Guest guest Posted December 28, 2004 Report Share Posted December 28, 2004 Dear Pieter, Thank you for sharing your account with us, for taking the time to write with detailed clarity this experience, and for the beautiful way you describe the 'act of God'. It helps me to connect to the force of life and human loss and to share it in some way. And we are indeed relieved and happy to learn that you and your family are safe. Jill On Dec 28, 2004, at 2:16 PM, Pieter wrote: > Thanks for thinking of me in Thailand. > > Returned yesterday afternoon from Phuket. > > We flew down, Thai Airways (myself, Noi, and the 2 children, Saifa, > out 4 years 9 months daughter, and Tawan, our 8 month son) on the > 21st, Tuesday at 11 am, with the intention to return to Bangkok on the > 26th, Sunday evening. > > We stayed at the JW Marriott Phuket, which is around 20 minutes from > the airport, located north central of the Island. > > We had the same one bedroom beachfront suite as last year. From our > location is a short walk out to the pool and behind the pool, the > central part of the hotel with the lobby and main restaurants on the > 2nd floor, and shops, a large pond with fire shoots on the ground > floor. > > Naturaly, we had a good time. We visited Phuket Fantasy on Christmas > even and Santa came on Christmas day in the afternoon. > > As the trip before, the health club let me use one of their rooms to > lead a Kundalini Yoga Sadhana for anyone that wanted to join up (room > for 6 people, plus myself), an people, some who had been practicing > yoga for many years, had the chance to experience their life force > eminating in and around their bodys and radiating through their minds, > with just one or 2 classes, 2 hours from 6 to 8 am. > > Our last day we were to leave the hotel around 4 in the afternoon for > a 6 evening flight, so rather than going swimming towards the end of > the afternoon, as I did with Saifa each day, we were getting ready to > go out around 10 am. > > Saifa was at the glass windows, while I was finishing up some e-mails > at the desk, when she called me to look at the boat. I went over and > saw a 25 meter yacht coming across from the horizon being pushed by a > large wave. The boat hit a sandbar of some type some about 100 meters > out, but the wave kept coming. > > The private, secluded beachfront of the JW Marriott is relatively > small, maybe around 10 meters of slightly sloping beach front that > goes up sharply at a 45 degree incline for another 30 to 40 meters. > Then there's another 50 meters from the crest of that upward include > across flat sandy area with light vegetation to the pool area and > maybe 60 to 70 meters to our patio and the sliding glass doors of our > suite. > > While watching the yacht, suddenly the water comes up over the steep > incline and in a flash covers the ground between, hits the patio, but > not enough to wet the top of the deck chairs, and just barely splashes > against the sliding glass doors. Water seeps in. > > Within a few minutes, several security people are into the room > checking that we're alright, and urging us to leave the room to go to > the lobby. > > Saifa starts to cry that she loves the boat but the boat is dead, > referring to the yacht floundering against the sandbar. I call it a > sandbar, but it's really just a kind of an underwater hill, that > slopes off sharply immediately after, with the space between that hill > and the beachfront also being quite deep. The water in the cove out > to the horizon from our vantage point is quite flat, almost placid, as > every day, except for an 8 to 10 foot solitary long wave that rises > out of the deep every few minutes, that pounds the side of the yacht > so that she nearly tips over each time. No action from the crew > whatsoever. Finally we see the yacht trying to turn into the oncoming > waves. Quite a struggle, as each time she's turned 30 or 40 degrees > back out to see, she's slammed again by the next wave. Finally, she's > headed straight out, hits the oncoming wave head-on rises about 45 > degreed and plunges down the other side, but somehow keeps going. > We're trying to imagine what happened to the Captain, passengers and > crew of the yacht. Maybe everyone was knocked out with the first > wave,then someone awoke and decided to try to get out to sea... > > Later we heard that more than 250 fishing and pleasure boats that were > out at sea when the wave hit the coast never returned. One can only > imaging the "fear of God" that must have entered into the people out > on the yacht and all these missing ships and others that survived. > > At the lobby most of the other guests, especially those on the ground > floor, have gathered. The hotel staff security and management tell us > that they are told that a second wave will hit. > > We looked at the swimming pool from the balcony of the 2 restaurants. > From the lobby, where the check in counters are also located, there's > a long wide shallow pool situated in a way that you see the ocean off > its far side. To each side of that pool, are the main restaurants, > with another seafood restaurant out to one side of the pool > overlooking the area going out to the ocean. > > The swimming pool is maybe 100 meters or longer long, parallel with > the ocean front, and 8 to 20 meters wide in various areas. There's a > relatively shallow side towards the right facing the ocean with a > concrete waterslide between. Our suite another 50 meters further to > the right over a lawn with several slower and shrub areas. The deep > side of the pool doesn't have the "protection" of the waterslide and > is also surrounded by deck chairs, tables and umbrellas. > > The wave, the Tsunami, that hit Phuket didn't reach the ground floor > below the lobby. probably our suite was the only one that was > touched, but to give an idea of the force of the wave, the water came > up and over the 30 meter 45 degree incline from the shore crossed the > 60 to 70 meter stretch of underbrush and light thickets and splashed > muck and debris up and over the waterslide leaving that side of the > swimming pool murky, but the side of the pool that didn't have the > waterside's protections was over half filled with mud and debris and > all the deck chars, tables and umbrellas, like a mudbath. But that's > as far as it reached. > > At the lobby, eventually,we were told to go back to our room and > quickly pack as they expected another larger wave to come. So we went > back and quickly packed, then parked ourselves on one of the many very > spacious couches around the lobby, while the children took naps. I > guess time flies when your stunned, or too numb to really know what > has happened. The Marriot opened the 2 2nd floor restaurants for free > lunch and otherwise were so well organized, that, it seemed as though > it was just another day at a resort. > > Nevertheless, those who had their wits better about them, made > decisions, where possible. > > The airport was flooded, so all flights were cancelled with a promise > for an update by 6 pm. Many of the people staying at the hotel, > arranged to cancel the balance of their stay and return to Bangkok or > some of the other resort areas in Thailand and Asia not hit, or go > home. There were people from Russia, the US, Hong Kong, China, Japan, > Australia, the Middle East, South America, everywhere. > > While the JW Marriott was not heavily hit, and in fact, working > through the night, had the swimming pool pristine about the time we > left the next day, and the areas out to the shoreline in the process > of being cleaned up, the rest of the coastal areas of Phuket, many not > having the protection of a sandbar and then a 45 degree 30 embankment > from the shoreline were wiped out. The wave came into the more sturdy > villas and hotels along the shoreline and simply smashed through the > doors and windows and kept on going through to the other side and > beyond, picking up any and everything and any body along the way. All > these will undoubtedly be repaired in the coming months, and 6 months > from now, no one will notice the difference, but the many bungalows > along the beach were simply washed away, demolished, as a wave, they > estimate traveling up to 500 mph his the coast. > > An interesting aside regarding the many people that cancelled their > stay at the JW Marriott, is that the disaster wasn't necessarily bad > news for them, as there were so very many people in these sturdy > villas and shoreline hotels that were now homeless and without lodging > that, when I asked if I could stay on a few more days, I was told that > they expected to fill up the hotel with those caught in the > disaster needing places to stay. I heard that the 5 Hiltons in Phuket > also came out nearly unscathed, though the Sofitel in Koh Lak, just > above Phuket and many hotels in Krabi to the north again were > devastated. A few of the islands near Phuket were also overrun with > water. > > The reports of death that kept coming in and continue to mount even > now, were based on actual body counts, with always double the > estimates of missing. It seems that even now, as the body count is > reaching 33,000, that the number estimated as missing continues to be > double. > > In Phuket now, the body count is over 1,000 with another over 1,000 > unaccounted for. > > In the last 6 years, I've stayed at Marriotts around 1,600 nights, and > the Phuket stay turned out to be alright. We were lucky that I had to > send off some last minute e-mails and did not head out to the pool at > 10, as planned. There were a number of people around the pool, mostly > staff and luckily, mostly on the shallow side, so that when the water > hit there were only a few minor cuts and burses, nothing like what > happened in other resort hotels, villas, homes and bungalows along the > coast, not to mention some of the tourist shops and businesses along > the boardwalks of several towns. > > The airport opened by 5 the same day with all flights resumed. As our > flight was at 6, we missed out, and I didn't have the presence of mind > to try to arrange a later flight until Noi put some pressure on me. I > called my secretary, and she arranged the flight for the next day, > yesterday (Monday 11:20 am). The airport was packed, numerous people > on standby for any flight out. That evening the Thai government > announced that it would give free flights out for anyone stranded, as > many of the tourists lost everything they had, cash, credit cards and > identification, and free lodging was arranged for them once they'd > reach Bangkok. Despite the Exodus, the tourists continue to fly in to > the bookings they've made at the hotels that were not harmed or > recovered quickly. > > In Bangkok, we heard that the 9 Richter scale earthquake that was > behind the Tsunami was so strong that it rocked the tall buildings in > Bangkok, and that our apartment building of 40 stories was evacuated > for several hours, while we were gone. > > A couple of reporters called to get my story. It's nothing like the > stories of many other foreigners. Of the people that died from the > Tsunami in Phuket, 70% were foreign tourists on holidays for > Christmas. The King's autistic grandchild of his eldest daughter that > moved to San Diego, was also out swimming and lost at sea, his body > just recovered. > > Thailand has never had a catastrophe like this. > > On CNN, even before the body count across Asia was called at 4,500, > reporters described it as a "Disaster of Biblical Proportions" In > business contracts, it's called an "Act of God" allowing agreements to > be cancelled without penalty on both sides, whether it involves a > hotel stay, a flight cancellation or a shipment of goods and services. > > When the reporters asked me what I thought was the lesson, at first I > was going to give a trite response, "always stay at a Marriott hotel." > But actually, until the reality of what has really happened began to > set in, watching CNN, which is really all we get in viable > international news of this type (apart from BBC, which also focuses on > other scheduled programming, or the Thai channels, with the ever > expanding pictures of sheer devastation, anguish, tragedy and sorrow > with struggle to survive and cope, that the real message is that we > really have witnessed an "Act of God" and that act seems to be > speaking to the world in a "Biblical" way. This way has always been a > quite simple message, which is that, while throughout life we focus on > one melodrama or another, or on something we fear, such as terrorism, > religious zealotry, and how that will be harm civilization, or on > environmental problems or political problems, or we get caught up in > our pursuits, goals and dreams, and in that process of loosing > ourselves in our passions for these images, we forget the One that has > brought the universe into existence, who sustains it for a time and > dissolves it, while providing us with the sense of being and identity > in the form of our sense of "I" and the light of awareness, which are > really and always the emanation of the God, Being and Consciousness. > So, maybe, as we have not been able to hear the inner voice, we > have the voice of God speaking through the power of nature with such a > force greater than the calamities we perpetuate on ourselves and each > other that we might remember really Who the Author of the Creation is, > reflect inward, and remember the source of the "I" and "Light" through > which we build our identities. > > Anyway, I'm alright and my family is alright. > > Pieter > > > > > /join > > > > > > "Love itself is the actual form of God." > > Sri Ramana > > In "Letters from Sri Ramanasramam" by Suri Nagamma > > > > > Sponsor > > > <lrec_companion_043004.gif> > <l.gif> > > Links > > • > / > > • > > > • Terms of > Service. > > Attachment: (text/enriched) [not stored] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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