Reflecting on the Destruction Caused by a Tsunami in Thailand 20 Years Ago
History rinses and repeats
Suddenly everything old is new again. History through which I lived is creeping back.
Bold black newspaper type screams “Thailand Royal Spell Has Been Broken.”
Subhead: “Young Thais no longer bow to their king.”
That’s now. But years back Broadway headlined that huge musical masterpiece “The King and I.”
It starred the late Yul Brynner who lived in a seven-room apartment inside the large building next to the UN. This musical was about the king of Siam and his children’s English governess.
The film version won five Oscars. It was such a success that my friend, Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand, came to see the production which was banned in her home country.
Queen & I
I visited Her Majesty in Bangkok’s palace and in upcountry Chiang Mai. And when here we took repeat photos — once embarrassingly because we both arrived in white Thai silk suits with nearly matching hats.
There was a dinner when, sitting alongside, my sun hat grazed her. Adjutants quickly ran to dispose either of me or the hat.
Then, magnificently beautiful, the queen told me: “Lucky I live in Thailand. Perspiration keeps my skin moist and I don’t get lines.”
Thais approached her on their knees.
Losing touch with friends
Last I visited her was 2004. It was immediately after Thailand’s beachfront resort Phuket was smashed by that tsunami.
Its devastation and the huge quake extended 900 miles and wiped out whole villages.
Killed thousands. Bodies were swept out to sea. I had two friends caught in it.
I flew to Bangkok with a third friend of ours to see Her Majesty who was then upcountry. She, too, had a grandchild missing in the tsunami.
The queen gave me over to the royal Thai airforce and its reigning officer. He flew me and my friend to Phuket.
One missing girl we found. Alive. Her sister, not. Lost.
Their story: They’d been vacationing in a seaside thatched cottage. It was so little and thin that nothing would guarantee survival.
Hearing noises, warnings, screams, they clung to one another in their bathroom.
Its thin straw door shut tight. Winds and waters crashed through and one sister was swept out.
Absolute values
It was the country of Israel that found both. Israel, surviving so much devastation in its lifetime, so many wars, has learned survival.
It searched for body parts. With examination and sheer grit it found sections of the lost sister’s body.
Their British parents owned safari lodges in Africa. On one hip the lost sister had tattooed her home.
It was the map of Johannesburg and it is how they located her. The surviving sister then endured multiple operations.
In olden times, touching His Majesty — considered a deity — even laying eyes on him directly — was forbidden. Punishable by a prison term.
Today, with our global loosening of tradition, laws, ways, mores, respect due parents and the flag plus public officials and rules and proprietary — how can it be that today’s Thailand — the former Siam — can consider removing the crown.
I do not suggest they schlep in mean Meghan’s useless empty husband the out-of-work unwanted unemployed ungracious Harry — they haven’t yet sunk that low.
