Phuket thrives once more, but beware its dark sideLindsay Murdoch
Go-go dancers at an open-air bar in Patong Beach, File photo. Source: Wikipedia
A SCANTILY clad Russian dancer clings to a pole behind a second-storey street-front window of a nightclub called L'Amour.
A large Australian flag flutters below her in a breeze coming off the Andaman Sea. Across the street the Aussie Bar is crowded with young Australian drinkers, many of them bare-chested, who are shouting to be heard above music thumping from nearby bars.
Away from the seedy red-light district of Patong Beach it's boom time on Phuket seven years after the Boxing Day tsunami hit southern Thailand with awesome savagery, killing more than 5000 people and wiping out the region's tourism industry.
Phuket international airport is being upgraded to accommodate 12.4 million visitors a year by 2014. The island once known as the ''Pearl of the Andaman Sea'' is undergoing a building frenzy with 43,000 hotel rooms open and at least 7000 more units in the pipeline.
But Larry Cunningham, Australia's honorary consul on the island, has spoken out about scams , criminality and bad behaviour that are ruining the holidays of Australians, including a new wave of ''schoolies''.
Up to 25,000 Australian tourists a month are now visiting Phuket, most of them arriving on cheap direct flights, lured by the high Australian dollar and an exotic location.
''Many Australians come here behaving as if the same standards and laws apply in Thailand as they do in Australia,'' says Mr Cunningham, a property developer from Sydney who has lived on Phuket for 11 years.
Full story and pictures:
http://www.smh.com.a...1225-1p9kn.html
-- smh.com.au 2011-12-26
Search Option
Recent Posts
Todays Birthdays
