In 1993 I traveled in Thailand and Indonesia. I visited briefly several Thai Islands in the Andaman sea, crossed the border to Malaysia by boat and sailed onwards to Sumatra. There I stayed for a while on Pulau Weh at the Northern tip of the archipel. It’s a tiny Blue Lagoon island. The fish we ate for lunch and diner was harpooned five minutes before on the reef.
At that time the coral was still pristine and full with life.
Today I was shocked by the news that the tsunamis sent out by a massive earthquake in the Indian ocean near Indonesia hit the Thai coast. Two friends are holidaying at some Ko (Thai island) there. These past weeks we followed their adventures on the beach in their travel log. By cell phone someone was able to contact them and put in the comments that they fled into the mountains before the tsunami swamped the island.