Speaker 1: You're listening to a MoMA Mia podcast. Mama Miya acknowledges
Speaker 1: the traditional owners of land and waters that this podcast
Speaker 1: is recorded on. Hello, Omeya. Friedman and the team at
Speaker 1: Mamma Maya are bringing you over one hundred hours of
Speaker 1: the best of the best from across our award winning
Speaker 1: podcasts to give you the hot pod Summer of your dreams.
Speaker 1: Here at No Filter, we have selected the very best
Speaker 1: stories of human resilience, of escaping from colts and tsunamis,
Speaker 1: of surviving in prison, surviving a landslide, surviving a broken.
Speaker 2: Heart, and so much more.
Speaker 1: Today, I'm bringing you the story of Sarah Isles that
Speaker 1: we first aired a few years ago. Sarah survived what
Speaker 1: we often think of as unsurvivable a tsunami. The Boxing
Speaker 1: Day tsunami in two thousand and four took the lives
Speaker 1: of two hundred and twenty seven thousand people, and Sarah
Speaker 1: survived it. She is such a survivor that she even
Speaker 1: went on the TV show Survivor, And as we near
Speaker 1: the twenty year anniversary of that terrifying day, we thought
Speaker 1: that we would revisit Sarah's story in her own words.
Speaker 1: Here's Sarah Isles.
Speaker 2: I felt the vibration of this building giving away on
Speaker 2: my feet and I knew it was then. That was
Speaker 2: the moment I knew I was in trouble and I
Speaker 2: had to leap. It still gives me goosebops just thinking
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: For Mama Maya, I'm Meya Friedman, and you're listening to
Speaker 1: No Filter, a podcast where I have counter conversations with
Speaker 1: fascinating people. Do you remember what you were doing on
Speaker 1: Boxing Day morning in two thousand and four, Well, you
Speaker 1: probably don't, but when I say the word tsunami, it
Speaker 1: might jog your memory a little bit, because that was
Speaker 1: no ordinary Boxing day, not for the people who were
Speaker 1: watching the news around the world, and certainly not for
Speaker 1: the people who were caught up in that devastating tragedy.
Speaker 1: My guest today, Sarah Ayle, was on a beach in
Speaker 1: Sri Lanka on Boxing Day in two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: She was putting on a mask. She was about to
Speaker 1: go snorkeling with her business partner, who also happened to
Speaker 1: be her ex boyfriend. But they were really close and
Speaker 1: they'd gone on this holiday together so that she could
Speaker 1: meet some of his family. And on that morning, while
Speaker 1: they were preparing to go snorkeling. Life as she knew
Speaker 1: it suddenly changed forever. And I know that sounds melodramatic,
Speaker 1: you know, the day her life changed forever, But it
Speaker 1: wasn't even the day. It was really in a matter
Speaker 1: of moments. And I know that I was always so
Speaker 1: curious and fascinated. Sounds like the wrong word, but I
Speaker 1: wondered and I imagine just what it was like as
Speaker 1: that tsunami took hold. In the countries that were affected
Speaker 1: by it, almost a quarter of a million people lost
Speaker 1: their lives on that day across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India
Speaker 1: and Thailand. The Boxing Day tsunami was caused by an
Speaker 1: earthquake in the Indian Ocean, and experts have said that
Speaker 1: it had the energy of twenty three thousand Hiroshima type
Speaker 1: atomic bombs. So what was it like on the ground?
Speaker 1: What was it like when that tsunami hit? The astonishing
Speaker 1: thing is that Sarah has lived to tell the tale.
Speaker 1: She survived and now would you believe she's going on
Speaker 1: Australian Survivor To push herself even more, I invited Sarah
Speaker 1: into the Mama Mia podcast studio for an incredibly candid
Speaker 1: conversation and one that I guarantee will have you leaning
Speaker 1: so far in to hear what she has to say. Sarah,
Speaker 1: I want to start with you getting on the plane
Speaker 1: to Sri Lanka back in December two thousand and four.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a bit about your life back then? Oh?
Speaker 2: Back then, I was early thirties and I had a
Speaker 2: cleaning company. At the time. We had a couple of
Speaker 2: hundred staff and life was, I guess, fairly busy. You
Speaker 2: could say, who did you run your business with? I
Speaker 2: ran the business with. I was a director. We had
Speaker 2: two directors, and my business partner at the time was Suji.
Speaker 2: He was a managing director. Yeah, and three of us
Speaker 2: managed it. Were you guys dating not at that time, No,
Speaker 2: but we had done in the past. We were together
Speaker 2: for eleven years. I met him when I just turned seventeen.
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, how did you meet? I had a
Speaker 2: Japanese student living with me and she went on a
Speaker 2: bus trip to Victor Harbor and I went along with
Speaker 2: her and he was on there. So, gosh, it was
Speaker 2: a long time ago and I was so young.
Speaker 1: So you guys were together for eleven years, that's a
Speaker 1: long time. At what point in your relationship. Did you
Speaker 1: decide to go into business together.
Speaker 2: Oh, it was a few years down the track. I
Speaker 2: was at school at the time, so I finished school.
Speaker 2: I did a year of nursing. No, it wasn't for me,
Speaker 2: and took a year or so working out what I
Speaker 2: wanted to do. And while I was studying, we started
Speaker 2: this cleaning business, cleaning for someone else, and decided, well,
Speaker 2: why are we working for someone else. We could do
Speaker 2: this on our own. So we cashed in some cans,
Speaker 2: as you do when you're cleaning.
Speaker 1: Some actual can yeah, yeah, like recycling can.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, my car was always full of cans from bins.
Speaker 2: So we'd get the money from that, I'd put it
Speaker 2: in the bank and I don't know how many years
Speaker 2: it took us, but we bought a vacuum cleaner with
Speaker 2: the can money it's just insane mott bucket and some
Speaker 2: chemicals and put some letters underdoors commercial premises and said
Speaker 2: we're keen, we like to clean, We're good at what
Speaker 2: we do. So we started from there.
Speaker 1: You'd built that business together to a really big size,
Speaker 1: I mean two hundred staff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: At the time of the tsunami, it was rapidly growing.
Speaker 2: At that point.
Speaker 1: So how long before you left for Sri Lanka had
Speaker 1: you sort of ended your romantic relationship and kept the
Speaker 1: business one goal.
Speaker 2: It was a few years, So we were together for
Speaker 2: eleven and at the time of the tsunami it was
Speaker 2: fourteen years. So it look, oh, you know, you cling
Speaker 2: onto familiar things when you're young. And we weren't compatible
Speaker 2: for a long time, not romantically, but we were compatible
Speaker 2: in business. We just had different skill sets. I was
Speaker 2: a people person. He was kind of a broad thinker,
Speaker 2: where I was more a detailed person. And the other
Speaker 2: director that came on board, he was good at financials
Speaker 2: and accounting and stuff. So we sort of pulled our
Speaker 2: skills and we were good at what we did. And yeah,
Speaker 2: you were obviously.
Speaker 1: Still good friends if you were going on holiday together
Speaker 1: or was it a working trip.
Speaker 2: I wasn't really a working trip. Look, I'd moved on,
Speaker 2: but he, I think, always felt regret at not taking
Speaker 2: me to meet his family and to see his country.
Speaker 2: So I guess in my head, I thought, well, for
Speaker 2: him to just get over this and move on, We'll
Speaker 2: go and I get a free trip out of it
Speaker 2: and get to see some country. And yeah, he can
Speaker 2: just not have to feel guilty about not taking me.
Speaker 1: Had he lived in Australia for a long time.
Speaker 2: He had he came to Australia. Gosh, when was it,
Speaker 2: probably nineteen ninety so he was well, he loved Australia.
Speaker 2: He was sort of a converted Ozzie and he integrated
Speaker 2: because he got an Ozzy girlfriend. But I guess, yeah,
Speaker 2: all his family were back home, so so what.
Speaker 1: Was the plan for that holiday? You got on the plane,
Speaker 1: what were you going to do when you got to
Speaker 1: Sri Lanka.
Speaker 2: We had some time in Colombo with his family, and
Speaker 2: we actually went for a friend's wedding at the time,
Speaker 2: so she was getting married. So sort of got myself
Speaker 2: a sari when I was in Colomba and had it
Speaker 2: fitted and never got to wore it. We're it's sorry.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and then we had I guess an itinery
Speaker 2: around the country up in the hill country, the tea estates.
Speaker 2: He had friends in sort of high places everywhere. So
Speaker 2: we had a great couple of weeks which was really
Speaker 2: really nice.
Speaker 1: How did Boxing day start for you?
Speaker 2: We were actually in a hotel, a big, solid hotel
Speaker 2: in a town called Hikkadua, which was a few k's
Speaker 2: from Gaul, and had we remained there we would have
Speaker 2: been fine. But we had such a great time the
Speaker 2: day before snorkling that we thought, right, let's go to
Speaker 2: Unawatuna early in the morning before the sun and the
Speaker 2: tourists came out, because I was really sun burnt from
Speaker 2: the day before in my back. So the plan was
Speaker 2: to go there, do some snorkeling, enjoy and visit Gaul
Speaker 2: on the way back. So yeah, we had our breakfast
Speaker 2: in the hotel with a lot of other people and
Speaker 2: got in the car with our driver who'd been driving
Speaker 2: us around the country.
Speaker 1: Was it just the two of you and the driver?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yea, and he was a lovely guy. Yeah, his
Speaker 2: name was Cecirah. And we drove through Gaul and drove
Speaker 2: on to Nawatuna and parked the car, and yeah, things
Speaker 2: changed pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: How quickly did they change? I mean, when you hear
Speaker 1: the word tsunami, you imagine a really I imagine a really
Speaker 1: big wave. But in a lot of the accounts I've
Speaker 1: heard people talk about the opposite of that, like the
Speaker 1: tide going out. When was it for you that you
Speaker 1: realize something strange was going on?
Speaker 2: Well, it was really interesting because looking out what I
Speaker 2: saw at the time, we'd literally just driven onto this beach,
Speaker 2: hadn't seen it before, stripped off, and we were ready
Speaker 2: to go snorkeling, as I said, But in looking out
Speaker 2: of the ocean, the horizon was gone. And when I
Speaker 2: think about it, the water was just higher than it
Speaker 2: should have been.
Speaker 1: What do you mean the horizon was gone?
Speaker 2: Well, there was, I guess there was just a mass
Speaker 2: of turbulent water, but it didn't look like a wave,
Speaker 2: and I didn't realize that I couldn't see the horizon.
Speaker 2: But when I think back to that photo, in my mind,
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, Sarah, there's no horizon. There is a
Speaker 2: mass of water that you're not understanding. So what did
Speaker 2: you do? Well, basically, I was completely sort of confused.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize at that point that I was in
Speaker 2: any danger.
Speaker 1: Were you in the water or were you on the beach?
Speaker 2: Well, we're on the beach. We rocked up to a
Speaker 2: diving shop and he sort of saw the wave before
Speaker 2: me and he said, I don't think I can reach
Speaker 2: and I said, well, hold on, I'll have a look.
Speaker 2: So I've looked out and I've seen this picture and
Speaker 2: turned back to him, and beyond Suji was the car
Speaker 2: that was on the road. Its tires were getting lapped
Speaker 2: with water. So I've said, just tell the drive, tell
Speaker 2: Sarah to shift the car. It's getting wet. And where
Speaker 2: we were, we were standing on sand with tables and
Speaker 2: chairs for teas and coffees, and they were suddenly starting
Speaker 2: to get wet.
Speaker 1: So we were as the water was risy.
Speaker 2: Well it was just dribbling in at this point, so
Speaker 2: we were shifting these chairs and tables, just trying to
Speaker 2: keep them dry.
Speaker 1: For the owner of the dive shop exactly.
Speaker 2: And I was here and the owner was probably about
Speaker 2: a meter away doing the same thing, and Suji would
Speaker 2: have only been two three meters and we were all
Speaker 2: sort of shifting these chairs. It was strange. It was
Speaker 2: really odd.
Speaker 1: It sounds like it was a really slow door realization.
Speaker 2: Well, it really took me a long time. I was
Speaker 2: just completely confused. So I just happened to have stairs
Speaker 2: in front of me, mud brickstairs. It was well, I've
Speaker 2: walked up the steps, and as I've walked up the steps,
Speaker 2: the water level is following my feet and I'm still baffled.
Speaker 2: It took a long time for the penny to drop
Speaker 2: with this lady. I just and I've looked over and
Speaker 2: the car with the door open. My poor driver had
Speaker 2: obviously got out and ran was just being sort of
Speaker 2: washed away.
Speaker 1: Were people panicking and screaming?
Speaker 2: No, it was completely silent apart from this swirling sound
Speaker 2: of water.
Speaker 1: Were there lots of people around or not?
Speaker 2: Where we were, there are only a few. And as
Speaker 2: I've seen the car drift away, my instinct was, oh,
Speaker 2: my god, my camera's going to get wet. And I
Speaker 2: hope the cars ensured. I still didn't understand what was happening.
Speaker 2: I feel so bad because thinking about that Cecia was
Speaker 2: in the process of drowning, but I was worried about
Speaker 2: my camera. I think because the door, the door of
Speaker 2: the car was open, I think he'd decided to run
Speaker 2: for it. So yeah, I kept climbing these stairs and
Speaker 2: I got to the landing and I saw a bed
Speaker 2: in a doorway.
Speaker 1: Where were you like in a hotel. It's a diving shop,
Speaker 1: so you were inside in a building more of.
Speaker 2: A hut, a mud brick hut. And I've seen a
Speaker 2: bed and I've thought, my god, Sarah, you're trespassing on
Speaker 2: someone's property. This is just you know, you're doing the
Speaker 2: wrong thing. And as I've walked along, I've seen in
Speaker 2: the window two men, one elderly gentleman and one younger,
Speaker 2: and I've seen through the window that the water level
Speaker 2: was just there was just a massive water outside. And
Speaker 2: the younger guy was helping his father out of the window.
Speaker 2: And his dad would have been maybe in his seventies
Speaker 2: or eighties, and he only had one leg. So I
Speaker 2: wanted to say, don't put him out, because he's going
Speaker 2: to die, but nothing came out of my mouth. I
Speaker 2: was just watching there in disbelief. And look, at that
Speaker 2: point in time, I felt I felt the vibration of
Speaker 2: this building giving away on my feet, and I knew
Speaker 2: it was then that was the moment that I knew
Speaker 2: I was in trouble and I had to leap. Still
Speaker 2: gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.
Speaker 1: Where did leap? Where?
Speaker 2: I made a beeline to the end of the little balcony.
Speaker 2: I threw my snorkel and mask in the water and
Speaker 2: that shot off like a rocket and I've just jumped
Speaker 2: into the water.
Speaker 1: So in a matter of it seems like a minute,
Speaker 1: two minutes suddenly. I mean, did you have the word
Speaker 1: tsunami in your flood? Probably it was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well I was thinking, well, at that point, I
Speaker 2: was just so focused on surviving. I wasn't It was
Speaker 2: just water. And to this day, if I feel vibrations
Speaker 2: in my feet, like at the airport when a plane
Speaker 2: takes off, or at the gym if some big dude drops,
Speaker 2: I feel like running. I just get me out of here.
Speaker 1: Something is going to have a response.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it wasn't raining. It was still a beautiful day
Speaker 1: quite early in the morning. Do you know where Sugi
Speaker 1: is at this point.
Speaker 2: Well, once I was in the water, racing along and
Speaker 2: my foot did get caught on the balcony. I was
Speaker 2: sort of trying to hold my breath and get my
Speaker 2: foot out.
Speaker 1: So there was a strong current.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was on my back trying to get my
Speaker 2: foot out of the railing. And once I was in
Speaker 2: that current, I just thought, Suji's dead. There's no way
Speaker 2: that he can get out of this because he couldn't swim.
Speaker 2: It was just so it was just so much water everywhere,
Speaker 2: and I sort of thought to myself, all, Sarah, if
Speaker 2: you panic, you're gonna die too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I imagine that's the ultimate sense of survival.
Speaker 1: Something kicks in. Are you very clear in your head?
Speaker 1: Like the way you talk about it, It's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: he's dead, I have to stay calm.
Speaker 2: It was completely clear. My brain just went into this
Speaker 2: zone of making decisions, grabbing onto palm trees to try
Speaker 2: and hold myself there. I've seen a massive water where
Speaker 2: all converges, and I knew I was going to go under,
Speaker 2: so I thought, Okay, Sarah, you're gonna have to hyper ventilate,
Speaker 2: and it was coming towards I'm gonna have to hype
Speaker 2: of ventilate and hold your breath because you're going under.
Speaker 2: So I just went into this zone of this this
Speaker 2: this is what you gotta do, gear up for it.
Speaker 2: And I knew he was dead, and I knew sort
Speaker 2: of Ceciria would have been dead too.
Speaker 1: Did you just sort of go right, I'm gonna park
Speaker 1: that information to deal with later, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, because you were I was in the zone, yep.
Speaker 1: Were there other people that you could see?
Speaker 2: Not at that point. No, No, I've looked back towards
Speaker 2: the diving shop and I've just seen the roof floating
Speaker 2: along in the water and thought, well, thank god. I
Speaker 2: dropped off that it was just all water and it was,
Speaker 2: as I say, it was completely silent except the sound
Speaker 2: of the water. At that point.
Speaker 1: Did you go under? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I did go under?
Speaker 1: What was that like?
Speaker 2: I went under? I hyperventilated and I went under, and
Speaker 2: I had bubbles around my face, and I just looked
Speaker 2: up and I thought to myself, if I can see
Speaker 2: the sun, if I can see which way is up,
Speaker 2: if I get smashed into a wall or in some
Speaker 2: kind of massive I know where which way's up, because
Speaker 2: I could have ended up anywhere. So I just kept
Speaker 2: looking at the sun and I just basically thought, well,
Speaker 2: this is it. I didn't think about my family or
Speaker 2: it was just purely this is it.
Speaker 1: Was the water like the ocean, or was it like
Speaker 1: a dirty river or with it things in it?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a brown, dirty river type water. And
Speaker 2: there were big logs of buildings. Motorbike goes past and
Speaker 2: you think, well, yeah, I'm glad that missed me. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was just like basically a junk yard in a
Speaker 2: surge of water.
Speaker 1: So what happened next?
Speaker 2: So then I've as I'm looking up, I've just popped
Speaker 2: out the other side and I've thought to myself, God,
Speaker 2: you're going to live. And I could feel the mudge
Speaker 2: on my toes and I thought, Sarah, you can reach
Speaker 2: the ground. So when you reach the ground, you think, okay,
Speaker 2: well I'll start walking, but I couldn't. I was just
Speaker 2: kind of pushed along, but still in that moment of terror.
Speaker 2: I could see a building coming up and two villagers
Speaker 2: were on it, and my timing and my trajectory was perfect.
Speaker 2: They could see me coming and they've held down the
Speaker 2: roof of a rainwater tank so I could grab it.
Speaker 2: So I've grabbed onto this thing and they've pulled me up.
Speaker 1: Did they call out to you or it'll just each other?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they pulled you up. And what were you standing
Speaker 1: on a building? Yeah?
Speaker 2: It was their house, but it was it was concrete,
Speaker 2: so it was solid. It wasn't mud brick anything. Mud
Speaker 2: brick was just washed away. So yeah, they were lucky.
Speaker 2: They must have been sort of well off and they
Speaker 2: just got on their roof and they were safe.
Speaker 1: Once you're on that roof with them, did you say anything?
Speaker 1: Did they say anything?
Speaker 2: The first thing I've said to them was sounds ridiculous,
Speaker 2: but I've said, does this happen? Often.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can understand why you would say, like, I
Speaker 1: can get I get that.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think my head went back to
Speaker 2: like the annual Nile flooding, you know, the history lessons,
Speaker 2: where like it floods yearly. So in my head, I thought, well,
Speaker 2: maybe this sort of happens every now and then. It's
Speaker 2: just absurd. No, they said no, no, no, no no. And
Speaker 2: I could partly speak singles at the time so I
Speaker 2: could make myself understood. And then we just stood up
Speaker 2: there and I all I could think of was Suji
Speaker 2: was dead, and I just started shouting out his name.
Speaker 2: I have no idea why I didn't that, because it
Speaker 2: wasn't like he was just going to answer back, or
Speaker 2: I just once again my mind has focused and I
Speaker 2: sort of was screaming out his name until an Englishman
Speaker 2: was louder than me came washed into where we were.
Speaker 1: From that roof, what could you see?
Speaker 2: I could see just basically, all I could see was
Speaker 2: water with palm tree tops sticking out. I've got a
Speaker 2: vision of dogs paddling. Dogs survived. I don't know how,
Speaker 2: but they were paddling. It was just nothing but water basically,
Speaker 2: and treetops. Many people in the water. Not at that point.
Speaker 1: No, No, And did that change.
Speaker 2: Well a further down yes, once I got off and
Speaker 2: had to go to higher ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So did the water subside enough for you to
Speaker 1: be able to walk towards higher ground?
Speaker 2: Well? Once ron washed in the Englishman who was completely
Speaker 2: naked and holding his dry boxes up, what I think
Speaker 2: he had a big night before, he was asleep and
Speaker 2: in he comes. I'm screaming out so do his name?
Speaker 2: Can I swear me out?
Speaker 1: Please?
Speaker 2: He's saying, what the fuck was that? What the fuck
Speaker 2: was that? I'm like, man, it's okay, you're safe. He
Speaker 2: was what the forck? He was beside himself and he's
Speaker 2: washed in with his arm up holding his boxer shorts
Speaker 2: which were dry. I kid you not. I'm thinking, what
Speaker 2: the hell's this dude like? Seriously, who actually has the
Speaker 2: presence of mind to grab your undies as you'd like
Speaker 2: fighting for your life and keep them dry? So he
Speaker 2: stood up, put on his boxes and then he's he
Speaker 2: and I I've said thank you to the men lifted
Speaker 2: me onto their house, and we've gone off together to
Speaker 2: find high ground.
Speaker 1: What were you walking through?
Speaker 2: Shit? Basically, it was scary because at that time. You
Speaker 2: don't know what you're going to step on. You don't
Speaker 2: know what you're going to feel.
Speaker 1: Because you couldn't really see because the water wasn't it
Speaker 1: wasn't like mud, it was still water. How deep was it?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, it could have been just slightly above the knees.
Speaker 2: And we were, yeah, trudging along and I've seen two
Speaker 2: men in the water pulling along a surfboard, and on
Speaker 2: top of the surfboard was to do his body on
Speaker 2: his belly.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is when you were with the
Speaker 1: Englishman in his boxes walking away. Do you have any
Speaker 1: sense of how much time had passed?
Speaker 2: Maybe from the minute we were sort of shifting those tables,
Speaker 2: maybe ten fifteen minutes at the most.
Speaker 1: And these people had his body on the surfboard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they must have, I don't know, been safe
Speaker 2: or seen him wash in. I don't know where the
Speaker 2: surfboard came from. I've got no idea.
Speaker 1: Did they know he was dead?
Speaker 2: They knew he was dead?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you knew straightaway. Oh.
Speaker 2: I actually said his name twice, hoping that he would
Speaker 2: open his eyes, and he didn't. And I actually regretted
Speaker 2: for a long time, not feeling for his pulse because
Speaker 2: I thought maybe he needed maybe he needed help, and
Speaker 2: I never like, I didn't double check he was obviously dead,
Speaker 2: but I still regretted not checking properly thoroughly as I
Speaker 2: tend to do things. And I've just looked up at
Speaker 2: these men and I've just said, call an ambulance. I
Speaker 2: think they understood a word I said. They was sort
Speaker 2: of simple villages that I don't think spoken English, and
Speaker 2: they've just looked at me. Why aren't you calling an ambulance?
Speaker 2: So say. It still didn't quite hit me, and then
Speaker 2: Ron said I'll take care of you.
Speaker 1: Let's go, And did you have to leave Sonjee?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I did at that point. At the time, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I wasn't upset. I just you're in shock. Yeah,
Speaker 2: then what happened? So I've just left him there? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I've left him. That was really hard. Yeah. So we
Speaker 2: struggled through this water and found a bit of a
Speaker 2: dodgy bank that we've climbed up, and he was cut
Speaker 2: up quite severely. We wandered up hill along with people
Speaker 2: that were just in a similar situation to us. We
Speaker 2: were all sort of zombies. It was completely quiet. There
Speaker 2: was no real conversation. We were just going uphill many
Speaker 2: people oh, drips and drabs, you know, there was the
Speaker 2: two of us, and then up, you know, ten twenty
Speaker 2: meters there was another few people and so it wasn't
Speaker 2: like a crowd and.
Speaker 1: We're people talking to each other or just.
Speaker 2: No, it was pretty quiet. I remember it being really quiet.
Speaker 2: We must have all just been in deep sharp Yeah.
Speaker 1: How high could you go?
Speaker 2: Well, I remember stopping halfway and Ron and I lost
Speaker 2: each other, and I've flopped down on someone's veranda and
Speaker 2: helped myself to a pair of thongs because I didn't
Speaker 2: have shoes, And there were some young ossies walking past,
Speaker 2: and I said, if you've got a phone, and they
Speaker 2: said yeah. I mean, it's just bizarre. I thought, okay,
Speaker 2: my business mind went on, got a call on let
Speaker 2: the Department of Foreign Affairs know. I mean, is this
Speaker 2: a normal reaction? I don't know me.
Speaker 1: I mean the times that I've been into behaved very differently.
Speaker 2: Sarah.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're thinking. So I've grabbed sounds
Speaker 1: like you were incredibly self possessed through all of this,
Speaker 1: Like every single decision you've made sounds like the optimum
Speaker 1: possible decision that you could have made in that moment,
Speaker 1: like that your brain was functioning on this incredibly high
Speaker 1: level when you must have been in such crazy deep shock.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I really don't know how the brain works.
Speaker 1: So you were like, I've got to let the Department
Speaker 1: of Foreign Affairs know.
Speaker 2: I don't know if I thought they were going to
Speaker 2: fly out and pick up his body. I don't know
Speaker 2: what I was thinking, but I just thought, I I've
Speaker 2: had this company at home. Oh, hell was going to
Speaker 2: break loose. But so I've borrowed these kids phone. They
Speaker 2: would have probably been about eighteen twenty, and I've picked
Speaker 2: up the phone. I've said Hi, Mum, I think it worked, yes,
Speaker 2: And I couldn't remember Yeah, I could only remember the
Speaker 2: home phone up. So, hi mum, we've been hit by
Speaker 2: a tidal wave and Soda is dead. Can you let
Speaker 2: Department of Foreign Affairs?
Speaker 1: No, this is a voicemail.
Speaker 2: No, this I'm talking to where on the landline back
Speaker 2: in Adelaite. Can you imagine my poor mom boxing day. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so this was before it had come out in the news.
Speaker 2: She's just got a phone call from her daughter saying
Speaker 2: that Suji died. And yeah, she said, what I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's dead, and she said, do you want me to
Speaker 2: She said, do you want me to go and get
Speaker 2: your father? So typical, you know old people, you'll get
Speaker 2: your dad say hello. So she's gone out to Dad
Speaker 2: and they must have had a quick chat and he's
Speaker 2: gotten on the phone and I was in my early
Speaker 2: thirties and he said to me three words. He said,
Speaker 2: my precious child, I'll never forget it because we're not
Speaker 2: really never tell each other. We love each other much.
Speaker 2: You know, you're a grown woman, you love your dad.
Speaker 2: But at that moment he saw me as his little girl,
Speaker 2: of course, and yeah, I don't lose it. Then No,
Speaker 2: I just thought, God, that's weird hearing Dad say that.
Speaker 2: This is only after upon reflection did I I think
Speaker 2: what he said. But yeah, we barely had a chance
Speaker 2: to talk, and a whole lot of people ran up
Speaker 2: the path and a second wave had come in and
Speaker 2: he said, Sarah, you're at the highest point. He said,
Speaker 2: you need to have your head switched on. Dad, I'm trying, seriously,
Speaker 2: he said, get to the highest point. So I hung
Speaker 2: up the phone, gave it back to the Ausies and
Speaker 2: went uphill in my thongs and my two piece bathers.
Speaker 1: So you were up as high as you could go
Speaker 1: at this point. More or less the water didn't seem
Speaker 1: to be following.
Speaker 2: You see it at that point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the villagers must have been pretty distraught. I
Speaker 1: mean they must have lost.
Speaker 2: Up on this mountain. Obviously they were getting feedback from
Speaker 2: all the people lower down, but they just they lived
Speaker 2: really simple lives. They were really quite poor, and they
Speaker 2: just suddenly had like forty foreigners rock up on the doorstep.
Speaker 1: Close foreigners.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we were all tourists. I don't know where the
Speaker 2: locals went. They were probably looking for their own people,
Speaker 2: I'm sure they were, but yeah, no, we just congregated
Speaker 2: on the highest spot and landed on these poor people's doorsteps.
Speaker 1: And what kind of people were among the forty There.
Speaker 2: Were a few Europeans. There was a Aussie family. They
Speaker 2: were an extended family with grandma who was eighty six
Speaker 2: at the time. There were English English tourists as well.
Speaker 1: And did you sort of clustered by nationality? Did the
Speaker 1: Aussie stick together? Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they won my tribe. I it was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, thank god, you know someone that can kind
Speaker 2: of help me get to the consulate, you know, so
Speaker 2: it was really nice to have some Aussies up there.
Speaker 2: And they were all shocked, but they had managed to
Speaker 2: run up I don't think they'd been swept. They saw
Speaker 2: it and they ran up a hill so they were dry.
Speaker 1: And what happened in a situation like that? Does someone
Speaker 1: do some people naturally sort of become the leaders? Or
Speaker 1: how long were you all there for?
Speaker 2: We stayed overnight and I somehow events I got a
Speaker 2: little bit separated from the Aussies until the next morning.
Speaker 2: But I slept on the floor with an English couple
Speaker 2: of a little house. Didn't sleep too much. Actually, there
Speaker 2: was a bit of a fire outside. And we made
Speaker 2: a pact. We said we swap phone numbers. We said,
Speaker 2: if you get home first, you call the family let
Speaker 2: them know. And yeah, and I did. I got home first.
Speaker 2: I got to the little colombo first, and when I
Speaker 2: called mom, I said, here's this number, call her mum
Speaker 2: and tell her that she's alive.
Speaker 1: Oh, I've got goosebumps. Yeah, I can't imagine what that
Speaker 1: phone call was like.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I was in business moment my mom. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just so strange. She s had to
Speaker 2: call up some lady in England and say, well, my
Speaker 2: daughter's slept with your daughter and they've swapped phone numbers
Speaker 2: and they're okay.
Speaker 1: It's like the jungle drums in action. Yeah, we're cold.
Speaker 1: Were injured? Were people hurt?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, I wasn't too bad, as I say. I
Speaker 2: had my scrape that I was trying to keep flies
Speaker 2: off for most of the day. But there was one
Speaker 2: gentleman that I remember. He had a fully broken leg
Speaker 2: which we were trying to what do you call it
Speaker 2: when you sat with branches, Yeah, like put in a splint. Splint. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we were trying to put his leg in a splint
Speaker 2: so he could somehow make it to a hospital which
Speaker 2: wasn't in inord Tonal. We had to get to gall
Speaker 2: somehow and I remember translating how far it was and
Speaker 2: trying to coordinate because I could speak the language. It
Speaker 2: was useful learning Singhalese.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: It just goes to show I never thought it would
Speaker 2: be useful, but it actually came in handy that day. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So there were some people that were that were injured,
Speaker 2: but they left pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: When you were up there, how long until you understood
Speaker 1: the scale of it that it wasn't just the village
Speaker 1: that you were in that it was just so massive
Speaker 1: and that so many people had died.
Speaker 2: It wasn't until the next day once we kind of
Speaker 2: hit a radio and it was translated for us, and
Speaker 2: we had someone pointing to an atlas to Indonesia. That's
Speaker 2: where it started from. But we had no idea of
Speaker 2: the amount of life that was lost at all at
Speaker 2: that point.
Speaker 1: How did you get off the mountain and into Colombo?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, with a bit of difficulty. We coordinated. I
Speaker 2: sort of hung off the Aussies and they managed to
Speaker 2: know someone I'm assuming sort of give him some payment
Speaker 2: and hit a little van and so we loaded in
Speaker 2: this van and drove through the hill country because all
Speaker 2: the infrastructure along the coast was gone. Although we did see,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, pretty much what I saw in the next day,
Speaker 2: they'd set up morgs in shops. So we as we
Speaker 2: got into the hill country, and I just remember seeing
Speaker 2: there was a t in front of us, some kind
Speaker 2: of lorry with a whole lot of people sitting in
Speaker 2: the back, and they had about the size of this
Speaker 2: table or a big plastic rubbish bin which that occasionally
Speaker 2: one of them would vomit in that are obviously really
Speaker 2: carsick being in the back of this truck in these
Speaker 2: so we just say in this van and we had
Speaker 2: the view of these people. I mean, it was just
Speaker 2: it was just terrific. I'm getting Gus goosebumps talking about it.
Speaker 2: But there's those little things like that that you know,
Speaker 2: you don't see on the news, the detail, things you
Speaker 2: wouldn't expect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what was the situation like when you got to Colombo.
Speaker 2: The city had started to get covered in white flags,
Speaker 2: which is the morning tradition. So down the streets there'd
Speaker 2: be these beautiful white flags hung everywhere.
Speaker 1: So Colombo hadn't been affected, not at all. But everyone
Speaker 1: was congregating there because of hospitals and infrastructure.
Speaker 2: I think that the country just absolutely scrambled. It was
Speaker 2: thrown into this position. I think thirty thousand people died
Speaker 2: and they I mean, it's probably not as well set
Speaker 2: up as Thailand as far as infrastructure goes. So oh, look,
Speaker 2: there were army people coming in from around the world
Speaker 2: to help that Colombo wasn't too bad. I only saw
Speaker 2: a bit of it because I sort of spent the
Speaker 2: day in the consulate and the night in the Hilton
Speaker 2: on the ballroom floor where they'd set up a rescue center.
Speaker 1: Who was there with you?
Speaker 2: My Ausi's We were the first ones to arrive. So
Speaker 2: we walked into the Hilton and this this massive ballroom
Speaker 2: with all these little beds set up all around the outside.
Speaker 1: Were you still wearing a cosins and stolen thongs? At
Speaker 1: this point?
Speaker 2: A villager gave me yes. But a villager did give
Speaker 2: me a sarong us. I was wearing this black and
Speaker 2: brown song around you my boss for it? Really? Well? Yeah, yeah?
Speaker 1: How long did you stay in that emergency accommodation in
Speaker 1: the Hilton?
Speaker 2: Only one night? Long story? But I went from the
Speaker 2: Hilton to the Consulate, and then the Consulate to Suji's funeral,
Speaker 2: As I said, there's a whole long story there, and
Speaker 2: then from the funeral, I then had the accommodation in
Speaker 2: what we had initially booked, which was a big hotel
Speaker 2: in Colombo.
Speaker 1: How many days after the tsunami was Suji's funeral? And
Speaker 1: how did how is his body recovered and reunited with
Speaker 1: his family? Well?
Speaker 2: I felt absolute horror at the thought that he was
Speaker 2: going to get put into a mass grave. Some what
Speaker 2: was happening well, when I was back in, I thought, well,
Speaker 2: if I just leave him there, he's just going to
Speaker 2: end up. So I've ended up going down the following
Speaker 2: morning before he left. Before I left, one to find
Speaker 2: out where he was, and two to just make sure
Speaker 2: that they didn't put him in a mass.
Speaker 1: Grave and the order ad receded by then. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: did you find where he was?
Speaker 2: I walked around for a bit looking, and you know
Speaker 2: I wasn't the only one there. Yeah, people were looking
Speaker 2: for everyone. You know, there's people walking around with children
Speaker 2: in their arms that had died the day before, and
Speaker 2: that the whiling, the women that had lost kids, that sound.
Speaker 2: It was just something that you just don't forget. But
Speaker 2: once I'd located him, I basically said his family will
Speaker 2: come down and get him and take him back home.
Speaker 2: He was in a in front of a shop. They
Speaker 2: were aligned, they were lined up because obviously people were missing.
Speaker 1: So someone had just started lining up and so everyone
Speaker 1: had to just go and look for their loved ones.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't know how long I ca.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in the middle of the day, in the middle
Speaker 1: of the sun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was horrifying.
Speaker 1: So you were able to say goodbye at his funeral
Speaker 1: before you left the country.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah, I sort of, I guess. Yeah. It
Speaker 2: was different to I guess Australian funerals, or at least
Speaker 2: culturally what I've been sort of familiar with. And it
Speaker 2: was all it was a Buddhist ceremony, and it was
Speaker 2: all in another language, and it was at the house,
Speaker 2: so the coffin was in the lounge room. So I
Speaker 2: guess it was confronting, and I was a total mess,
Speaker 2: to be honest, and I felt so horrified that they
Speaker 2: hadn't found the other members of their family.
Speaker 1: So there were other members of his family.
Speaker 2: Who died, Yeah, his mum died, his sister and brother
Speaker 2: in law died, and a six and a four year old.
Speaker 1: Oh god.
Speaker 2: So I've sort of put my foot in and sort
Speaker 2: of said I'm sorry, as you say, and they said,
Speaker 2: oh no, because they weren't aware at that point that
Speaker 2: they weren't going to get found or they were in
Speaker 2: fact dead. So I don't know if you call it
Speaker 2: saying goodbye, but yeah, because.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of confusion for a long time, wasn't
Speaker 1: there not knowing where people were and in hospitals and
Speaker 1: communications being down, That's right? How did you get out
Speaker 1: of the country and back.
Speaker 2: Home Quantus sent a Was it a mercy flight?
Speaker 1: I think so?
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did, which was great. Really, I mean, yeah, what.
Speaker 1: Was that flight back like? I mean what was the
Speaker 1: mood on the plane? Oh?
Speaker 2: It was. The plane was very more less than half
Speaker 2: like it. There's only a few people, and it was
Speaker 2: the bumpiest ride I'd ever had because we none of
Speaker 2: us had sort of suitcases or anything, so it was
Speaker 2: really light. So it was really bumpy ride. And I
Speaker 2: used to hate flying, be terrified of turbulence. You look,
Speaker 2: I couldn't have given a damn. I just it was odd.
Speaker 2: You know. They gave us little toiletry bags of stuff.
Speaker 2: And the government, what the government did for us all
Speaker 2: was absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1: What did they do?
Speaker 2: Oh, we were all given a letter and we explained
Speaker 2: the process of what was going to happen at the airport.
Speaker 2: We were offered. Oh, I think there was religious counseling
Speaker 2: or any kind of support, privacy from media, First Aid,
Speaker 2: anything that we needed. It was going to rock And
Speaker 2: well I didn't go through customs even I've just got
Speaker 2: ushered out into a separate little room. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was amazing.
Speaker 1: Did you talk to some of the other people on
Speaker 1: the plane?
Speaker 2: Not really, We all kind of it was quite odd.
Speaker 2: We really did keep to ourselves. I know there are
Speaker 2: a couple of freeloaders that got a free trip to
Speaker 2: Australia out of it, but really cheeky boys. Cheeky boys,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's just didn't seem important to double them
Speaker 2: in at the time. Oh goodness, but yeah, no, it was.
Speaker 2: It was pretty quiet.
Speaker 1: How do you go back to your life after experiencing
Speaker 1: something like that.
Speaker 2: No choice, You've just got no choice but to carry on.
Speaker 2: I had to go back to work. I had new contracts,
Speaker 2: starting new employees to come on board. I couldn't fall apart.
Speaker 2: I couldn't lose to fall apart. It was really rough.
Speaker 2: It was really because it was so public. Everyone knew
Speaker 2: that the managing director was dead, so I couldn't really
Speaker 2: afford not to be competent. But privately, yeah, the nightmares,
Speaker 2: and as I said, we're vegetarian for quite some time.
Speaker 1: What do you think that was.
Speaker 2: I couldn't. I couldn't deal with the association of eating
Speaker 2: something that was dead. And I remember totally flipping out
Speaker 2: once at Marion shopping Center I'd got a smell of
Speaker 2: something to do with the Euros meat that was cooking,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, I had to get out. Tears were
Speaker 2: coming down my face. I think, oh my god, Sarah,
Speaker 2: you're crazy. But I just there was real. And I'm
Speaker 2: not particularly religious, but that association of human death and
Speaker 2: at the end of the day we are just a
Speaker 2: shell and meat. I just couldn't. I could not eat
Speaker 2: and I love I love steaks, but yeah, not for
Speaker 2: a long time.
Speaker 1: Did you have post traumatic stress disorder?
Speaker 2: Well, I you know, I wasn't officially diagnosed, but oh god, yeah,
Speaker 2: I was reliving those seconds for a long time in
Speaker 2: my brain and you know, you'd have a flashback and
Speaker 2: get it real, Sarah, you know you're actually safe. But yeah,
Speaker 2: as I say, I sort of woke up one night
Speaker 2: not remembering who I was. That was terrifying, but with
Speaker 2: a bit of DIY, psychiatry and self counseling, I sort
Speaker 2: of got through it with time.
Speaker 1: Did you ever stay in contact with Rob?
Speaker 2: Well, it's really strange because a year after he went
Speaker 2: back to Una and went to the house where we
Speaker 2: washed up and they had my wallet because I think
Speaker 2: the car, everything where we were had all got washed
Speaker 2: up to the one spot my driver's license was there.
Speaker 2: He knew it was me, and he got the business
Speaker 2: card out and decided to email me. And he'd spent
Speaker 2: the whole year feeling really terrible that he never looked
Speaker 2: after me like he promised. So, yeah, I was just
Speaker 2: got to work one day and there was this email.
Speaker 2: Do you remember me? We were together in the tsunami
Speaker 2: when we found side was body. He said, I'm really
Speaker 2: so sorry that I could never look after you. We
Speaker 2: lost each other. So I said, it's all right, man.
Speaker 1: It must have been so happy that you're alive.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I said, it's all right, man, we got through it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine after going through something like that, it's
Speaker 1: something that any other people who've been through it can
Speaker 1: possibly understand.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, absolutely. I mean we all have problem, different
Speaker 2: sorts of problems at different stages of our lives that
Speaker 2: we've got to deal with. But yeah, it was epic
Speaker 2: and it was public, and yeah, I don't know, and
Speaker 2: I guess my story is different from someone else's story
Speaker 2: that went through it, So I guess we have a
Speaker 2: level of understanding. But it's a bit like playing Survivor,
Speaker 2: you know, those those contenders on my tribe. We've got
Speaker 2: that in common. You know, we were there.
Speaker 1: We So, yeah, how did you make the decision to
Speaker 1: do Survivor? Because I imagine that could have been really triggering.
Speaker 2: It could have been Yeah, look, I'm up for a challenge.
Speaker 2: I love adventure. I love being outside. I love the
Speaker 2: idea of like having to sort of be short of
Speaker 2: food and having to like light fire and make your
Speaker 2: own shelter and you know, see what you're made of
Speaker 2: at the end of the day. I just love the
Speaker 2: idea of it. And I'm a bit a fan of
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: So, yeah, you're married now and you've got two kids. Yes,
Speaker 1: we all tell stories to our kids about how much
Speaker 1: tough we had it than they did when we were younger.
Speaker 1: What do they think about your tsunami survival stories?
Speaker 2: Well, you know what, I haven't gone into too much
Speaker 2: detail with them. My youngest Jacob, he he hasn't really
Speaker 2: asked too many questions about it. Holly, on the other hand,
Speaker 2: she's eleven and she's a lot more curious, and I guess, yeah,
Speaker 2: I haven't really wanted to go too much into detail
Speaker 2: because she just latures onto information. She'll want absolute detail.
Speaker 1: So girls many want bad news. Oh my god, is
Speaker 1: it something you had to explain to your husband in
Speaker 1: a lot of detail for him to really get to
Speaker 1: know you. Oh do you sort of lock it away?
Speaker 1: And no?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, he knows, he knows, and I I guess
Speaker 2: it's just not relevant. Well, it hasn't been up until
Speaker 2: going on Survivor, but supported up as part of the
Speaker 2: application process because it's kind of cool story. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I just it gets put into a part of your mind.
Speaker 2: That's just it's there and you're aware it's there, but
Speaker 2: you don't necessarily need to really think about it until
Speaker 2: you start freaking out at the gym that someone's dropped
Speaker 2: to weight and it's the vibration on your feet and
Speaker 2: you've got to go okay, Sarah.
Speaker 1: So you're still triggered by things, yeah, today.
Speaker 2: Quite unexpectedly at times, not often, not often, thank goodness,
Speaker 2: but yeah sometimes.
Speaker 1: Well I can't wait to see what you do. I
Speaker 1: was going to say in the jungle, but it's not
Speaker 1: the jungle, is it. That's a different show. It's kind
Speaker 1: of it's is it in Fiji?
Speaker 2: Where's it?
Speaker 1: Where's it actually shot?
Speaker 2: Survivor? Yes, so it's it's on a beach in Fiji.
Speaker 2: But I guess that the forest behind is somewhat jungle like,
Speaker 2: it's humid and it's green, and yeah, just a bit
Speaker 2: of both.
Speaker 1: Well, I can't ask you how you went, but I
Speaker 1: hope you went well. And I'm glad you're back, Yeah,
Speaker 1: in one piece. And thanks. You really are a survivor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you me. Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to No Filter and Sarah's incredible story.
Speaker 1: She is such a great I don't know, salt of
Speaker 1: the earth is the phrase that comes to mind. She's just,
Speaker 1: you know, no bs down to earth, still really affected
Speaker 1: by what happened to her. And afterwards she said, I
Speaker 1: hope I don't come across as cold when I tell
Speaker 1: the story. And I said, no, why would you think that?
Speaker 1: And she said, well it I still feel like I'm
Speaker 1: in shock in a way, and she did. She got
Speaker 1: really teary when she talked about it. And you couldn't
Speaker 1: have seen that because a podcast is not a visual thing.
Speaker 1: But I can guarantee she's not cold, she's not numb,
Speaker 1: she's not cavalier about it. But she just had to
Speaker 1: do what she had to do to get through it.
Speaker 1: And survive And yeah, I feel like inspiring is an
Speaker 1: overused word, but I just found listening to her tell
Speaker 1: that story of what happened on that day in a
Speaker 1: kind of a matter of fact way, but obviously she's
Speaker 1: just been affected so deeply, and it was just so
Speaker 1: moving as well to hear her talk about how she
Speaker 1: survived it. If you're looking for something else to listen to,
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