In a short while, I will most probably be bumming around Gurney Drive with Wuan. The seaside is not the best place to be at this moment but we have been planning for this break since the beginning of the year. We are taking our chances and hope that Penang will not be hit by another tsunami. Besides, I need to get away from accessing the Internet for a while to stop my emotions from being overloaded by all the grim images of this catastrophe. This blog will not be updated in the next few days. Take care people.

These six photographs were taken in 1981. Dad had taken Cikgu Mustaffa Ismail on a round-island trip. He had taught the class I was in as a trainee teacher a couple of years back. I last heard he was teaching at SMK Aminuddin Baki in Chemor, Perak. That was many years ago. Among the stops we made was the idyllic fishing village of Pulau Betong where my cousin was staying with her family. Her husband is still a fisherman there. Pulau Betong was devastated when a tsunami slammed into it after the earthquake off Sumatra yesterday.

Cikgu Mustaffa and me at the wooden bridge across Sungai Pulau Betong.

Dad and Cikgu Mustaffa on one of the wooden jetties.

Cikgu Mustaffa and me on a wooden jetty.

Another shot at the jetty. Michael (extreme left) lost his boat when tsunami struck.

On one of the moored fishing boats in Sungai Pulau Betong.

Outside the house of my cousin’s in-laws which was inundated by 30cm of water yesterday.

I called my cousin in Pulau Betong to check if they were really all right. Yes, they are, thankfully. Her son had assured me yesterday that they were all safe. She related to me about a pregnant woman who drowned while she was bathing and got swept out to sea by the waves. The fish landing there where fishermen traded the catch of the day was completely ravaged and the area submerged under 1.5 meters of water at the peak of the disaster. Her house which was further inland was spared but her in-law�s house was flooded by 30cm of sea water that rushed in and overwhelmed the estuary (Kuala Pulau Betong) and overflowed the river banks (Sungai Pulau Betong). Both sides of Kuala Pulau Betong are swathed by mangrove swamps. A little further in, nipah palms and rickety wooden jetties dot the river where fishing boats are moored.

Wuan will be arriving from Kuala Lumpur later in the day. She had a suite booked at the Gurney Hotel for the next few days beginning today. The hotel is just across the road from the Gurney Drive seafront that was hit by the tsunami. I checked with the hotel to see if they were affected. I had heard that the entire stretch of Gurney Drive had been cordoned off. The Front Office convinced me that they are still in operation and that Gurney Drive is being cleaned up and they are still accepting guests. We have our apprehensions, fearing an aftershock that could trigger another tsunami. We will be checking out Gurney Drive and shall soon find out if we still want to stay there.

On the other hand, the car of the boyfriend of another neighbour�s daughter was awash in mud. He had parked beside the Gurney Drive seawall and went for a meal nearby. The wave came and dumped a load of mud on everything that was on its way, including his car. The upholstery inside was soiled as well. The cleaning up is going to cost him RM180. I was also informed that the hawker centre at the Gurney Drive roundabout is sodden with mud.

Did the full moon yesterday exacerbated the effect of the tsunami? A check of the Penang tidal conditions provided by Malaysian Meteorological Service indicated that high tide was at around 1:00pm on December 26. According to the US National Weather Service Forecast Office, a tsunami occurring at Spring high tide could be higher and go further inland and most possibly more devastating than other times, which was exactly what happened.