How Ning Nong the elephant saved me from the tsunami
A little girl, a baby jumbo, their incredible bond... and the miracle that inspired Michael Morpurgo to write a stunning ‘sequel’ to War Horse
AS MICHAEL Morpurgo read the tragic stories of devastation and appalling human suffering that followed the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, he became ever more dispirited.
‘It was truly one of the most terrible natural disasters of our times,’ he recalls. ‘Then, in the midst of the overwhelming sadness, I read just one small story of hope.’
That tale was of a young British girl’s incredible escape from the storm-lashed beach of Phuket – all thanks to her rescue by an elephant.
‘Inspired by this miraculous story I decided to do what I had always wanted to do,’ says Morpurgo, author of the award-winning drama War Horse. ‘That was to write an elephant story.’
The result was his book and now hit show, Running Wild, a fantasy woven around the girl’s tale of survival.
But although the play is thrilling, its drama is overshadowed by the true story of what happened to Amber Owen that day.
She was in Thailand on holiday when an elephant ride on the beach turned into an extraordinary tale of both heroic courage and the wonder of animal instinct. It was a oncein-a-lifetime, month-long trip for eight-year-old Amber, her mother Samantha and stepfather Eddie.
Each morning, Amber would rush down to the beach to see the elephants that ferried children up and down outside the Sheraton hotel, where her family was staying.
‘The elephants carried us along the beach and into the sea,’ recalls Amber, now 20 and living in Milton Keynes. ‘I grew especially fond of Ning Nong, a four-year-old, and would feed him bananas every morning, always insisting that only I rode him. He would wrap his trunk around my shoulders and nuzzle me.’
She continues: ‘On the morning of the tsunami there was a small earthquake about eight in the morning, but we didn’t think much about it. I was riding along the beach on Ning Nong after breakfast and I could tell he was anxious and kept turning away from the sea. As he edged inland, a huge wave rushed up to his shoulders.’ Clinging to the back of the elephant as the waves threatened to engulf them, Amber watched in terror as flailing fellow holidaymakers disappeared beneath the breakers. Just moments before, the tide had suddenly receded, and though Amber had no idea what was happening, a huge tsunami was about to smash across the beach. ‘But Ning Nong definitely did know,’ Amber recalls. ‘While some people ran to pick up the fish scattered across the beach when the waves went out, he became agitated at once. He knew something was wrong and began running as fast as he could inland.
‘The mahout [elephant trainer] kept trying to get him to come back down the beach towards the sea but he wouldn’t go. He kept pulling away and trying to run from it.’
BUT it was this amazing animal instinct that saved her life when the wall of waves hit. Amber’s mother was only alerted to the disaster when she heard screams from the beach. ‘We ran down the sand, and because Amber was always with Ning Nong I was screaming, “Where’s the elephant?” ’ says Samantha, 47. ‘Someone said he was dead and I panicked because I knew Amber would have been on his back. I was trying to sprint but the water was up to my knees.’
Meanwhile, and unbeknown to Samantha, Ning Nong was already heading inland, forcing his body forward as he waded against the strong currents now swirling around his shoulders. The sturdy elephant had managed to climb up the beach, straining to brace himself against the force of the water. As trees and houses fell, he remained standing.
He only stopped when he found a small wall then, wedging himself beside the stone shelf, he withstood the powerful pressure of the rising water long enough for Amber to scramble on to the wall to safety. ‘I remember being so scared but so relieved,’ says Amber.
Samantha adds: ‘That’s when I saw Ning Nong in the distance, at the other end of the beach, by the wall, with Amber on his back. I was almost hysterical with relief. We grabbed her, then ran to the hotel. We just made it to our first-floor room when, less than ten minutes later, the next wave came in and swept two groundfloor rooms away.’
Amber doesn’t know what happened to Ning Nong. ‘He saved my life, he knew the signs that something bad was going to happen and he carried me to safety,’ she says. ‘I will always be grateful and it’s made me more appreciative of life. It taught me at a very young age that terrible things can happen in an instant and life can be changed for ever.’
For Samantha, too, her gratitude to Ning Nong remains intact. She still sends money each year towards the upkeep of Phuket’s elephants.
The family was lucky that their hotel was not too badly damaged, and three days later they were able to fly home. ‘Those three days were dreadful,’ Samantha says. ‘We stayed inside our hotel but those who ventured out told us of seeing scores of bodies floating down the roads.’
Amber is thrilled that Morpurgo’s new play is based on her story. The pair are due to meet for the first time on June 10 at a performance at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. ‘When I am asked about the origins of the book, I tell anyone listening about Amber’s story,’ the author said. ‘You simply couldn’t make it up.’
Running Wild, which uses the puppetry experts behind War Horse, is being staged in London until June 12.
‘He knew something bad was happening’