Happy Boxing Day!! The second anniversary of the Boxing Day Tsunami is opon us and Jess and I awoke at one of the best resorts in the Maldives. "The One and Only" Kanahura, the one and only thing is some sort of chain of hotels around the world similar to the Hilton in class and outrageous in price. Rich Euro's throw down $2000 a night to be at the "One and Only", after the visit I don't know what all the fuss is about although it is a pretty sweet place to spend Christmas Day. We arrived there around 5 and lost an hour due to "The One and Only" being in another time zone. This is so the guests get up an hour earlier and get an extra hour in the sun that they would usually sleep through. Jess and I quickly checked into our room and according to Jess we got stuck with what looked to be a staff accommodation compared to the 2000 dollar a night rooms which Jesse and the other pilots usually get set up with. I was happy with our room, Jess wasn't, her tastes are getting more refined with all these overnights. We hit the pool and swam through the maze of a pool as its fingers reached to all ends of the resort village. We floated by the four piece acoustic band playing recognizeable cover tunes, with the odd carol thrown in. We gazed passed our toes into the endless Indian Ocean the infinty pool living up to its name. We took it all in, relaxed and then on to the next thing to to at the island, the Spa. We have to try fit all you can do on the island in less than 12 hours and fit a bit of sleep in so Jess can make it through the next day of work. A quick steam, hot and cold pool session and then onto supper. This could easily be the highlight of many to the resort. An endless buffet of exoctic foods, sushi, tuna sambal, Indonesian chicken, Mutton Rogan Josh, Lemongrass seafood soup, back to the sushi, tempura prawns, filet mignon, reef fish, and on and on and all Jess and I wanted was a little turkey dinner. Ah well I guess that was a pretty good replacement. To finish the night off we sat on an oversized couch with oversized cushions and sat back with our feet in the sand, looking West to Africa but all we could see were stars. A few Coronas, a couple of Baileys along with Cherry flavored tobacco smoked in Shesha pipe finished the night.

An early morning before the sun, breakfast to match the supper the night before and Jess and her Captain were off to work. I stayed behind to catch a later flight in order to spend more time on the island. I swam in the Ocean and then got nervous of the fish I saw in the spotlights cast on the ocean the night before, the sun was just coming up and they could still be around feeding, they were big, I had enough of swimming anyway. After walking around the island and enjoying the sunrise I went straight to the spa, my flight was at 830 so I had to hurry, a series of hot and cold pools and of course the steam room woke me up, I got dressed and rushed out to catch the plane. The plane was 2 hours late, back to the spa for an hour more of the steam room. Later, I walked down to the watersports centre and tried to talk the guys into taking me wakeboarding, they weren't biting, they didn't want to be upstaged, I didn't want to pay to show off. I hung out and made a pest of myself to no avail. The plane landed at the other end of the island and taxied into the dock quicker then I expected, I ran down the beach hoping not to miss my flight for if I did who knows what they would have charged me for another night at "The One and Only" I had overstayed my welcome. Dave Reid, my kiting buddy picked us up and he chatted me up about his new watersports centre he is starting on Medhufushi, he may need help getting it started, I told him I could spare some time.

Boxing Day Stories (All for the most part are true but aren't verified)

When the tsunami hit Hulumale (airport island) It was one of the busiest days of the year at Air Taxi.

The water (not much of a wave they say) surged across the island, across the runway, and into the outdoor waiting lounge.

Chairs, tables, plane parts, planes, dockhands, sandbar coffee bar girls, pilots were pushed into the water.

Maldivians for the most part can't swim,pilots swam out to save their friends. People relocated to the roof, until the water subsided.

The water raised about 2 m above normal sea level, the maldives is on average 1m above normal sea level.

The planes getting worked on in the floating hanger were loose and floating out into the lagoon.

Pilots in planes at the time could not taxi in to the dock as they were underwater.

Water surged into resorts destroying water bungalows, dispersing garbage everywhere, many local islands have never been cleaned up, some resorts are just opening.

The street of Male were flooded, The Jetty and many boats were damaged.

Everyone was waiting on another wave which was suppossed to be larger, people feared for their lives, this wave never came.

The death toll in the Maldives was suprisingly very low, the y recieved loads of money from Red Cross, UN etc. the government is said to have extorted quite a bit of that money, but who knows.

After the tsunami Air taxi went back to work as usual, with tsunami relief flights, A certain pilot refused to do any other flights besides relief effort flights, her recieved a nickname Mike Habel = Hero Habel. I think everyone wanted to do relief flights.

Sri Lankan Airlines were the first company to fly back into the airport, they landed a 737 on the runway with a foot of water!

Just a few tidbits about the Boxing Day Tsunami for everyone, happy Holidays.