樱桃视频resident Ryan Harrington missed the tsunami that hit Thailand by a week - but that appears to be where his luck ran out.
Harrington was staying in Phuket hanging out on a beach and scuba diving in the water.
"I was bored so I took off to an island on the other coast," Harrington said. "You're on the road day to day. I spent my four days there, then it was time to move on."
He left Phuket for Ko Phangan. He woke up on Dec. 26, and saw on CNN the area he had been in had been one of those affected by the tsunami.
"That sent shivers down my spine," he said.
He remembers being relieved, and thinking he was lucky to be alive. A short time later, he was hit by a truck.
"It happened so fast that I didn't even know until it was over," Harrington said.
He was travelling in a Thai taxi truck full of people. It stalled going up a hill, and he got out to help push it to get it started again. Another taxi approached, but instead of stopping it tried to go around, and Harrington was caught in the middle. He was spun around between the two vehicles, and the moving taxi ran over his right foot and left knee.
"I remember being thrown back and forth between the two. I was lucky that I fell in between them. I saw the tire roll by my head.
"People that saw me go down were afraid to look over the side."
He went to a hospital, but there was no doctor.
"All they could say was 'It's OK, it's not broken'," Harrington said.
So he continued his trip, staying with friends in a bungalow despite the tire tread marks on his leg.
"I wasn't in any shape to go to Bangkok on the buses," he said. "I was in a lot of pain with it."
While he was there he was limited to a few blocks radius, but he heard more and more information about the tsunami effect. He heard there was an influx of people where he was staying, but he didn't notice a large increase.
"It's a party island for backpackers. It's always busy."
But people were on their cell phones searching for people they had met who could have still been on the west side of Thailand.
"I was lucky because I didn't know people that were there," he said. "Life just kind of went on as normal. Nothing changed as far as I could see."
However, Harrington, who still had three months left in his trip, had to come home to Squamish. When he made it to Bangkok, doctors told him he had return. He had a dislocated knee, and a severely sprained ankle.
The tsunami has left him with a question. He had visited a Muslim fishing village built on stilts in a bay, and has no idea what happened to it after the tsunami.
After visiting, Harrington feels he has a connection to the place.
"You met faces you can attach to the disaster."
