Don't be too upset if you could not guess where the hell Khao Lak (that I am going to go on and on about for the next 3 pages) was. No one is born good in geography; definitely not me.

Khao Lak came to worldwide fame on Boxing Day 2004. Just 100km north of Phuket (Thailand), an earthquake that occurred just offshore of Banda Aceh (Indonesia) sent gigantic waves (a.k.a. Tsunami) across the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea, hitting this high-end resort. Elsewhere, other coastal settlements in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and India subsequently faced the same punishment. The terror waves washed everything up it can find onshore (up to 2 miles inland); beach furniture, cars, fishing boats and houses. The result? At least 180,000 people dead and this does not include people who were missing, displaced or affected.

I still recalled that particular Sunday morning. Woke up, switched on my television and saw the initial news reports. I bought myself a comfort zone and reckoned that it was just a minor earthquake blown big by mass media. As more news reports came in, I begin to realise the seriousness of events. As I followed closely at the happenings; it all seems like a nightmare to me, a bad one indeed. But deep inside me, I know that we were safely shielded by Sumatra (Indonesia, west of Singapore). Singapore had been lucky again.

It's been 3 years since the tragedy happened. World focus is gone, mass media have moved on and foreign aid is drying up. But memories remains, be it those that showed ultimate courage or sacrifice. No doubts that the reminiscence will be painful; but I see a tinge of hope, weak though certain, like the initial glows of a sunrise, in the eyes of the children in Khao Lak.