Bastiaan Slot’s Tsunami story

I arrived in Thailand on the 17th December on Krabi airport. My family and I all went to a hotel called ALIS Hotel. We were all happy in Krabi for the first few days. On the day before Christmas we went on a Four Island trip (we went to four islands). And on every island we visited we were there for at least one hour… But not Chicken Island, it had the best coral reefs of all the other three islands we visited and we barely stayed there for half an hour. So we decided to visit Chicken Island again the next day for half a day.
This is when it all started… We hired a Long Tail boat at the shore at Ao Nang Beach. Then all five of us went to Chicken Island once more. We arrived there around ten ‘o’ clock and started snorkeling. There were many other boats on Chicken Island including a speed boat. After a while I started fishing with a bucket trying to catch a fish. I knew it was almost impossible but eventually I caught one. Other people on their boat saw me and my younger sister Vivian swimming together and they called my sister an angel of the water. A while later, it happened. My mother screamed at me to get on the boat me not knowing what was going on. My thought was that there was a shark or something on the loose trying to get me. I got on the boat thinking I was safe but I was wrong. I saw a fast wave coming towards me and the closer it came the bigger it became. I think the wave may have been around 10 meters high! Before it hit me I didn’t think, I just grabbed the metal bit connected to the boat, and then the wave picked our boat up and we landed right on top of another boat. I was tumbling under water with no breath in me at all. I hit something and it was silent, then I was hit again always thinking it was over but it continued. Finally I gasped a breath of air. I must have had a black out because I didn’t really remember what happened under water and the whole sea was brown from the sand, every tree, boat, even the speed boat was demolished. I tried to swim to shore and automatically I swam like a dog! But the waves continued, I was smashed to the rocks and the waves were even more powerful than the first because the water picked up the sand one although the first one was bigger. I screamed for help, it was my birthday in five days; I just didn’t want to die then. I prayed that my family would survive and yet I almost died. I saw some other people scratched and bruised all over the face and everywhere. I also saw my brother in the water, he was screaming for help too, but we were separated. I tried to hold onto a buoy because they always flout, but of course I got separated, the waves were just too powerful for me. But finally, after a long time the waves brought me to shore. The embarrassing bit about coming to shore is that I lost my pants in the water, but nobody cared. Other people helped me up telling me to go sit with the other boy and that boy was my brother! I ran as fast as my scarred legs could go and I hugged him more than ever before. We both just sat there and shouting for my family. Then another big wave came which managed to reach us all the way at the back of the beach. That started a rock slide right behind me. Now I had two problems, tumbling rocks and the tsunamis. We knew it wasn’t safe there anymore. I started climbing up the rocks as fast as I could, but then my leg and my arm were stuck between the tumbling rocks that fell. I shouted for help but nobody wanted to risk their own life to save another they don’t know. But then the waves helped me a bit by releasing the rocks my arm and leg were trapped in. I climbed as high as I could go and as far away as possible. Then I met Charlie and his friend. He helped me by giving me a lifejacket. He tried to cheer me up by saying I should believe that my family would survive the tsunami. In my head I was already thinking what would happen to me if my parents wouldn’t make it and I would become an orphan After a while I saw my mother approaching me and my brother, we screamed of joy, I lost my thought of being an orphan and just hugged her like mad. I couldn’t walk so she came to us. I asked her if she knew where my father, (Steven) was and my sister, (Vivian) was. She told me that my dad was coming, but my sister wasn’t found yet. Again I hugged my dad and said that I was so happy that he was alive. My father went back to the beach to look for my sister but I was scared that something would happen to him, but he insisted on going. He thought that the tsunamis were probably over but there were many after shocks after every wave. Many minutes later everybody was sitting where my family was sitting. We had nothing to do up there, we couldn’t sleep because of the cuts on us, it would hurt and that the leaves were rotten so we couldn’t lie down. So what I did was, I was showing off my cuts and bruises, and we were talking about what would happen if nothing happens. Finally a speed bout came to the rescue. It was hard climbing down the hill and when I came to the beach I was even afraid of the tiniest wave that I approached me. But I cooled down and cooperated to swim to the boat. I saw myself in the mirror and I couldn’t even recognize myself anymore! I had a swollen lip, four times the size of the lip I know have, cuts and bruises all over me, but I was lucky to be wearing a swim shirt so I got no wounds on my chest or back. My whole eye lid and the surrounding of my eye was purplish blue and I had a deep cut next to the mid left side if my face. We were then brought to another bigger ship where a lady gave me a pair of shorts, (finally). They gave my fresh water, towel and they treated me as if I was an angel. After that another boat came and that boat brought us to shore. At the shore we had no idea where we were and we were surrounded by camera people and photographers. Some native people carried us to a crappy little ambulance, and the driver drove crazy. I thought with this driver we were definitely going to die. Blood was dripping from other people, I kept on smelling stinky blood but finally we arrived at the hospital. We were put in wheelchairs and on moving beds. We were sent to an emergency room where nurses and doctors were helping other victims of the tsunami. First the nurses put stinging cream allover my scratches and cuts. They gave me four pain killer injections! They sowed 6 stitches on my face where the deep cut was on the mid left side, (four on the outside and two on the inside). They also sowed five stitches on the back of my head, (three on the outside and two on the inside). I hated injections, they were one of my worst fears, and yet, in the whole vacation I got six. After all the torture, there weren’t any beds left for me! So I got stuck with sleeping on the floor. The only problem with that was that the stitches on the back of my head were still sore so I couldn’t lie straight. I met many other people and told them this story and that Vivian was missing. I met new fiends and everybody treated me better than before. A few days later my Aunt from Croatia (my mum’s sister) and my uncle from Holland (dad’s brother) came to visit us because of this matter. I was so happy to see them. They cheered me up, gave me chocolate and even a cool hat! Many days past and my stitches and bruises started disappearing. I spent every night in the ALIS Hotel and it was hard to cope with getting into bed, because of all my wounds on my body and head. Every morning the ladies working at ALIS had to clean the mattress, sheets and everything because of the blood that spilt from my wounds during the night. But we all figure it out in the end. On the 31st December 2004, it was my birthday! I got a pizza dinner and everywhere I went I got a “happy birthday”, from them. Still everyday we went to my mother in the hospital. She couldn’t leave because of her collapsed lung. She got quite a few injections, and one operation. But eventually, she was released from the hospital and then we left Krabi on the 7th January 2005. Our stop after the plane flight was Croatia, it was sad to go there because I would have to go to my sister’s funeral, yes, my sister died it was terrible, I couldn’t stop crying but my family told me to be strong a face this. But every day I think of her, and I will never forget her. But I got to meet my other half of my family in Croatia. Everybody was at the funeral, my grand parents, uncle and aunts and many more relatives and friends and even people I’ve never seen in my life before! So that was my story of the tsunami, it was sad but we all survived… almost.