I had no idea we were on tsunami watch until my husband someone mentioned on twitter about the quake in Indonesia, and how all of the Indian Ocean was on alert. And here we are, in Phuket, that got totally nailed by the tidal wave back in 2004.

Hospitals have been evacuated. Hotels, malls.

So here I was, on the phone with my mom trying to explain everything was going to be ok. And in the back of my mind I am in panic mode: what the hell is going to happen? We aren’t on the coast, we’re not in Patong. But we are still not high enough, elevation wise, to be in a safe zone. Supposedly the wave has in fact hit and it was small, but for some reason we are getting very little coverage here as to if we are still on alert.

It reminds me of when kaya was a baby and we lived in Korea, near the North Korea border. One day I heard sirens that reverberated all throughout the city, and that signaled an air raid. I was utterly paralysed.

Were they invading?? What the hell is going on??

Billy wasn’t there, he was in school, about 20 minutes from home. I looked out the window, expecting people to be evacuating their homes and saw nothing, no one. All I heard was that loud as hell siren.

It eventually ended, and I went to the cafe next door. They had no idea what I was talking about. I explained and they said ‘ Oh yeah’. Apparently they were used to it by now, used to that ear splitting sound. Yes, it was a drill.

I didn’t care. I wanted to leave right then and there. That was the time that the siren had been sunk and nonstop overseas CNN and whatnot kept reporting ‘war imminent’. All my Korean friends assured me there would be no war, but the US media really played it up, and that loud siren never left my memory.

War never broke out, and North Korea is making its usual threats and insults all the time. had we stayed, we would have been fine, but I would have been incredibly scared the entire time. I’m a mom.

After that incident, I am here in Phuket and yes, there is a tsunami warning and people have evacuated their homes. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I am not freaking out anymore. The island is ready now for whatever happens. They don’t want a repeat of what happened in 2004.

I will update you all on what happens, but as of right now, I think we will be fine. It is nonetheless not an enjoyable experience, for any of us.