Tsunami in Thailand | The Missing | 4

Against The Odds

Wondery

Cassie De Pecol, History, Society & Culture, Dolby, Mike Corey, Dolby Atmos, Atmos

4.7 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 25 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

By the early afternoon, the water started to recede back out to sea. But the destruction left in its wake was devastating. Communications were down, roads were washed out. First responders raced to rescue stranded survivors and doctors stretched their supplies to the limits to treat the thousands of victims pouring into local hospitals. Back on shore, fisherman Wimon Thongtae began the search for his wife and daughters, terrified that he might have lost them all.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Against the Odds early and ad-free right now.
0:05.6	Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.
0:09.6	A listener note. Against the Odds uses dramatizations that are based on true events.
0:14.8	Some elements, including dialogue, may be invented, but everything is based on research.
0:27.1	Thank you. may be invented, but everything is based on research. Police lieutenant Saatian Paunoi sprints along a pier on Kalanta Thailand.
0:33.5	It's early afternoon, December 26, 2004.
0:42.0	And the island has just been walloped by a series of massive waves.
0:50.1	Fortunately, the long, sloping beaches and coral reefs that ring the landmass seem to have absorbed most of the impact.
0:55.0	But Pao Noi fears that other parts of the country haven't been so lucky. He's especially concerned about the Emerald Cave on Kamuk, and so he's racing to find a boat that will take him there.
1:02.0	Pao Noi has been to the Emerald Cave many times.
1:06.0	It's one of Thailand's most popular destinations, a pristine beach accessible only by swimming through a long
1:13.0	tunnel, half submerged in the ocean. Boats leave daily from the pier at Kalanta,
1:18.9	ferrying tourists 12 miles southeast to the cave entrance. Pau Noyes worried. What if the waves
1:25.9	hit the sightseers just as they were swimming through the tunnel?
1:29.3	He tried radioing the boat's captains, but had no luck.
1:33.3	He comes across the owner of a fishing trawler, who's mopping water from his deck.
1:38.3	I need a boat to take me to the Emerald Cave.
1:41.3	The man looks at Pau Noi like he's crazy.
1:43.3	He points toward the ocean where three-foot swells
1:47.2	surge toward the shoreline. Look at those waves. They might not be as big as before, but they're still
1:52.7	dangerous. Please, there are tourists there who could be injured. The captain snorts. If you go out
1:59.0	into the sea, you'll die.
	...

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