PHILLIP WILLIAMS: On the missing persons board, Andrea Leger pins a photo of the most precious person in her world - her five-year-old son Tim. She was caught shopping in the market by the first wave. Tim was at the beach playing with friends. No-one has seen him since.
ANDREA LEGER (MOTHER OF MISSING BOY): It just goes on and on and on. It's just like - because if you give up your hope, I guess, then you don't want to go on anymore, but I'm still hoping, because every time there's some new news that people are still there, and when I found out that Theo, the youngest one, was also alive, I'm still hoping that Tim is somewhere in a hospital and can't talk and is just unconscious or whatever, so that we're still hoping.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: How long will you stay here?
ANDREA LEGER: Well, we decided to stay here until we find him, but I don't know if we can do that. So I don't know - a few more days, because I don't want to go home without him.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Within sight of the beaches where so many died, it's aqua aerobics as usual. Determined tourists are seemingly unshaken by the tsunami. On the nearby beach still cluttered with the wreckage, the bodies have only just been removed. It's not a problem for some - the waters which so recently killed are still good for a swim as, all around, the cleanup continues. Here stood an Italian restaurant. No lives were lost, but 35 jobs disappeared with the building.
SUMINSO (RESTAURANT WORKER): And then after that, I come again. All flat - gone - nothing left.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: That must be very hard for you?
SUMINSO: Yes - absolutely, yes - everyone. Everyone, is really hard. Really hard time, really hard for our life - no job, nothing.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: So now, Suminso helps clear the mess and prays that things get back to some semblance of normality. Despite this extraordinary capacity for recovery, there's no guarantee these people won't make yet another grisly find. In fact, it's almost certain that some bodies will never be recovered - washed out to sea or buried under tonnes of mud. At Phuket City Hall, the cultures and nationalities are united by a horrifying grief.
WOMAN: Now listen, the photos down here - it gets much worse, okay?
MAN: Much worse?
WOMAN: Much worse. The photos - the photos down here are very, very bad.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: So bad, we can't show them. It's hard enough looking at the faces of the missing: six-month-old Ruby Rose Fayet, French; mother, also missing; Australian Kim Marie Walsh. While this is very much our tragedy, it's so much worse for some European countries, especially Sweden, where the losses are staggering.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Why have there been so many casualties amongst the Swedes?
MAGNUS COLSON (BUSINESSMAN): Because there's so many Swedish around here. It's the biggest - I don't know what to say. Everybody come here, and Khao Lak is a new place for the Swedes. There's so many missing. I don't know what to say - nothing. For myself, I lost my restaurant - everything I invest here, I lost. Nothing left.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Magnus Colson searches the long list of Swedish dead and missing. Some may have been caught in his guesthouse when it was swept away.
MAGNUS COLSON: I have so many guests I don't see.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: You have lost some of your guests?
MAGNUS COLSON: I don't know. I tried to check, but it's so many people.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Sitting nearby is a Swedish boy in deep shock. The rest of his family are missing, almost certainly dead. But there are stories of survival. German Claus Autwick was hurt, his girlfriend has serious spinal injuries, but he thought they were both going to die.
CLAUS AUTWICK (SURVIVOR): Once in the room, secondly the water, and nothing - you can nothing do. You have not orientation. That was the first, and the second was when the wave took me out, tried to took me out, because this is only water. You're finished when the force took you out in the sea.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Remember 'The Beach', the movie which made beautiful Phi Phi Island, just off Phuket, famous? This is what it looks like now. Most of the buildings have been swept away. Suitcases and other belongings are piled high on the shore. Many have no owners alive to claim them. Charlie Techarachaky's hotel is in ruins, and it's still filled with bodies.
CHARLIE TECHARACHAKY (HOTEL OWNER): Our mission today is try to collect the corpse, as many as possible, because we expect that there are more than 100 corpse that has not been collected for the past three days.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Helicopters constantly ferry workers to the island to help recover bodies. Heavy equipment has been shipped in. Every bite of the blade could reveal another tragedy. It's difficult to believe that just a few days ago, right here where I'm standing, was the centre of a bustling tourist district. There would have been hundreds, perhaps a couple of thousand people here, and it's all completely gone. Now, all that remains is a search for bodies. It's a grim search indeed. I know there are some behind me here because I can smell them. They haven't been dug out yet, but this is the just the start of a long day - in fact, a long week or two ahead. Snippets of happy lives litter the island: someone's family photos; a pair of R.M. Williams boots. Three more bodies, all foreigners, are taken to the pier. There are many, many more to follow. For the families of the thousands still missing, there's the desperate hope that their loved ones will somehow have survived.
ANDREA LEGER: It's our sixth time here, so I guess I'll never come back.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: We very much hope that you have some good news soon.
ANDREA LEGER: I hope so too.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Thank you.
ANDREA LEGER: Thank you.
EMMA ALBERICI: Philip Williams with that report from Phuket.
ANDREA LEGER (MOTHER OF MISSING BOY): It just goes on and on and on. It's just like - because if you give up your hope, I guess, then you don't want to go on anymore, but I'm still hoping, because every time there's some new news that people are still there, and when I found out that Theo, the youngest one, was also alive, I'm still hoping that Tim is somewhere in a hospital and can't talk and is just unconscious or whatever, so that we're still hoping.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: How long will you stay here?
ANDREA LEGER: Well, we decided to stay here until we find him, but I don't know if we can do that. So I don't know - a few more days, because I don't want to go home without him.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Within sight of the beaches where so many died, it's aqua aerobics as usual. Determined tourists are seemingly unshaken by the tsunami. On the nearby beach still cluttered with the wreckage, the bodies have only just been removed. It's not a problem for some - the waters which so recently killed are still good for a swim as, all around, the cleanup continues. Here stood an Italian restaurant. No lives were lost, but 35 jobs disappeared with the building.
SUMINSO (RESTAURANT WORKER): And then after that, I come again. All flat - gone - nothing left.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: That must be very hard for you?
SUMINSO: Yes - absolutely, yes - everyone. Everyone, is really hard. Really hard time, really hard for our life - no job, nothing.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: So now, Suminso helps clear the mess and prays that things get back to some semblance of normality. Despite this extraordinary capacity for recovery, there's no guarantee these people won't make yet another grisly find. In fact, it's almost certain that some bodies will never be recovered - washed out to sea or buried under tonnes of mud. At Phuket City Hall, the cultures and nationalities are united by a horrifying grief.
WOMAN: Now listen, the photos down here - it gets much worse, okay?
MAN: Much worse?
WOMAN: Much worse. The photos - the photos down here are very, very bad.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: So bad, we can't show them. It's hard enough looking at the faces of the missing: six-month-old Ruby Rose Fayet, French; mother, also missing; Australian Kim Marie Walsh. While this is very much our tragedy, it's so much worse for some European countries, especially Sweden, where the losses are staggering.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Why have there been so many casualties amongst the Swedes?
MAGNUS COLSON (BUSINESSMAN): Because there's so many Swedish around here. It's the biggest - I don't know what to say. Everybody come here, and Khao Lak is a new place for the Swedes. There's so many missing. I don't know what to say - nothing. For myself, I lost my restaurant - everything I invest here, I lost. Nothing left.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Magnus Colson searches the long list of Swedish dead and missing. Some may have been caught in his guesthouse when it was swept away.
MAGNUS COLSON: I have so many guests I don't see.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: You have lost some of your guests?
MAGNUS COLSON: I don't know. I tried to check, but it's so many people.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Sitting nearby is a Swedish boy in deep shock. The rest of his family are missing, almost certainly dead. But there are stories of survival. German Claus Autwick was hurt, his girlfriend has serious spinal injuries, but he thought they were both going to die.
CLAUS AUTWICK (SURVIVOR): Once in the room, secondly the water, and nothing - you can nothing do. You have not orientation. That was the first, and the second was when the wave took me out, tried to took me out, because this is only water. You're finished when the force took you out in the sea.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Remember 'The Beach', the movie which made beautiful Phi Phi Island, just off Phuket, famous? This is what it looks like now. Most of the buildings have been swept away. Suitcases and other belongings are piled high on the shore. Many have no owners alive to claim them. Charlie Techarachaky's hotel is in ruins, and it's still filled with bodies.
CHARLIE TECHARACHAKY (HOTEL OWNER): Our mission today is try to collect the corpse, as many as possible, because we expect that there are more than 100 corpse that has not been collected for the past three days.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Helicopters constantly ferry workers to the island to help recover bodies. Heavy equipment has been shipped in. Every bite of the blade could reveal another tragedy. It's difficult to believe that just a few days ago, right here where I'm standing, was the centre of a bustling tourist district. There would have been hundreds, perhaps a couple of thousand people here, and it's all completely gone. Now, all that remains is a search for bodies. It's a grim search indeed. I know there are some behind me here because I can smell them. They haven't been dug out yet, but this is the just the start of a long day - in fact, a long week or two ahead. Snippets of happy lives litter the island: someone's family photos; a pair of R.M. Williams boots. Three more bodies, all foreigners, are taken to the pier. There are many, many more to follow. For the families of the thousands still missing, there's the desperate hope that their loved ones will somehow have survived.
ANDREA LEGER: It's our sixth time here, so I guess I'll never come back.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: We very much hope that you have some good news soon.
ANDREA LEGER: I hope so too.
PHILLIP WILLIAMS: Thank you.
ANDREA LEGER: Thank you.
EMMA ALBERICI: Philip Williams with that report from Phuket.