Efforts under way to rebuild local shops
SHOTLIST
1. German tourists on beach, digger in background on Patong beach
2. Digger on beach
3. Leisure boats moored near beach
4. Wide of beach
5. Various of builders rebuilding Italian restaurant along beachfront
6. Wide of builders rebuilding shopfront of Designer's Gallery tailoring shop
7. Mohan Saddarangani, owner of Designer's Gallery, watching
8. Woman sweeping floor
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Mohan Saddarangani, owner of Designer's Gallery:
We want to rebuild fast and make people feel safe in Phuket.
10. Various of builders rebuilding Phuket Graceland Resort swimming pool
11. Builders building wall between hotel and sea
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Makin Wong, Owner of Phuket Graceland Resort:
(Question: So by building this wall, you will be protected from the tsunami?)
No (it won't climb over), the tsunami. (The wall) is very strong, (it's the) same as the Chinese Wall (the Great Wall of China), the 'Patong Wall.
13. Exteriors of J.S. Gems, local jewellers
14. Various of tourists looking at goods that survived the tsunami
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Rita Ho, Owner of J.S. Gems:
One second of...we don't have anything anymore. Our lives changed, it will not be the same anymore. But we will work very hard and we will have the same things as we had before.
16. Various of painter on roof of shop painting shop front
STORYLINE
Local shopkeepers on Phuket's Patong Beach are frantically trying to rebuild their stores so they can start trading again in the hope that the tourists will soon return.
Those lining the parade along the beach front once had enviable views of the sea but they were also the worst affected when the tsunami struck on December 26.
For eleven years, the owner of the Designer's Gallery would tend busily to tourists wanting to buy tailor-made suits or dresses.
Like other tailors in the country, Mohan Saddarangani offered handmade garments at a fraction of the price it would cost in the West.
On the day the tsunami hit, Saddarangani's shop was closed because it was a Sunday.
He escaped with his life, but his store was destroyed.
Two weeks later, and builders are busy trying to reconstruct his shop.
Saddarangani is eager the work is completed as soon as possible as he wants to reopen by next week.
Like other local businessmen, Saddarangani is urging tourists to return.
At the Phuket Graceland Resort, owner Makin Wong is hoping a concrete wall between the hotel and the sea will provide protection if another disaster should strike.
Wong jokingly compares the structure to the Great Wall of China.
Rita Ho, the owner of J.S. Gems, can't wait the three months it will take to rebuild her shop.
She has begun selling a few pieces of jewelry from the front of her damaged shop.
The bracelets and necklaces only survived because they were locked up in the safe.
Everything else was swept away to sea.
Keywords - Indian ocean earthquake tsunami
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