Shanghai Daily reporter, Zhang Jun,  provides first-hand account.

A speedboat is turned over while a man is shocked by huge waves along the beach in Sri Lanta, a resort on Lanta Island in southern Thailand near the town of Krabi on December 26.(Photo:Zhang Jun)

Besieged vacationists wait for rescue in a big pavilion at the highest part of a mountain in the resort.(Photo:Zhang Jun)

Zhang Jun and his wife

It was supposed to be a romantic honeymoon on a beautiful beach resort in Thailand, but it ended up as an unexpected adventure that left me fearing for my life and my wife's for the better part of 24 hours.
After spending all of November deciding where to spend our honeymoon, my wife and I decided to spend five days in Sri Lanta - a resort on Lanta Island in southern Thailand near the town of Krabi.
We checked into the resort around midnight on Christmas Day and prepared for several relaxing days on the beach.
However, right after we had our breakfast at a little past 10am, Sri Lanta's normally peaceful beach along the Andaman Sea was thrown into chaos by three giant tidal waves that smashed into the island within a 20-minute stretch.
When the first two waves hit the edge of the resort, turning over one speedboat on the beach, the more than 20 vacationists enjoying a little sun and sand were completely shocked. At that point, many of us just assumed it was a normal phenomenon of the sea.
But the last wave, which looked six to eight meters high, wiped out most of the straw-and-wood pavilions and injured many resort employees and guests, making it instantly clear we were facing a severe natural catastrophe.
My wife and I were among those who first noticed the danger of the waves and ran as fast as we could away from the beach on sandals, shouting "Run, Run!"
Unfortunately, many of our companions, overwhelmingly people from western countries including France, Britain and the United States, were rolled into the wave as they didn't react quickly enough.
The Sri Lanta resort is divided by a road that separates a relaxation and restaurant area near the beach from the 49 bungalows built along the slope of a mountain.
After the three waves, no one dared to walk into the beach area of the resort except the young employees of Sri Lanta who risked their lives to retrieve passports and other important items that were caught in the surf.
As the waves had cut phone lines and the resort didn't have any TVs, we were still in the dark about what had happened when a resort manager gave us the good news that none of the guests or employees had been seriously hurt or killed by the waves.
Later, he explained to us Phuket and Phi Phi islands were in total chaos as the result of the waves, which were caused by a strong earthquake. He also mentioned the possibility of new tidal waves in the following hours which would be "more destructive."
At that point, the bungalows' 50 guests were restricted to a big pavilion at the higher part of the mountain. My wife, Zhang Yi, and I were the only two from China's mainland.
Later on, many Sri Lanta employees, some of whom had received injuries to their heads and legs, rescued the resort's storage of drinking water, fruits and vegetables from the danger area and carried them into the pavilion for our use.
We stayed in the pavilion for more than five hours - past sunset - as we were still afraid more destructive waves could hit at any time.
By 5pm we were able to take short showers and one phone line was fixed so we could try to make calls home to our worried relatives.
When night fell, we were given a small flashlight to find our way around.
My wife and I decided to move back to our bungalow to try to get some sleep. But we were all awakened at around 12:30am by the manager who called us to sleep at the top of the mountain for safety reasons, saying that a very destructive tidal wave could come at any time.
That was one of the most difficult times of my life as we didn't know if another wave would hit, when it would arrive or how powerful it might be.
Everyone on the island was told to sleep out in the open at the top of the mountain, a warning the coast guard repeated through the nearby forests and mountains.
Under the dark sky, we slept shoulder to should under beach towels that had to pass for blankets.
At 6am, we were finally told it was safe to return to out bungalows.
The next morning, December 27, we and hundreds of other tourists staying on Lanta Island were relocated to nearby Krabi Province.
After my wife and I were finally settled at the Crystal Hotel in Krabi, we were still horrified by the scenes we had witnessed 24 hours earlier.
In addition to fear, I also felt admiration for the humanity of the Sri Lanta employees and the many foreigners who registered as volunteers to help the wounded at Krabi Hospital.
With dozens of overhead helicopters still searching for survivors in Krabi, Phuket and Phi Phi islands, we felt that we were the "most lucky of the unlucky people in the world."