March 2014 (ROTM#63) Karon Beach, Phuket, Thailand

Most people think of beaches in Thailand as places of calm water bliss and that's what the tourist brochures show. But you may be surprised to know that all of Thailand's beaches can get waves, mostly during storms, but in the case of the West coast, during the southwest monsoon season which runs from May to October. There's even surfing to be found around Phuket during the monsoon! And with waves, you get rips. And with rips you get drownings. A LOT of people, mostly tourists, drown in rip currents in Thailand and Karon Beach in Phuket is particularly notorious.

This is a picture of Karon beach taken from a blog  run by Willy Thuan. It's one of the first pictures that comes up when you run a google search for 'Karon Beach'. Looks great, but there are waves and there are a series of semi-regularly spaced deep channels (dark gaps) all the way down the beach. Those are rips and it's no wonder people get in trouble. So please be careful on beaches in Phuket, especially between May and October.

Not the usual image you see of Phuket beaches