This is an email I recieved from a fellow JET traveling in Thailand at the time the tsunami hit. Please pray for the people of and those traveling within SE Asia.
__________________________________________________
Hi all
We were on Koh Jum. it is 6 kilometres from Koh Phi Phi which was the worst hit, where most people died. we are all ok, but only just. we were eating breakfast on the shore, where our bungalows were, and noticed the sea draining very very fast ...then a strange white wave appeared on the horizon...my boyfriend was about to run out to see if he could race it back in, when we heard many Thai people shouting to run, and we saw the longtail boats desperately trying to outrun the wave. we ran up the hill behind our bungalows (thanking god we had moved to a hillside the day before)and watched the water wreck, in 3 seconds, everything our bunglaow owners had spent 4 years painstakingly building...we were stupid enough to climb back down and were surveying the damage when we heard the second wave approaching. we had to run and climb up a mountain side to safety, some of us with bags, others not. we spent the afternoon climbing amid rumours of a 50 metre wave approaching. In the afternoon we returned to the village and we were put up for the night, worried amid rumours of fuel and food shortages. we managed to get out the next morning on a packed longtail boat. but to reassure anyone i know and havent had a chance to contact, im ok, and very grateful to be!!!hope everyone else is ok too...
We were on Koh Jum. it is 6 kilometres from Koh Phi Phi which was the worst hit, where most people died. we are all ok, but only just. we were eating breakfast on the shore, where our bungalows were, and noticed the sea draining very very fast ...then a strange white wave appeared on the horizon...my boyfriend was about to run out to see if he could race it back in, when we heard many Thai people shouting to run, and we saw the longtail boats desperately trying to outrun the wave. we ran up the hill behind our bungalows (thanking god we had moved to a hillside the day before)and watched the water wreck, in 3 seconds, everything our bunglaow owners had spent 4 years painstakingly building...we were stupid enough to climb back down and were surveying the damage when we heard the second wave approaching. we had to run and climb up a mountain side to safety, some of us with bags, others not. we spent the afternoon climbing amid rumours of a 50 metre wave approaching. In the afternoon we returned to the village and we were put up for the night, worried amid rumours of fuel and food shortages. we managed to get out the next morning on a packed longtail boat. but to reassure anyone i know and havent had a chance to contact, im ok, and very grateful to be!!!hope everyone else is ok too...
Kate (Salter, Higashimatsuyama-shi)
