A two-week vacation in Thailand turned into a nightmare for Eugene (Gene) Kim, 34, and his wife, Faye Wachs, 35. Kim, a transportation consultant, and Wachs, a professor at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, went to scuba dive and relax in the Southeast Asian country on Dec. 15, 2004. Eleven days later, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake under the Indian Ocean sent enormous waves to coastal areas in South Asia and Africa, killing more than 286,000 people.

The Santa Monica, Calif., couple survived the tsunami by chance. The two scuba divers, certified to dive since 2000, were exploring a sunken ship 10 miles off the coast of Ko Phi Phi, one of Thailand’s many islands. Being under water, instead of on land to face the full force of the waves, saved their lives. They spoke with KoreAm one month after the disaster.

QUESTION: How did you know something had gone wrong?

GENE: At around 12:30 p.m., we made our way back to the harbor after two dives. About four to five miles away from the harbor, we began noticing debris in the water. And there was a lot of debris … a lot of trash, pieces of broken wood, a plastic chair, a soccer ball, someone’s flip-flop shoe.

FAYE: I remember the dive master being upset because there was trash in the water, and we were having a discussion about pollution. Gene read an article about people throwing away trash in the water. We weren’t thinking about a natural disaster. But this was a lot of stuff, so we began to think a boat had sunk instead. Then we saw a military plane overhead. We spent half an hour thinking a boat had sunk, and we were looking for the boat.

There was furniture floating in the water that looked just like the armoire in our hotel room. That was when we started to understand that something really serious happened. One of the divers on the boat received a text message from his wife, who had been hiking in the mountains that day. She wrote ‘catastrophe.’ Then, ‘tsunami.’

GENE: When we turned a corner into the island, we noticed about 25 to 30 boats that were all out, away from the harbor, and we approached one of the boats. The captain told us that a tsunami had struck, and the boats were advised not to approach the shore because there were buildings and boats in the water, and they might sink our boat. We worked through the debris. But then we began to notice bodies of beachgoers who had been swept out to sea. They had basically gone unidentified until we noticed them. We worked with the fishermen to recover two bodies. Altogether, we recovered about five or six bodies.

Eugene Kim and Faye Wachs (pictured here) were enjoying the sights and themselves during their vacation in Thailand. When the tsunami struck on Dec. 26, they were 10 miles off the coast scuba diving, far away from the powerful waves that hit and destroyed their resort.

FAYE: That’s when it became really disturbing. It was strange because the bodies were covered by debris, so you’d think it was a body part. Then you realize it’s a body. I saw a body and a mannequin buried together under the rubble, and I just had to stop. It took me a minute. It was just overwhelming.