Visit Thailand

Just got back from spending four days in Phuket Thailand and am happy to report that most of the resorts are open for business and are desperate for tourists.

There's still a lot of damage in some spots but in the main tourist town of Patong a lot has been rebuilt and the place has been cleaned up. The beaches and land are as beautiful as ever and the people are friendlyand beautiful and the food is great. Many of the diving and snorkelling areas are in excellent condition and in Patong there is still plenty of nightlife. For those who don't like crowds the place isn't too crowded and there are plenty of other places to go to where the beaches are almost deserted.

For those concerned about health and safety there are no health problems regarding diseases and all of the food even from roadside stalls that I ate was excellent. They've got no shortages of food, drinking water, medicine and most importantly beer.

For those on a budget there are some great deals to be had and with the tsunami prices have come down for lodging, airfare and food. Great deals can be found without having to look too hard.

Between December and May is supposed to be their high season where many businesses make all enough money to cover them the rest of the time. The tsunami hit hardest at tourist areas and many of the businesses are struggling to earn enough money to survive and replace everything that was lost. Tourists are very down, less than half of normal from what I heard, and many are staying away not knowing what condition things are in Phuket. From going there myself and talking to tourists who were reluctant to go but went anyway those fears are all exagerated. Even people who were nervous about going to Phuket have loved their experience there.

So while its great to give money to funds providing relief and the Thais are very appreciative of that what they really need is tourists. They don't want to live on handouts but want to get back on their feet and the best way you can help out is to go visit them. On top of that you'll get to have a great time in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

 

Its pronounced Poo-Ket

I know the names sound funny in English but I'm sure many American cities names probably sound funny to people in other countries.

 

Its like Padre except with mountains, a different culture, and much much cheaper prices.

 

The weird thing is that the sex / lonely persons trade might be the only segment of the tourism industry that's keeping things afloat there.

One of the things I noted was that most of the tourist were fat middle-aged European guys with tiny Thai women, or in a few cases men. While prostitution is officially outlawed in Thailand its pretty much tolerated and plus what many people seem to do is get temporary girlfriends.

I'm working on writing a few pieces about how the tsunami recovery is going in Thailand and one piece I'm planning on calling

Sex, Drugs and Tsunami Recovery

I'm going to talk about how the sex industry has been affected by the tsunami and also include a story about a local drug dealer who had donated a third of his profits to tsunami relief and advertised that to potential buyers.