Phi-Phi now paradise lost

Paradise lost for Thai island
Sat Jan 8, 2005 07:27 AM GMT

By Ed Cropley

KOH PHI PHI, Thailand (Reuters) - It's more like a scene from
"Apocalypse Now" than "The Beach".

Once the paradise-isle backdrop for the Leonardo DiCaprio backpacker
movie, Koh Phi Phi now looks like a war zone.

Huge fires blaze behind the rubble-strewn Thai beach, rescue
helicopters clatter over the broken coconut palms and sunken fishing
boats litter the azure waters of the bay.

The beach -- only two weeks ago a heaven on earth -- has become a
beach-head, a front line in Thailand's frantic efforts to clean up
after the December 26 tsunami which claimed more than 156,000 lives
around the shores of the Indian Ocean.

Army amphibious landing craft sit on the sand as hundreds of troops
wander through the rubble of what used to be beachside bars or holiday
bungalows.

The search for survivors ended long ago.

Now, the soldiers look only for bodies even though hundreds of victims,
most of them young European tourists, have already been recovered from
the wreckage.

The stench of rotting flesh suggests there are more to be found.

"We pulled one guy's body down from up there," said John Matthews, a
burly Londoner who had lived on Phi Phi for the last eight months,
pointing to the top of a palm tree.

Making what he says is his final visit to the Andaman Sea island -- to
collect his air ticket -- he passes a silted passage-way behind a
budget guesthouse.

"I found a little baby under here, and wrapped it in a pillow-case," he
said, the tears welling up in his eyes. "I think her mother found the
body the next morning."

Mechanical diggers are already tearing down the damaged buildings,
preparing the way for the recovery and reconstruction the Thai
government has promised will happen.

Whether Phi Phi will ever recover its innocence remains to be seen.

Most locals are too scared to return. Besides another wave, they also
fear the restive spirits of the dead they now believe are trapped on
the tiny, jungle-clad island.

"I heard some foreigners calling out to me last night, saying 'Come on,
come on, come and join our party,'" said Prajit Sumta, a carpenter who
is one of the few Thais to have stayed behind. "But then I looked round
and realised I was all on my own."

At night, car batteries can be heard exploding in the fires, breaking
the eerie silence that falls over the island.

As Matthews climbed a hill to his old guesthouse room -- a climb which
saved his life two weeks ago -- he was confronted by a reminder that
not everyone is working selflessly: the windows had been forced open
and looters had ransacked his belongings.

Thankfully, his ticket back to Britain and most of his clothes had not
been stolen.

"At least they didn't take my trousers. They probably didn't fit," he
said.

=A9 Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.