Richard Smith and Sara Mapp home after their ordeal in ThailandGOOD luck and cool heads saved the lives of a quartet of Wiltshire backpackers caught up in the tsunami devastation.

Sara Mapp, 25, and Richard Smith, 22, this week relived the horror of the aftermath of the giant waves that tore through their holiday paradise of Koh Phi Phi on Boxing Day morning.

At Miss Mapp's home in Downlands Road, Devizes, they recalled how they had spent three glorious months enjoying the sights of Thailand before heading to the island to meet up with Mr Smith's brother Mark, 26, and his girlfriend, Laura Lynch, 21, from Calne.

Mr Smith said: "We had been having a brilliant time visiting all the islands, seeing the sights of Bangkok, elephant trekking, bamboo rafting everything."

Both couples arrived on the island a few days before Christmas. They were only able to get accommodation in beach huts at opposite ends of the island but met up every day.

They had arranged to meet at a caf on Boxing Day at 11am, but Miss Mapp said she and Mr Smith slept in. "I had turned off my alarm and was just lying in bed when I saw the ceiling fan slow down and stop," she said. "It wasn't the first time that had happened, but then I heard people screaming.

"At first I thought it was just kids mucking about but then we heard people running past shouting, "run, run". There was a rumbling sound in the distance so Richard got up to see what was happening."

When Mr Smith opened the door, he saw a wall of water hurtling towards him. He slammed the door shut and the couple quickly pulled on clothes.

Miss Mapp said: "I picked up our bag with our passports and money in it. By this time we were thigh deep in water and it was rising quickly. Richard couldn't open the door because of the pressure of water against it."

Using every ounce of his strength, Mr Smith managed to rip the door open, allowing the water level to drop, and the couple rushed out, leaping onto the wall that separated the hut from its neighbour. Even then, the water was above their knees.

The water receded briefly, revealing a carpet of brightly coloured tropical fish lying amid the debris. The warning came that another wave was on its way.

Mr Smith said: "People were trying to get on the roofs of outhouses and oil tanks but only 100 metres away from us there was higher ground. But this meant walking towards the sea to begin with and people were panicking too much to see this."

Wading thigh deep through water and cutting their bare feet on glass and broken brick, the couple made their way to the viewpoint restaurant.

Mr Smith said: "The waves had knocked down all the huts between us and the sea so we had a clear view of the next wave. I know it is terrible to say it, but it was every man for himself at that point and I just wanted to get Sara and me out of there. Only about ten or 15 people had made it to the restaurant apart from us. There were people there with horrendous injuries.

"We heard later that the authorities knew the wave was coming two hours before it hit but they didn't want to panic people. It was bad for tourism."

Rumours of further waves were rife and the couple joined a throng of people clambering up sharp rocks to higher ground.

Their night on the bare mountain turned out to be a nightmare. Thai workers whose families lived in cities and were not in danger took the opportunity to party, while looters were coming round offering to sell passports and other documents they had stolen from devastated holiday homes.

What most shocked the couple was the way grown British men deported themselves. Mr Smith said: "They were crying like babies. And they kept shushing everyone and saying, listen, there's another wave coming.

"There were children there and that upset them very much. There was no way that a wave was going to touch us all the way up there."

At first light, having slept hardly at all, Miss Mapp and Mr Smith made their way down the mountain. They found their hut had been looted and anything not taken was covered in sewage. All around were bodies and injured survivors.

Mr Smith said: "We tried to walk along the beach to find Mark and Laura but we couldn't get through because of all the wreckage piled up. The wave going back out had actually dragged stone buildings down towards the shoreline. The place was unrecognisable from the previous day.

"People were either stood around like zombies or lying on the ground hysterical."

The couple made for the pier. It was 6am on December 27 and the first boat to the mainland was not due until 10am. But already there was a queue and Miss Mapp and Mr Smith checked it, hoping to find their companions.

The Thai authorities had been piling bodies on the jetty and the couple, fearing the worst, took an opportunity to see if Mark and Laura might be there.

Thankfully they weren't. Just as they were about to give up hope, Mr Smith started whooping and yelling. Miss Mapp said: "I couldn't see who he was waving at to begin with, then I saw Mark and Laura next to the jetty."

There was a tearful reunion among the four. Mark and Laura had been staying in a bungalow at the far end of the island, which had the good fortune to be ten feet higher than sea level.

Mr Smith said: "The wave came just below their bungalow. They saw bodies being dragged past them by the water, which had demolished all the bungalows up to theirs."

Mark Smith used his little travelling first aid kit to administer to the injured, using what meagre resources he had to help as best he could.

He and Miss Lynch had also spent the night on higher ground before making for the jetty the following morning.

Even after they had met up, their ordeal was not over. They had managed to get to the front of the queue when the first boat arrived but they were elbowed out of the way by others. Miss Mapp said: "We were being pushed up against the piles of bodies. I said, forget it, let's wait for the next boat."

Eventually, a blue lifeboat turned up and ferried them to a rusty dredger which took them to Krabi on the mainland, where they stayed overnight at a hotel before getting the bus to Bangkok the following morning.

Their lowest ebb was on that dredger, where they sat numb, sleepless, and covered in blood, filth and mosquito bites.

For them it was a happy ending, but they are well aware that thousands of people didn't make it.

Miss Mapp said: "We can't look at the news bulletins on the TV. It is just too painful. This has not put me off travelling, but I will never go to an island again. Being stuck there was so scary. You have nowhere to run."