Hello all!
Thank you somuch for all your thoughts and good vibes for us. We are shaken but ok. Miraculously the resirts either side of us have been v badly hit and people badly hurt, but ours had no casulties. There were about 4 waves in all on our resort. We were sitting by the pool when the first one came in and washed up over the beach right up to the raised ground. Ds1 was playing in the house on his own, so I had to run and drag him out as the water was raging and getting v high. When the second wave came in it washed over the raised ground so we crossed the little bride that separated the resort from the parking area, little stream supposed to be there, and waited. Then we saw a bigger third one coming abd we just grabbed the kids and ran. Was very scary. Pushing the wheelchair with ds2 in it, kids had no shoes on, we only had costumes on as well. We got a lift up into the hills from the main road and were there until about 4pm local time, then dh went to try and get our passports and tickets, that sort of stuff. Finally the manager decided it was too unsafe to stay the night in the accommodation so we camped about 40m up in the hills overnight, which was not too great, but we had no choice. Came down this morning and being on an island, there really isnt anywhere else to be but the beach, there is no shade in the day in the hills and no facilities. I haven't been able to make any calls ,but seem to be able to receive them, and can now send texts too. By a freak of nature i managed to call sm, but that has been it. The resorts up and down either side of us have had a lot of injuries, the water was flooding inso fast people didnt have time to get out of their rooms, so i thank our lucky stars we moved from another resort on xmas day, we would probably have all been hurt . It's quite sobering to realise how hard it was to run with ds2 in his chair, and three other kids as well. The plan is to go to phuket tomorrow as we should be, and check out if the area we are supposed to be in is ok or not (nai yang) i cant get through to the woman who has rented us a private house to check.The ferry from lanta to the mainland is running now, but the queues are long, so tomorrow should be better. I dont think we would be able to get a flight home if we tried, so we are going to try and stay until the 3rd as planned, although where remains to be seen.
I am VERY worried about the friends we made in ko libong off the coast of trang though. The island has no defence against the sea, and th huts they lived in were right on the beach. I can't get through on the phone, so am going to try and email the sister resort on the mainland at had yao, but tbh i think they would have suffered badly too, as they were built over the water. Hoping and crossing every thing that the firends we have made both in libong and phuket are safe and well. there are trees knocked over, logs washed up ont he beach. The water didnt reach our house, thanks to a khlong (river) separating the beach from us, but it got as close as 2or 3 feet to the house next to us.
Thanks once again for thinking of me. My phone was going off all night, culminating in my bil calling me at 4am!
I will try and stay in touch.
xxxx