Just back from a somewhat bizarre weekend in Phuket, staying on Kamala Beach at the Kamala Bay Hotel and Resort. The picture of the resort on Expedia depicts a pristine beach and hotel with sun brollies – perfect for a long weekend getaway. The reality is a shit strewn building site replete with piledrivers and buzzsaws at work all day. It’s classic “holidays from hell” material.
I’ve been a cheerleader for tourists returning to Phuket and the Andaman coast, and every beach on the island now looks as if the tsunami never happened. Except for Kamala, which looks like the tsunami happened yesterday. The hotel itself has two lovingly tended pools but the first two floors of the building are still wiped out. It is, in short, a disaster zone. I can’t see how the locals are going to get the beach back to its pre-tsunami state before the end of the high season in March. The local paper, the Phuket Gazette, coincidentally carried a story about the criticism the Kamala governor has received for not restoring the area quicker – and with good reason. I don’t know what the reasons for the delay are – and perhaps there are good ones – but the bottom line is that Kamala Beach is not where you’d want to spend your holiday on Phuket this year. Similarly, Expedia need to pull their finger out and ensure their pages are updated. A website is no more use than a travel brochure unless the people running it are keeping the information fresh. I certainly won’t be using Expedia again for the simple reason I can’t trust them.
There is one silver lining – in Kamala village, just set back from the beach, is the fantastic and very reasonable Same Same restaurant, which feels very upmarket – air conditioning, lacquered furniture and Thai food that’s been cooked with care. The restaurant is run by Arna Kornrien, a very friendly lady who also offers free Internet access for customers too. It’s certainly worth dropping by there for lunch. I can only hope Kamala Beach gets restored to its former glory soon so local businesses like hers get a chance to properly thrive rather than rely on refugees from their own hotel like us.
More on Kamala Beach Phuket:
Spike | Google | Amazon UK | Amazon US | Wikipedia | Open Directory
