PHUKET: A Dutch couple told today of their 2004 tsunami experience on Phuket while a group of knowledgeable Bangkok schoolchildren questioned why their peers on Phuket are not taught about the disaster at their doorstep.
Bauke and Paulette van den Wyngaard were regular annual visitors before the tsunami struck Phuket on December 26, 2004 and the memory of the event has brought them back each year since.
Paulette, 50, was even wearing her first anniversary souvenir baseball cap at Patong beach today, seven years on from the big wave.
''It was early in the morning and we were both on Patong beach and suddenly the water was gone. We asked, and nobody knew what was happening.
''So we waited a while and we saw the water coming back. But it was not a high wave, it was a small wave.
''But the water didn't stop it came further and further, and the water got higher and higher, and we said to each other, 'We have to go because this is not normal.' I crossed the street and my husband stayed a little bit behind and I turned around and looked at the sea and I saw big boats coming, and the wave growing bigger and bigger.
''I called to my husband and he couldn't hear me. I saw him hold a tree and it was a huge wave, and I went into the wave, and I thought I was going to drown.''
Later, after the water subsided, an ambulance took Mrs van den Wyngaaard to hospital for several operations on wounds.
''On New Years' Eve we were evacuated to Holland,'' she said.
''Altogether I was in hospital for three weeks and it was three months before I could do everything again. Mentally, it took about nine months to return to normal.''
Every year, she said, ''I have to be here because we want to say thank you to the people who helped us, we want to say thank you to Buddha. I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world than here on December 26.''
A group of children who flew from Bangkok for a seminar at Patong beach today showed the clever working model they made to illustrate how a tsunami works and questioned why Phuket schoolchildren were not taught about tsunamis.
Bangkok teacher Deelok U-tamah said that Phuket residents seemed worryingly unprepared for the potential disaster of a second tsunami.
''It puzzles me why Phuket provincial officials don't inform people more about tsunamis,'' he said. His anxiety was echoed by Dr Smith Dharmasaroja, the Thai meteorologist who warned the government about the risk of a tsunami striking Thailand years before one did.
The warning system was not effective and needed improving, he said. The problem, he said, was that Phuket officials feared continuing talk of the tsunami would affect tourism.
A candles-in-the-sand memorial ceremony after nightfall tonight at Patong beach is likely to be affected by the unusually strong winds of the past few days on Phuket that are expected to continue through to Wednesday.
Bauke and Paulette van den Wyngaard were regular annual visitors before the tsunami struck Phuket on December 26, 2004 and the memory of the event has brought them back each year since.
Paulette, 50, was even wearing her first anniversary souvenir baseball cap at Patong beach today, seven years on from the big wave.
''It was early in the morning and we were both on Patong beach and suddenly the water was gone. We asked, and nobody knew what was happening.
''So we waited a while and we saw the water coming back. But it was not a high wave, it was a small wave.
''But the water didn't stop it came further and further, and the water got higher and higher, and we said to each other, 'We have to go because this is not normal.' I crossed the street and my husband stayed a little bit behind and I turned around and looked at the sea and I saw big boats coming, and the wave growing bigger and bigger.
''I called to my husband and he couldn't hear me. I saw him hold a tree and it was a huge wave, and I went into the wave, and I thought I was going to drown.''
Later, after the water subsided, an ambulance took Mrs van den Wyngaaard to hospital for several operations on wounds.
''On New Years' Eve we were evacuated to Holland,'' she said.
''Altogether I was in hospital for three weeks and it was three months before I could do everything again. Mentally, it took about nine months to return to normal.''
Every year, she said, ''I have to be here because we want to say thank you to the people who helped us, we want to say thank you to Buddha. I can't imagine being anywhere else in the world than here on December 26.''
A group of children who flew from Bangkok for a seminar at Patong beach today showed the clever working model they made to illustrate how a tsunami works and questioned why Phuket schoolchildren were not taught about tsunamis.
Bangkok teacher Deelok U-tamah said that Phuket residents seemed worryingly unprepared for the potential disaster of a second tsunami.
''It puzzles me why Phuket provincial officials don't inform people more about tsunamis,'' he said. His anxiety was echoed by Dr Smith Dharmasaroja, the Thai meteorologist who warned the government about the risk of a tsunami striking Thailand years before one did.
The warning system was not effective and needed improving, he said. The problem, he said, was that Phuket officials feared continuing talk of the tsunami would affect tourism.
A candles-in-the-sand memorial ceremony after nightfall tonight at Patong beach is likely to be affected by the unusually strong winds of the past few days on Phuket that are expected to continue through to Wednesday.
