In the wake of mounting concerns over the mushrooming death toll in South Asian countries hit by Sunday's catastrophe, a lucky survivor of the tragedy is thankful to be alive.
"I think God saved me and my family," Polish Ambassador to South Korea Tadeusz Chomicki said in an interview with The Korea Times, one day after he flew back to Seoul after leaving the tsunami-affected Thailand safely.
The ambassador went to Khao Lak, a famous area on Thailand's west coast, on Dec. 17 with his wife and two children for winter vacation. But last Sunday Khao Lak was one of the areas hit by the tsunami, with at least 800 dead.
``I was so lucky because I left my hotel in Khao Lak at 8 a.m. last Sunday in order to go rafting in a mountain valley, 20 kilometers east of Khao Lak, Chomicki said. ``It was the time right before the high sea water invaded the coastal area."
The rafting site was far enough from Khao Lak for the ambassador and his family not to be aware of the tragic event until their tour guide let them know that huge tidal waves had hit the coastal area they had left just hours before.
The ambassador has good reason to think himself lucky as he and his family had originally planned to go diving off Khao Lak all day Sunday. Chomicki, his wife and two children, aged 8 and 14, are all good divers.
On Saturday night, they changed their mind and decided to go rafting in the mountains, and go diving on Monday instead. This sudden decision saved the ambassador and his family, putting them safe inland.
However, all their belongings in the hotel were lost when the waves swept away everything in Khao Lak. The ambassador had assumed he would return to the hotel after completing the rafting.
"We lost everything in the hotel, including passports, money and important documents," he said. "However, we are blessed to be alive."
Throughout the interview, the ambassador was clearly still shaken by the event.
"I met many people who lost their family in Thailand," he said. "One of my friends lost his girlfriend in a shaky boat in the sea after failing to hold onto her hands against the wall of water."
One day after the tidal wave hit Thailand, Chomicki tried to visit the place where he had stayed to search for his belongings, but he was blocked from entering the coastal area by Thai police.
With the help of Thai police, the Polish envoy did finally enter Khao Lak with some other Europeans who had left belongings there, but he failed to find anything belonging to him or his family.
"There was nothing left in the place where my family had stayed even though I searched for several hours," the ambassador said. "I just saw dead bodies littered everywhere, which were already decomposing due to the hot weather."
The ambassador said he was 100 percent sure that everybody in the coastal area on Sunday was dead because the area was quite flat without hills.
Though the ambassador has had life-and-death experiences before, having been shot three times in Cambodia, Sunday's disaster will be harder to come to terms with as his family was also at risk, he said.
"That my wife or my children are in danger is totally different from being in danger alone," he said.
The ambassador also expressed his gratitude to the Thai people who rushed to help his family and other foreigners after the unprecedented tragedy.
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