Nepal: More Stranded Malaysians Share Their Experiences

From Santhiran Munisamy KATHMANDU (Nepal), April 30 (Bernama) -- With search and rescue efforts entering its sixth day, more and more stranded Malaysians emerged to share their terrifying experiences in the aftermath of the deadly 7.8 magnitude earthquake which hit Nepal on Saturday. Lim Aik Ming, 32, Lim Sheng Huah, 32 and Ho Shin Weng, arrived in Kathmadu on April 21 for an eight-day expedition of Mount Annapura, near Pokhra which is about 200km from the capital. The group said they were accompanied by a local guide and two porters on the fourth day of their trekking and at about 12 to 12.20 pm on Saturday the ground started to shake heavily with strong winds. "Within seconds we heard thundering, which sounded like bomb explosions and there were tonnes of earth coming down. The ground shook violently about 30 to 40 seconds before our guide shouted to run to a nearby base camp lodge," recalled Aik Meng when met at the Tribhuvan International Airport here. He said after taking shelter for about 15 to 20 minutes, they encountered the first aftershock with a magnitude of 6.7. "Our guide, who was carrying a satellite phone with him, managed to verify the magnitude of the quake with Annapura base camp and warned us of further aftershocks and landslides. "At this juncture we decided not to continue our attempt and decided to call it off by heading to safer grounds," added Lim. Meanwhile, Sheng Huah confessed: "It was really the scariest experience we ever faced and we decided to just return to the hotel and try to get the first available flight ticket." In a related development, another young Malaysian couple from Kuala Lumpur who declined to be identified, shared their experience on how they were forced to spend four nights under the makeshift tent with local residents in Pokhra town. "We were on the second floor of the five-storey hotel building and rushed out from our room when the entire building structure shook violently as tough it was going to collapse at any time," they recalled. The couple added that the locals were so generous and accommodative in allowing them to share their tent as they were not comfortable about returning to their room. There were also rumours in the social media of another major earthquake, said the couple who were determined to return to Nepal once the situation in the country returned to normal. All five (three climbers and the couple) left Wednesday night after the Malaysian embassy's Counsellor/charge d'Affiars Fadli Adilah assisted them in securing flight tickets via AirAsia. --BERNAMA