Tsunami! The Real Life ‘Aftermath’

[Nicholas Snow]

By Nicholas Snow

“A tale of personal loss, survival and hope, Tsunami, The Aftermath follows a group of fictional characters whose lives are irrevocably transformed by the cataclysmic natural disaster,” explains HBO’s official synopsis about the miniseries which premiered in December, 2006.

The miniseries is fictitious. The following is not. Rather, it is the result of a heart-wrenching story I researched in the summer of 2006 but simply did not have the heart to report until this publication.

“Water, water, up to the second floor,” shouted Bobbie, a staff member at Club One Seven Bed & Breakfast, a gay establishment located on the main beach road in Phuket, Thailand. Bobbie, a staff member, had called one of the B&B’s shareholders, Sam, in Singapore, and was speaking to him in a panic.

“Slow down Bobbie,” said Sam. “What are you talking about? Do you mean a thundershower with sheets of water pushing open the balcony doors?”

“No water up to the second floor,” exclaimed Bobbie.

“Where’s Keong,” asked Sam. Keong co-managed Club One Seven full-time while Sam commuted from Singapore.

“I don’t know,” yelled Bobbie, and then the phone went dead, at approximately 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, December 26th, 2004.

Sam then called Daniel See, the co-manager of the B&B, at his apartment—located away from the beach—and asked him “to find out what Bobbie’s crazy call was about.”

The morning of the Tsunami, Keong had gone next door, wakened his neighbor Anne, and told her that the ocean had receded in a bizarre fashion. In disbelief, the two had crossed the street to explore the scene. As Anne explained, a tiny dark wave appeared in the distance. When it occurred to the Anne and Keong how fast the water was coming, and how large the wave actually was, they turned and ran back toward the buildings as quickly as they could, but were overcome by the water. Anne was pushed into the front of the building and grabbed onto a beam, which she says saved her life. She last saw Keong attempting to run up the stairs.

That day, Daniel did what he had to do to get to the B&B, having to pay about ten times the usual fare for a motorcycle taxi, and then wading for close to two blocks to get to the B&B. Daniel’s first instinct was to make sure his staff and guests were safe, and to locate everyone to higher ground.


“Flying up the next day, it was strange driving into Patong Beach,” explained Sam about one of the most populous areas of the resort Island of Phuket. “Everything seemed quite normal. The driver said he couldn’t get any closer to the ocean and I had to walk the two blocks to Club One Seven Bed & Breakfast.”


“As I walked down the street it was like entering a King Kong movie set, explained Sam. “The store fronts were gone. The street…covered with debris… When I turned the corner onto the ocean front road, the set became weirder. Cars were stuck onto buildings at the second floors level—all four wheels had been pushed into the façade of the buildings like kids’ toys, with gaping rooms…where once walls sheltered their privacy. Yet all the palm trees were standing straight as usual.”

“At Club One Seven,” continued Sam, “the first level balcony doors were ripped off, furniture scattered around, some even thrown upside down and piled up thru broken walls into back rooms. The below-ground reception area was full, chest deep with murky dark water with a small van’s roof poking out.”

“As Keong was last seen running up the stairs, I knew he had died but we thought, maybe his body was still in the reception area. Sean, Daniel’s friend from the USA, kept going into the dark, oil covered, gas smelling waters hoping to find Keong’s trapped body,” explained Sam.

Anne was the last person to see Keong alive.


“On Tuesday, we finally persuaded the fire department to pump out some water to enhance our search,” explained Sam. “We found nothing. On Wednesday, when we went to the Phuket Hospital where the recovered bodies were kept, we walked into a macabre scene where workman were pounding together simple wooden coffins at one end of the yard, and ambulances were bringing in the bodies at the other end.”

“Looking through the book of photographs of recovered bodies of children, men, and women—some with their eyes still open—was not pleasant, but we did find a picture we thought might be Keong. We recognized him by the locket that was still hanging around his neck…” In the photo, Keong was also wearing the pants of the Club One Seven uniform.

“Bobbie volunteered to check the body as his face was puffed up beyond recognition,” said Sam, further explaining that Bobbie was able to confirm Keong’s identity because one of Keong’s fingers had been severed in a motorcycle accident years before.

“Waiting for Bobbie’s return, I sat down next to an older gentleman who had been staying at Club One Seven,” continued Sam. “He was, at the time it hit, in the outdoor Jacuzzi that was against two outer walls that blocked his view of the ocean. The water had lifted him out of the Jacuzzi, over a side wall, thru an open passageway between two back buildings, and deposited him in an empty field that was a block and a half behind Club One Seven’s building.”

Anne, who celebrates being alive every day, poses with Nicholas Snow. The large beam behind Snow's shoulder is what Anne says saved her life. Photo by Daniel See.


“Talking to him it became apparent that although he said he felt bruised, he was okay, but then had started to feel more pain on Wednesday morning so that was why he had came to the hospital,” expressed Sam. “To me it was apparent that shock was beginning to set in as he began to realize how dam lucky he was to survive.”

Daniel See listens to Anne recount her experiences of being caught in the Tsunami with Keong. They're standing immediately in front of the old Club One Seven Bed & Breakfast location. Photo by Nicholas Snow.

“After Keong, a fellow shareholder, co-manager and close friend, drowned while running up the stairs to escape the waters,” explained Sam, “we seriously considered abandoning the entire project but after discussing the matter over with some of our shareholders, Daniel, former guests and local people of influence and importance, we increasingly felt confident that Phuket would recover, grow and attract back large number of tourists. Although our sense of loss was still sharp and painful, we felt that we had to move on.”

The team sought out and purchased a building about two blocks from the beach, as well as the vacant land behind the property to allow for future growth—the investment was a challenge and they still seek and deserve the support of the international gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community.

Daniel See (far left) and his friendly staff are ready to serve you at the new Club One Seven Bed & Breakfast location. Photo by Nicholas Snow.

“I lost a very dear companion who was working extremely hard to make Club One Seven a success and I and our team feel strongly that we are not going to let his effort go to waste,” said Sam, explaining that Keong had sold a car to be one of the investors.

This photo hangs on the wall behind the front desk of the new Club One Seven location.

I’ve had the privilege of staying at the new Club One Seven Bed & Breakfast on two occasions, and am happy to report the new location is certainly fulfilling the team’s goal of providing the best and friendliest place to stay for gay men and women in Phuket—truly a home away from home. I will go back frequently!

The new Club One Seven Bed & Breakfast. Photo by Nicholas Snow.

I can’t help but feel gratitude for my own life when I’m in Phuket, knowing that so many people in the region died so tragically. When I contemplate the loss of loved ones, I am reminded to honor and express my own life force in a way that hopefully empowers others, and to truly live in the present. I am grateful to Sam, Daniel and their team for carrying on with their own dreams, and I dedicate this column to Keong, a beautiful man who I never had the privilege of meeting.

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