Sunbathers find a way round rubble

At Patong on Phuket Island, you can smell the bodies. They lie beneath the rubble that some people are already picking their way round to sunbathe on the beach where the tsunami struck.

Cars are piled on top of one another, forced against the remnants of resorts that could not resist the force of the water.

There is no sense to the chaos this tourist beach has become. Boats are blocks inland, and furniture from resorts teeters where the promenade meets the sand.

And yet, just a few kilometres from here, tourists and locals gather to play golf.

Work has begun on cleaning Patong. It seems impossible to know where to start. Earthmoving machinery rumbles amid the debris, trying to make right the devastation.

It's a topsy-turvy world. Beds are in the street and cars in houses. Concrete has been stripped from supporting strips of iron, which leer jaggedly oceanward where it has bent to follow the receding waters. In places, it has the look of a hand.

The water lapping against the sand is eerie. For those standing and watching the gentle waves, the sea holds a menace unrealised just days before.

The waves are bringing in bodies. The sea has held some for three days now - others it will hold forever.

You ask, "Did you see the waves," and the answer is tears.

At Phuket International Hospital the faces of those who have yet to make it to safety - and those who might never do so - stare from noticeboards.

The number of children among those missing is numbing. In some cases it is impossible to imagine there is hope - the children are too small to have had a chance against the waves that killed adults.

The walking wounded trudge the hospital corridors, unable to go anywhere but feeling they should do something.

Boxes of donated clothes have been arranged round a Christmas tree, along with wrapped presents.

Phuket airport is a stream of people leaving the disaster-hit tourist destination.

Members of Leone Cosens' family flew into Phuket last night to prepare for the New Zealand woman's funeral.

"Her husband Tim is beside himself. He's in a mess," said one of Ms Cosens' two sisters. The pair, who arrived from Singapore, were met at Phuket by a family friend. Collapsing into one another's arms, the three shared tears.

The flight carrying the Cosens bore few others into Phuket. Among them were those travelling to search for lost family members.

"At least we know. Leone was found," said one sister.

Ms Cosens had lived in Thailand for 12 years. Her funeral will be held tomorrow or Saturday at a temple near her home.

A British couple, Terry Garrett and Claire Kennedy, were flying out to New Zealand on the next leg of a world trip.

They arrived in Phuket six hours after the tsunami struck, and were unaware of the disaster.