The Tsunami Aftermath

We arrived at Khao Lak just after sundown. Lucas and I were the only two to get off. I jumped off the bus onto wet grass. 'The grass is wet?' surely the water isn't still soaking into the ground? It had just rained.

We spent the next hour or so looking for a room. Strange, everywhere was full. But where were all the people? The town was empty. Shops boarded up. Lights out. No life anywhere. It felt like a ghost town. Eventually we found a room and took a walk down to the beach. It was dark. We found a path and followed it. We were walking through a desolate space. I had the feeling that there should have been some builidngs here. We were closer to the water now. Still no buildings. We decided it would be better to explore by daylight and headed back.

The following day, after breakfast, we headed back to the beach. The destruction was far more apparent and truly shocking. This was 3 months after the tragedy and still the remains of hotels, guest houses and everything else lay in a million peices on the floor. The occassional flip-flop, sun hat, even this kids toy bear, no owner.



I found it hard to imagine what it must have been like to be standing on the beach when that first wave hit. I've seen amatuer footage since and its not comfortable viewing. It was a truly horiffic day for many asian countries. I guess I'm lucky that I wasn't standing on this beach three months previous.



















The raised foundations of this building were all that survived. The Thais didn't ever imagine something like this would happen, obviously, so the buildings were made only to withstand a light sea breeze. The wave just blew everything over, like a deck of cards, as it passed over.















The initial plan to come to Khao Lak was to book up a dive trip to the Similan Islands for some of the best diving in Asia. After seeing this, our priorities switched to wanting to help.

We witnessed the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen that evening. The colours were more vivid and the desolate scenery added to the immaculate spectacle. It was ironic that such a beautiful scene could come from this scene of destruction.




























That evening we went to the bar opposite our place. It was full of volunteers from all over the world relaxing after another long day of rebuilding. We got talking and asked if we could help out. They told us to be ready the following morning for pick-up.

So off we went. The work site was a new village being built to replace a village that was completely wiped out leaving every one of its inhabitants homeless.