The lucky ones.
1st January 2005, Koh Tao, Thailand
It's New Year's Day. We are in Koh Tau in the Gulf of Thailand. Pete and Sally have been with us since Christmas Eve. They are here on a two week holiday. We met up with Dani and Zak as soon as we got to Bangkok. They have just started a three month trip of SE Asia. We all spent Christmas together which was really nice.
Right now Tim is in bed after taking our stash of emergency antibiotics and is feeling really bad. Pete and Sally have popped up to the town. Sally is a bit pre-menstrual and as a result Pete is driving the poor girl mad. Dani and Zak have gone to Malaysia. I have been up half the night wondering if I would ever be able to get off the toilet and get back into bed. I'm feeling a bit better now. Damned white Russian from last night. I think it might have been the ice.
Doesn't sound like a great start to the new year, but we are grateful. Very grateful.
Tore, the guy, who is staying in the bungalow next-door got back from Koh Phi Phi yesterday. He arrived with his best friend....a Norwegian girl called Celia and her boyfriend, Chris.
After spending a very chilled Christmas day on our secluded beach we were enjoying Boxing Day sunbathing on Hat Yao and looking forward to the full moon party on Ko Pha Ngan. Meanwhile Tore was waking up to shouting and screaming outside his bungalow. From where he was ...up a steep hill....he looked out to a scene of people running and screaming covered in blood. He had no idea where his friends were. He decided all he could do was wait for them.
Chris was wading through a meter of sea water, debris, dead bodies and screaming people while desperately trying to get back to his bungalow to find out whether his girlfriend, Celia, was still alive. On the way, glass that had smashed from windows had severed two tendons in his foot.
Celia was clinging to a ceiling fan. Her bungalow had filled almost to the top with water leaving her head space only to breathe and ponder whether it would keep rising leading to a certain, slow death. They both seemed amazingly calm when they arrived, but that has got to be a head fuck of the most violent kind. I am certain it has not hit them yet.
The earthquake was one of the worst in 90 years. It measured 9.0 on the Richter Scale. The epi-centre was in the Andaman Sea, just off Indonesia. According to news reports the Tsunami was 30 feet high and travelled at 500km an hour. It took two hours to hit and virtually wipe out Phuket, Koh Phi-Phi and Krabbi. Sri Lanka, The Maldives, western Malasia, Southern India and even Somalia in Africa were all badly hit. The last I heard the death toll stood at 120,000 with still thousands unaccounted for. Tore said he saw bodies lined up on the beach. Disease is adding to the casualties.
It's a disaster of an unimaginable scale and it makes me go cold thinking that if Tim had not insisted on us all meeting up in Ko Pha Ngan for the full moon party we would have been either on Ko Lanta or Ko Phi-Phi. It doesn't bear thinking about.
It rained the night of the full moon party and as much as I tried to remind myself that this drunken, spiritless, cash motivated mess had probably saved countless lives ....boatloads arrived on Christmas Eve for it from all over Thailand .... I did not have a very good time.
Yesterday I sent off the last of the 'we're ok' emails and finished them off with 'time to celebrate life'. I meant it at the time, but I found that very hard to do last night. While the fireworks were sounding and the Chinese lanterns were floating all over the sky Celia and Chris were in the tightest embrace ever. That made me smile at how relieved they must have felt to be seeing in the new year and I was happy for all of the survivors, but I couldn't stop thinking about the newly married couple whose 8 month old baby was swept out of the father's arms. Another Dad with two kids, one of three and one of five. He managed to keep hold of the five year old.
Dani and Zak are stuck in Kuala Lumpur. They were supposed to be going south but there are Monsoons on the coast. I am worried about them. Mum and Dad are up in arms. I got an email from Nella begging us to come home. I felt really bad, but I told her in no uncertain terms that we would not even consider it. I think I have managed to convince Mum that we are out of danger. Hopefully she has calmed down and is worrying less. Last night though, amid the New Year's celebrations I found myself checking that the tide was still lapping on the shore.
This was the exchange of some of the emails after the Tsunami. I'm copying and pasting this journal that was written while we were there long after the actual event. We had no idea how bad it was at first. Even though we were talking to survivors. Thai television were not showing the same pictures and volunteers were being turned away and told to go back to Bankok. I've only seen the worst of it since coming home.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: danapalamara@tiscali.co.uk [mailto:danapalamara@tiscali.co.uk]
>Sent: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 12:37:26 +0700
>Subject: Not so merry Christmas
Hello all,
Thanks for all your texts and emails and sorry it has taken me so long to
get to an internet cafe. I can't believe that this is the second time during
this trip that I am writing to everyone seriously assuring them that we
are safe. I have tried to reply to as many of the texts as poss, but since
I lost my address book when my phone was stolen I do not know who most of
them are from - thanks for thinking of us. Pete and Sally brought me a new
phone and sim card over. It would be great if you could send texts to my
old number and let me know your names so that I can build
my contacts list up again. In the mean time I still have the Thai phone
number that I sent you last time and that’s the one I am using most of all
because it is dirt cheap..
We are on Koh Tao - an island off the Eastern coast of Thailand. We are
miles away from the disaster, safe and not moving anywhere for the time
being. We were on the beach in Koh Pha Ngan when we first started to hear
the rumours of an earthquake in Phuket. Dani and Zak were about to board
a ferry heading there. Tim had to drive miles in order to get a signal on
his phone to stop them getting on the ferry. We were due to join them the
next day. Obviously those plans are scrapped now.
I can't believe how lucky we have been. I keep seeing the pictures on the
news and it makes me feel sick knowing how many people have died and that
we all could have been there. Thankfully, we found out that there was going
to be a Full Moon party on Koh Pha Ngan on Boxing Day so we all decided
to meet there.
I didn't like the Full Moon party. There was no spiritual
vibe at all...just drunk people trashing the beach and islanders cashing
in on it by selling mushroomless tea and shakes at extortionate prices and
all sorts of nasty stuff passing for whisky or vodka. People were so paranoid
you couldn't even have a joint on the beach. I found myself thankful for
it though because every month, people, including loads of Thais, leave from
all over Thailand to come to them. On Christmas Eve, boatload after boatload
were arriving from Koh Tau, Koh Phi Phi and Phuket. It saved a lot of lives
in Thailand this time round.
We had a nice Christmas.The owner of the bungalows we were in made us a
huge fish and seafood BBQ on the beach and then lit us a fire. We had a
very chilled one. Once again...sorry I couldn't text anyone.. I hope you
all had a lovely day.
Koh Tau is lovely. A snorkelers Paradise where you can see the fish at
the waters edge before you even put your mask on. We are going to hire
a boat and sail round the islands tomorrow and hopefully go shark snorkeling.
(I am assured there are only whale sharks in these waters who are VEGETARIAN.)
We will probably spend new year here and then head towards Cambodia. I'll keep you all up to date when I can.
Wishing you all a fantastic new year.
Love and kisses,
Dana
XXXX
Original Message
From: "nella"
To:
Subject: Re: Not so Merry Christmas
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:35:36 -0000
Hi Dana Tim Danni and Zak
Ive have just read this email and we are all thanking God that you are
all ok. I know you dont want to hear this and I know that you are nowhere near
the disaster but please, please, please will you consider coming home ?
Nearly 100.000 people dead. The disease is rife and so many more thousands
might die from the disease. Please at least think about coming home.
God has blessed us all and you are all safe and well and I pray that you will
do the right thing and all come home.
We all love you very much and pray that you will all come home
All our love
Nella, Mum, Dad, Emilio and Lukey xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: danapalamara@tiscali.co.uk Add to address book
To: "nella"
Cc:
Subject: Re: Not so Merry Christmas
Send: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:41:59 +0700
Hi Nella,
Thanks for your message. I know you guys are worried, and you have every
right to be, but please rest assured that we are away from danger. Earthquakes
happen in earth quake zones. We are not in one...miles away from any of the
plates......nor are we near one where water could affect us. That kind of
scale earthquake does not repeat itself very often. We are safe Nella, I
promise. If we weren't we would get the hell out. People are arriving here
from the disaster area to spend New Year. We are right the way over the other
side of the country in a completely different sea. The disease cannot get
to us. What they are talking about when the say disease is the villages in
Indonesia and India that have been flattened and have left people homeless.
The tourist sites that used to be there are now all closed or flattened.
Please trust me that I will not venture to unsafe places. That’s a promise.
Sorry, but I am not going to consider coming home. We are leaving Koh Tau
in a few days to go to the mainland and into Cambodia. No sea there. Please
explain to Mum how far we are. I know it sounds scary to you, but everything
is totally normal here ...people are carrying on as if nothing happened.
Have a fantastic new year. I will try to stay awake and call at 7am our time
which will be midnight your time.
Lots of love always,
Dxxx
-- Original Message --
From: "Zoey Ingarfield"
To: danapalamara@tiscali.co.uk
Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 18:49:45 +0000
God, had forgotten that you were there already. Was imagining you still
in Australia. So glad that you are both ok, but what a hideous thing to have
happened. Can't believe it. Is there anything that you guys can do on
the ground there? The devastation must be just unimaginable... Anyway,
thinking of you and your fellow countrymen at present,
xxxx
From: danapalamara@tiscali.co.uk Add to address book
To: "Zoey Ingarfield"
Cc:
Subject: RE:
Send: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:47:53 +0700
Hi Zoey,
We are trying to find out if there is anything we can do over there, but
it seems they only want people with medical skills. Survivors have started
to arrive in Koh Tau from the West coast and we have resolved to get them
all as drunk as poss for new year. Sounds weird but that’s what they want.
They are shell shocked. I don't think it has hit them yet. They've seen
children swept out of parents’ arms and bodies on the beach. It's horrible.
One girl who arrived today shut her bungalow door on the oncoming wave and
within ten mins found herself alone in two meters of water holding on to
the ceiling fan to keep her head above water and having to wait for the water
to subside. I can even begin to image how scared she must have been.
I thank our lucky stars Tim forced everyone to go east.
Time to celebrate life.
Have a great new year my love. Love to Fred and love from Tim,
Dxxxxx
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