On our last day in Koh Lanta I was still taking it easy in order to not be sick for the 8 hour ferry/ bus ride the following day to Koh Samui. We had gone down to the beach in the morning, and once Sam and Becky left I napped and Sara went down to the beach. As I was napping I felt the earth shaking. At first I thought it was from Sara in the hammock, but as it continued I decided it could be an earthquake. It was slight enough that it triggered the idea but still had me questioning my sanity in my current state. The thoughts possible earthquake and tsunami potential ran through my mind, as I fell back asleep. A little while later Sara came in to let me know there had been an 8.9 earthquake (later down graded to 8.7) in Indonesia and that there was a tsunami warning for the Andaman Sea coast. We began to pack our bags just in case we needed to leave. Without a timeline I started to get a little freaked. I know enough about Tsunamis that I can be realistic about when it may occur, but the fact that it was unknown to us scared me. Also the realization that we are in fact, still in Thailand. I love this country, but trust is low. We got our stuff and made our way to the front of our resort. A was there and promptly put us in a cart attached to a motorbike with Tong as the driver. As we made our way out to the road and to higher ground there were people everywhere headed in the same direction. They were hopping into trucks, onto motorbikes or hoofing it on foot. Any twinge of fear was eased by Tong making us laugh, and the reassurance the these are good guys running the resort, and we trust them. Only later did we find out how lucky we were. A Swedish couple we met on the bus to Samui told us all about their awful experience of no warning, and no help from their resort. Only when the sirens went off and they got a notification from relatives at home, did they take off to climb up the hill minus their things, they didn't even have time to find their shoes. We were taking to another hotel called Lanta Loft among many other evacuated foreigners, where we waited it out. Eventually the announcement was made that the wave would hit at 6:30 pm. It turned out to be a 30 centimeter wave and I am not aware if there was a recordable wave from the aftershocks. We waited those out as well and around 8pm made our way back to Pearl Beach for spring rolls, pad thai, and mango shakes. I also realized this was my 7 month anniversary of arrival in Thailand, to the day. Luckily this quake was horizontal, which most are, and it takes a vertical quake to produce a large tsunami wave. In 2004 Thailand had no form of warning system and loss of life was significant as most victims were caught by surprise. In the aftermath systems were put in place for detection as well as warning sirens. Turns out this is the first time that the system has been used since. It's unfortunate it took such a tragedy, but at least when it happens again people will be warned and loss of life will be significantly less.
The following day we made our way to the other side of Southern Thailand. Warnings of a 9.0 magnitude earthquake for The Andaman side are out, that could potentially create a tsunami. How valid these are remains to be seen. Here's hoping nothing else happens now. At least we are tucked away in The Gulf of Thailand for the remainder of the trip, on the safe side.
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