PHUKET, Thailand (AP) – Six days after one of the worst natural disasters in decades, foreign tourists were back on the beaches of this Thai resort island Saturday, frolicking in the gentle waves of the Andaman Sea, riding jet skis, posing for snapshots and sunbathing topless on the sand.

That was mindboggling – and enfuriating – for island resident Aime Yodkaew, as she swept away debris.

“I just figure if everyone uses about an hour of their holiday time (to help clean up), this would help a lot for the locals,” said Yodkaew, a Swede who lives on the island with her Thai husband.

But Yodkaew acknowledged that as soon as tourists get back to indulging in the sort of fun Phuket was famous for before the catastrophe – the sooner her husband’s sailboard and catamaran rental business will be able to start making money again.

A dozen or so foreigners were out sunbathing Saturday on Karon Beach, still littered with garbage, dead plants and leaves – a reminder of the giant waves that struck on Sunday, killing more than 4,800 people in Thailand, more than half of them foreigners. By Saturday, more than 6,000 were still missing and feared dead. Across southern Asia and eastern Africa more than 123,000 people died.

Along the beach, students from an international school were clearing up debris left by the waves and stuffing it into garbage bags. The foreigners relaxed a few steps from a store with windows blown out by the giant waves.

Tourists are the lifeblood of this beautiful island in southern Thailand and this is the peak for overseas visitors, a warm, dry season coinciding with the depth of northern winters.

Thailand’s resort islands, like much of the region, were a patchwork of devastation. Some hotels were wiped out, while others were untouched or minimally damaged.

“A lot of people haven’t left the island, a lot of people who were there have just continued having their holidays,” said John Everingham, who publishes Phuket Magazine for visiting tourists. “Definitely less than 10 percent of hotel rooms in Phuket are closed.”

By contrast, another popular but much smaller island, Phi Phi – where the 2000 Leonardo DiCaprio movie “The Beach” was filmed – was wiped out almost entirely. The worst loss of life was on the mainland north of Phuket, where more than 3,000 bodies already have been found.

The Finance Ministry estimated that the tsunamis will likely shave just 0.3 of a percentage point from gross domestic product growth in 2005.

“The Thai tourism industry hasn’t been affected much by this event,” Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told reporters. “Foreign tourists may be scared for a short while, but I think in the next two to three months at most, their fears will fade away.”

For some, the fears had faded by Saturday.

On New Year’s Eve, hundreds of people quietly clutched white roses and candles as they reflected on the tragedy at a vigil, but elsewhere on Phuket scantily clad women danced in nightclubs while Western tourists drank and partied to loud music.

Jinni Woolf, 26, of Denmark, was on Phuket when the waves hit and was still there Saturday, soaking up the sun on the beach.

“We just can’t sit at the hotel and I also think it’s very important, like people who have been in a motorcycle accident to ride again to overcome (their fear),” Woolf said.

Charles Vickson, a Buddhist visiting from Hong Kong, said that at Phuket’s Laguna resort, which was not badly affected by the waves, he saw bronzed European tourists return to sunbathing by the pool just minutes after the tsunamis.

“They laid out their towel … and the lady, with her headphones on, resumed her sunbathing as if nothing had happened,” he said.

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