A STRANRAER couple on the holiday of a lifetime over Christmas
and New Year
escaped the recent tsunami disaster in south east Asia
by a mere 15 hours.
Susan and Nigel Maynard, from Park Crescent
in the town, were on a three
week break in the region, and were preparing to transfer
from Singapore to
Phuket, Thailand, when the huge wave struck the Thai island
on Boxing Day,
killing thousands.
Having been told that the hotel in which they were due
to stay for six days
had been destroyed by the tsunami, the travel company,
Thomas Cook
Signatures, transferred them to the Malaysian island of
Penang, which at
that time was not thought to be affected.
On arriving, however,
Susan was immediately aware that it had been, and
witnessed at first hand the rescue efforts.
Susan said:
"When we arrived in Penang it was clear
that it had been
affected. There were rescue centres being set up and
helicopters out looking
for survivors.
"The water had drawn back initially, leaving
fish lying on the beach and
when the local people went out to see this the water
rushed in again.
"There were little shack houses by the water-side
and the wave just
destroyed them.
"We were told that there were around 20-25
people killed there."
On becoming
apparent that Penang had been hit, the travel company got
tourists out of the area within 12 hours, moving Susan
and her husband to
Kuala Lumpur further inland.
Discussing their lucky escape,
Susan told of the moment that she first heard
of the disaster.
She said:
"We were in Singapore having lunch when
we saw on TV that Phuket
was affected.
"It was just totally shocking. The scale of
it was unbelievable.
"Fifteen hours after hearing about the
disaster, we were due to be in
Phuket. We were as lucky as it was possible to be."
As the
magnitude of the catastrophe became apparent, Susan then
made a
frantic call to her mother Anne in Portpatrick to let her
know that they
were safe.
"She had been really worried," said Susan.
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