BANGKOK: Australian survivors have told how they were torn between being evacuated from Kathmandu on two RAAF cargo planes or staying to help Nepalese struggling to recover from Saturday's devastating earthquake.
"I wanted to stay and help but it was too much," Sydney filmmaker Nick Brunninghausen, 37, said after arriving in Bangkok early on Friday.
"I couldn't look at another body. It all just built up over time," he said.
"It was easily the most horrific experience I have been through".
Mr Brunninghausen spent five days filming the devastation for a documentary to raise money for the disaster relief, including a hotel that collapsed near where he was staying that killed 47 people.
More than 100 survivors, many of them Australians, were evacuated from Nepal on two RAAF C-17 Globemaster heavy lift aircraft as the disaster's official death toll neared 5500 with eight million people affected, according to the United Nations.
Pushed on a wheelchair through Bangkok airport, suffering frost-bitten feet,18-year-old Victorian Camille Thomas collapsed into the arms of her mother Kate Thomas.
Camille and her best friend Grace Graham, also 18, were buried in a snow avalanche and had to walk for hours in bare feet to reach help after the 7.8 earthquake struck the Himalayan nation.
"I am just elated," Mrs Thomas said.
"She is my best friend. I've got to get her home."
Grace's father Anthony Graham said he was proud of the two girls.
"They were brave. They collected themselves and worked out how to get out of there."
Sandra Fiedeldy, 58, from Melbourne, who runs a not-for-profit restaurant in Kathmandu that helps lower caste people, said she felt a little guilty about leaving the country.
"In one week all the tourists will be gone. My workers are on the streets," she said.
"I don't know what will happen because tourism accounts for a large part of Nepal's economy."
But Mrs Fiedeldy said she will return to Nepal after a break because she worries about the people.
"They are really easy going. They use an an expression 'what to do?'...it means they just accept everything that comes their way."
Camden Cooke, 27, from Gold Coast said he felt he had to leave the country after being caught sitting on a toilet in a backpacker's hostel when the quake hit.
"All I could do was to hang on . . . it was crazy. When I looked around everyone was in shock," he said.
"There were diseases coming so I felt I had to leave on the evacuation flight."
Tony Perry, 37, from Sydney said Australia's effort to send tonnes of relief supplies to Nepal and to evacuate survivors "makes you feel proud to be Australian."
"It shows that we can sometimes get things right," she said.
Many of the evacuated survivors had been staying in the leafy compound of the Australian embassy in Kathmandu that became known as "ANZAC Camp".
Patong Rotary on Phuket is taking donations for Nepal victims with President Brad Kenny available at president@rotarypatong.org or by telephone on 081-633-4279.
"I wanted to stay and help but it was too much," Sydney filmmaker Nick Brunninghausen, 37, said after arriving in Bangkok early on Friday.
"I couldn't look at another body. It all just built up over time," he said.
"It was easily the most horrific experience I have been through".
Mr Brunninghausen spent five days filming the devastation for a documentary to raise money for the disaster relief, including a hotel that collapsed near where he was staying that killed 47 people.
More than 100 survivors, many of them Australians, were evacuated from Nepal on two RAAF C-17 Globemaster heavy lift aircraft as the disaster's official death toll neared 5500 with eight million people affected, according to the United Nations.
Pushed on a wheelchair through Bangkok airport, suffering frost-bitten feet,18-year-old Victorian Camille Thomas collapsed into the arms of her mother Kate Thomas.
Camille and her best friend Grace Graham, also 18, were buried in a snow avalanche and had to walk for hours in bare feet to reach help after the 7.8 earthquake struck the Himalayan nation.
"I am just elated," Mrs Thomas said.
"She is my best friend. I've got to get her home."
Grace's father Anthony Graham said he was proud of the two girls.
"They were brave. They collected themselves and worked out how to get out of there."
Sandra Fiedeldy, 58, from Melbourne, who runs a not-for-profit restaurant in Kathmandu that helps lower caste people, said she felt a little guilty about leaving the country.
"In one week all the tourists will be gone. My workers are on the streets," she said.
"I don't know what will happen because tourism accounts for a large part of Nepal's economy."
But Mrs Fiedeldy said she will return to Nepal after a break because she worries about the people.
"They are really easy going. They use an an expression 'what to do?'...it means they just accept everything that comes their way."
Camden Cooke, 27, from Gold Coast said he felt he had to leave the country after being caught sitting on a toilet in a backpacker's hostel when the quake hit.
"All I could do was to hang on . . . it was crazy. When I looked around everyone was in shock," he said.
"There were diseases coming so I felt I had to leave on the evacuation flight."
Tony Perry, 37, from Sydney said Australia's effort to send tonnes of relief supplies to Nepal and to evacuate survivors "makes you feel proud to be Australian."
"It shows that we can sometimes get things right," she said.
Many of the evacuated survivors had been staying in the leafy compound of the Australian embassy in Kathmandu that became known as "ANZAC Camp".
Patong Rotary on Phuket is taking donations for Nepal victims with President Brad Kenny available at president@rotarypatong.org or by telephone on 081-633-4279.
