By Sarah Blake in Bangkok, January 9, 2005

HIS was the first human face of the tragic Asian tsunamis.
Yai Kaytmunnee's stricken image made front pages of newspapers across the world, after a photographer staying at a Phuket resort captured him fighting what looked like a losing battle for his life.
But far from joining the casualties, Yai, 20, is now back in the loving arms of his family in a remote farming village at Nar Kun Sen in Ratchaburi, three hours southwest of Bangkok.
Last week he was smiling and being teased for being "famous" at a hastily assembled reunion of his relatives.
But, while he managed to escape unhurt from the 10m waves that swept away his livelihood and at least one colleague, the emotional scars will take a long time to heal.
"I will go back to Phuket at some stage. But I need for my heart to be a little bit stronger. I need to stay with my family until I feel ready," he told
Yai's journey from cattle hand to beach waiter is similar to that taken by thousands of young Thais in the farming regions away from the country's famous coastline.
With money and jobs scarce at home, many are lured for four-to-six-month stints in areas thick with big-spending tourists, such as Phuket's Ban Tao Bay, where Yai had lived and worked for two months before the Boxing Day tragedy.
Yai was paid 250 baht (about $8) a day to work as a waiter at the Udomsin Wattana John Restaurant, a large bamboo hut on a 50m wide strip of beach between the Sheraton Grande hotel's lagoon and the ocean.
"When I saw the water I had no idea what it was. I just thought it was a lot of water, because I had never heard of a tsunami before," said Yai, a non-swimmer.
"When the water came up to the restaurant we still worked at first because we didn't understand.
"The first wave was kind of slow. It was strong, but slow, and we were all thrown around in the restaurant.
"The second one was too hard and too strong and at this stage I thought to live I had to go with the water, that was the only way to escape the big water.
"Then someone said the big wave was coming again. I tried to keep escaping.
"I tried to stand up and at that time I looked at the lady I worked with, and she was still in the restaurant.
"I told her when the water came she had to run away but she didn't in time and she died there."
Yai's mother Supot "Yon" Kaytmunnee, 52, called her two Phuket-based waiter sons back home to Ratchaburi after seeing Yai's photo in newspapers and on television.
"If I looked at the picture, I knew my son was being watched over by Buddha," she said.
"I am very lucky he is back home and safe now though. I wanted to hold him. I am very happy with that and thanks to our Buddha for protecting him.
"I saw the picture after I had spoken to him.
"It was hard to believe that he had lived after seeing the picture."
Yai said he would remain with his family until the restaurant owners were ready to start rebuilding the restaurant.
"I will go back to help build a new restaurant in a few months. It is a good life there and a good job and better than the life I would have here in Rachaburi," Yai said.

The Sunday Mail (Qld)