Khao Lak 2004 Blog

After I got the news about the death of my friend, I could not understand why I would continue to gather data about Khao Lak. During the last two week I have recieved many pictures and stories covering what happened in Khao Lak.

I keep a mail dialogue going with several survivors and relatives and I am not sure what to do with all the document I have got. Maybe I can do a book and do a digital print and send to the people who have helped me. Probably a book with pictures showing Mai’s Quiet Zone before the tsunami. But I am not sure…

Today I learned that my friend is identified and is coming back home finally. It is like it all is happening to me all over again. How can a person die twice. I am devistated.

Strangely enough a collegue of my friend stayed in Mai’s Quet Zone at the same time as she did. This man made a short private film, where he interviewed some of the guests and also Mai. Today I got it in the post.

The film was shot not even a week before the disaster. And it gave me a very good idea on what this place was all about. When seing the palm trees moving in the wind… when hearing the sound of the waves… Afterwards I almost felt like I have been there myself.

One of the guests, now dead, says something like this to the camera: “You have to live day by day. I dream that I lie in the waters out here. On my back floating, watching the stars on the dark sky above me. And the sea takes me away…”

It gave me a very strange feeling, to say the least.

I am now extending the search for information on my friends whereabouts. I am constatly wondering about what she said a couple of days before the disaster to a fellow guest at Mai’s Quiet Zone… that she would change hotel to something more comfortable. I really want to know where she was when the waves hit. I dont know why tho. So I have been mailing the Sarojin, Pasha and several other resort in the Bang Niang area.

Today I got the first pictures from the place where Mai’s Quiet Zone once where. It is absolutely nothing left. On the pictures are bulldozers and the land just flat sand. Not the smallest mark of what had been there. I must get the GPS coordinats. They are be essential if I ever would travel there myself.

One thing is somewhat strange tho… the caption says that they are shoot from north and the other from south. But it is obvious that the pictures are shot in the same direction towards the south. It makes me think that the swedish personel on location is not very proffesional in their job. But that they really try to do their best. And that… sometimes is just not good enough…

A week ago or so I talked with someone at SRSA (Swedish Rescue Services Agenc) and asked about satellite photos and maps. A man told me they where working on a map with all resorts and other points of interest marked. But that they could not give it to me because it was not official yet.

Now when I think about this I get more and more doubtfull… I got the feeling he was giving me this information in confedence and that he did not want the public to know that there where a map at all. I can not understand why really. The information is essential for lots of people and it is no secret where the resorts was situated… It is so strange. They clearly did not want share the data? But why?

Now, when the hope is out to find my friend alive, I am trying to find out anything I can about the beach and the resorts in Khao Lak. I am franticly scanning the web for stories, pictures and maps.

Yesterday I come to think of the Swedish autorites. I called the consulate in Phuket and got to talk to a very polite police man there. He helped me to find a guy working for Svenska Räddningsverket (The Swedish Rescue Services Agency) who migh be able to give me details like GPS coordinats and pictures of Mai’s Quiet zone. I was also keen on reinsure that the resort not was being neglected in thier surveys.