© Agence France-PresseBad memories: A Thai man takes a photo of a wave in Prachuap khiri khan province southern Thailand. About 100 people were evacuated and dozens of tourists stranded.
The three-to-four metre high wave inundated a shore on the Gulf of Thailand, causing floods of one metre deep and damaging houses in a village in Chumphon province, according to provincial governor Pinich Charoenpanich.
Dozens of tourists were stranded on Phitak Island with about 1000 people in total affected by the waves. Reports suggest about 200 households were hit, although there are no reports of casualties.
Mr Pinich said officials helped evacuate about a hundred people to a safe place farther inland, and were expected to return home when the waters had subsided and the wind dropped.
"This high wave would be normal for fisherman out at sea but this time it happened near the shore, so it caused flooding on the land," Mr Pinich said.
"There were a dozen local tourists stranded when the high wave hit this morning. They were staying at homestays in village houses located on the shore, but they were safe," he added later.
The country was battered by an Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 that killed an estimated 5400 people in Thailand alone.
The tsunami, triggered by an earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, sent giant waves crashing into countries around the Indian Ocean, killing more than 220,000 people.
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