Mod never thought her life would be totally changed by such rarely occurred disaster as tsunami, neither did she expect such a quick recovery on the island which has been a tourist paradise especially for western holiday-makers.

"If I could, I would like to draw a picture everyday to depict the progress made on this tiny island," the woman in her forties said with emotion.

Mod has been working and living on the island for ten years. She fled her life by climbing onto the hill as huge waves as high as a coconut tree smashed the island on Dec. 26, 2004. Her shop and house were washed way by giant walls of water, so did many of her friends.

"I can't sleep for seven days and nights. The images of the dead obsessed me all the time," she recollected.

Mod has been owning a fruit shop for several years, but now she has only a small four-wheel cart to sell fruit shakes and juices.

When Mod started her new business in August, she earned only

700-800 baht (18-20 US dollars) per day. Thanks to the gradual increase of tourists, she now can make around some 1,500 baht (37 US dollars).

Mod said she likes foreign tourists here very much and sometimes even prefer to offer them free drinks. "They are so kind and warm-hearted and help us a lot in rebuilding the place."

Lying some 48 kilometers east of Phuket, the picturesque island covers an area of 35 square kilometers. Around 2,000 people were killed in killer waves when the tourist hotspot was lashed by tsunami last year.

Almost a year after the disaster, sight-seeing cruisers and boats were again lined up along the island's narrow coastline and rows of shops have been erected besides the tropical coconut trees. The place, of course, was packed up with tourists with backpacks and sun-glasses.

Still there are traces of a bygone catastrophe: a number of

houses are undergoing construction, debris and garbage are scattered here and there, volunteers are busing with clearing and building work.

"I came back on Jan. 2 this year and lived at the guest house since then," said Clare, a volunteer from Help International Phi Phi Foundation.

The 26-year-old girl from England has intended to open a diving shop on Phi Phi. But with the struck of tsunami, her plan has to be postponed.

Clare said the rebuilding has dragged on slowly due to the

government indecision about how to redevelop the island.

Currently, some 200 local families are still living in temporary shelters in Krabi province and infrastructure has not been fully constructed yet, she said.

Her volunteer group, together with some nine other foundations, work side by side with bare hands to rebuild the island. "Each foundation concentrates one specific field of reconstruction, and we work like a community," said Clare.

This year, some 3,000-4,000 tourists have passed through the island to work as volunteers helping with the clean-up and clearing. Clare hoped to bring the locals back to the place they belong to at a early date but frustrated because they have no fund to do more.

However, on the nearby isle of Phuket, tourism officials said hotel bookings were around 80 percent in December, the start of the peak season.

Anoma Vongyai, assistant director of southern office of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), said in the first nine months of year, the number of tourists dropped 52 percent over the same period last year. For the whole 2005, the number slumped 50 percent compared to that in 2004.

For Phuket, Krabi and Phangnga, the three provinces worst hit by the tsunami, a total revenue loss of 30,000 million baht (750 million US dollars) have been inflicted on tourism.

Lots of tourists from Europe have come back but not so many from Asia, said Anoma. She estimated the full tourism recovery in all provinces along the Andaman sea is expected no sooner than 2007 since spots like Phi Phi and Khao Lak has been severely damaged by tsunami.

Next year, Thai tourism officials will carry out ambitious marketing campaigns in Australia, Germany and other countries in a bid to promote Thai tourism destinations. A special event was also planned in January especially for Chinese New Year, she said.

"I don't mind spending holiday here even after the disaster. It normal to take time for rebuilding," said Laurence, a 31-year-old tourist from Swissland.

"Tsunami is destructive and sad, but people will finally forget it, because no matter what has happened, the world have to go on and on."

Source: Xinhua