Chuck and I had been a bit worried about the fate of Kai Hendry, the South African Linux geek we partied with in St. Petersburg (see photo of the two of us here). His last blog post had him setting off for the Andaman Islands near India to celebrate the New Year with his French traveling companion, Antoine (who we also met). Unfortunately, the Tsunami also decided to go there.
His blog has been down, but I found this story today, saying he's alive.
And, though they've hidden it (from all but Google) in a for-pay archive, the Independent had this statement from him:
Kai Hendry, a 26-year-old computer-science student from Bodmin, Cornwall, who was on holiday in the Andaman Islands.
"I was relaxing in a hammock on the beach when the earthquake hit. The force of the tremors was unbelievable and it began raining coconuts as the place shook. I ran and held on to a tree for what felt like an age but was probably only about a minute before it all went quiet.
"Then all of a sudden the tide went right out and the sea disappeared. Even at this point we didn't know what was coming and remained close to the sea until the wave came and we had to run for our lives. We should have realised what was coming, but nobody did.
"My French travelling companion, Antoine, and I decided we had to think of a plan or we would die there. Our only option was to run inland into the jungle but there was no path, only thick, dense undergrowth. We pushed through it with the water rushing around us and eventually clambered up on to a high section of ground."
