Visitors have left Krabi to return to Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and other islands after a ban on boats departing shore was lifted on Sunday, Bangkok Post reported. The storm broke out on the southern province on Thursday (January 3).
Tourists are beginning to return to islands on the Andaman Sea after tropical storm Pabuk kept Thai and foreigners visitors stranded on the mainland since Thursday.
Visitors have left Krabi to return to Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and other islands after a ban on boats departing shore was lifted on Sunday, Bangkok Post reported. The storm broke out on the southern province on Thursday (January 3).
Krabi governor M.L. Kittibordee Prawit declared all tourist destinations safe after Pabuk moved out of the region on Saturday.
Airlines have since resumed operations, and extra flights were introduced to clear the backlog of tourists delayed by the storm, according to Straits Times.
Floodwaters that overwhelmed the Krabi district of Khao Phanom have since receded, according to the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department.
Wattraphol Chantaro, president of the Koh Phi Phi Tourism Association, told Thairath online that extra boats had to be added to ferry an overwhelming number of tourists from Krabi and Phuket. Visitors also returned to other smaller islands in the province, he added.
Tourists were forced to flee the islands off the Andaman coast before Pabuk made landfall in Nakhon Si Thammarat and moved across the southern peninsula on Friday.
However, Mu Koh Similan National Park remains closed until Monday.
On Koh Samui, tourists were seen helping local residents clean up a beach on the resort island.
Koh Samui police chief Pol Col Paitoon Krachachang said officials and volunteers collected garbage and debris that had been washed up on all the beaches on the island by high tides and waves.