Lon
Well-known Member
- Location
- Central California
Our trip to Post Tsunami Phuket was fantastic and we found that the best way to help the Thais recover from the disaster is bring in $$$$ through tourism. It goes directly into their pockets instead of through multiple agencies. Although Diane and I stayed at the very upscale Sheraton at Laguna Phuket where there was very little damage, we saw the remnants of Patong Beach and Phi Phi Island where waves as high as two stories came thundering in. It seems as though every Thai that we met had a relative or family member that died in the tsunami. It struck me as odd that so many (mostly women) Thais do not swim. With all the debris carried by the huge waves, being able to swim probably made very little difference in surviving. Patong Beach was packed with tourists this past Sunday, April 17th. The beach looked great and is all cleaned up of debris, but off the beach and inland for 600 to 700 yds, all the greenery is dead due to salt. We met no Americans on this trip, mostly Germans, Swedes, Indians, Britts & Aussies. We visited many of the picturesque smaller islands 40 to 100 miles off Phuket, in the Andaman Sea. The water is warm all the year in this area, almost too warm for me as the temperature is very humid and cooler water would be more to my liking. Food is cheap and plentiful in Thailand, in fact, most Thais don't cook dinner most evenings, but eat out at the many sidewalk eateries and kiosks. I am quite fond of fruits, and ate fruit aplenty on this trip, some that I have never seen before. Although we slept at the Sheraton, we ate elsewhere, other than the huge buffet breakfast that came with the suite. Thai dinners averaged the equivilent of 3 to 5 U.S. dollars each. Personally, I like Thailand better than Fiji, just wish it wasn't so far away. Di and I are looking forward to going back.