Surviving Thailand's Tsunami

Kamala Beach,Phuket,Thailand,April 7,2005

Kamala Beach was hit the hardest by the Tsunami on December 26th, 2004. You may remember the 100 day Ceremony in which white balloons were released. That ceremony took place on Kamala Beach. I don't really know how to tell this story because there was so much laughter and so much sadness at the same time. So let me just tell you my day.

My two kidnappers from Monday came to my Hotel to pick me up for lunch. Dang is on the far left and her co conspirator, Ooy is on the far right. The other women all work in the same business of rounding up Farangs to see Vacation Club presentations at one of the three Hotels in town that sponsor them. You, my loyal readers, keep asking where I find such beautiful women in Thailand. The real answer is: they find me. I am just a very quiet person and the Thai people appreciate that very much. I asked Dang and Ooy if they would be willing to take me to Kamala beach as my guides. So Dang arranged a Taxi (400 baht round trip including many stops) and off we went.

We went a few minutes up the road to a place where the waves came in very hard. My new best friends are pointed to where the Tsunami came from. They said many many people died in this spot.

This building shows the effects of the enormous surge of water that crashed in from the Ocean.

After 10 minutes travel north on a winding coastline road, I get my first glimpse of Kamala Beach. You can see the darker area where the grass and trees had been.

A new concrete retaining wall has been built, much further back from the original beach to keep the area from collapsing further. All the buildings were wiped away clean by the Tsunami.

This shot of the beach shows where the Wave came from. It hit from the left, just beyond the peninsula you see here. New boats are being built right here on the beach.

The construction is coming along very well. You can see repairs everywhere.

This is another picture to show where the Tsunami came from.

Here is a closer look at the boat building.

Most of this work is done with hand tools.


Ooy took us to her friends; 'Solay' and 'Fatima' who are a Muslim couple living in Kamala Beach. Solay graciously offered to take us inland to the Tented Refugee Village that became the home to a hundred families when their homes were annihilated. Kamala's population is made up of 90% Muslum families and a lot of Farangs who have built expensive homes in this area. Solay told me he lost 4 family members in the Tsunami and watched many people die around him that day. He was at home asleep when the wave struck. As he told me his story he spoke very gently and talked with reverence, not sadness or fear.

We travel almost four kilometers inland and uphill to the refugee camp. Ooy points us the way into the gates. This is a property owned by one of the families from Kamala.

The people staying here are Buddhists and as we entered the gates, the first thing I saw was the Buddhist Altar.

Jack was on the second floor of a Beachfront restaurant when he saw the Tsunami. He saw the ocean suck back and many fish flopping on the beach. At first he did nothing. But then he saw the tidal wave coming and he went to ground and started running. He rotated the index fingers from both hands around his head the way you do to indicate that someone is a little crazy and he said: "everything go mad. People running. All I think of is,'where my daughter'. I run away and grab anyone I see and we come here." Jack said the Tsunami wave came three kilometers inland and destroyed most of Kamala Beach. He said 4 people in his immediate family died that day.

This is Jack's five year old daughter. His wife also survived. He lost 4 brothers I think. Seventy-six people died from the Tsunami. Jack said the worst part was that he saw people dying over a four day period.

When the Tsunami struck, there were 100 families living here. Now, after three months, there are still ten families unable to find homes.
Jack told me that each family was given 20,000 baht for their losses. Dang said that a simple house costs 100,000 baht to build so many families simply cannot afford to rebuild. I asked these people if they were aware of how much money was given for Tsunami relief from around the world. Jack said he was. I asked where he thinks that money went. He and the others just gave me coy smiles and shrugged and said they didn't know.

This is 'Lot'; Jack's grandmother. She is a real cutie pie and wanted me to take her picture. She is a very soft spoken woman who likes to laugh.

These tents were donated by European travellers who wanted to give something on the spot, to these people.

Jack told me the greatest fear is that the Tsunami is coming back. He says many people here cannot sleep. I asked if he thought the 100 day ceremony had helped. He said: "Chai. Much better now. Many ghosts gone from beach now."

So for now, these people live in tents.

As we drove away, everyone thanks us for coming and the last one to see us as we left was Lot who smiled and waved and wished us 'Sawadee Cup'. I felt very emotional as I left and didn't want to talk. I didn't feel sorry for these people. It was something else. It's something I keep finding in Thailand. A connection to what is important; to family; to their country. These people have seen unspeakable horror and yet they invite me into their lives and smile and laugh with me as family.
Just before I left these wonderful people,I asked Jack: "What will you do now?" He said: "Stay away from water."

Phuket After The Tsunami: April 4

Phuket has been on my mind ever since I began planning this trip. The Tsunami hit Thailand the hardest right here. Then a few days ago, Sumatra experienced an earthquake which caused people to wonder if another Tsunami was coming. Many people have told me I should not come here. One of my dearest friends wrote me from Calgary with the caption on her email: "GET OUT". I wrote her back to say: "If the Thai people stay, I stay."

My story of Phuket is really about the people. I was walking on the street just minutes after I arrived and two Thai women kidnapped me to take me to a 'Vacation Club' presentation. They get very little money for doing this but I was happy to go along with it and besides, I got some free T-shirts and a week of free accommodation for the future. This is 'Dang' and 'Ooy'. They are 28 and 31. They have both been struggling to make money ever since the Tsunami hit. They told me there are only 20% as many tourists as usual.

They couldn't get me into a presentation that day so they came to my hotel the next morning and picked me up. So the three of us sped off on a motorcycle. They even took me to find a cheaper hotel. I'm now at the White Beach Mansion and paying 550 baht a night including breakfast. I asked Dang about what she saw the day of the Tsunami. She was working in a hotel up from the beach. She says she ran outside and saw a truck full of mangled bleeding bodies, very badly hurt but still alive, being rushed away from the oncoming tidal wave. She said she lost many friends that day and when she went to the hospital she couldn't stand the sight of so many people in pain all at once.

After the presentation they arranged a tuk-tuk driver to take me around. I messed up their commission though, because I said I was here for three months instead of three weeks. I felt so bad that I helped them book me into another place.

This is Lee. She got the commission for the second meeting and split it with the other two women. Then she insisted I come for lunch on her. I asked her about the Tsunami. She said the death toll is much higher than the 5000 that the authorities say. She said the figures are reported as less because Thailand authorities are afraid to scare more people away from visiting. She also told me that when I go to Kamala I will see the people who still live in tents because they lost their homes. If you saw the 'Hundred Day' event in Phuket, you were seeing this beach. All three women told me that the authorities have been holding back much of the aid money because of local corruption. I am going to talk to the people on the beach tomorrow if I can and see what they say.

The guy who gave the presentation is Aaron from Edmonton Alberta, right near where I lived the last 26 years. He and I had a great time talking and he taught me a lot about the Thai culture because his girlfriend is Thai. He said they were here the day the Tsunami hit and were saved because they are two beaches away in an area that is protected by a cove, or he would be dead. He also told me the authorities have been holding back money that is supposed to be going to the victims of the Tsunami.

These are a series of pictures I took from the balcony of the Hotel I was looking at for my presentation. The Tsunami came from an angle just beyond the peninsula to the left.

Again, you can get an idea of the direction to think of it coming in from left to right at an angle just beyond that peninsula you see to the left of the picture. It didn't hit Patong beach straight on but it was forceful enough that it destroyed the beachfront. Aaron told me the salt water came far enough in that it flooded this hotel's underground parking.

The grass right below this balcony was under salt water which it is just recovering from now.

Again you can see how this foliage was killed by the salt water. Now look at the peninsula to the right. Now see the one just beyond it? Between the two peninsulas; that is Kamala Beach. The Tsunami had a clear path and so it hit with full force onto that beach.

This is looking straight ahead of me toward Patong Beach. The ground is still quite brown because there is no grass yet. I asked Aaron how the Thai people were able to handle such an overwhelming tragedy. He said they don't act the way we do in the West. They don't talk about it much. They understand life from a different cosmology and different social reference. They don't tend to cry over such losses. They just pull together and find a way to survive as a community. I find it hard to believe that these warm gentle Thai people, who helped me so much in the last couple of days, have all seen the death of close friends and family so recently.

***Just as I was preparing this Story, a couple from Idaho were reading a CNN piece reporting that another earthquake could be coming shortly. The scientist quoted, also said that another Tsunami could come with it this time. My understanding is that the pressure release from the tectonic plates have not finished yet but that the quakes will be happening much further South and should not be a threat to Thailand this time.