Home>News Center>China
       
 

Tsunami spurs haunting familiarity
By Ravi Shankar (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-01-03 22:42

Pristine beaches. Crystal-clear water. Swaying palms. Friendly people. Island paradise.

That's what the brochures boasted about Koh Phi Phi. And when I saw it for myself -- much before Leonardo Di Caprio catapulted it to fame with the film The Beach -- it was pure picture postcard.

Getting there was part of the allure. We took a ferry from Phuket and disembarked at the island's main pier. From there, a long boat with an outboard motor took us to the other side of the island - there was no road.

There was no landing dock, either. As the vessel approached the beach, we jumped off and waded in knee-deep water to reach the resort as cheerful porters whisked our luggage away.

From the reception area -- decked with orchids and sweet Thai smiles -- we walked to our cottage on stilts. About 50 metres separated each, and you felt the island belonged to you.

A decade ago, I spent a glorious two days on a dream holiday etched forever in my memory.

Last week, the memories returned, this time to haunt me in a never-ending nightmare. Phi Phi, like its bigger island sister Phuket -- a place I have visited several times -- bore the brunt of the deadly tsunami in Thailand and television pictures showing utter devastation.

As the horrendous tragedy unfolded on television and in newspapers, the scale of the horror mounting by the hour and the death toll soaring, it was-- in a sense -- like a macabre death dance being staged especially for me.

During the 15 years I have worked and lived in the Asia-Pacific region - in Singapore, Papua New Guinea and now Hong Kong - I have been on holiday to almost all the places seared by the disaster.

Batu Feringgi beach in Malacca, Malaysia; Patong beach in Phuket; the Hikkaduwa beaches near Galle in Southern Sri Lanka; the azure-blue waters of Zanzibar off Tanzania; and, of course, the familiar east coast of my home country, India. All wonderful places which have touched me. Now, touched by the deadly hand of nature.

As television images showed the carnage in achingly-familiar places, I was transported to another disaster at another time at home.

I was a college freshman in 1977 when a severe cyclone hit my district and 10,000 people were swept away in the coastal areas under the onslaught of 3-metre-high tidal waves -- tsunami is an eerie word gaining currency only in the last week in India.

As members of the national volunteer corps, I and my classmates teamed up with the Communist Party Youth League in college and headed to the stricken area to help. Naively, we assumed we would be distributing food packages and blankets to grateful villagers. But a grisly task awaited us:digging out bodies buried in the mud and arranging for their cremation.

It was beyond me. And I salute all those who are today stoically toiling away at this grim endeavour.

Ravi Shankar is a copy editor with China Daily's Hong Kong edition and is visiting Beijing.



 
  Today's Top News     Top China News
 

88 laws, regulations take effect on New Year's Day

 

   
 

Premier Wen to join tsunami summit

 

   
 

Death toll reaches 95,000 in Indonesia

 

   
 

Beijing plans charter flights across Straits

 

   
 

Forty percent of workers work as freelancers

 

   
 

Canada confirms second case of mad cow

 

   
  Chill takes its toll on elderly and children
   
  SEF chairman Ku Chen-fu passes away
   
  Nine Chinese perish in tsunami
   
  Premier Wen to join tsunami summit
   
  Forty percent of workers work as freelancers
   
  Beijing plans charter flights across Straits
   
 
  Go to Another Section  
 
 
  Story Tools  
   
  Related Stories  
   
159 Britons feared killed in tsunami
   
Elephants help clear debris in Thailand
   
Tsunami steals a generation and the future
   
Eight days on, ailing tsunami survivors await aid
   
All missing Hongkongers confirmed safe
   
Full extent of Indonesia disaster slowly revealed
   
Death toll reaches 95,000 in Indonesia
  News Talk  
  It is time to prepare for Beijing - 2008  
Advertisement
         
主站蜘蛛池模板: 欧美成人高清ww| 老外一级毛片免费看| 国产青青草视频| 一级女人18片毛片免费视频| 日韩人妻精品一区二区三区视频 | 免费高清日本完整版| 蜜柚视频影院在线播放| 国产无套乱子伦精彩是白视频 | 日韩电影中文字幕| 亚洲人成色7777在线观看不卡| 深夜放纵内射少妇| 免费看美女被靠到爽的视频| 网址你懂的在线观看| 国产a∨精品一区二区三区不卡| 领导边摸边吃奶边做爽在线观看 | 欧美人善交videosg| 亚洲欧美日韩天堂一区二区| 男女特黄一级全版视频| 冠希与阿娇实干13分钟视频 | 丰满熟妇乱又伦在线无码视频| 日韩在线不卡免费视频一区 | 久久成人国产精品免费软件| 果冻传媒国产仙踪林欢迎你| 亚洲妇女水蜜桃av网网站| 毛片大全免费看| 亚洲色婷婷六月亚洲婷婷6月| 精品一区二区三区中文字幕| 午夜精品一区二区三区在线观看 | 精品久久久久国产免费| 啊轻点灬大ji巴太粗太长了电影 | 国产成人无码午夜视频在线观看| 久久精品人人爽人人爽快| 欧美国产日韩在线三区| 亚洲欧美日韩成人网| 水蜜桃视频在线观看免费| 99re6精品| 在线观看免费a∨网站| avtt天堂网手机版亚洲| 天天在线欧美精品免费看| japanese日本护士xxxx18一19| 女同久久精品国产99国产精品|