Tsunami Territory

I had to make special mention of the fact that we have spent the better part of a week in areas pummeled by the December 26, 2004 Tsunami. While in Penang, Laurel pointed out the corner of the island that did get hit by the wave, but otherwise Penang was relatively unscathed. And of course, Phuket was devastated. Kamala Beach was apparently the hardest hit part of the island, as evidenced by all of the newer looking construction. The vegetation is pretty mature by now and we saw very little remnants of tattered structures. I sort of expected there to be some of that, but there wasn't. And everywhere you go along the coast, there are "Tsunami Evacuation Route" signs, warning sirens, and signs telling you what to do in the event of a tsunami. (I wonder if any of those things were in place before 2004?) Directly across from our hotel in Kamala Beach there was a Tsunami Memorial Park. There was a large sculpture and a couple of memorial signs and plaques. The sculpture is meant to represent the shift in nature that occurs to obtain equilibrium of the earth- meaning natural disasters only occur when things are unbalanced. And the other thought is that loss of life and other things happen for a reason and the sculpture is meant to be the physical object that rises to replace this loss.