SE Asia Earthquake/Tsunami

[opebo]

Just to put everyone's worries to rest, I'm fine - lucky for me I'm on the other side of the peninsula. 

The west coast of Thailand, however, has been hit fairly hard, especially Phuket.  Early beach go-ers swept away. Apparently Sri Lanka and India have been hit hardest, though they're quite far away from the epicenter.

[opebo]

Just to put everyone's worries to rest, I'm fine - lucky for me I'm on the other side of the peninsula. 

The west coast of Thailand, however, has been hit fairly hard, especially Phuket.  Early beach go-ers swept away. Apparently Sri Lanka and India have been hit hardest, though they're quite far away from the epicenter.

Great news to hear you are fine Opebo! A friend of mine and his girlfriend were there just some days ago - I hope they are now in Laos as they had originally planned, otherwise I will start to worry.
The news are terrible.

Yes, thanks ThePrexMex!  I do hope your friends are inland and OK.  Were they on the West coast?  Cause all the Gulf of Thailand resorts are prefectly fine.  I live no more than a hundred yards from the beach, on the second floor (the waves were three stories in Phuket!).  Scary stuff.  Everything's fine in Pattaya, though, for now.

[opebo]

FNC is reporting that the crown prince of Thailand is missing as well.

From what I can find out here it wasn't *the* crown prince - as in the one who will inherit the throne (45 year old man with two wives).  It was a 21 year old half-American grandson of the king, nephew of the crown prince, and avid sportsman.

Interestingly I think according to this the real crown prince flew the kid's mom down in his own plane to pick up the body for the state funeral in Bangkok.

Local news link:
http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=34151

[opebo]

I've seen it said as many as 80,000 people may have been killed all in all.
Here's one for Opebo: Thanks to the Tsunami, the ban for foreigners on travelling in Aceh has been lifted.

Hmm.. well I won't be going there.  I am going to Singapore in a few days for a little visa run.  I'll be there 3-4 days and will probably take this ferry they have over to some Indonesian islands nearby.  I hear they're fun places and then I can say I have been to Indonesia.  Maybe I'll spend a couple hundred bucks to boost the economy.