Šri Lanka

[Roko]

bas kazu 10000 ljudi mrtvo na Sri Lanci samo. Uzasno je kad na TV prepoznajes mjesta koja sad izgledaju apokalipticno.

Kazu da je val dosao skroz do obala istocne Afrike i da je par ljudi poginulo u Somaliji.

[Indi]

a i navodno zabiljezeno je i da se jako malo osjetilo i do zagreba

[Marin23]

ma glupost,u evropi se nije nis osjetilo,gdje si to cula molim te ?

[Indi]

Pa citaj novine pa ces vidjet. Zmjerili su 2 u Zagrebu a to nemres osjetit.

[Roko]

dio sa LP foruma bas o guesthouseu kraj kojeg sam odsjeo.Sokantno uzas.

News about staff in Paradise Beach hotel, Mirissa

Hi,

I would be really grateful if anybody could provide any news on the staff and the state of the Paradise Beach Hotel in Mirissa. I don't know the name of any of them, and they would not remember us, but we stayed there from 6-20th Nov, and now I can only think of how welcoming and warm to us they were and how hard they worked without ever losing their smile. I know it may seem puerile trying to focus on such a small piece of this whole tragedy, but I can't stop thinking about them.

Thank you.


Paradise is gone. People died, I think 4 tourists but I dunno about the staff there sorry.
It was wrecked.


the situation at Paradise and Mirissa Beach -
I have been seeking information on all the people living, working and staying along Mirissa Beach for two days now. I have posted a message on a surf site, in case any international surfers are in touch with the surf boys who used to hang out down at Sea Creatures bar near Paradise Beach Club. The only information I have found is that someone (no name given) was swept from a verandah in Mirissa while breakfasting, and is still missing - this was in the Times Online report by journalist Catherine Philp in Galle. The same article mentions Brett Claughter an Australian, who was staying in a Mirissa guesthouse; he says he 'has nothing but praise for the Sri Lankan people' who 'have shown us a kindness you could never hope for at home'.
Because so little news has come from Mirissa, I reckon that part of the coast road must have been blocked: I only hope that aid is now getting through, as, like you, I was there in November, and made friends with people all along that beach. I have a huge respect and affection for the sri lankan people.
One thing I do know is that the monks in the local temples near Mirissa will have looked after their flocks immediately and helped with local relief. The other thing that strikes me is that near the Paradise, just across the road and along a bit, there was that very tall flight of steps leading to the temple where people used to watch the sunset. If anyone had time to make it to those steps they would have been quite safe up there on the hill. Please let me know if you hear anything.

[Roko]

Poznati pisac
Arthur C. Clarke koji vec godinama zivi na Sri Lanci je napisao ovo.....


Dear Louis,

Thank you for your concern about my safety in the wake of last Sunday's devastating tidal wave.

I am enormously relieved that my family and household have escaped the ravages of the sea that suddenly invaded most parts of coastal Sri Lanka, leaving a trail of destruction.

But many others were not so fortunate. For over two million Sri Lankans and a large number of foreign tourists holidaying here, the day after Christmas turned out to be a living nightmare reminiscent of The Day After Tomorrow. My heart-felt sympathy goes out to all those who lost family members or friends.

Among those who directly experienced the waves were my staff based at our diving station in Hikkaduwa, and my holiday bungalows in Kahawa and Thiranagama - all beachfront properties located in southern areas that were badly hit. Our staff members are all safe, even though some are badly shaken and relate harrowing first hand accounts of what happened. Most of our diving equipment and boats at Hikkaduwa were washed away. We still don't know the full extent of damage -- it will take a while for us to take stock as accessing these areas is still difficult.

This is indeed a disaster of unprecedented magnitude for Sri Lanka, which lacks the resources and capacity to cope with the aftermath. We are encouraging concerned friends to contribute to the relief efforts launched by various national and international organisations. If you wish to join these efforts, I can recommend two options.

- Contribute to a Sri Lanka disaster relief fund launched by an internationally operating humanitarian charity, such as Care or Oxfam.

- Alternatively, considering supporting Sarvodaya, the largest development charity in Sri Lanka, which has a 45-year track record in reaching out and helping the poorest of the poor. Sarvodaya has mounted a well organised, countrywide relief effort using their countrywide network of offices and volunteers who work in all parts of the country, well above ethnic and other divisions. Their website, www.sarvodaya.lk, provides bank account details for financial donations. They also welcome contributions in kind -- a list of urgently needed items is found at: http://www.sarvodaya.lk/Inside_Page/...y%20needed.htm

There is much to be done in both short and long terms for Sri Lanka to raise its head from this blow from the seas. Among other things, the country needs to improve its technical and communications facilities so that effective early warnings can help minimise losses in future disasters.

Curiously enough, in my first book on Sri Lanka, I had written about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbour (see Chapter 8 in The Reefs of Taprobane, 1957). That happened in August 1883, following the eruption of Krakatoa in roughly the same part of the Indian Ocean.


Arthur Clarke
29 December 2004

Sir Arthur C. Clarke is the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, and dozens of other novels and stories. He has lived in Sri Lanka since 1956, and has been a friend and advisor of The Planetary Society since its founding

[Roko]

jos prica iz Sri Lanke

PIA LIVES!!!!! And other news.

Anyone who has been to Unawatuna Beach knows Pia, the postcard man, who strolls up and down the beach behind his bushy moustache and his plastic bowl full of postcards and peanutes. He's a pal of mine, too, and I have been very worried that he might have perished. I have just spoken to my friends in Unawatuna and they report that Pia was inland at his little house in the jungle and therefore he and his family all survived. After the disaster, Pia took "many many tourists to his home and gave them shelter and food and everything he has..." People who know this man won't be surprised.

I was just told that all the boys from Kingfisher (Bob Marley Bar toward the temple end of the beach) SURVIVED. The building is gone.

The Indian Navy sent doctors and medical supplies, and some western and Sinhala doctors have arrived in the south. They have set up a hospital at the Closenberg hotel in Galle and at an Ayurvedic clinic, seeing to the most urgent medical cases. My friend reports that up to now there has been little or no government help but that private aid from untouched parts of the island is managing to get through using inland access roads since the Galle Road is cut in many places. Drinking water continues to be the biggest concern since all the wells near the coast have been flooded with sea wather and contaminated.

As I reported earlier, a fund is being set up in Switzerland by Simona, the owner of Secret Garden and member of the Unawatuna Development Association-- a local group of residents that has done a lot of good work on cleanup and water drainage since its creation in August. I have the account number but am waiting to receive the Iban and Swif code numbers before posting it.

I shall continue to post news as I get it. It's hard to contact Una, and people there are so busy that I hesitate to pester them with requests for information about specific individuals. We are hoping to have a dedicated website that can deal with such requests, but it will take a while.

Pray for Lanka!PIA LIVES!!!!! And other news.

[Roko]

evo linkova za one koji zele pomoci.

http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

[Roko]

mozda vas davim ali ovo pokazuje koliko su krasni ti ljudi tamo...

On Christmas day, my friends were in Paradise Beach Club in Mirissa.
After arguments about spending all day on the beach or taking a trip, they settled on booking a driver to visit a snake farm early the next morning , then returning to the beach.
The car turned up, with the drivers family inside. He settled them, his wife and young children on the beach at Mirissa, then took the family inland for the trip.
The tsunami struck twenty minutes later.
They didn't know until they were returning from the snake farm and met the flood of fleeing people.
The driver turned around and headed for higher ground.
My friends tried to insist they all returned to look for his wife and children.
He refused.
His words to them were, Text"My wife and my children are dead, I am responsible to you as guests"
He drove them to safety. delivered them to a country police station and then drove back to Mirissa to search for his own family.
The Sri Lankan people can never be thanked enough and helped enough.

[Roko]

pismo jednog prezivjelog turista.....

Hi all, my name is Louis and I've just got up to Kandi after being in Unawatuna throughout the Tsunami.
Those of you who know, I was staying on the far side of Unawatuna close to the Dallawella end. We were staying in the Aralyia hotel, me my family and my friends from back in Wales, we had thought it would be a good place to spend Christmas!

I can’t begin to explain to you the level of destruction it caused. I stood on the first floor of my hotel watching all the buildings around us crash to the ground until we were marooned in our hotel.

Pretty well anything on the beachfront was destroyed. Concrete buildings stood a better chance than wooden ones but the foundations and build work was so bad in most of them and they sea so powerful that most fell like paper. For those of you worried about people though a lot of people made it, so hope is not lost, luckily most of the locals are up at six so a lot of them saw it coming.

There were a lot of people who didn’t make it though.

After escaping the water, about 80 tourists sought refuge in a hotel called Villa in Paradise, slightly up on the hill. There we were luckily enough to have an outside line that worked so were able to get in touch with the British High Commission, who were amazing and helped us greatly throughout.

For those of you who knew the Aralyia, amazingly all the staff escaped, unfortunately the whole guesthouse collapsed. I can’t describe the feelings it evoked, watching their livelihoods crumble like that was heart braking.

Sri Lanka has been the most welcoming, happy and care free country I’ve ever visited. The people here have been the smiliest, interested and heart warming people I’ve ever encountered. I wish each and every one of them the strength and energy they need to rebuild their country and find their loved ones.

Good luck Sri Lanka, and thank you

[NoWa]

Čula sam da imaju novi turisticki slogan:
"Ako želite pomoći Šri Lanci, posjetite ju".
Sad će cijene bit izuzetno niske, al otići dolje i vidjeti sve te strahote nema smisla.

Uvijek mi je bila želja obići Šri Lanku, Tajland, Maldive..i sad i nakon ovoga nemam zadršku (nece tsunami valjda opet), ali treba pricekati da prođe barem godina dana da se stvar sredi.

jel dolje uvijek toplo i kad je najbolje doci (kad nema nekih kiša i prevelika navala turista)?

[lahor]

Cuj ja sam sad u Bangkoku i ne mogu primijetiti posljedice tsunamija osim listi oblijepljenih po pocetku Khao San Roada, ali turista stvarno ima kao u prici.

[Zana666]

Pitanje..lijeno mi listati,pa ako je bilo,lijepo molim revnije clanstvo da neka me preusmjeru kuda čitati?

Naime, na Cubi smo sreli bracni par Belgijanaca koji su mi nahvalili Sri Lanku kao fenomenalnu destinaciju,bogate kulture,jeftinu i prekokrasnu....Da li je itko bio i na sto obratiti paznju...Kakav je avionski prijevoz do Maldiva,od tamo? (skocili bismo na par dana)...

help pls...

[Indi]

Sri Lankan leti iz Colomba za Male nekoliko puta dnevno. Let traje 50tak minuta.

[Roko]

Zana666 kaže:

Pitanje..lijeno mi listati,pa ako je bilo,lijepo molim revnije clanstvo da neka me preusmjeru kuda čitati?

Naime, na Cubi smo sreli bracni par Belgijanaca koji su mi nahvalili Sri Lanku kao fenomenalnu destinaciju,bogate kulture,jeftinu i prekokrasnu....Da li je itko bio i na sto obratiti paznju...Kakav je avionski prijevoz do Maldiva,od tamo? (skocili bismo na par dana)...

help pls...

i ja mogu samo nahvaliti Sri Lanku.

Stvarno krasno gostoljubivo jeftino i zanimljivo.
Dobra klopa,funkcionalan transport,krasne plaze,krasna priroda.

Plantaze caja su fenomenalne,Kandy je interesantan,slonovi u Pinavelli.

preporucam

[aaston]

@Roko, kad ćeš već jednom napisati nešto o Kongu?

[Indi]

aaston kaže:

@Roko, kad ćeš već jednom napisati nešto o Kongu?

to se i ja pitam

[aaston]

Indi kaže:

to se i ja pitam

Ajd ti se ne javljaj... koliko se sjećam i ti si negdje bila pa ništ od izvještaja

[Indi]

Nisam, tek trebam ic krajem 4. mj

[Zana666]

pitanjce 2.

Otisli bismo pocetkom 8.mjeseca...Jako vruce?