One by one, two by two, they moved to the edge of the beach, sat down and stared silently at the sea which killed their loved ones.
Tears rolled down cheeks as memories of those killed by the tsunami on the once paradise Thai island of Phi Phi overflowed from eyes fixed on the azure waters of the bay from where the giant waves came.
Memories, said relatives on the backpacker island where 700 people died a year ago yesterday, which will never go away.
PHOTO: AFP
"There's never going to be closure," said Trisha Broadbridge, whose Australian Rules footballer husband Troy was killed, as gentle waves slapped at fishing boats riding at anchor off the backdrop to cult movie The Beach.
"But at least now you've got through all those first dates, those first anniversaries, so hopefully it should get easier," she said.
On Phi Phi, on nearby Phuket island and Khao Lak beach to the north, people from all over the world joined Thais in remembering the 5,395 people known to have been killed in Thailand by the tsunami, which left nearly 3,000 people missing.
"I just want to cry. I find it hard to believe the whole thing," Australian Joy Vogel said at Khao Lak, clutching a wedding photograph of her daughter, who was three months pregnant when the tsunami took her and nearly 2,000 other foreigners.
"But I feel all the tsunami people who died are with us. The essence of my daughter lives on," she said by a police patrol boat swept 2km inland, which has become a memorial.
Like many other relatives of the tsunami dead, Vogel is involved in an aid program to help Thais who suffered.
"I want to make my daughter's life count for something," she said.
Mourners laid flowers -- white, the symbol of purity.
On Phi Phi, it was at the foot of a huge banyan tree and at a simple shrine where people laid flowers, along with paper doves, a symbol of peace, something mourners hoped for but found hard to imagine.
"We just wanted to come, to come to see them," said 49-year-old Jaysar Gul, who came from Istanbul with her husband Ali to mourn their daughter Seda and her British fiance Justin.
"We miss them so much. We just want to be together," she said tears, streaming down her cheeks.
Seda's body has never been found.
Thai leaders, in memorial speeches at resorts on Thailand's usually idyllic Andaman Sea coast, promised the dead would not be forgotten.
"I wish to express my deep sympathy to those who lost their loved ones," Tourism Minister Pracha Maleenont said in Thai and English before laying a Buddhist flower garland on a memorial to the tsunami victims.
"We are not alone. There are still many others in the world who are willing to lend their help and support," he said on Phuket's Patong beach.
But some Thais were upset by the government's memorials.
"The government is organizing a jolly celebration party, not a memorial service, not a peaceful merit-making. The government does not think of the hearts and minds of the people who lost their beloved ones," said Nantaya Saphanthong, a representative of the all-but-obliterated Ban Nam Khem village.
Some foreigners were disturbed by a crowd of photographers preventing them laying down flowers.
One tearful woman yelled at them to "just go away, please."
"We don't care about the pictures in the paper," she shouted angrily.
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
Cozy knits, sparkly bobbles and Santa hats were all the canine rage on Sunday, as hundreds of sausage dogs and their owners converged on central London for an annual parade and get-together. The dachshunds’ gathering in London’s Hyde Park came after a previous “Sausage Walk” planned for Halloween had to be postponed, because it had become so popular organizers needed to apply for an events licence. “It was going to be too much fun so they canceled it,” laughed Nicky Bailey, the owner of three sausage dogs: Una and her two 19-week-old puppies Ember and Finnegan, wearing matching red coats and silver
RSS