A candle-lit virgil ceremony to mourn the ones who passed away marks the start of a sober New-Year celebration on Phuket island in Thailand with emotions running free and many people in tears. One Thai woman cried and said: I want to say to the people of all different countries, we the Thais are so sorry for what happened but we cannot control this thing.

The whole Phuket New-Year celebration is in great contrast to the usual scenes seen here at this time of year, when holidaymakers would usually party through the night. But it is very hard to celebrate when destruction and death is surrounding the Tsunami hit island of Phuket in Thailand.

The overall feelings through Phuket and the whole of Thailand is just that it just does not seem appropriate to have a celebration this year. Most people in Thailand feel it should be a period of just reflecting on what happened and not a period of celebrations.

Most tourists have left Phuket island and the beach resorts, but some have not and instead have volunteered to help out in hospitals and give a helping hand in cleaning up Phuket.

Although the people of Thailand have their New-Year celebration during Songkran, the Thai New-Year (April), most Thais normally join the traditional New-Year celebrations of 31 December in Phuket and all over Thailand.

But this year the government of Thailand has cancelled all official New-Year celebrations and many hotels, restaurants and bars will hold a fund-raising event instead of the usual end-of-year celebration. The year 2005 in Thailand will start without the usual fanfare and bottles of Champagne.