Swedish Carl Michael Bergman, in Thailand on vacation, said diving lessons, a 40th-birthday present from his wife, saved his life when waves hit their resort at Khao Lak.

He was out at sea at the time, but instructors, uneasy at the strange behaviour of the water, began heading back. His one-and-a-half-year old son Hannes (in Reuters picture above), now hospitalised with pneumonia, was found alone in a hotel room. His three-year-old son, Nils, was safe on higher ground.