Reaching Patong Beach again in the morning of the 27th, I actually realized that the Thai rescue teams were very efficient and organized apart from one thing. There were two places on the beach road where a small supermarket and a hotel lobby were located under the ground level and had been completely flooded, leaving no chance of escape to the occupants when the water filled them up to the ceiling. This is where as a dive instructor, I felt the most needed and qualified. From that moment on, everything went fast. I rushed to find a buddy and some dive gear at a local dive shop (Warm Water Divers) who happily gave us equipment and a car to reach the site. This is how I really entered into action together with Kylie Stevenson. Arriving at the Sea Pearl Hotel, despite the pumping that had been initiated, we found it still under a good 1.5 meter of murky water, full of debris, broken furniture, kitchen utensils and even vehicles, pushed off the road and forced through the doors down the lobby.

We knew that 24 hours after the wave, our chances to find anyone alive were very slim, so we took time to done our scuba gear and double check each other's equipment before entering the water from what used to be the main stairway. From there, we started to investigate the small rooms of the kitchen area where some people had been seen fleeing as the water was rushing through. The conditions were very difficult in those small flooded rooms, completely dark, where we had to climb and push floating debris with one hand more than dive and a torch in the other. The stress was big for both of us as we knew it was going to be a big test on our nervous system to finally find what we were searching for. I had contact with death in the past and I have no fear from it but the conditions we were in were different. When reaching the first corpse, we took a deep breath and agreed by sign that we would not expose the face since this is the kind of expression that could really put one of us in a state of panic. A Thai rescue team was waiting next to the water, holding our life line and ready to come and assist to pull out the bodies we found. We searched for most of the day and managed to dislodge and bring five corpses back before someone gave a hard pull on the line, warning us that a second quake had been recorded. This is how our first day finished since the current situation didn't justify putting our own life on the line.

The next day, we had planned to go back to continue our work but we realized that the conditions had changed a lot overnight. The water had become darker and it was obvious that it started to be colonized by a lot of bacteria. It had become too dangerous for us to enter that water without specialized and fully waterproof equipment. Since such equipment was not available, we decided to stop and advised the rescue teams to pump the remaining water as fast as possible as it had become an important biohazard for anyone in contact with it. So it was time to find something else to do. Since help was needed basically everywhere at all levels, this was an easy thing to do.

People were needed for translation in hospitals to translate all languages between the survivors/families, the Thai authorities and the hospital staff. A great deal of help was also needed at the Phuket Airport where many injured tourists/expats were waiting to be flown back to their home country. The airport hall had been transformed in a huge hospital mass casualty room. There was a very big job of reassurance to be done there with those patients. They needed to be listened to and given a lot of psychological support as well. Being employed at the time for the local recompression chamber and in regular contact with diving patients, I thought I could be of some help there. Our emergency consultant doctor, Dr Ljubisa Matic was already there and I decided to join him. As I explained before, many people discovered some strengths and weakness within themselves during those following weeks/months and for me this is where I discovered a weakness. It can seem extremely easy to listen to people's stories and give some moral support but it was just too much for me. The emotions were too strong and I felt like hurting myself more than helping others so I stopped.