Eight years on from the tsunami, resorts in and around Khao Lak, north of Phuket, are enjoying the benefits of achieving what some people thought might be impossible. By coincidence, the film, 'The Impossible,' perhaps the most accurate depiction so far of Thailand's biggest natural disaster, is screening for the first time later this week.
Expect tears from many on Phuket and in the surrounding region, tears from those who will never forget Boxing Day 2004.
As Phuket and the Andaman coast learned with not one but two tsunami alerts earlier this year, the 2004 tsunami must always be remembered.
Andrew and Kate Kemp, owners of the muti-award winning Sarojin in Khao Lak, say their resort has been ''oscillationg around 100 percent occupancy'' for the past six weeks.
The next few weeks should improve on that. ''We are looking for a very good high season,'' Mr Kemp said today.
Back in 2004, the Sarojin was destroyed before it opened. Fortunately, the whole staff had been given the day off.
Andrew Kemp, though, found himself at the local hospital in the Andaman township of Takuapa that day, helping out with translations amid the chaos as hundreds of injured and dead were brought in.
'The Impossible' tells the story of one British family of tourists who were separated by the tsunami, and much of their emotional journey unfolds at Takuapa Hospital.
Thousands of visitors and residents were killed.
Popular myth has Phuket as being at the heart of the disaster, but 10 times more people were killed and injured around Khao Lak.
In the days that followed, Kate and Andrew Kemp decided to rebuild the Sarojin as fast as possible, despite the bleak salt-browned landscape. Khao Lak rebuilt along with them.
Today, says Mr Kemp, Khao Lak is flourishing with ''encouraging signs for the wider area.''
There has always been a togetherness about Khao Lak that sprang from the darkness and despair of that December day. Today it gives the region a common purpose, a sense of identity and serenity that is totally lacking on Phuket.
To visit the village of Nam Khem (salt water) for the annual memorial service each December 26 is to understand how this fishing village has regenerated despite 800 deaths there.
We will never forget the year when families brought out framed photographs of the dead to place on a table near the spot where the service was to take place.
Afterwards, some people picked up one photograph. Others picked up one, two, three . . . sometimes many more . . . ''I lost 12 members of my family,'' a woman told us.
And not far away from the village, in a graveyard that is usually overgrown, the bodies of about 280 nameless victims of the tsunami act as a reminder of that day.
Yes, the tears will flow on Phuket and along the Andaman coast during screenings of 'The Impossible.' But the mood will be of impossible hope. The good work continues.
''The Sarojin Khao Lak Community Fund is still very much in existence,'' Mr Kemp said. ''And this weekend Kate will be running a marathon for a local cause.'
Tuesday 27 November 2012
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/impossible-tsunami-film-bring-memories-tears-17128/
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