01-05-2015

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THEPHUKETNEWS.COM

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 2015

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Friday May 1 – Thursday May 7, 2015

Since 2011 / Volume V / No. 18

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DAYS OF TERROR HOW YOU CAN HELP NEPAL TO RECOVER > PAGE 2

HOW A PHUKET COUPLE SURVIVED WHEN THE MOUNTAINS OF NEPAL HEAVED A PHUKET NEWS EXCLUSIVE

Ben and Simone Reymnants were ve r y hap py to reach the relative safety of Lukla. But they are still a long way from their home in Rawai..

Survivors trek through the ruins of Phakding, between Namche Bazaar and Lukla. Photo Ben Reymenants.

Tanyaluk Sakoot & Alasdair Forbes editor@classactmedia.co.th

T

he owner and founder of Rawai-based Blue Label Diving and his wife are struggling to get down out of the mountains of quake-shattered Nepal and back to Phuket after a harrowing 72 hours in the mountains near Mount Everest,

the world’s tallest mountain. Ben Reymenants and his wife Simone were trekking in the higher regions around Mount Everest when the earth heaved on Saturday in a 7.9 Richter-magnitude quake near Kathmandu. After the quake – which was followed by 24 violent aftershocks in the following 24 hours, with more still taking place – communication

is difficult, to say the least. Ben and Simone had no laptop with them and phone connections are down. But Ben did manage to communicate with The Phuket News using his iPhone and Facebook Messenger, via satellite connection. Neither was injured, but getting down out of the mountains to the airport was a massive trial. They were in the mountains near

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Gokyo coming down from their last camp at 5,000 metres above sea level, close to the Tibet border and more than 100 kilometres from the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, when the big quake struck. “The first time was on Saturday at 12:15,” Ben explained. “We were at 5,000m in a snow storm and we nearly fell off the mountain. “When everything started shaking

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