[ Zoom Map ]

Phuket, Thailand
7° 52' N 98° 24' E
Mar 10, 2006 10:36
Distance 111km

Choose another map, showing:

• Thailand
• Malaysia
• South East Asia
• Asia
• Eurasia
• Eurasia, Africa & Pacific
• The World

Other entries in Phuket

Tourism strikes again

Text written in: English

Its been 15 months since that devastating Tsunami hit SE Asia and Phuket seems not to have noticed. from what i could tell, this place has dedicated the time since then to totally rebuilding and remaking this tourist paradise. if anything, it might be worse now because all of the old, traditional, historic hotels and resorts may have been wiped out and in their place is a brand new, state of the art resort with new ownership and credo. we found this place much more expensive than the rest of thailand and really, not too much more beautiful. but to be fair, we only had about 20 hours on the island to make our opinion.

i usually try to steer clear of such obvious tourist traps because you are at such a disadvantage because no locals will lower prices for you because they dont have to. and often you are forced to do things and spend money you dont want to because all the options are already laid out for you. its just a matter of picking which one you want to do.

we arrived via bus and were dropped off in Phuket City on the southern end of the island. immediately taxi drivers swarmed to pick up the newest arrivals to the trap. we batted them away and found our way into a information center. the man behind the counter was very unhelpful and quite unpleasant to boot. we told him where we wanted to go and he said it wasnt good so we should use his agency to go somewhere else. we asked him how to get to an area of town and he said thats not right, take a taxi. when we asked about a brochure in the office, he took it and said they were gone because of the tsunami and we should use this another one he produced. so we left feeling frustrated. we found another agency nearby that actually helped us with what we needed and we were soon at the beach we wanted to be at. we only had one night to explore and see the area because we were taking a flight in the morning to meet up with fatty in bangkok. the beaches were nice but filled with loungers and waiters serving mai tais. the town was pricey and aggressive with their products. one time i passed a elegant clothing shop and a man said, "hey mister, you want buy suit?" me: "no thanks". him: "WHY NOT?!" so, unfortunately, my suspicions were confirmed that this was an overtouristed and not all that pleasant atmosphere for vacationing. thailand is full of other off-the-beaten-track places that were probably better than this one. but again, i was only there briefly and if there longer, might have a different opinion. i also did have a morbid curiosity about seeing the extent of the damage from the tsunami but as i said earlier, there didnt appear to be much.

so we woke up early to catch a plane and then were back in bangkok after a short, hour flight. and bangkok is crazy.