A decade on, tourist survivors revisit tsunami-hit beaches

Ten years after the Indian Ocean tsunami, foreign tourists who survived the crushing waves still return to the Thai beaches where thousands lost loved ones, seeking recovery and solace.
"As soon as I could walk properly, we came back," said Steve McQueenie, a detective for London's Metropolitan Police, explaining the powerful urge to revisit Thailand just six months after the December 26, 2004, disaster to make sense of the unfathomable.
On Boxing Day this year the 46-year-old Glaswegian again returned, joining hundreds of other survivors at a candlelight vigil in the resort hub of Khao Lak, southwest Thailand, to mark a decade since the tsunami claimed 220,000 lives across 14 nations.

Memories of the calamity are never far away for McQueenie and his wife Nicola, who survived waters that killed 5,395 in Thailand alone -- half of them foreign holidaymakers celebrating Christmas.
Sitting before a tranquil Andaman Sea, just a few metres (feet) from where they had stayed, he recalls the sudden "huge brown wall of water" that ripped apart their bungalow and plunged him underwater.
"When I reached the surface, everything I could see was water. I couldn't see any buildings above it, I couldn't see inland really, and it just felt we'd been dropped in the middle of a really rough ocean."

Flung further inland by the colossal wave, he kept afloat long enough to latch onto a palm tree until the water retreated.

In spite of a severe leg injury the policeman limped towards the road and was eventually transported up into the hills by Thais who feared more waves would strike.
He was reunited hours later with Nicola.
McQueenie's voice breaks as he remembers the "selfless" help of local Thais, aid that spurred the couple to raise USD 15,500 for ravaged communities around Khao Lak once they returned home.
"There's always going to be part of us that kind of belongs here," McQueenie said.

There are other survivors for whom the disaster is too painful to revisit, including many residents who would prefer to focus on the future.
Yet many foreigners share a desire to return to a place with which they share a bond forged through tragedy.