The Day I Survived A Tsunami: A Deleted Chapter From My Book 'Am I Ugly?'

I was on a boat during 2004 Thailand Tsunami and I realised I had never shared that story because whilst it was written in my first book, it got deleted.

There is a TikTok trend going around at the moment asking the question ‘What is one small insignificant decision that changed the trajectory of your life?’ and immediately I knew what my answer was. As I went to post the video, I realised I have actually never told this story… which is saying a lot since I often feel like my job could also be known as ‘professional oversharer’. I had a vague recollection that I had written it somewhere though and that’s when I went searching. I had written it in my first book but it ended up getting deleted because we had decided to start the book with something that happened in the summer of 2005 and the Tsunami had occurred on Boxing Day 2004. As an 11-year-old, it was an incredibly formative experience, and I do believe some of my PTSD stemmed from this day.

I have chosen to leave this in its original version because I think it is interesting to see what writing looks like in its first draft version. If you have read Am I Ugly? hopefully, you know the writing is a lot better than this but good writing takes multiple drafts. For the record, I worked on Am I Ugly? from the age of 12 up until it was published when I was 24 years old. Hope you enjoy reading this long-forgotten chapter!

Due to the close proximity to Hong Kong, Thailand was often the go-to holiday destination for our family. We had been there for Christmas every year for the last couple of years and we had always enjoyed our time there, playing cards and relaxing by the pool. The majority of the time,  we rarely explored and decided this year was going to be the year where we were going to do something different. 

On boxing day, my Mum had booked a tour for us to visit the local islands. Discussing it a few days before she asked me and my brother if we wanted to take the speedboat or a ferry. Being the adrenaline junkie that he is, it was a no-brainer. Growing up in Hong Kong, legal or not, my brother had been driving speedboats since he was 7 years old. It was only the day before that we discovered, our Mum had actually changed our booking. 

“There was an accident in the Philippines last night where a speedboat turned over and 3 people died. I would rather be safe than sorry.”

Highly annoyed, my brother went into a strop. We usually went on speedboats every weekend in Hong Kong and I was irritated that that meant we had to wake up 3 hours earlier. The following morning we woke up at 6 am and departed on the boat, prepared for a day of snorkelling and playing on the beach. It was only when the boat stopped in the middle of the open ocean that we thought something must be wrong. 

Maybe the engine had broken?

“Everyone don’t worry, we are just letting the scuba divers off. We will be on our way in a couple of hours”

We went back to playing cards and chatting until we looked at the time. It was 10 a.m., we were meant to have arrived at 9 a.m. 

“See I told you we should’ve taken the speedboat, we would have been there by now. I can’t even see the scuba divers, surely it can’t take hours for them to get off the boat.”My brother asked. 

My mum decided to go enquire as we noticed more and more people getting irritable at us waiting so long. As people started to argue and complain they made an announcement. 

“We are very sorry but something has gone wrong on Phi Phi Island and we are being told not to move”

People started yelling and getting frustrated at the lack of information. Eventually, we overheard a couple whispering that there had been a big wave and that the island was completely washed away.

---

If you would like to keep reading this, subscription costs as little as £1.10/week - less than buying a card with two words in it! It not only gives you access to articles like these but also my monthly Q&As, all my book reviews and recommendations, the first to know about any announcements and my roundups each month of all the things I have been learning. We would love to welcome you into our little community- join us! xx

---