PHUKET: Build it, and they will come to wonder why you did that. Here's the Laem Singh Viewpoint, the latest piece in the concrete jigsaw now rapidly spreading across all of Phuket.

This 1.4 million baht project from Kamala council provides yet another blight interrupting the once-spectacular and uninterrupted views along Phuket's west coast road.

The irony is that this building is designed to help you take in the view. Once the project is completed in July, you will have to stop to enjoy the beauty of a seascape that once could be enjoyed while driving.

All along Phuket's coast, both west and east, construction is going up to convert Phuket from a series of loosely linked villages to one big Phuket island city.

Just a few years ago, Phuket was so underdeveloped that a local newspaper datelined each location. Articles were filed from Rawai, or Surin, or Mai Khao, that far-flung corner of planet Phuket.

While there are still a few places where people can go to find the Phuket of the year 2001, concrete walls and shopfronts are rapidly closing in on them.

The huge billboard that swears your footprint will be the first in the sand is a barefaced lie. Thousands have been there before you, and dumped their trash to prove it.

Solitude is much more difficult to find.

Is there still a beach on Phuket without shorefront ''music'' to drown the sound of breaking waves? Is there a beach with untouched natural sandhills at its edge?

As Phuket loses its coast road sea views, the concrete takes over. The views are vanishing. The need to preserve and protect Phuket's gems, the beaches, becomes more and more important.

Some people argue that people now visit Phuket for shopping and other activities that are not related to the beaches.

That's nonsense. The Phuket brand is still very much a tropical holiday island one. People come primarily for the beaches and the coral reefs. Everything else is secondary. Anyone who thinks differently is mistaken.

This is what makes the protection and preservation of Phuket's beaches and reefs so important. Shopping and other activities can be found elsewhere.

The beaches and the reefs are what excites the imagination of holidaymakers.

With Kamala council and other developers determined to cover Phuket under concrete, Phuket the tropical island will soon be Phuket the tropical city.

Will Phuket be a tropical city with good beaches or will good Phuket beaches be as difficult to find as unimpeded coast road views?

Phuket appears to have concrete in its head and, more and more, in its heart.