Shandy's Blog

Around 11:30 we took the tour car that we had booked for the day before (but unsuprisingly the hire car company had failed to pickup at 10:00) out for a journey to high ground. We stopped at a view point some 5km or so from Kata but could see nothing out of the ordinary. We tried to get to the very south of Pucket, where there is a headland but the road had been closed due to a power line going down so we back tracked.

Somehow we ended up driving by the side of an obviously man made lagoon which was fine until my wife pointed out plastic chairs floating in it and then we drove along a road with fallen trees covering the seaward side of the road. The penny didn't fully drop until I pulled in at the side of the road after we saw the sea just 100m from the road.

I have never seen such devastation in what must have been just a 300m stretch of beach. There were wooden sun beds stuck 10' up in trees. The wooden beach restaurants were destroyed. We wandered around for about 30 minutes taking photos in a bewildered sense. Only after overhearing a couple of motorcycle drivers say that there were rumours of aftershocks and that they weren't hanging around did we decide to move on. This is how bizarre it was. We were standing on a beach that 2 hours earlier had been 10' underwater by the look of it and yet the danger of the situation nor the true impact of what had happened had filtered home to us. It probably sounds ridiculous to you reading this but that was the way it was.

At this point I think I started to begin to understand about what had really happened. We headed back to higher ground and parked the jeep at the hotel. We then managed to tune the hotel room TV into CNN and started to see the pictures coming through. Again the full impact had not been driven home.

We decided to walk to Karen Beach, the next beach north from Kara Beach. This, I think, was when the impact of what had happened really started to hit home. Kata Beach was like a war zone. The beach was strewn with debris. There was debris all over the main road. However, the damage was only along a 200m strip, although the damage in this strip was substantial.

There was a restaurant at the end of a road between the main road and the beach where we had eaten at the first night here that was basically destroyed. I mean completely destroyed.

The walk to Karen Beach was awful. We passed stretches that were completely unaffected and others that were badly affected. It took about an hour to walk to Karen Beach and we ended up at Su's bar drinking beer and watching the BBC world news. There was a surreal calm at the bar. Here was where we saw that Sri Lanka, where we live, appeared to have bore the brunt of the tsunami.

We walked back to Kata Beach, still in a state of shock and this is where is gets weird. The hotel was functioning just like normal. They were getting things ready for an Elvis night. We ordered a sea food platter for 2 for tea. We then wandered across to an internet cafe across the road from the hotel and emailed a few of our friends who we knew the email addresses for. And then we went to bed.

Edit: Link to Part 1, Link to Part 3

I am writing this entry for my blog from Kata Beach, Phuket, Thailand. The day after the tsunami struck. I was lucky. For once in my life I was glad I had had a bit too much to drink the night before and despite waking around 08:15 I drifted back to sleep with a mild hangover I hoped would go away before I had to get up at 10:00. Around 09:50 I did get up, went for a shower and some time between 10:00 and 10:15 came back out, opened the curtains of my hotel room and looked out over the the bay. Thankfully we are staying at the Orchidacia hotel, I would guess some 100' above sea level. It was really weird. Usually the bay is a beautiful blue colour. On this day it appeared to have all sorts of debris in it. I called my wife over and she was just as puzzled as me. I thought maybe there had been a ship wreck; my wife guessed some garbage had drifted into the bay. The full horror of the situation only became apparent much later.

  Our understanding is that the tsunami struck about 10:00 local time. After locating my binoculars it soon became apparent that the floating debris was a combination of linos, plastic chairs, capsized boats. It was difficult to make too much out as we must have been about 1/2 a kilometre away form the bay.

  As we watched it became apparent that the sea was behaving very oddly. Waves were not breaking as normal. The sea appeared to be surging. One such surge practically emptied what we could see of the bay. This was followed by the sea moving repidly back into the bay and reaching right up to the promanade area (and possibly beyond). Usually the sea is a good 50M away from theis area. At no time could we make out any people.

  The whole scene had a surreal feel to it. There were people, like my wife and myself, gazing on the scene from our balconies. There was no panic. No one seemed to believe what we were seeing. Around 10:40 I went down to reception and asked what had happened. Again there was no panic, just puzzlement and the explanation of a 'big wave'. It just seemed as though this was something that happened every now and again.

  We were booked on a trip to the 'James Bond island' around 11:00 and until around 10:50 the travel agent thought this was going ahead. However, it became apparent around 11:00 that this was not going to happen and so we agreed to go the next day and thought we would wander around Kata Beach town. This when when we began to realise what was really going on. As we walked the 50m down the hill into Kata Beach town people suddenly came sprinting up the hill. There was confusion and we discovered 2 more tsunamis were expected and that everyone was advised to seek higher ground. A british tourist with first aid experience was trying to find where people with injuries were being taken. However, I have to say the atmosphere was more one of mild worry rather than terror.

  I currently live in Sri Lanka and seeing the CNN & BBC world news coverage I am unsure exactly what I will be going back. My heart goes out to the people back home in Sri Lanka. From 12 months of living out there I know of the wooden shacks that are built right on the beach and I can imagine the devestation that must have followed the impact of the waves.

  I will post some more details either later on today or tomorrow. Currently things are rapidly returning to normal. Buses appear to be running. Our hotel was completely unaffected. My wife and myself still feel as though we are living in a slightly surreal world.

Edit: Link To Part Two