Mai's Quiet Zone in Swedish television

Tonight SVT aired the last of two short reports on Mai's Quiet Zone. Douglas is interviewed and there is video footage of the gardens and an interview with Mai. Here is a translated transcript:

FIRS REPORT MAY 19

Presenter: It has been almost five months since the tsunami. Most Swedes who died stayed in Khao Lak, a resort that until a few years ago was almost unknown. We have returned to the lost paradise.

'STORY BEGINS The first thing you think about is the massive destruction, the silence and traces of holiday life. It´s difficult to recognize the place, but over there, on the beach, was once a wonderful little hotel. It looked like this. Mai´s Quite Zone. It’s just days before the tsunami. I lived here until December 23 last year. The owners were Mai and Doug from America. Mai watched over every plant in her garden. It was almost like a jungle. Everything was built around the majestic trees. Interview Douglas. Interview Mai. This is what it looks like today. Only the palm trees are still here. All hotels along the beach are gone. And most people who stayed at Mai’s are dead. Mai is one of the dead. But her husband Douglas survived. This is the first time he returns to the beach in Khao Lak since the tsunami.

Interview Douglas.

Nearby To and his family gathers on the beach, everyday at sunset. To was also an owner of a small hotel, and now he is without work and without money. As so many other in Khao Lak. He makes a drawing in the sand, to show how the wave came and how he ran for his life.

Interview To. “I lived here. I saw the wave. Here is the sea, here is land. It went over all land. I ran…” Parts of the hotel is still standing, but a lot has been destroyed. And To who just had opened his hotel… Interview To “I started in November….”

Interview in Thai “I have no money to put into my business. So I don’t know when I can return, but I really want to return.” Like so many other small businessmen he does not know what is going to happen. To has not received any help. There is no electricity and no water on the beach in Khao Lak.

Interview To: “Now I can see the beach. Before I could not see the beach…” Standup Jens: “It is only when you stand here on the beach in Khao Lak, and see kilometre after kilometre of destruction, that you realize the full magnitude of the disaster. And you realize how much work that remains until Khao Lak resembles what it once was. And the big question is of course: Will the tourists return?” Interview Douglas. Sell or build again. Like so many other here, Douglas Fairweather does not know what is going to happen with the land. Or for that sake, what the future holds for Khao Lak.

SECOND REPORT MAY 20

Presenter: In Khao Lak, the body of a caucasian woman has been found in the ruins of a destroyed hotel. Almost five months after the tsunami the police has resumed the search for bodies, after a plea from relatives to the victims. The rebuilding of the former tourist paradise has hardly started. Many locals are impatient and disappointed. Few dare to invest again.

STORY BEGINS. Before, people used to stand here and admire the view. The people that come here today wonder: What is left down there? The destruction from the tsunami can be seen everywhere in Khao Lak. Only rubble remains of the many small hotels on the beach. The bigger hotels have been turned into ruins. So much work remains. The wave reached all the way up to the main road. And there is the military boat, like an absurd reminder of the force in the wave. Neighbour to the boat is Madame Oy’s restaurant. She opened her shop six years ago, one of the first to open on this part of the main road. She was asleep when the wave came. When she looked around she could hardly believe her eys.

Interview Madame Oy: “I wake up and I see boat. I thought it was a dream.” Many many tourist came here, but now, nothing!” Big parts of the restaurant was destroyed but Madame Oy has managed to open again, thanks to a loan from a friend and some help from the government. But she has lost six years of work. It is a hole in the roof in the kitchen. When it rains, everything stops. There is electricity but no running water.

Interview Madame Oy. “Nobody does anything. Everybody is thinking that we have to wait for the guests to come back. But if we do that the tourists will not come back. I am not thinking like the rest. We must do something, we must help ourselves.”

Standup Jens “In the beginning, madame Oy thought that the boat reminded her of a bad dream, the horrors from the tsunami. But now she tries to think positively. The boat should bring some more tourists to her restaurant.” There are some tourists in Khao Lak. Most of them arrive in buses and look at the destruction. But will they come back and live in the future? Big parts of Khao Lak still look like it has been hit by a bomb. The rebuilding has hardly started.

Interview Olof C., owner of Poseidon Bungalows: “I thought we would have come a lot further than we have done today. I thought we would have started to rebuild. Now things are late due to that people have to wait to get permission, people have to wait for response from authorities. We thought that all this would be a speedy process, they promised that, but unfortunately it has not worked like that.” Here is the man that everybody calls Mr Lek. He is a member of an association of hotel owners that are negotiating with the government. He sits outside his office. The only building that remains of this two hotels. All is gone.

Interview Mr Lek. Mr Lek built the first hotel for Swedish charter tourists. He knows that everybody here wants to start as quickly as possible, but he says: Don’t hurry. Khao Lak will be built up again, but it should be done with care, it should be a better place than before.

Interview Mr Lek. Olof Carlsson, the owner of Poseidon Bungalows, is rebuilding his restaurant. He thinks Khao Lak will be rebuilt and come back – but he is not sure..

Interview Olof C.: “I am worried that Khao Lak will be synonymous with a disaster area, that the name will have a mark on it, like places like Auschwitz or Srebrenica. Or Beirut. Without the tourists Khao Lak will die.