In Memory of Tsunami 2004, Phuket, Thailand

Rawai Beach, Phuket, Thailand. 2010

Coral washed ashore during the Tsunami of 2004 in Phuket can still be seen 5 years later along the shoreline at shallow water.

The overturned corals cause a hazard to local fishing boats especially during the rough seas of the Monsoon Season, but in a more positive way, they provide a breeding ground or shelter for various species of marine life.

At Rawai Beach, Phuket, Thailand, new coral can be seen growing in places where there was no coral before. Small corals are visible during low water scattered among the debris of broken coral damaged by the tsunami.

Holiday Time!

Well it seems that Phuket's high season is beginning! Lots of visitors from all over the world are here and enjoying the sun!

Some are here to play, some to enjoy the food!

What's happened to the beach?

The change in Phuket's seasons brings some dramatic changes to the beach at Bon Island. The strong winds of the 'kite flying season' blow the sand up onto the island, and the waves that the wind creates push the sand from the eastern side of the beach to the western side. This year it has taken only nine days to make a 50cm cut into the sand (see photograph above) and this process will continue for the next couple of months. By early next year we can expect to see a difference of over 150cm. This change has resulted in one of my regular customers from Coconut Paradise accusing me of cutting down the tree that he had previously been sitting under. I had to explain that it was in fact the beach that had disappeared not the tree!

And so now I return with another photograph of the same stretch of beach, this time taken on 3rd December one month on from the photo at the top of this blog which was taken on 4th November. The beach has receded a lot, exposing more rocks and it has still to go further back. I will return again soon with the next update!

After the strong wind yesterday, strong waves cut away at the sand even more, leaving many more rocks exposed and carving a shelf along the beach.

Luckily the sand stopped moving just before it got to our beach chairs, leaving a couple of them on the brink of disaster!

Now it's already half way through January and the beach has changed a lot, there will be no tourists lying on this corner of the beach until the sand starts to move back again in about three months time.

The End of a Perfect Day in Paradise

The perfect end to a perfect day!

The last few tourists at Bon Island catch the last few rays of sun before it sinks into the sea behind Koh Gaew (Buddha Island) marking the end of just another perfect day in paradise.

Then as our boat pulls out of Bon Island, the sun slowly starts to sink out of sight, lighting up the clouds over Lone Island and painting the sea, before it disappears altogether.

On arrival back at Rawai beach the long-tail boats are silhouetted against the last rays of light. Tranquillity finally returns, all is silent until the new day breaks, the tourists return and the sound of the engines drown out the calls of the boat drivers.

The weather has been a bit strange over the last few days, brilliant sunshine with spots of rain falling at the same time, but Phuket's like that! Monday saw a brief return to the rainy season with SW winds, large monsoon season style waves and thick cloud in the morning that eventually retreated to allow the sun to break through. Today, Tuesday was thankfully a lot better, no waves and plenty of sun that helped make a wonderful day on the beach for all our visitors.

However by around 16.30 things began to change and a quick exodus had to be made by all!

The only thought was whether we would make it before the rain caught up with us, and as we pulled the boat in to Rawai Beach, spots of rain began to fall. Some streets were partially flooded including Nanai Road in Patong which was renamed as Nanai River!

Casualties on the Beach

Strong winds yesterday washed sand from the east of Bon Island's beach to the west (as mentioned in a previous post) leaving several beach chairs buried in sand. But this was not the only change to be seen. The sea had left the beach looking more beautiful than ever with a fresh layer of sand looking pristine like newly fallen snow, not a footprint in sight! It reminded me of just how the beach looked three days after Tsunami 2004, perfectly clean and edged with crystal clear water, almost as if no disaster had ever occurred.

Typhoon Gay Remembered

Today is the 20th anniversary of Typhoon Gay, the typhoon that devastated Chumporn, Thailand. The storm struck early in the morning of November 4th 1989, with a wind speed of 190km per hour, leaving over 400 dead, damaging 40,000 homes and effecting around 150,000 people. The strong waves did a similar amount of damage to the coral reef as the Tsunami of 2004 did to Phuket ( see photograph). Broken coral was washed ashore leaving a bank of coral almost a metre deep on one of the beaches in Chumporn.