Like you, I was supposed to have spent Boxing Day, resting from the previous days' festivities. Instead, I was, like you, emotionally hijacked as I watched the horror unfold on television.

You've read the headlines. Worst earthquake in the world in 40 years, killer waves, devastation, calamitious proportions. But no words could capture the horror of the pictures we saw on television – of raging waves, of cars and lorries bobbing in the water like toys, of tourists fleeing, of bodies being carried away.

Worse though is the helplessness you feel …

All of us who work in tourism have been there – those white sandy beaches, those swaying palm trees, those beautiful hotels in Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Maldives.

Our brochures call them paradises. Yesterday, they looked like hell unleashed.

We've all played there, stayed there. It could have been us. And tragically, as clarity returns to the devastation, we will find that it was us – our industry friends from those beautiful islands in the Bay of Bengal.

My first thought was for my family in Penang. We live about five minutes inland from the Tanjong Bungah coast, just below the famous Batu Ferringhi stretch.

Fortunately, they were unharmed.

My next thought was for my friends working in Phuket, Krabi, Sri Lanka and Maldives, and all those friends who were taking their vacations on those islands.

I spent most of the day and night trying to contact friends, but to no avail. The networks were jammed.

This morning, I managed to contact veteran Phuket hotelier Wichit Na-Ranong by mobile. He sounded more concerned for me. "You don't sound well, do you have a cold?"

My voice was rough from having stayed up half the night, transfixed by the news and trying to call friends.

That's a hotelier for you or is it just Wichit? More concerned about his guests than he is for himself.

Fortunately he is well and his hotel was relatively undamaged. But you could tell he was also in shock.

Who could have seen this coming? No one except perhaps the seismologists and even they couldn't say at the time the earthquake hit what magnitude it was.

It showed how unprepared we are for nature's wrath. Most of all, it showed us in Asia that we are one family.

It's a disaster that has wreaked more devastation than any of us can bear but hopefully it will unite us even more strongly.
We share the same sky, the same sea, the same land, the same fate.

Yes, what an awful way to end the year, a year when everyone in tourism was applauding the global rebound in business, a year in which every Asian destination was doing well – the first year in many that saw record arrivals and record occupancies and record profits.

Just goes to prove once again that in life, there are no guarantees.

Just that we all have to be prepared for whatever's around the corner …

For now, let's all take a minute's silence today and over the next few days (anytime of the day that suits you) to pray for the thousands who have perished in our own backyard.



The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection". She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.
Contacts: Tel: 65-63424934, Mobile: 65-96801460

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