To all anyone that worried about me being in Phuket, just thought you may like to know I'm fine. I was on a boat on my way to a dive site, we were in deep water and didn’t even notice the tsunami pass underneath us. The diving was obviously cancelled and we were unable to dock for 5 hours as Chalong Bay was almost empty of water, plus reports of possible aftershocks and further waves meant the captain was unwilling to go into shallow water or try and dock anywhere. Our hotel was not touched as it was a long way back from Patong Beach because, much to the consternation of SWMBO, I failed to book sufficiently in advance. [1] Phuket is not nearly as badly effected as the media would have you believe, most of the island is fine, about 2 streets back on south or west facing beeches are fairly trashed but the water and electricity are working, supplies are getting through and the Thai people are as delightful as ever, we didn't feel the need to change our holiday plans. [2] If you're thinking of sending money to a Thai charity I'd say you'd do more good to give it to the red cross or Oxfam, and tell people planning to holiday in Phuket in the coming months not to cancel. [3] I get the impression Thailand got off very lightly but gets a lot of coverage as the victims were mainly westerners. All in all we were very lucky, the dive operators kept us in the dark and slowly drip fed us news about what was going on to avoid panic, [4] we spent the day sunning ourselves on a boat, the biggest problem we had was the beer ran out, but having just gone through Phuket airport I can tell you we were very lucky, a lot of people have lost someone. I'm now in Bangkok for New Year and I head back to Hong Kong on the 3rd. [1] her, her family and my family are all thanking their various Gods that I'm a lazy bastard [2] also we felt the local economy could do with our help. [3] OK if they are going to get there in the next couple of weeks maybe they should, unless they're a bit morbid, but after that Phuket will be a great place to come with peak season weather and off peak crowds, you'll probably get some great deals too. [4] I knew something fairly serious was going on when I spotted that all the BCDs [5] were casually resting on tanks inflated when we hadn't unpacked them. [5] http://www.diversunlimited.com/store/bc.htm -- Bob vstun piss ted at yahoo dot com If you want to email me you'll have to take the piss As you can probably tell I'm heavily Dyslexic so errors and omissions are not just excepted but expected.
Glad to hear you and your missus are ok. Sounds like Thailand in general faired better than Indonesia and Sumatra. Some friends of mine have relatives on Sri Lanka who are Ok too.
*Much* better, it's hillier which is a good start. That's good. I do find the disparity in air time between few thousand predominantly white western people and a few tens of thousands of little brown people more than a little offensive though. -- Bob vstun piss ted at yahoo dot com If you want to email me you'll have to take the piss As you can probably tell I'm heavily Dyslexic so errors and omissions are not just excepted but expected.
Inevitable that the Meeja will concentrate on eyewitness accounts from English speakers I guess That plus the journos are still not able to get to the remote areas. But I agree, it distorts our view of the scale of the disaster. The public have donated 5 million more than the gummint so far. Biggest response to an appeal ever they say, so clearly the british public care about the indigenous populations of the affected countries more than the folks who brought us Gulf War II.
bob123 wrote Surely we live in a predominantly white society? As I have see the coverage, it is about the event itself and the, much more appropriate to British audiences, missing brits/euros. I would expect the second part of the reporting at least to be about us white folks if it was balanced and your report seem to have assured me that it is. See kiddies, mindless bigotry can be a good thing when used properly.
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the Jolly good. I had a notion you'd be wearing your waterproofs. -- Dave GS 850 x2 / SE 6a SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3 FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10
It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Cane" Aye, but cunts are to found everywhere. I mean, what a cheek, putting their family before the welfare of paying guests. -- Dave GS 850 x2 / SE 6a SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3 FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10
Truth is stranger than fiction... -- O 1 Black, shortly to undergo extensive surgery. 1 Red, undergoing lightweight surgery. ----- 1 Blue, for Power-Ranger baiting. | o | Numbers ... | o | Stuff ... | ooo | Life ... -----
My cousin got back from the Maldives yesterday - the hotel was trashed - apprently everyone mucked in clearing up except the Italians who sat around the pool expecting service to continue as normal. I'm very happy to say our friends in Phucket are also safe, although one of them got swept out of a tree, hit by a passing house and had to spend two nights on a hillside before being airlifted to hospital.
Now here's a thought. Indonesia, the worst-hit country, is Muslim, right? So far all the main donations seem to have come from Christian countries. Has anyone heard of a Muslim charity relief programme? Is, for example, the Red Crescent doing anything? And how much has been donated by the wealthy ragheads? Just a thought.
