Bee's Story
The area of Khoa Lak in Phang Gna province, Thailand.
Bee is a young Thai man in his early twenties. He lives at the moment in a makeshift camp for survivors. His home was about 100 metres from the beach in a place called 'Saltwater village'.
The morning of the Tsunami he was at home with his young wife and his 17 year old sister. His sister was washing some clothes and was then going to leave home early in order to do some extra studies (she was preparing to start university in Bangkok).
Bee said "don't go yet, let's all have breakfast together and then I will take you to school on the motorbike".
Now he blames himself for her death because if she had left before breakfast she would have lived.
Bee told us that at first they heard 4 or 5 people running past their house, then a few seconds after there were 50 or 60 people running and screaming.
Bee ran out of the house and shouted "what's wrong, why are you running?" People shouted back that it was a giant wave! Bee grabbed his wife and sister by the hand and they started to run but they couldn't outrun the enormous black wave! They almost reached a pick up truck that was on the road, people were already crammed into the back but it sped off to escape the wave.
The giant wave was only a few metres away so they dived behind a house just before it hit. They were ripped from each others arms. Bee was thrown over and over by the power of the wave. He thought he was certainly going to die but the awful pressure in his lungs made him fight for the surface only to be crashed again and again to the bottom.
The wave carried him over a kilometre inland and smashed him into a tree, which he was able to grab a hold of. This saved his life.
Saltwater village had about 1500 homes. Just a handful were left standing. The bodies of about 1000 villagers have been found but over 2000 are still missing.
Bee lost eleven members of his family that day including his wife and younger sister. He found their bodies several days after the Tsunami hit. They were only recognizable by the clothes they had on.