| Main | News | Dhivehi | Editorials | Opinions | Open Forum | About Maldives | Downloads | About us | Links | 07 May 2008 04:08
Kandoomafushi - Vilivaru - Male' airport:
shipping out the bad news from foreign minister's resort
Melissa Roy, 28 December 2004
Tourists walk past Gayyoom's palace in Male'
When the tsunami hit Kandoomafushi resort, the staff was simply helpless to do much. I was standing in reception at the time and somebody screamed 'Run!'
One member of staff helped me up on a wall and held onto my arm until the water subsided enough for us to wade to the pool area, which was one of the few points on the island not submerged. There were several injured tourists. There were also several Maldivian people, not just staff but also a number of women and children, on Kandoomafushi. There was one young German man whom I assume worked for the dive club. (Kandoomafushi resort is owned by Maldives Foreign Minster Fathullah Jameel, DO editors)
There was one first aid kit. I am a St John's Ambulance-trained first aider. The German lad and I treated several lacerations - most of them minor, three that would require stitches. A blonde woman got the hotel register and did a headcount, checking guests' names against the register. At one point we were concerned because we were running out of iodine and bandages. I went over to where the Maldivian women and children were congregated and asked them if they were OK. One of the women waved me off, so I have to assume they were.
When the first dive boat came back, I asked the divemaster (another German) about the other boat. He said they saw the boat from a distance so assumed they were OK. I finally found a man named Ali who was very pleasant but he focussed on trying to get in touch with Male' on his mobile phone. He was able to tell me what had caused the wave, and said that he could not evacuate the island until the other boats had returned. I suggested he might send a dhoani out and send up a flare. I did not see any flares and we had to wait for quite some time for the boats to eventually meander back, I assume there were no flares on the island or any of the boats.
People were concerned about their possessions (many people were at the pool or the beach). I cannot tell you about anyone's experience but my own. I was wandering around in the knee-deep, polluted water for perhaps 15 minutes, unable to find my room. I spotted four staff members together, and called out to them. They very kindly helped me find the room and not just that, came in and moved stuff around and helped me take my things outside.
Finally, the dive boat came back and we were instructed by Ali to don life jackets and board three dhoanis and wait. There was about half as many life jackets as there were people. They then arranged for bottled water and fruit to be brought on board the boats. Ali told me the reason for putting everyone on to boats is he had been advised by the weather service in Male' to expect another wave 12 hours after the first one, but a couple of the staff told me they were more concerned with trying to keep guests away from their rooms because the structures were so badly damaged they were afraid they would collapse.
I thought this was a particularly effective ruse on the part of the resort management but was later told by my husband that it was because the resort management had not yet made arrangements for us to go elsewhere. This was according to one of the dive instructors - and as it turns out, all arrangements for our transportation, our rehabitation and our repatriation were made by Aquanaut staff and not Kandooma resort management.
At about 3pm, we set off for Biyadoo. Our boat was then turned around and sent to Vilivaru. On arrival at Vilivaru, the first thing I did was get the very nice woman at reception to re-charge my mobile phone. I spoke briefly to the manager, who seemed like a very nice man with an efficient operation. He announced that we should sit in the bar, where we were offered coffee and tea.
We were then told that Kandooma was only providing for food and rooms for us and everything else we would have to pay for. My assumption that Vilivaru, which had rooms available, was going to basically take over our Kandooma reservation. We got into our quite comfortable room and I unpacked and rinsed out our clothes and hung them to dry. We were told to go to the restaurant at 7pm, then made to wait in the bar until 8.30 as they did not want us to mingle with their registered guests!
After dinner, one of the other Kandooma refugees told me that Vilivaru was closing down on December 31, because of a change of management. I went to the manager and said, "We just arrived and are supposed to be here until the 1st, so what are you going to do with us on the 31st?'
He told me that he was doing us a huge favour just by letting us stay there one night, and that we were all going to be chucked out in the morning!
Vilivaru had rooms available! And we were prepared to stay there and spend money there (we were among the luckiest of the Kandooma residents - having just arrived, we had not yet unpacked, so were able to retrieve all our belongings. We had our passports, money and cellphones in a dry box).
Despite the change of management which was going to close the resort in spite of the national emergency, I got the definite impression that the problem was one between Biyadoo/Vilivaru management and Kandooma management. The manager of Vilivaru made it quite plain to me that Kandooma was only willing to cover a one night stay at these resorts for its displaced guests. And perhaps I can remind you that probably 95% of the Kandooma guests were on pre-paid package holidays. I know we were, and we had pre-paid for an entire week with meals and a New Year's Eve gala meal.
I asked the manager at Vilivaru if they could open the gift shop so that people could purchase needed supplies. They refused to open the shop early.
I managed to get in touch with Kuoni in Male' in the afternoon shortly after our arrival in Vilivaru. I explained to them that we had all been evacuated to Biyadoo and Vilivaru. The Kuoni people were very upset because nobody from Kandooma had made contact with them, and of course they could not contact Kandooma. They had several clients on Kandooma and did not know whether they were alive or dead.
Later, I called Kuoni in Male' and was told that they were laying on special charters in the morning. I asked about the possibility of staying at Vilivaru. I was informed that if we did not repatriate on 27 December, then we were 'completely on our own'. Of course, I was holding a confirmed plane reservation all the way back home on a scheduled flight on January 1, so they were basically saying that no resort would take Kandooma residents.
We were called just after midnight by the dive instructor, Catherine, informing us that we were all going to be flown home on the morning of 27 December. She said we would meet at the bar at 7am, have breakfast, then go to the airport. We got a wake-up call at 5.15 and were in the bar by 6.00. There was no breakfast. We immediately left - we were taken to
Kandooma where we waited for speed boats to arrive. We got to the airport at about 7.15am.
On the dhoani to Kandooma from Vilivaru, I was sitting next to a middle-aged British couple. They had lost everything in the tsunami. They told me they wanted to phone their family to let them know they were alive and the Vilivaru manager said they would have to pay for the call. They explained to him they had lost all their money. He would not allow them to make a call. They also asked for a bottle of mineral water and were refused on the grounds that they had no money. A guest at Vilivaru bought their drinks and let them use his mobile to call home. My husband and I were doing likewise - buying drinks and letting people use our phones.
We ended up getting on a Qatar flight at 8pm because there were so many people who were worse off than us who needed to get home quickly. During the 10 hours that we waited at the airport, a constant stream of tourists arrived. I mused that we were not even given time to dry our clothes and that many others were not given time to contact their credit card companies to get emergency cash to buy clothes.
I saw people wrapped in towels. I saw one woman with nothing but a bed sheet. An old man with mismatched shoes which didn't fit him. He told me he had found them washed up on the beach. And still, resorts were taking new arrivals rather than take in tourists whose resorts had been destroyed. These people won't get any money back from their insurance. I won't get any money back from my insurance. There's a little thing called a 'force majeure' exclusion.
At the moment, I am so grateful to be alive and unharmed that I have not been open with criticisms about how the tourists on Kandooma were handled in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy. But when the dust settles, I'll let the truth be known.
If you try to tell me that the government ordered these resorts to refuse to take displaced tourists, to refuse to allow them to make phonecalls and refuse to give them bottled water, then I think I will laugh my head off.
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