I am tremendously sad at seeing the death toll continue to climb in Phuket. Our prayers are with all of the families of those affected.

They seem to be jumping on the cleanup and rebuild right now. What do you folks think it will be like in 2 months? My wife and I are going to Phuket for a week after several days in Thailand. Part of me wants to cancel, but part of me thinks that they are working very hard at restoring the island and that what they will need are tourists patronzing the economy.

Any thoughts?

FYI we are staying at the Marriott

the marriott is in good shape according to reports...minor damage

You can check this link for more information : http://www.phuket.com/hotel-status.htm

They are currently working hard on repairing/cleaning...

According to an American's report on CNN who is operating a business in Phuket, only a relatively small part of Phuket endured the tragedy. Even in those areas, beyond 200 meters away from the beach there is no evidence of anything unusual having happened. The affected beaches are already getting cleaned up, to the point that he says visiting the beach is like visiting it 20 years ago before there were chairs and vendors on the beach.

Hi there. We heartily agree that the people of Thailand need our support at this time, however, I have to say, imho, Koh Samui is by far, a nicer, more user-friendly & less expensive island than Phuket. We found Phuket to be almost twice the price for transfers, food, accom etc. If that doesn't concern you and you were looking for an overhyped holiday island, prior to the tsunami, then go. All those awful girly bars at Patong!! Hope they don't rebuild them! Prior to the horror of Dec 26 we had already decided that Samui is one heck of a holiday destination compared to Phuket. Just our humble opinion! Beaches on Samui are really good. Cheong Mon is gorgeous!

So I hear most of the bars discos and go-gos etc are open and back to normal running and New year was quite "lively" in Patong. Things very much seem to back to the way they were in record time.