured earthquake in history and 20 times the energy released by the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake near San Francisco), rocked all of the countries along the Indian Ocean basin. As everyone knows, a series of massive tsunamis struck from Indonesia all the way to India and killed a devastating 225,000 people. The Andaman Sea lies in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and borders the western coast of Thailand. Phuket (as well as Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and other big tourist islands) was particularly devastated by the angry waves that day that destroyed the western coast of the island - including Kata Beach (where we stayed), Patong Beach and many of the other beaches along that stretch. As previously mentioned, I was in India when the tsunamis struck and I saw the devastating damage up close on the southern Indian coast in 2004. Of all recent natural disasters, the tsunami strikes a particularly tragic chord in me and is a disaster that is very close to my heart. The pictures, videos and stories of that day are absolutely devastating and every bit as shocking and heart wrenching today as they were on Boxing Day in 2004.
Since this is my first trip to Southeast Asia, my visit to Phuket was the closest I have come to the carnage that devastated this region in the world (the greatest damage was inflicted on Sumatra and Thailand second). Close to 250 people died on Phuket alone on that day. With the tsunami in the back of my mind, I reached the beaches of Phuket in a particularly somber mood. This mood was attenuated by the constant reminders throughout the island
Cool Bike
. Learning from the lack of emergency preparedness in 2004, there are Tsunami Evacuation Route signs throughout the island now. When I reached the water's edge at Kata Beach, I was hit really hard by the memories of that dark day in 2004. It was hard to believe that this blue, warm and beautiful sea of fun that is as still as glass could be such a menace in a moment's time. Prior to entering the water, I had a silent prayer and paid homage to the sea that is both the provider and taker of life to so many people along the rim of the Indian Ocean. However, without knowledge of the carnage of 2004 and the Tsunami Evacuation Route signs everywhere, you would have no clue that the island was essentially destroyed. Nearly every beach along the western coast was decimated with the water reaching far inland. However, with tourism such a huge driver of the economy, the Thai authorities and businesses were quick to completely rebuild everything that was lost. Sadly, the same cannot be said for New Orleans, despite its residing in a country that is many magnitudes wealthier and that is endowed with greater resources than Thailand. One consistent rule in life is money talks.
Making the Best of Phuket
Mary and I planned on spending only a few days in Phuket as we had to take care of a few things and sort out our dive boat liveaboard for our diving trip to the Similan Islands, 100km off the coast of Phuket in the Andaman Sea. We continued to enjoy swims in the ocean together, visits to the local hookah bars and restaurants and watching the Australian Open at night in the local pool hall (yeah Rafa!).
I also had a couple of big housekeeping items to take care of
Sarah on her steed on drive to Laem Singh
. I made the mistake of getting sand into my camera lens while on Koh Tao (yes, the camera that I had purchased a mere few months earlier in Saigon) and had to venture all over the island to find a repair shop that would fix my lens for cheap. Without an authorized Canon repair shop anywhere close (Kuala Lumpur was the closest location), I finally found an outstanding repair shop in one of the large malls an hour's motorbike ride away in Phuket Town.The other large piece of housekeeping was my continued battles with eTrade to get access to my money. The last I mentioned of this escapade was while in Bangkok when I completely berated some customer service representatives. My troubles and inability to access any of my money because of my "fraudulent" internet accessing of my own account continued while in Koh Tao to no avail. The troubles crescendoed in Phuket when I was told I needed to physically mail a notarized letter from Thailand to the US. The concierge at the Hilton in Karon Beach (if you ever need anything while on the road somewhere, pop into a 5 star hotel and ask their concierge for information - they'll figure it out for you) was able to both locate a camera repair shop for me as well as locate a notary public on the island and arrange for me to meet him at the hotel that afternoon.
Needing to pay him an exorbitant 5,000THB ($150) and FedEx the letter to the US, I needed to borrow a lot more money from Mary
Elephant Crossing
. Since she was at the beach and I didn't want to bother her to make a trip to the ATM, I tried to get her wallet from the safety deposit box at our guest house, but the lady who worked there wouldn't give me her wallet as a matter of principle. I was still fuming over eTrade and all of this bullsh*t I had to go through and completely exploded on the lady who ran the guesthouse. I was extremely disappointed at myself as I have worked hard for years to no longer get angry at the small stuff and kind of maintain a no worries attitude towards most things in life. It's not healthy to blow up and there's little that truly matters and this certainly wasn't something to get angry about; the lady was protecting another customer's valuables - whether I was romantically involved with her or not. Mary, thankfully, set me straight and pointed out my ludicrous behavior and smoothed the peace with the lady at the hotel. After I humbly apologized, things were ok with the guesthouse. Another reason why Mary balances me greatly - she calls me out when I am totally out of line and I listen. The notary ended up being wonderful, my letter to eTrade was on its way (and in a matter of days I would once again have ATM access) and I was feeling great at getting my two large errands out of the way. By the following day, Jan 28, we had sorted out our boat to the Similan Islands, a 5 day/4 night adventure aboard the South Siam Divers boat. With a day to kill, we heard about beautiful Laem Singh beach, north of Patong beach. Sarah, Mary and I rented some motorbikes and were on our way along the coast to check out the beach. However, just before we rented bikes I rode down the block (without a helmet, the first time in all of SE Asia) to refill my petrol. Just my luck, I was slapped with a no-helmet ticket by the police, told to pay it at the station and report back to the policeman on the side of the road
Tsunami Hazard Zone
. While it is great that they give such tickets, I had no intention of paying it considering they had no information on me and I was on a rental bike. I made a long lap around back to the bike shop, returned my bike, and rented a new bike with the girls. Sneaky sneaky and no fine was paid. It was a wonderful afternoon with my baby doubling up with me on my bike, her arms wrapped around me and taking pictures as we whizzed around the island. The beach was incredible and there was some great skin diving available there that got me jazzed for what I would see in the world famous Similan Islands. It was a wonderful way to spend our last day on Phuket away from all of the concrete, clubs and everything that we hated about the place.
On the motorbike, where a lot of thinking always gets done (see my entry on my Cambodian Dirt Bike Tour), I was really pensive as I had been my entire few days on this island. There was a lot on my mind, and contrary to most of the rest of my travels, these thoughts had nothing to do with my observations on the culture and development of a place. My "studies", as I have come to frame my travels, took a backseat to my private life. I have found something profound and beautiful in Mary and am supposed to move away from everything for two years? You may be tired of reading this, but I'm never tired of saying or writing it: Mary is absolutely wonderful. She's not perfect, nobody is, but she supports and loves me and was starting to develop her own conscience regarding a life of service, teaching or helping people in developing countries or less privileged communities.
As we said goodbye to Sarah and boarded the boat to the Similan Islands, what would be dubbed our "honeymoon", there was simply one thought on my mind: We should live out here (somewhere in SE Asia) and not look back.
