Tourists are returning to islands on the Andaman Sea after tropical storm Pabuk kept them on the mainland over the past few days.
Thai and foreign visitors left piers in Krabi for Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and other islands after the province on Sunday lift a ban on boats leaving the shore since the storm began to lash the southern province on Thursday.
Krabi governor M.L. Kittibordee Prawit declared all tourist destinations safe after Pabuk moved out of the region on Saturday.
Khao Phanom was the only district in Krabi that was flooded when the storm unleashed downpours in the South, but the floodwaters have already receded, the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department announced on Sunday.
Wattraphol Chantaro, the president of the Koh Phi Phi Tourism Association, told Thairath online that so many tourists wanted to visit the island from Krabi and Phuket that extra boats had to be added. Visitors also returned to other smaller islands in the province, he added.
Tourists fled the islands off the Anadaman coast before Pabuk made landfall in Nakhon Si Thammarat and moved across the southern peninsula on Friday.
Phangnga also ended a ban on boats leaving the coast on Sunday, but Mu Koh Similan National Park was to remain closed until Monday.
On Koh Samui, tourists were seen helping local residents clean up a beach on the resort island. "Thank you very much, everybody. Unity is power," Rapadee Rattanarun, who posted the clip, wrote on her Facebook account.
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 on Saturday.
