A monk came to bless the rebuilding of Chitladda's new resort

My life is slowly getting better, but it will never be the same as it was before the tsunami.

My aunt died in the disaster and I miss her terribly. I don't feel as bad as I did at first, but occasionally something reminds me of her, and I feel sad again.

It helps that I'm really busy organising the rebuilding, or making a bit of money working with the rest of my family in their supermarket.

We started rebuilding two weeks ago. We were going to start earlier, but the local monks told us that Friday 18 March was an auspicious day so we decided to wait until then.

A monk came down to the construction site, and we held a ceremony where we put some offerings in the foundations of the main building.

Last time we built the resort, we didn't really pay much attention to things like that, but this time we felt we needed to, because so many people died here.

Government help

Everything's moving fast, and we're now hoping to reopen in November.

In sound and pictures: Chitladda's first interview, where she tells how her livelihood was washed away

In the first year, we only plan to have about 25 bungalows. We had 50 before, but it will take us at least two or three years for the complex to be as big as it was.

The government is trying to encourage people like us to start up their businesses again.

I think most hotel-owners here in Khao Lak will rebuild, although there are a few families who lost too many people to think about starting again.

Usually it takes a long time to submit planning applications and get them approved - often more than a year.

But the government has opened a special office to help businesses affected by the tsunami, so once we had decided on our plans it hardly took any time at all.

The authorities haven't given us any handouts, but we've been granted a soft loan, with an interest rate of 2%, so we can pay for the rebuilding.

The tsunami was like a bad dream - a nightmare. But it was in the past. We have to look to the future now

We hired an architect and an engineer to design our new bungalows, and make sure our ideas complied with the new regulations brought in after the tsunami.

There has to be at least 4 metres between each building, and you can't build anything on the first 30 metres from the beach.

Staff concerns

We're trying to do what we can for the resort's staff, but it's difficult to help all of them.

All of our surviving employees say they want to come back and work for us when the business reopens.

We're going to try to employ them all, but we certainly won't be able to take on any new people for a while.

Chitladda also works in her family's shop to make some extra money

While the resort is shut, we're trying to find other things for them to do.

Some have been accepted on a government scheme which pays people a bit of money to practise their skills while they wait for tsunami-hit hotels to reopen.

Three others have come to live with us. They're spending a lot of time making food, practising different recipes which they can then give to the guests when we open again.

It's working out alright - and at least we're getting really nice food!

Regular guests

I'm still a bit worried about how successful we'll be when we first reopen.

Hopefully our regular guests will come back. Our holiday complex was small, and many of our repeat guests were our friends as well.

After the tsunami some of them telephoned to check we were okay, and some have already booked for next season, which is a great help.

But they remember the sun and the sea here, and they know how beautiful it was. It might be harder getting new tourists to come, as they will just remember what happened in the tsunami.

We really need the authorities to promote this area, and pay for advertisements encouraging people to come here.

I hope Khao Lak will become a beautiful beach resort again, but that depends completely on the tourists.