If A PICTURE is worth a thousand words, then here are 60,000 words describing Phuket's life in 2010. What a year it was.

January 1, 2010, began badly, with the drowning of a 10-year-old boy at a Phuket beach - and an unhappy reaction from Phuketwan readers that was more about publication of the photograph than the needless death of the boy.

A few days later, another major theme for the year emerged with the publication of a photograph of an injured tourist pointing at a tuk-tuk driver under the headline: Will This Photo Give Phuket Real Public Transport?

A year on, the answer is: no, but maybe it will help to speed the process now bringing change.

Phuket has much to be grateful about in 2010, amid some unforgettable scenes in Bangkok especially. The graphic images snapped from television of Bangkok's red rally and its aftermath remain as shocking today as they were back then.

Phuket and Thailand's tourism industry was harmed more by the unnecessary blanket travel alerts issued in haste by many nations than by the unfolding tragedy in the capital.

At year's end, Phuket can look back on a year that brought no island disaster to match the 2009 dive boat capsize that killed seven, or the holiday plane crash of 2007, or despite foolish predictions, a second tsunami.

The positives that emerged in 2010 were subtle, with change coming in measured doses, mostly triggered through the innovative quarterly meetings between honorary consuls and the Phuket Governor and island police and authorities.

It was Phuket's first local and international ''Parliament,'' an open exchange of suggestions and ideas from both sides that holds the promise of more rapid change to benefit all Phuket residents and visitors in 2011.

The photographs? Well, they provide a pastiche of Phuket's year, by no means a comprehensive album but a trigger for unforgettable memories of 2010.