.png.3b3332cc2256ad0edbc2fe9404feeef0.png.8488ab72b8bb2e508209bfe3211b6e08.png)
-
Recently Browsing 0 members
- No registered users viewing this page.
Announcements
-
Topics
-
-
Latest posts...
-
217
Is Earth round or flat❓
24 hr sun 3600 time lapse in 25 minutes. There are terabytes of info to come out proving the earth is a globe to those who think it isn't. This is great. Use the direction key top left to take a look around. There is one constant. The sun is in the sky. Dave Weiss says this is impossible. -
-
150
Drunken Foreign Couple Causes Chaos at Pattaya Hotel, Woman Detained After Fleeing
Probably carrying right now... but a litre or two! -
1
-
217
-
217
Is Earth round or flat❓
I say this respectfully, but you need to study this more in depth. Start with the Antarctic Treaty. We are not allowed to go. -
150
Drunken Foreign Couple Causes Chaos at Pattaya Hotel, Woman Detained After Fleeing
Getting to be an inaccurate comment of late...... -
6
Remembering the 2004 tsunami in Phuket
20 years ago, I was sleeping off a hangover from Christmas Day. I should have been teaching a discover scuba diving course at Phi Phi that morning but luckily my customers had cancelled. The Mrs had left early that morning on a bus to visit her Dad. I went onto my laptop to check my email and saw many people on a Thai expat forum talking about an earthquake in Bangkok. As the morning went on, my neighbours started talking about a hotel collapsing and a big wave hitting Aonang. We jumped on our bikes and rode the few minutes to the beachfront to be greeted by the strangest sight - a few longtail boats on the road, lots of sand. As news of a Tsunami started to spread, we were thankful we lived a few mins drive back from the beach. Not knowing how far the Tsunami had gone inland, I was so worried for the Mrs, and contacting her was not easy as mobile signal was hard to get. Eventually, we connected and she came straight home. The following day, a group of us rented a speedboat and helped some injured friends off Phi Phi island and on our return to Aonang, heard that help was needed in Phang Nga, so we rented a pickup and drove there immediately. The hospital was a scene of chaos, we did our best asking injured patients if they needed anything, but there were already many volunteers there. Realising our help wasn't needed here, we asked one of the rescue workers where we would be more useful...they told us to go to a temple, Wat Yan Yao in Takuapa, near Khao Lak as they had little help there.... On arrival at dusk, the scene was like NOTHING you could ever imagine. Truck after truck coming up the dusty road, all of them indicating to turn into the temple. All of them loaded with dead bodies. We looked on in disbelief, and realising that this is where we needed to be. The smell was indescribable. A French guy came running out of the temple - through his basic English and our basic French, we understood that he had been co-ordinating things at the temple as there were no police or army assisting until that point. As the sun was already set and there was no electricity, we decided it would be best to return to Aonang, get some more volunteers, food and clothing and return the next morning. That is what we did for the following few days. Carried bodies of victims young and old between the various areas of the temple: arrival, holding, ID by DVI teams until finally into chilled containers. To be honest, we were lost, didn't really realise the enormity of what we were doing, but carried on as it just felt right. 20 years have passed but my heart still breaks for all of those whose lives came to an end that day, and half of my heart will always live in Thailand. We learnt so much during those few days....but most importantly, humans can be amazing when they pull together in the worst of situations x 26/12/2004
-
-
Popular in The Pub
-
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now