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Thailand's Phi Phi island, three years after the tsunami

by Aaron Hotfelder (RSS feed) on Jan 27th 2008 at 9:40AM

Over at the San Francisco Chronicle's excellent travel section, Cherilyn Parsons visits beautiful Koh Phi Phi, Thailand, and asks, "Wasn't there a tsunami here only three years ago?"

There was. On the day after Christmas, 2004, a tsunami ravaged the island of Phi Phi, driving tourists, and tourist dollars, away. For a year, most of the visitors to the island were backpackers who helped clean up the rubble, as documented in Brook Silva-Braga's fantastic documentary A Map for Saturday.

Parsons writes that the island looks much like it did pre-tsunami, and that locals are trying to move past that sad part of their recent history. When she asks one hotel owner how business was affected by the tsunami, she gets her answer:

"'How many nights you want stay Phi Phi?'

In other words, 'Why should I dwell on my past when I can sell a room to help my future?' That attitude was an answer."

Here's the full article, and accompanying photo gallery.

Filed under: Business, Asia, Thailand, Hotels and Accommodations, Budget Travel

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Chris Jan 27th 2008 12:34PM

If you want to find out more about the extensive work that's been done to restore Phi Phi's coral reefs, check out http://www.phiphidivecamp.com - set up by Andrew Hewett, a British scuba instructor who lives on Phi Phi with his wife and kids (they survived the tsunami). Andrew was instrumental in organising 100s of volunteer divers to remove debris and monitor the reef damage, and is still working to restore them. (Don't get me wrong - they are still great to snorkel and dive - I was there last December). I am a little baffled he's not cited in the SF Chronicle article - it's not difficult to find the site online

Chris Jan 27th 2008 12:38PM

And for what it's worth, if you're interested in Phi Phi post-tsunami you might find my article Phi Phi Reborn for Asian Diver magazine useful originally written back in 2006
http://divehappy.com/thailand/koh-phi-phi-reborn/

I also wrote about diving the Similan Islands, Thailand's most famous dive destination, a couple of weeks after the tsunami in January 2005
http://divehappy.com/thailand/similan-islands-after-the-tsunami/

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