Thai hospitality comforts foreigners in need

By Rafael D. Frankel

PHUKET—Dehydrated, exhausted and in shock after walking through nearly a half-mile of mud with not even the shirts on their backs in the hours after the tsunami hit, Clair Knight and her family were only trying to make for higher ground.

Their hotel, The Flora, on Khao Lak beach—on which more people were killed alone than in the September 11 attacks in the United States—was destroyed. And they had seen with their own eyes dozens of their fellow guests “washed away to sea,” Knight said.

At their wit’s end for what to do, they made their way to the flooded out road where they were picked up in an SUV by the Thai owner of the hotel they were staying at that no longer existed.

Kent, 40, from England, her husband, and three children aged 6, 8, and 11, were taken into the hotel owner’s home where they were fed, clothed, and cared for through “a difficult night,” she said at the Phuket airport waiting for a flight back to England.

“They were so wonderful, we didn’t know how to thank them. And we didn’t have anything to give them,” she said, her voice quivering as she put an arm around her son.

In the immediate aftermath of the worst disaster Thailand has ever seen, and indeed through the last week, foreign survivors of the day-after-Christmas tsunami here and the families of those still missing described time and again—often emotionally—the generosity and warm hearts of the Thai people in caring for them when they had nowhere to turn to.

Despite unprecedented damage and loss of life wrecked upon Patong Beach, one of Thailand’s most popular tourist getaways, hundreds of survivors who fled to the hills above town were taken in by local residents there. Panic and grief-stricken people from all over the world who were separated from their families and had lost all their possessions were sheltered during the chaos of the first night after the waves struck, according to accounts of survivors here.

Known as the “Land of Smiles,” Thai hospitality is legendary across Asia, and is one of main themes the Thai Tourism Authority stresses when marketing Thailand to foreign clientele. In this case, they seem to have outdone even themselves.

Many stories have emerged of foreigners who were pulled from the waves by Thai people, often at their own peril.

“The local people rescued me, put me in a blanket, fed me, got me to a hospital,” said Ron Bombiger, 48, from Los Angeles, who was pulled out of the wave by a Thai man.

Bombiger talked at length about the generosity of the Thais from his bed in Bangkok Phuket Hospital where he was recovering from multiple lacerations and bruises. “They won’t stop at anything to help you,” he said.

Meanwhile, foreign diplomats have also heaped praise on the Thai government’s response to the disaster.

Faced with thousands of casualties, unprecedented economic destruction, and lacking the resources of many wealthier countries, Thailand’s performance in its relief efforts has been “phenomenally impressive in a very short time,” Australian Ambassador William Patterson said.

Though Thailand was forced to deal with outbreaks of SARS and Bird Flu in the last two years, both of which required rapid responses from the government, they have never before dealt with a disaster on this scale.

Touring one of the make-shift morgues Thailand is constructing to house thousands of bodies until they are identified by forensics teams, British Ambassador David Full said Thai authorities had gone “above and beyond” any reasonable expectations under the circumstances.

“They’re being innovative, sensitive to cultural concerns, there’s a system to it and most important, they are being transparent,” Full said.

Unlike the other countries afflicted by the Dec. 26 tsunami, the foreign death toll here is slightly more than half of the over 5,000 confirmed dead. There are around 6,000 more people in total believed missing.

In many cases, foreigners were getting preferential treatment at hospitals, being given beds or operated on while Thais waited outside, Swedish Ambassador Johans Hafstrom said.

“I’m amazed. I think without them we would be in a much worse situation than we are,” the ambassador said.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sihasak Phuangketkeow said all patients, whatever their nationality, were being treated equally. The genuine hospitality was “maybe just the ‘Thai way,’” he said. “We feel a special compassion for the people we consider our guests and feel that whatever we can do, we will be glad to do.”

For Swede Lena Fallgren, 44, who’s 16-year-old daughter is missing and presumed dead, the Thai way had made a real difference, she said.

"Wherever we go they always smile and ask how we are," she said. "They look in our eyes. It makes the heart warm to feel that."

© 2005 Rafael D. Frankel and The Christian Science Monitor