Arugam Bay Information

THE building, its paint still drying, was brand new - but the battered sign far older. Return to Paradise, it said.

Last Christmas it hung from a flimsy shack on the narrow, sandy archipelago of Ao Ton Sai on Thailand‘s Phi Phi island.

Yesterday the bar owner nailed it back up on his new, sturdy concrete structure. This time he was taking no chances.

“All gone in the tsunami,” he said. “My customers, some staff. This sign was almost all that was left. We rebuild and this time we make it strong. But if tsunami come again?”

It is a silent, unspoken fear hanging over the island and much of Thailand‘s Andaman Coast where more than 8,400 died in the great waves that killed almost 300,000 across 12 countries a year ago today.

Slowly, holidaymakers are returning to this particular paradise.

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But in the days leading to the anniversary - usually the busiest time of the year - the 45 or so guesthouses, hotels and bungalows now reopen for business are only half full.

ON the fine, white beaches, tourists play volleyball and drink cocktails under the sun amid the scars of that day.

A few sickly coconut palms stand where once was lush jungle. Many are only trunks, their heads ripped off by the giant waves that left broken bodies, buildings and boats.

They lean at awkward angles, their foliage blackened and thinned like feathers on a long-dead crow, on a spit of barren sand between two bays.

It is the first thing visitors see and it is a mesmerising reminder.

At night this is a ghostly sandy graveyard of a place but the rebuilding goes on.

The locals, ex-pats and Thais - united by the unspeakable horrors they have seen -need the party to return to Phi Phi. Hundreds will gather on the beach at 10am today to remember the dead with a minute‘s silence and prayers. It is one of seven services on the western coast.

Among them will be Barbara Hart, 54, and daughter Jemma, 15, from Southampton. They were diving when the wave hit.

Barbara said: “We‘re here for all the Thais and all the tourists who didn‘t make it.”

Of the 9,000 or so people on Phi Phi last Boxing Day, around 1,800 died. Of those, 1,000 - mostly Thais - are unaccounted for.

Many superstitious locals believe the undiscovered victims remain as ghosts, bringing bad luck to the waters. Waitress Pat said: “Once you‘ve seen what the sea can do you never see it the same way again.”

While Phi Phi‘s slow recovery has begun, in many other places in Thailand, as well as India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia - where the quake that triggered the tsunami struck off the coast - people feel forgotten, and starved of aid and tourist dollars.

There are no tourists to help in Banda Aceh, northern Indonesia, where I saw the devastation last year. Countless thousands were swept away that day.

A FEW well-built mosques were all that survived amid destruction on a Biblical scale.

There was no birdsong, no animals at all, no traffic, no movement but for the fluttering of a wedding photo album turning in the breeze.

Clothing flapped around girders and concrete - all that remains of hundreds of flattened homes.

When you‘ve seen what the sea can do, you can never again view it as a benevolent giant swimming pool or a rippling mirror for a setting sun.

Here on Phi Phi, it is hard not to glance nervously at the horizon and imagine how it felt the day the earth turned to sea.

BRITON Lee Blackmore reopens his guesthouse in Arugam Bay, Sri Lanka, today under its old name, the Tsunami Hotel. Lee, 34, said: “We want this place to be a symbol of overcoming the tragedy.”

THE RECOVERY EFFORT

1 MALDIVES

DEAD: 108 people, with two-thirds of the capital Male flooded

AID: More than 1,000 islands affected, relief proved a massive challenge. All homeless now rehoused

2 SRI LANKA

DEAD: Approx 70,000. One and a half million people displaced from their homes

AID: A lack of planning, poor communications and destroyed roads has made distribution difficult

3. INDIA

DEAD: Approx 18,000. Worst-hit region, Ta mil Nadu, where almost 8,000 died

AID: Vast areas of coastline still devastated

4. INDONESIA

DEAD: Approx 160,000 with 655,000 left homeless

AID: Most aid has been distributed in the worst-hit Banda Aceh region. Efforts hampered by a lack of organisation

5. THAILAND

DEAD: Approx 14,000, including 6,000 tourists. Resorts of Phuket and Khao Lak were badly hit

AID: Tourist areas were repaired and re-opened within months, but other areas still need aid

6. MYANMAR

DEAD: Approx 600, with 30,000 homeless

AID: Most of the damaged buildings are being rebuilt, but many remain homeless

7. ANDAMAN/NICOBAR ISLANDS

DEAD: One fifth of the population, around 7,000, are said to have lost their lives

AID: Agencies have struggled to help the remote islands

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