Her first words were: �Aku dari Aceh (I am from Aceh)�, which stunned her rescuers because they had found her at sea, 100 nautical miles (185km) out from where she last stood five days earlier.
The crew of the Hoom Xiang 8, a Malaysian-registered fishing vessel, immediately radioed the Batu Maung port authorities here of the rescue of Malawati of Kampung Denon in Banda Aceh.
Of the many stories of how victims of the Dec 26 earthquake and tsunami survived, hers is perhaps one of the most awe-inspiring and incredible.
The 23-year-old woman was at home when she was swept to sea. But as luck would have it, she was able to cling to an uprooted nipah palm which had clusters of fruit on it. That palm was instrumental in her survival.
Malawati told crewman Rizal Sarnosantoso, 22, who spotted her waving frantically at the vessel at about 2pm last Friday, that she drank rainwater and ate the fruit of the palm (nypah fruticans) which Malaysians call attap chee. It is often added in local desserts like ais kacang.
By the time the Hoom Xiang 8 chanced upon her, she had floated out into the open water of the Indian Ocean. She was weak and de- hydrated.
News of her miraculous rescue had spread so that when the vessel docked at the Malaysian International Tuna Port in Batu Maung at 2.10pm yesterday, paramedics, pressmen, state officials and representatives from the Indonesian consulate were waiting to meet her.
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Source : The STAR
Stories - I survived on attap chee
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