It’s been 20 years since I almost lost my life in Thailand. A lot has changed in the World in those years. A lot has changed in me.
Here I recount my story of surviving the most catastrophic natural disaster of the last few centuries, despite being right in the thick of it. Two decades later, I assess the aftermath. One could say it was a turning point in my life, coupled with a few other momentous changes a few months prior.
I also find this an ideal time for reflection. Reflection on the past 20 years as well as on the current World climate. Never have I seen a World so divided. Never have I witnessed so much conflict. Never has my social conscience been brought to the forefront to this magnitude.
Adam was a friend of mine from Indiana who I had met while climbing Mount Hood in Oregon. I was climbing a lot in the Pacific Northwest at the time and was ticking off some of the big ones – Mount Shasta and Mount Rainier to name a few. Adam and I became good climbing buddies and with him I climbed several more peaks such as North Sister and Mount Jefferson, all in the Cascades in Oregon.
Adam didn’t have a lot of rock climbing experience, but was willing to try it. I loved both mountaineering and rock climbing and had been doing quite a bit of both. I was planning a trip to Bangladesh to visit my mother in December so I thought “why not stop in Thailand for a few days on the way there?”. I could do some rock climbing at Railay Beach near Krabi in the south. I asked Adam if he would like to join and he jumped at it.
I had just quit my job as a Senior Product Engineer at Xilinx, Inc., a top Silicon Valley company at the time. I had studied Electrical Engineering for my Bachelor’s as well as my Master’s and had gotten my dream job. At least that’s what I thought until I tried my hand at teaching. A series of unlikely events led me to teach a math class at San José City College as an Adjunct Math Instructor in the Fall of 2003. Little did I know that this experience would be a turning point in my life. I would get up at 6:00 am to be at the College by 7:30 am to teach. Then I would continue on to Xilinx to do my nine to five job there as an engineer. The passion I had arriving at the College far outweighed that arriving at my cubicle at Xilinx. In November 2004 I summoned the courage to hand in my resignation letter at Xilinx. This was one month before the trip to Asia. Little did I know what lay in store.
Our first stop in Asia was Bangkok. Bangkok is unique. Bright neon lights, tourists gather from all over the world looking for fun, trouble or a way to numb the daily routines and problems of life. Having said that there are quite a few attractive things about Bangkok. This is Thailand. This is the home of real Thai food. Authentic fried rice at $2 a plate is hard to beat! Along with all the other authentic plates – Massaman Curry, Green Curry, Tom Yum Soup and much more. It’s a foodie’s paradise.
I took Adam on a tour of the Wat Pho – a very famous temple and home of the Thai Massage School and the Grand Palace. Bangkok is near the the center of the former Kingdom of Siam – Ayutthaya – just an hour’s drive away. So the whole region is a showcase of some magnificent architecture. Think of the play “The King and I” and the movie that followed.
After our fix of Thai food, sightseeing and traditional Thai massage at the Wat Pho temple complex, Adam and I boarded a flight to Krabi, which lies to the south, by the Andaman Sea. Once in Krabi we took long tail wooden boats to get to Railay Beach.
Resigning from Xilinx was one of the toughest decisions I had ever made. I had spent most of my life as a student with a very specific goal – to become an electrical engineer. Once I landed a plush Silicon Valley job not only had I achieved my goal, I was at the pinnacle. The benefits of this job were manyfold. I had financial stability, I had status, I was working at the forefront of cutting edge technology. But somehow it wasn’t enough to fulfill me. Something was missing. Years later I discovered what it was. It was my calling. My destiny if you will. My calling – what I was meant to do in life – was to teach.
Having been liberated from a career that I didn’t want to have anymore and having been thrust into a new playing field entailed mixed emotions. Yes, I was living my life and I was going against societal pressures, giving up material gains in order to follow my passion. But this was a risk. What if I didn’t end up with a full time teaching position? Was it foolish to leave the security of a career that I had built with so much care and invested so much time in?
Bay to Breakers
A month later I found myself in Railay Beach, distracted from the challenges that lay ahead, and I was ready to chill out for a few days. Adam and I were rock climbing every day on limestone cliffs by the clear blue Andaman Ocean. Life was good. This photo was taken the day we arrived at Railay, December 24th, 2004 at around 11:00 am. People here were also getting psyched for Christmas festivities.
Adam and I climbed every day. We started climbing the day we got there. We arrived in the morning and we were out climbing that same afternoon.
We also had a nice evening after our climbing session. It was Christmas Eve and we enjoyed a nice sunset as well.
Day 2 on the peninsula was just as beautiful as Day 1. Christmas Day, we were up early to see an incredible sunrise and we hit the climbs early on. I love climbing and Adam was enthusiastic to learn. He wasn’t really ready for outdoor belaying, so we hired a guide from King Climbers to manage the ropes. Especially since I wanted to do some lead climbing. You want total confidence in your belayer, especially if you are lead climbing.
Our climbing guide was really good and he took us to all the good climbs and he knew where to go to avoid the crowds. We even shared ropes and routes with other climbing parties – it was efficient and saved us from having to pull the rope and top rope it to another anchor.
Our second day climbing I was lead climbing a lot better and stronger and I was going much higher than the previous day. It was a great way to spend Christmas. There were a lot of climbers here from different parts of the World. We were enjoying ourselves a lot.
I had no idea where I would be in the next few years. Would I even obtain a full time teaching job? Or would I be juggling multiple part time teaching jobs for a long time.
It didn’t matter when I was climbing. The focus required to lead climb is meditative. You do what you have to do and just don’t fall.
Adam and I did take a lunch break. We came back to the resort, had a little break and hit the walls again in the afternoon.
Day 3 would be December 26th, the day after Christmas. Another beautiful sunrise awaited us in the Andaman Sea. This would be our third day climbing and Adam and I were exploring our options. One of them was not to climb and to go snorkeling or kayaking instead – to take a rest day from the rigors of getting up the walls. We decided to keep climbing. We were, after all, in one of the best sport climbing regions in the World. We had toyed with the idea of taking a boat out into the ocean to climb Ao Nang Tower. We decided not to do that either. Little did we know at the time that these decisions that fateful day were pivotal to our survival. They might just have saved our lives.
Our resort spanned the whole peninsula from east to west. It was a short walk from one to the other. We met our guide for the day Ipp at King climbers and were deciding where to go. Ipp looked a bit hung over, having partied the night before. Yesterday was after all Christmas and even though Thailand is not a predominantly Christian country, the influx of tourists and the general relaxed nature of the people and the place result in a lot of partying.
Adam and I decided to play it safe and climb nearby in the area we had been climbing the last two days, a short walk along the east side beach and coastline – Muay Thai Boxing Wall.
We started around 10:00 am. I was was having a great day leading some nice climbs.
In the next five photos please pay attention to the time stamps:
I had just finished leading a climb. I top roped it for Adam. He climbed it and came down. Then I would climb my last climb of the trip. I was leading a route as seen in the picture taken at 11:07 am. It was a difficult climb and I was struggling. But all of a sudden I heard screams. I looked down – people were running frantically along the wall away from the ocean, towards the hills. I was in a panic, hanging from the rope. Instinctively I yelled “Lower me! Lower me now!” I guess in a panic I wanted to be on terra firma, like everyone else. I didn’t want to be 100 ft up in the air hanging; the fear of being dropped and crashing to the ground I’m sure played a subconscious role in my decision.
My guide Ipp lowered me and yelled “Big wave coming!” Then he took his belay device off and ran for his life. That is when I knew things were serious. I just got deserted by my climbing guide. I wrestled with the knot on the rope tied to my harness for about 10 seconds – the longest 10 seconds of my life – and finally untied. I told Adam we have to run.
We started running up into the hillside, holding on to roots and vines. We were following a group of random people. There was little information, other than there was an earthquake somewhere causing massive waves. Phone lines were down and people were having a hard time getting information. We heard rumors of aftershocks and more waves, so we decided to stay high for a few hours.
We stayed up high for several hours. Some of the resort staff had some bread and water and shared with us. Then at some point we decided we should go down. We were able to find a lookout into the water and things looked calm. Albeit the water looked quite murky and we had an odd, eery feeling. We really didn’t know what to expect when we would descend from where we were perched.
We came down after about three hours and as we got lower and lower we started to see the devastation. We saw the lifeless body of a snorkeler being removed from a cave. She and her husband were snorkeling and she got slammed into the rocks. Her husband took her body up higher and placed it in a cave and ran up to escape any more possible waves. What a tragedy. This was about four feet from where we were climbing. It also reminded us of how we had thought of going snorkeling instead of climbing. What if?
Finally we obtained some concrete information. It was a Tsunami that had hit us. There had been an earthquake in Indonesia (in Banda Aceh) of magnitude 9.1. This had triggered a tsunami of immense proportions.
We ran to our resort and luckily, our room being in the middle of the peninsula, remained dry and everything was intact. We stuffed everything in our bags and ran to higher ground. All resorts around the coastline were being evacuated and we would be staying up high tonight in a specific encampment. We observed boats broken into pieces, boats thrown from the ocean into the hotels and swimming pools, furniture destroyed and helicopters hovering, probably searching for dead bodies.
It was a difficult time with difficult decisions to make. I never saw Ipp again but I saw our climbing guide from the first two days and he and I went back to the route I was climbing to clean the wall of our gear. I remember feeling so bad. I hope no one thought we were climbing after such a devastating occurrence.
I didn’t care about the gear, but we didn’t want to leave stuff on the wall – a sort of “leave no trace” policy. The gear at that point was rubbish. Salt water has a corrosive effect on ropes and carabiner materials.
We had never had to deal with something like this. It was very hard.
Helicopters were flying over assessing the damage and also looking for dead and wounded I think. It was not a pretty site. The waves from the Tsunami had left a lot of debris in their wake. We found out later that there were nine dead in our area.
After spending the night high up in the hills, on Day 4 we would be getting off the peninsula. Big boats were brought in and we were in essence being evacuated. There was fear of more earthquakes in the form of aftershocks and more tsunamis. I guess everyone was in shock. Other parts of Thailand were hit as well, and some even worse than we were.
There was a lot of work for the locals. They are very resilient. Despite the loss of life and tragedy, they were back on their feet, repairing things. I really felt for them. They would lose income for months as tourism would be at a standstill. And the cost of repairing broken boats, destroyed buildings, destroyed furniture and infrastructure would be immense.
Adam and I were going to leave the peninsula as instructed. There were several of us waiting on the West side. We were all in a bit of shock, but we were also comforted by the fact that we were not alone.
It was an extremely eery feeling getting on a boat that morning. I did not feel safe at all. The same waters that had essentially killed so many, were supposedly transporting us to safety. We learned more about the Tsunami and the earthquake and we learned more about the extent of the destruction. I heard that the waves went over the Phi Phi Islands and completely wiped everything off, killing 3000 people. Even to this day it makes me shudder.
Adam and I boarded our boat and it took us to Krabi. We would spend an unplanned night in Krabi before taking our flight back to Bangkok the next day. We were not sure if we would be able to catch the flight to Bangkok. Perhaps planes would be used for rescue and rehabilitation purposes. These were no ordinary times.
We were ready to expect the unexpected.
Once in Krabi we got a global glimpse of the extent of the damage. There were other people coming in from nearby areas who were affected. People on crutches, people with bandages, people you could tell that were mourning the loss of a travel companion or loved one. We passed the Immigration Office and there was a huge line of tourists – they had lost everything to the ocean, including their passports. They were in no man’s land until they could sort things out. The truth is they were lucky to be alive.
Arriving and walking around in Krabi. We were supposed to be in Railay one more day.
To bring a sense of normalcy Adam and I walked around town a bit. It was nice to see pockets of normal day to day living, not destruction and tragedy everywhere.
Our flight to Bangkok on Day 5 departed as scheduled. Once at Bangkok Airport we saw the scale of the disaster. Embassy officials from all over the World had set up desks at the airport to account for the missing. What a harrowing experience for those who survived and how tragic for those who perished.
Adam and I spent one last night in Bangkok and the next day I flew to Dhaka, Bangladesh and Adam flew back to Indiana.
We later learned the full extent of the devastation. About 230,000 people perished, most of them in Indonesia. In Thailand about 5,400 people lost their lives. The waves traveled to Sri Lanka and India killing people and there were casualties as far away as Africa.
About a quarter of a million people perished 20 years ago. The World mourned for them. Lessons were also learned – nowadays everywhere along the coastline you will see Tsunami evacuation signs. Also there was no early warning system in Thailand. The waves took about 2 hours to reach Thailand and we were not even given a warning. I believe lives could have been saved – two hours transpired between the earthquake and it’s impact in Thailand.
I was certainly traumatized by this. It was nice that I was in Bangladesh right after – visiting my mother for a few weeks. It was the sweetest reunion ever. I was worried sick about her during my ordeal. Bangladesh is situated in a low lying delta region which is susceptible to nature disasters such as floods and cyclones. The nature of the earthquake and tsunami, resulted in more propagation in the east and west directions rather than north and south. That’s why Bangladesh had only one casualty in Saint Martin’s Island, quite far from the mainland.
After a few weeks in Bangladesh I was back home in California. I largely avoided the news – anything related to tsunami would bring back negative thoughts. This persisted for several months. I wasn’t climbing, even in the rock climbing gym. And I couldn’t imagine lead climbing. But eventually in about six months or so I started to climb again and regain my confidence.
One thing this experience taught me was that one should live one’s life. It’s important to do the things that you love and cultivate the passions that drive you. We often spend too much time talking about these things or putting them off. And then they never materialize. A life of regret is not a life worth living. Seize the moment and live your life. It’s a bit ironic. I had just done that a month before this happened. One day I decided to quit my life as an engineer. I did it without having a full time teaching job lined up.
I mentioned earlier it was my passion for teaching that effected the decision. It certainly was a big part of it, however it was not the sole reason. I had found myself in a very comfortable situation that I would never leave. As human beings we often take the path of least resistance. Why? Because it’s easier. I knew I would have to give up my cushy job as an engineer to actually obtain what I wanted. I would then be motivated and would dedicate my time and energy into obtaining a full time teaching job.
But I was willing to make that sacrifice because I slowed down and examined my life. I did not agree with a lot of the culture of Silicon Valley. A lot of the air of invincibility. Having lots of stock options and material wealth often skews one’s vision. It’s easy to lose sight of what’s really important when life is too comfortable and you also fit a certain mould, when you keep up with the rest, when you are living a life you are “supposed” to live.
I broke the mould, I left the industry almost exactly 20 years ago and I never looked back. I have tried to fill my life with things that are important to me. Teaching of course is one of them. But equally important is “Learning”. I have traveled the World extensively. Every journey has been a learning experience. I travel to learn about other people, cultures, customs and languages. Teaching also gives me the opportunity to have a couple hundred new students every year, many from different countries, origins and backgrounds. I learn from them, my students, too.
Twenty years of freedom, living a life I choose has also afforded me to find myself. One can spend an entire lifetime trying to know who they are. What they stand for and where to draw the line. Often this is called having principles.
And knowing right from wrong, not being selective in judging, but taking everything into account and being as fair as possible. Recognizing the dignity and value of every human being on this planet, not judging by race, color, religion, lifestyle or beliefs and certainly not judging by material wealth and position in society.
To this day the Tsunami of 2004 is deeply linked to Thailand. Sometimes it is referred to as the Tsunami in Thailand. Yes, it was extremely tragic what happened in Thailand – the loss of about 6,000 people. I was there and it impacted me greatly. But one cannot forget the 170,000 Indonesians who perished, nor the 35,000 Sri Lankans nor anyone who died in some of the other countries affected. There were far more casualties in some of these countries, but sadly the media coverage was focused on Thailand largely because of the large tourist presence. The life of a tourist in Thailand is not greater in value than the life of an Indonesian local fisherman for example. We need a serious recalibration of how the media portrays information and how it is skewed for sensationalism and how it plants misinformation often causing conflicts.
The last year has also opened my eyes to the injustice against a people. Yes the people of Palestine. One should question how people lament and mourn 230,000 deaths during a natural disaster, yet the preventable killing of 45,000 mostly women and children doesn’t affect them nearly as much.
If you are silent on this issue, or think this is “politics”, then you are gravely mistaken. This is “humanity”. It may be time for you to break free. You never know what you might “Learn”. And in turn “Teach”.
The most valuable thing you can teach is The Truth.
Free Palestine
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