Please remember the events of Boxing Day 2004.
Below, is a link to a very personal, photographic account , of what happened at Holiday Inn, Phi Phi on that fateful day.

http://leightravelclub.phanfare.com/2199864

Photos are best viewed by clicking slideshow.

Leigh-thanks for the pictures. They bring back the devastation.

You have posted some compelling photos of that very sad and tragic day. Here's a link to a Sri Lanka news source that has done extensive converage today of the impact of the tsunami in that country. Once in the site, hit itn news 26 for video footage. There was 2 minutes of silence today throughout Sri Lanka.

www.itn.lk

Your photo show certainly brings back memories. We were there 6 months after the fact . Thing were cleaned up, and the area of devastation was huge without the debris in the way. A sad day for all.

Thanks for reminding people of this tragic event. How many months after the tsunami hit did you take these pictures?

Sorry meant to ask how many days - not months?

OK I've found the exif data and the dates. Whose photos are these? People from your club?

Thanks for posting these, Leigh. A vivid reminder of the devastation of the tsunami.

a time best forgotten....one of the saddest days in recent thai history...

Hanuman, I believe Leigh was there during the tsunami--staying @ The Holiday Inn, thus being spared much of the devastation @ Phi Phi.

I could be mistaken, but I do remember reading his first-hand account from his website. Pretty compelling (and devastating) stuff.

Thanks again for the reminder and the tribute, Leigh--and glad that you keep going back year after year!

the pictures were taken from over 8 different cameras so I was just curious. I thought that he went there after the tsunami but if he was there during then be was a lucky man.

filmwill,

Sorry about the earlier post I was in a movie theatre(Sherlock Holmes) replying to you from my phone. Yes I recall Leigh asking about if he should go to Phi Phi six plus weeks after the tsunami and how he watched it on TV in England. I was just curious who the pictures belong to as they really show the devastation to the people and the area.

Here are Leigh's photos of the devastation when he actually went six weeks later - the slideshow is very sensitively presented:

http://leightravelclub.phanfare.com/...8&s_id=2371426

Hanuman, the photos were taken by various members of staff at Holiday Inn and cover from 11.33 am on Boxing Day (that’s around twenty minutes from the time the first wave hit), through to January 17th 2005, which was the date that the resort officially re-opened to paying guests.
Lynda and I visited in early February, around six weeks after the event.
Like millions of others we watched the news coverage and were distraught at the devastation all over S.E.A. In particular, we were horrified at what had happened to Phi Phi……a place very close to our hearts, and so familiar.
After much consideration, we reluctantly cancelled our planned visit for February 2005, out of decency, as much as anything else. We didn’t feel it would be right to visit so soon after such a tragic event.
However, we were contacted by the resort and asked to reconsider, and visit as planned, as the last thing they needed after such loss was for people to abandon their plans to visit and thus, further damage the local economy.
So off we went, and for ten days, there were only three other couples staying at the resort, and we were all treated like royalty. It was a unique experience.
One of our old friends on the staff gave us a disc containing over 600 photos taken by different staff members. Some of these photos make up the photo show which I posted.

Filmwill, you’re quite right, you did read a first hand account of events on our website. This was compiled from notes I made whilst talking to many of the workers at the resort. They were all keen to recount their own personal experiences of that time.

We will be there again in around six weeks……….can’t wait !!!!