Sri Lanka's famous Taprobane Island, a speck of palm-fringed paradise just off the southern coast, was lashed by the deadly tsunami, leaving its visitors stranded but its world-renowned villa spared.
Owner Geoffrey Dobbs, who threw the historical villa's doors open to well-heeled paying guests after refurbishing it in the 1990s, was swimming off the island when the massive waves struck, his mother said on Thursday.
Marie Dobbs said that the first sign of something being awry was a colony of bats flying out of their cave near the rocky island, which is normally reached on foot from the mainland through ankle-to-knee-high water.
"We thought that was strange, bats don't fly in the day time," she said.
Then, "the ocean just rose, rose, rose, like a wall."
Dobbs and his brother, who was also in the water, grabbed a catamaran and held on until it dumped them back to shore, while his sister-in-law grabbed a coconut palm.