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Martin Maussner and his family were airlifted by helicopter
from Unawatuna, a small fishing village on the southern
coast of Sri Lanka.
As the roads around them were wedged in, they were
trapped in their hotel for two days before help came.
Though not seriously injured, the children were visibly
shaken.
Ms Nathalie Jacob Maussner said: "They were scared,
they did not want to live alone and 'please mama, wake
me up, the big wave is coming' and they have also got
vomitting, and they are cold and tired, and they just
want to rest now."
Second year Engineering undergraduate Oozie Koo and
22 others were part of a marine conservation project
on Surin Island.
They had extended their stay to go diving at the Similans
but the expedition was called off five minutes before
they hit the waters.
"We heard from the dive master that the diving
was cancelled. At first we were initially puzzled and
eventually when we heard what happened, we were quite
worried," he said.
And they are still worried for they have friends who
are still missing.
The Lee family, who were also at the Similans, felt
they cheated death.
They were out swimming and fishing on a boat when the
killer waves struck.
Mr Lee Hock Guan, a Singaporean tourist, said: "We
were rather nervous on the way back but we made our
way slowly, watching out for actually a lot of floating
debris and perhaps we could actually pick up some survivors.
We thought there might be some boats that have sunk
but there were floating beds, chairs, tables and cupboards."
One couple switched their holiday plans. They stayed
on at Patong Hospital where they donated some money
and food.
Ping Lim, a Singaporean tourist, said: "We had
instances where we were having lunch and people screamed,
and we just had to run to the highest floor possible
and that was the kind of life we led for two days. We
are glad to be back."
The situation at the airport is not as dramatic compared
to the past few days.
Though there were tears, they were mostly tears of
joy as family members welcome their loved ones who survived
the tragedy.
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PM Lee opens new pedestrian bridges and Hort Park at Southern Ridges