LT36: Phuket - Ten Years On

ISSUE 36 JUNE-JULY 2015

ISSUE 36 JUNE-JULY 2015

Let’s Travel THE MAGAZINE FOR CORPORATE AND LEISURE TRAVELLERS

NEW YORK The Big Apple

THE MAGAZINE FOR CORPORATE AND LEISURE TRAVELLERS

Bonjour NEW CALEDONIA AUCKLAND Kawau Island Cruising TAHITI

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By Roderick Eime et al

ASIA | THAILAND

The international airport on the island (code: HKT) is a convenient gateway to not only the island itself, but to the neighbouring attractions and resorts located on the coastal strip of Khao Lak to the north and the delightful islands like Ko Yao Yai and Phi Phi to the east.

Virtually the entire coastline of the island is dotted with resorts and hotels, all strategically located to take advantage of the beaches and sweeping seascapes. Many suffered damage as a result of the tsunami, but all are rebuilt and operating to full capacity again. Some would say better than ever.

Phuket’s 19th century tin boom led to a minor flurry of building that has left an interesting cultural and architectural heritage. A walking tour around the old town district is an enlightening experience.

Did you know Phuket also sustains a small, but busy pearl farming industry? You can see the process of farming pearl-producing oysters at Ao Sapam and even choose your own piece of jewellery as a lasting memento.

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Old Phuket town

B

oxing Day 2004 changed the world forever, especially so in the immediate region around the epicentre. Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and Burma were the hardest hit with casualties as far away as Kenya and Yemen confirmed. In total, around a quarter of a million people died with nearly 10,000 in Thailand.

In the bustling resort city of Phuket, around 250 were confirmed killed, about half of them tourists, with many more missing. The scale of destruction everywhere was catastrophic and the human aftermath was just as challenging. Anyone who has seen the Hollywood film, ‘The Impossible’, set at nearby Khao Lak, will understand the enormity of the event.

Thailand was quick to rebuild and recover and the lavish and rambunctious resort destination is now gleaming like a new pin. On the island itself, as well as surrounding locations, the multi-star resorts, beach bars and other leisure facilities are back in full swing almost as if nothing had happened.

Visitors can enjoy watersports like windsurfing, sailing, yachting and even deep-sea fishing, while scuba diving

Karon Beach

expeditions regularly leave Phuket for dives around neighbouring islands like Phi Phi, the Similans and Raya.

While the beach and bar scene seems to preoccupy most stories and reports from Phuket, it’s not too hard to cast your eyes a bit further afield and find alternatives.

The 576 km2 island of Phuket is much more than the rowdy and rambunctious Bangla Road on Patong Beach that seems to feature loud on most travel sites.

“Phuket? Annie, how does one correctly pronounce this island you are on?” So wrote my friend’s mother to her daughter who in 1977 was hanging out on Phuket’s then near-empty Patong Beach. She was wondering how to tell the neighbours that young tearaway Annie was not only beach-bumming in Asia but was on some island whose name, alarmingly, seemed to be…“Fu-ket”?

I was a late starter in the Phuket stakes. Annie, and the tourist industry, beat me by a decade. By the time I arrived a savvy Singaporean developer was completing the alchemical trick of turning tin into gold — that is, an abandoned beachside quarry into the opulent, 1,000-acre Laguna Phuket resort complex. Patong Beach was already a deck-chair griddle of spit-roasting Germans and trophy-tanning Nordics, and its main drag, Soi Bangla was living up to the connotations of its name.

In those pre-mafia days you could still get an honest Phuket taxi ride and reasonable tuk-tuk fare (try that today) and the traffic jams didn’t yet rival Bangkok’s.

And then came the tsunami of 2004. In the immediate aftermath Patong’s seafront road looked more like civil war Beirut than a tropical Thai resort. From one hundred metres inland, however, the rest of Phuket’s 540 sq km (almost the size of Singapore) remained untouched.

Regardless, global news networks shrilled that the island was all but wiped out, which sent hotel occupancy plunging from ninety-five to five percent. For many vulnerable Thais the unwarranted economic hardship that followed was a second, bitter tsunami.

“Patong hasn’t looked like this for 25 years,” said my Thai guide, Dej, as we scanned the beach a week after the devastating waves. If the sea seemed bluer and the sands whiter it was because both were emptier and cleaner than they had been since Annie was a beach-bum.

Meanwhile back on Soi Bangla, ever-enterprising Thais had already copied television tsunami footage from across the region, edited and burned it to DVDs and were flogging for 200 baht the phonetically-titled compilation, “Toosoonami”.

John Borthwick

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Phuket…Ten years on

They are in their early twenties and on their honeymoon. I’ve seen them from a distance in the breakfast room over the last couple of mornings. The new husband, James, and I are waiting at the breakfast buffet for the conveyor belt toaster to do its thing when he introduces himself and asks if I’ve been outside the resort.

Is he joking? The expansive five-star resort is fine but wouldn’t you want to explore this holiday island’s many attractions?

“We’ve never been in Asia before and we’re a bit nervous,” James confides. “Especially Rachel. She’s heard some wild stories.”

This is different. Wild stories are what attract many people their age to the myriad bars and discos at Patong Beach.

That night I take James and Rachel to a seafood restaurant on the beach outside the resort. Rachel loves the food. James loves the price. Both are now seriously questioning the warning about local restaurants in the resort’s room directory.

After a couple of drinks I suggest they take a drive to some of the scenic spots and perhaps go kayaking in the Andaman Sea. They are starting to relax. Rachel is returning the smiles of the Thai waitress. The charms of Phuket are beginning to work.

John Maddocks

ASIA | THAILAND

Wild Stories

Destination ➜ Thailand

Accommodation Tip

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ASIA | THAILAND

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These fabulous four-year-old villas are fully self-contained behind a high wall and gate with private (8x4m) infinity pool and cabana. Separate bedrooms, living area and kitchen means you can blissfully enjoy your own company (or that of loved ones) while you make your own meals or have them delivered from the kitchen. Need to get out a bit? Stroll down to Zhong, the in-house restaurant, or take the free shuttle to nearby Kamala Beach or downtown Patong.

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We all know Thais love their festivals, and Phuket has plenty to offer whether for the devout or just for fun. The annual Vegetarian Festival, held over nine days in October, is one of the signature events, while other colourful events include the Phuket King’s Cup Regatta, Asia’s biggest sailing event, and the Laguna Phuket Triathlon, following adventure routes along Phuket’s tourist attractions.

Some sights to mark on your Phuket travel list: Phuket Thai Hua Museum - contains an interesting photography display and recognises Phuket’s Chinese heritage Phuket Aquarium - makes education fun with its many different displays of marine life, habitats as well as local environmental and conservation issues

The Phuket Art Gallery - a Sino-Portuguese style building where modern and fascinating arts are displayed as well as a wide range of temporary exhibits Phuket Silom Cabaret - highly regarded Broadwaystandard stage shows featuring skilful dancers, stunning costumes and great music and light system You’ll hear all sorts of stories from different people’s experiences in Phuket and there are things you need to be careful of, but it’s easy to enjoy yourself and relax under the balmy tropical sun with a cocktail and massage if that’s all you need.

Our most experienced writers recall with great fondness their time in pre-tsunami Phuket, recalling an era of innocence and tranquility before the big wave.

Be Eco-friendly in Phuket It’s well worth visiting the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre next to Bang Pae Waterfall to find out more about these creatures. We visited during our stay and chatted to the volunteers there. Some of the rescued gibbons have missing arms or hands chopped off or mutilated by owners when the animals grew up and started to get aggressive. Some of these poor beasts can’t survive in the wild anymore and depend on this sanctuary - which has no government funding - so make a donation or join their “Adopt a Gibbon” project to help.

Never purchase any products or souvenirs made from wild animals including snake or monitor lizard skin, turtle shells, or ivory. Avoid having your photo taken with captive animals such as monkeys or gibbons. These animals are captured as babies, usually by killing the mother, only to be abandoned when they reach adolescence and become, unsurprisingly, aggressive. ➜ www.gibbonproject.org Deborah Dickson-Smith

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