Tsunami Adverse

I began my volunteer work with the Tourist Police Volunteers last week, and commented to Clive that even for a Wednesday night, it seemed very quiet on Bangla Road. This is the main tourist night life area on the island. Normally it is hopping any night, and more-so on a weekend. But people on vacation tend to not schedule their party time, with the normal concerns about tomorrow being a work day! But even at 10PM, some of the bars were empty, and remained so until I clocked out at midnight. Those that were busy were at about 50% capacity or less. The tuk-tuk drivers were lined up the streets as far as you could see, and even the traffic on the roadways seemed light.

But it is normally a lull time in the holiday visitors to the island, albeit a bit earlier than usual, I thought. I would expect the numbers to soar by mid-April, as we got into Songkran, THE big annual holiday in Thailand. And I am told that the tourist traffic will increase from then until June from the middle east, with people escaping the high 40 degree (c) weather for a more pleasant low to mid 30's degrees.

I have overheard discussions about how suddenly the tourist high season seemed to stop, as if someone pulled a plug on the place. Then today I see the local, new, newspaper announces that 'Tsunami Fears Empty Patong."
It seems that after the devastating events in Japan, the concerns about a tsunami hitting Phuket again, as it did in 2004, had people staying off the beaches, canceling holidays and avoiding the area.I find it strange that people seem to think that once hit by a tsunami, you are always going to be prone to one. The second observation I had was the number of people who contacted us and were concerned about the impact of the tsunami in Japan affecting us. From a strictly geographical perspective, the potential of Phuket being in the path of a tsunami triggered in northern Asia is highly unlikely. In fact in the latest events, the areas to the south and east of Thailand were more vulnerable than we were.

But part of this all went to show how beliefs and superstitions can impact behaviour. My quick read of things right now, is you should book a trip here quickly, as I am sure you could negotiate some great rates! This has not been helped with a Thai fortune teller issuing predictions of another tsunami going to hit Phuket and getting lots of media attention. They do not however seem to be able to tell us in the articles how accurate any of this fortune tellers past predictions have been.

Just to be clear, following the tsunami in Phuket (and lots of other areas in the region by the way) in 2004, a great deal of work was undertaken. Many of the low lying areas and beaches have breaker wallsThey have early warning buoys in the waters that are monitored and there are about 19 alarm towers with loud sirens. All of the major roadways here have posted metal signs for tsunami evacuation and signs to advise you that you are in a tsunami risk area. There are also tsunami evacuation shelter areas identified and posted. In the time we have been here, they have had siren tests to check and see if the system is working properly. And at Christmas time they did a full scale evacuation readiness drill at the airport, as well as in some of the local communities. I was amused by a letter from the paper condemning the drill taking place on Christmas eve day, as it was seen by the writer to be disrespectful to Christians. Apparently natural disasters and preparing for them needs to be cognizant of holidays.  Sorry, we have a large BBQ planned, can you reschedule that earthquake to next Saturday? I was personally happy to see that the planning went ahead, considering that the tsunami that hit here, came during the Christmas festive season in the first place. I also thought it was a good visual reminder to people arriving to be cognizant of the risks of a tsunami and perhaps look over those brochures about what to do to survive one, as you lounge back chugging a Chang beer and scanning the horizon.