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| Marianne was on the boat, which left from the Cambodian town of Sihanoukville |
12 April 2011
By GEMMA FRASER
Edinburgh Evening News (UK)
A TEACHER from Edinburgh has spoken of her terror after the "booze cruise" boat she was on capsized and sank.
Marianne Kelly was on the overcrowded party boat - which only had two life jackets - when it sank in the sea off Cambodia with around 120 tourists on board.
The group, who were mostly Europeans, were rescued by local fishermen after half an hour of clinging to the upturned boat. Incredibly, no-one was seriously hurt. Local police later blamed drunken tourists dancing for causing the pleasure craft to overturn.
Ms Kelly, who lived in Merchiston and worked at Buckstone Primary before leaving to teach abroad, described it as the most terrifying experience of her life.
The 28-year-old said she was making her way to the top deck of the "dilapidated" two-storey boat when it started swaying, but did not think anything of it until a moment later when suddenly she was under the water. Ms Kelly said: "There were loads of people and everyone was kicking and trying to get up. I can't really remember what happened or how I got up to the surface - I just remember it being dark, thinking I was under the boat and had to get out, and then it being light and then getting to the surface. It was very surreal."
The primary teacher, who is now working in Thailand, then searched for her friends until she found them and helped pull others up as the passengers tried to get the boat upright again.
She said: "It was clear the boat was definitely going to sink so we just decided to stay there as long as possible. After a while, lots of Cambodian fishermen came to get us on their little boats.
"The first one that came nearly went over as well because people were obviously panicking and were all trying to get on the same boat.
"I waited with one guy till the last boat and he brought us back to the shore.
"It was very, very scary."
The trip last Thursday was supposed to be a pleasure cruise around nearby islands.
Ms Kelly, who completed her teacher training at Moray House School of Education, said all the passengers managed to escape the boat wi
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thout serious injury, but criticised the lack of health and safety procedures on board.
She added that the organisers of the trip, which left from Serendipity Beach in the resort town of Sihanoukville, failed to check on her and her friends to see how they were, and said that because they had decided to take the trip at the last minute, they were not listed as official passengers.
Ms Kelly said: "There was no compensation, no-one came to speak to us to check we were OK.
"It was pretty much the most terrifying thing to happen to me.
"I'm just glad to be alive and still able to enjoy the rest of my trip here - some people were booking flights home early because they were so freaked out by it."
Cambodian police reports of the incident said there were 92 tourists on board the boat, but those who were there claimed the figure was much higher because of the unlisted people who turned up without pre-booking.
The police said the boat capsized after drunken passengers started dancing and made it unstable, but those who were there strongly dispute this version of events.
One person wrote on an online discussion board: "Three friends of mine that were on the boat did not report any unruly behaviour or crazy dancing that capsized the boat.
"If the correct number of people were on the boat it would not have happened. The boat was clearly overpacked. The safety certificate for that boat was 45 people, not the 110 people that were on board."
Another wrote: "It is an absolute lie to say that the dancers caused the boat to overturn."
10 comments:
They deserver it for being stupid drinking on the boat.
Cambodian relies on tourism therefore it make sense we have to do everything to protect the tourists. We are a honor race, every Khmer should be honest and accept the accountability. Safety is the most important. Not too long ago, our brothers and sisters died at Diamond Island. All life are precious. Prevention will protect life. Honesty will keep tourist to come to our homeland.
Whoever works for the cruise and the Cambodian authority should think about the lives of the people first, not thinking only about the money….!
As khmer we are proud to be khmer
but not a liar local police clown slave youn lying like a dog that do not make sense that drunken tourists cause boat to be overturn. You can dance but if the safety be applied to a limit of certain amounts of people but if the boat averloading exceeding the limits yes of couse it will be sunk...I believe these were a police brutality and police bribe and corrupted authorities in Cambodia.
Khmers used to be kindness, good heart, caring other but nowadays under Hun Sen bararist regime many tend to be ego, selfish, altrism..
Tourism is now a big national income for the poor khmers, if you do not take care their complaints and concerns...you are a loser..
We care about our poor innocent khmers whose work to survire day by day but not a millions $$$$ crookek moneys stolen..
You serve the clients, the clients are your boss....that why we make business and bring more clients and moneys to our poor and less fortunate khmers.
1:22 AM
Since when has the Cambodian authority cared about people’s lives over the money?
ME, TOO!
I got drunk by floating w/karaoke.
Note: there were only 2 life jackets on the boat with 120 tourists on board!
Local police - we are told - later blamed drunken tourists dancing for causing the "pleasure craft" to overturn!
The questions that need to be asked is: why shouldn't tourists on a pleasure boat be allowed to drink and dance?
Why were there only two life jackets on board? Was the craft large enough to accommodate the weight and movement of 120 plus passengers and crew?
Such basic safety questions really need to be addressed, if only to prevent similar incidents from taking place.
When travelers visit a country, it is the responsibility of the host authorities to provide for their safety and enjoyment by appropriate means. Cambodia is attracting more and more tourists, so it is only in the country's interest to ensure incidents like this do not get repeated.
Local authorities also should learn to take due responsibility for their actions or negligence instead of blaming the victims - as they did after the Diamond Bridge tragedy - for being behind the occurrence of this incident.
Me too I am proud to be Khmer Angkorian and an old Khmer with decent culture working hard and being respectful by the world prior the fall of khmer into Cambodia Vietnamization nowsadays.
But I am ashame by the police authority false claim that the boat overturn by drunken tourists.
The authority rule under Hun Sen always undenial anything that they think they are perfect will not accept constructive critics.....but instead show their nake butt out...
Shame of slave youn never learn to be a proud khmer that have been pride of their ancestors....do not learn from youn Okido..
Dear Compatriots!
I don't care about having pride or not as being Khmer. But look carefully at the incident.There 's no TRNSPARENCY at all from the authority about it.
Even the Khmer media did not clearly mention WHO and HOW the tousits were rescued.
Did the police were involved in rescuing them?
We are plagued by this illness: the Vanity and the Apacity.
Sorry,a correction: The Opacity
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