A Wok Of Corpses

The initial quake and the numerous aftershocks released a massive surge of water that spread from Indonesia and, travelling at more than 800 km/hr, swept north and westward, gathering mass and momentum as it sped forward. Within an hour, the great walls of water had hit Singapore, Malaysia and pummelled southern Thailand. In the next hour it had wreaked havoc in Myanmar and Bangladesh, and India and Sri Lanka to the west.

Before the tsunami struck Thailand, Derek, an elderly tourist on Patong, the main beach on the island resort of Phuket, was wondering why the tide had spilled far beyond the shore. "And then I saw an enormous wall of water spreading straight towards where I was. It was something out of a Hollywood disaster movie," he recalls.

As the angry waters spilled over the beaches all along the country’s coastline, Detlef Richter, a German tourist on one of the smaller islands off the coast of Thailand, felt he had been picked and flung against a tree. Detlef hung to the tree desperately. "When I had no strength left, I let go. I was hurled 300 metres up into the jungle. I’m lucky to still be alive," he remembers.

In those initial moments the tsunami unleashed its fury, people remember themselves as being paralysed. "We were stunned, we did not know what to do," recalls Rob Green, an American tourist on a scuba diving holiday. And then began the mad scamper to escape from what had till then been the bewitching beaches of Thailand. Tourist resorts were devastated, buildings flattened, cars and motorbikes tossed around everywhere. "It was as if an atomic bomb had been dropped on the place," says Kevin, a young Australian tourist who even three days after the tsunami struck was still searching for his three travelling companions.

The ravaging tsunami chose world-famous tourist spots with a vengeance. Only one hotel was left standing on Ko Phi Phi; over a 100 people perished, according to eyewitnesses. One of the worst tragedies was in Kao Lak where the torrents of water flooded its main hotel, drowning all those who were asleep on the ground floor. "People and kids were screaming ‘help, help’ all over the place. And after a few minutes you didn’t hear the kids any more," a distraught Petra Nemcova, a Czech supermodel who was holidaying here, told journalists as she desperately awaited news of her missing partner.

In Kao Lak that day was also 40-year-old Praphai Chaiwong from the north city of Chiang Mai, on his first real holiday with his wife. When giant tsunami waves smashed the Kao Lak belt, Praphai and his wife held hands, hoping to live or die together in the swirling waters. But in a moment she was snatched away from his grasp, sucked into the sea. "I don’t know how I am going to start my life again," says a distraught Praphai from his hospital bed.

There may never be a final figure to the deaths in these tourist spots. Over 2,000 are currently confirmed as dead, more than half of them foreign tourists. Another 6,000 are listed as missing, of which nearly 3,000 are foreigners. But Thais themselves have been devastated too. Many hotel workers, food stall owners and local fishermen were washed away.Seventy-year-old Anya mourns the loss of most of her family—seven members, including her 79-year-old husband and six-year-old grandson. "I don’t think I can live on," she says.

In the region, it is Indonesia which has suffered the brunt of tsunami waves. The areas closest to the epicentre—Sumatra—of the earthquake have been devastated. The island of Aceh has been reduced to rubble, with all its towns and villages flattened. While the initial body count was conservative, it soon spiralled to the heaviest at about 80,000.

As the government here provides assistance, and those alive mourn the dead, many are worried about the fate of the country’s tourist industry. Visited annually by nearly two million people, tourism provides sustenance to thousands. The repercussions of the tsunami will be felt over several months. As Thailand’s minister for sport and tourism, Sonthaya Khunpluem, said, "More than 2,00,000 people working in the tourist-related businesses in the six affected southern provinces have now lost their jobs."

The buildings may be relatively easy to repair and rebuild. Many hotel operators in the area are confident that they will be able to reopen within a few weeks or so. But it will take at least two months alone to restore the hotels and business premises along the popular Patong Beach, according to the chairman of the Phuket Tourism Association, Pattanapong Ekwanij. The country’s central bank has arranged soft loans for businesses to help them rebuild and reopen as soon as possible. "It will cost more than 20 billion baht (half a billion US dollars) to repair the hotels alone," Sonthaya estimates.

The authorities are worried because the tourist industry contributes more than 50 per cent of Thailand’s foreign earnings. The Thai government had hoped to increase the tourist inflow from two million a year to eight million by next year. This now seems highly unlikely. The tsunami tragedy was one more battering the country’s resilient industry had to endure over the last three years. Beginning with the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, it had to countenance sars, avian chicken flu and the violent Muslim unrest in the three southernmost provinces.

Already most major travel agents in Austria, Britain and France have reported that departures to Thailand between January and February have largely been cancelled. "I’m sure that tourism to these destinations will pick up again...the problem is when," says Emmanuel Foiry, head of travel agency, Kuoni France. Many experts feel it will take an inordinately long time before tourism begins to flourish again. "Tourists have a terrible fear of natural catastrophes," says Joseph Reitinger-Laska, the head of Austria’s Tourism Association. "Tourists are more scared of natural disasters than terrorism," he says.

The future is indeed bleak for Thailand’s tourist industry. The sea here will no longer symbolise serenity and tranquility. And those who love to swim, dive and surf will pause and wonder. As a top European travel expert told this correspondent, "The classic two-week holiday by the ocean, where people want a bedroom right by the beach, will be severely affected."

The fear of the unknown continues to be fanned as the region experiences fresh aftershocks from the original earthquake every day. As I write these few concluding words on Thursday, numbed and humbled, I’m told a red alert has been issued, even asking people to expect yet another tsunami. At this rate the idyllic beaches of Thailand may acquire new attributes—treacherous, violent, destructive. Not quite the elements tourism thrives upon.