ENTRY 52 — TSUNAMI

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January 2nd 2006

Published: November 1st 2005

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K. Wit and Bryan - Wendy House

One of our favourite staff members and Bryan in the entrance way to Wendy House. (Fall 2004 FotoetimePhoto CR)

ENTRY 52 — December 30, 2004

TSUNAMI

While finishing up our travels in India we began to realize that our quest of circumnavigating the globe would be helped by paid employment. I kept my ears open and looked for jobs. Both Miranda and I agreed that we were ready to work overseas once more.

As we sat and talked to a nice young couple in Calcutta one day, they chanced to mention they had worked as teachers in Bangkok, Thailand. They asked if we had ever considered teaching. The idea made more and more sense as we considered our educational background and experience (We had taught school in both Lahore and Butterworth). Bangkok became our next stop after leaving Calcutta.

Bangkok: a clean, modern city

Our first impression of Thailand — Bangkok to be exact — was that of a clean, modern city with many amenities. Of course it might have been because we had just left the city of Kolkata. The contrast was staggering. We couldn't get over the cleanliness and the modernity of the area in which we lived: Wendy House on Soi Kasem San 1 near Siam Square. The massive shopping

Siam Paragon, Bangkok, Thailand

centers overwhelmed us. At 8 am the

">Thai national anthem would be broadcast from everywhere ... and the theaters played the

">King's Song at the start of every movie. We could easily make our way to the Grand Palace and other sights of note, but it was nice to come home to the friendly and clean Wendy House.

In only a matter of days, both of us had jobs. Miranda — much to my surprise — agreed to teach Kindergarten (four year olds). Sarasas Ektra was a bilingual school and she enjoyed it very much. I ended up at Thammasat University teaching business and economics in English. We were soon immersed in a new culture and challenges.

Christmas 2004

On the weekends we made an effort to visit Bangkok's many fascinating venues including the Chao Praya River, Wat Pho, Chinatown, Chatachuk Market and the Grand Palace. The city had so much to offer and we never tired of exploring: finding new friends, food and experiences. And once again living and working in a different culture was teaching us a great many things: our students were a source of great joy (most of the time) and working at places run by Thai people gave us

Breakfast at Wendy House.

an insight into a new mindset. All in all we were having a very satisfying time.

Miranda and I were invited by a group of teachers from Sarasas Ektra School to join them for a holiday in Phuket during the Christmas holidays. I must confess I wimped out, opting for a traditional Christmas put on by one of the finer hotels in Bangkok. We were a small group, Roberta, Miranda, Helen, Gordon and myself. We had a great feast.

I was recovering the following day when we got the news. The Thai government reported a tsunami caused by an Indian Ocean earthquake. The Thai authorities estimated that at least 8,150 people died. Our friends at Phuket were badly hit, but the high-rise concrete hotels of Phuket saved them. There had been no warning of the wave. Some noticed that the water along the beach receded...that in the distance there appeared a giant wall...then....

Strange as it may seem, four male Indian elephants, brought to the beach to entertain the tourists are credited with saving many. The elephant's natural instinct to flee acted as an early warning. Over the next few days BBC News gave us a clear

Bangkok, Thailand

Photo taken from Outback near Wendy House. Palace of HRH in the foreground.

picture of what happened. The economic impact of the tsunami on Thailand was considerable. The sectors most devastated had been tourism and fishing. The beach resorts were extensively damaged. Many Thai-owned hotels and other small businesses were ruined, and the Thai government provided large amounts of capital to enable the recovery of the private sector. Confidence of European tourists traveling to places such as Phuket had been shaken, which is one reason why Thailand installed tsunami warning systems. Thousands of Thais dependent on tourism-related industries lost their jobs, A further problem was the public aversion in Thailand to eating locally caught fish, for fear that the fish have fed on human bodies. Thais found this possibility offensive both on health grounds and for religious reasons. Sea food product distributors refused to buy fish and crustaceans. Last but not least, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra politicized the tsunami tragedy and won election.

An Earthquake Northwest of Mirik

Miranda was off at October English Camp with a group from the school. She was running daily workshops on Broadcast Journalism for 125 students aged ten to thirteen. I prayed that she would return home without being too stressed! It was that

The Chao Praya River

The Chao Praya River runs through the centre of Bangkok, by the Palace and Thammasat University. It's a major source of cheap transit.

Saturday that I turned on the BBC News. I could not believe my eyes! There had been a massive earthquake northwest of Mirik. We were more than little concerned about our friends from the Valley (Miranda and I had kept in touch over the years...visiting when we could).

Coup d'Etat

Life in Bangkok was exotic, exciting and sometimes a little nerve wracking, however we had become quite complacent with our new lives. We were therefore astounded this morning (September 20th) to get a very unusual wake up call. As Miranda answered the phone, I could hear from her voice that something out of the ordinary was happening. Miss Nuyy, the night receptionist, told Miranda she might as well go back to bed because we didn't have to go to work that day. "There has been a revolution," she reported.

"What?" I heard Miranda ask. "Did you say revolution? Here, in Thailand? What has happened?"

When Miranda got off the phone she excitedly informed me that the whole city was shut down due to a military coup that had taken place overnight. She went into more detail, saying that the government of Prime Minister Thaksin had been

Soi Kasemsan 1

Wendy House to the far left, Temple (Spirit House) to the far right.

overthrown. Details were still a little sketchy, but things sounded serious. Neither of us quite knew what to do.

At breakfast we were warned by the guest house staff not to go outside onto the streets. We tried to find out what was going on via the media, but none of the Thai television stations were broadcasting news of the event.

After several hours we headed out to O'Reilly's Irish Pub in the Sala Daeng area of Bangkok to see if we could find out what was happening. The place was filled with expats with many versions of what was going on. Later we ran into some teachers who taught at the same school as Miranda. They were as clueless as we were. Everything was just hearsay at this point — nothing reliable.

Finally, around 5 p.m. we came across a shop selling a special edition of the English language newspaper The Bangkok Post. Splashed across the front page were photos of soldiers and tanks near Democracy Monument. It was a shocking sight! We bought the newspaper and sat down to find out as much as we could about what was really going on.

Soldiers, tanks and personnel carriers had been

Soi Shopping - Bangkok

Practically every street and soi (smaller street) in Bangkok is filled with shops of every imaginable kind.

placed throughout Bangkok, but there had been nothing in the way of bloodshed. The people actually seemed pleased that Thaksin was no longer the prime minister. Still, the tourist industry and economy are bound to suffer.

Mother

Miranda and I went out for dinner at about 7:00 pm on New Year's Eve to a small restaurant about five minutes from Wendy House. As we were ordering our meal, a young Thai man asked me if he could take the remote control off my table and change the television station from "New Year's celebrations" to a news program. When I asked why, he said that some bombs had gone off in Bangkok in four different areas and he wanted to follow the story. By the time we had finished supper, six bombs had reportedly exploded. There were varying reports as to the number of people killed and injured.

Our Swedish friend, Lisa, informed us about the cancellation of New Year celebrations. As we walked towards Siam Square, the streets were empty. We returned to the cafe at Wendy House and talked to the people who were gathering, as their party plans had been canceled. Apparently, two

Thammasat

Ajarn Bryan at the main entrance to Thammasat University (LITU)

more bombs went off at midnight. These bombs would have killed many people, but luckily the streets were now almost deserted.

Miranda and I went to bed early, but were awakened by my mother who was calling long distance from Canada to see how we were. BBC had reported that the attacks were mostly small explosive devices placed in rubbish bins and phone booths. In one incident a grenade was tossed from an overhead bridge. Many people believed that the bombs were planted by Islamic terrorists, but the government would not admit it because they were worried about a backlash. Also bombs had been planted in the tourist areas of Khao San Road and Lumpini Night Bazaar. Apparently they were found and diffused.

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Earthquake Photos

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Bryan and Miranda

Bryan

The Travel Blog of Bryan and Miranda Before meeting Miranda, I was a litigation lawyer who had always loved to travel. As a child, my parents included me on their many trips. It was my idea to see the 1965 New York World's Fair, and in 1968 to travel across North America from Montreal to Seattle. In 1980 I spent a summer exploring America with a Greyhound "Thank You Canada" pass. Americans were grateful to Canada for rescuing hostages being held captive by Iran. (I don't think I paid for a drink on my entire trip and yes, I still feel Americans are the kindest, most generous peopl... full info

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Brief history of Thailand

A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy....more history

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