A couple who nearly died in the Boxing Day tsunami are to spend their honeymoon in the place where they almost lost their lives.

Richard Galley and his then fiancee, Kristen Meredith, were holidaying in the beach resort of Phuket last year when the tidal wave engulfed the paradise resort.

An estimated 200,000 people died and two million were left homeless in the disaster.

Richard and Kristen said that despite the devastation and harrowing scenes they witnessed, they had not been put off and loved the area so much they wanted to return and start their marriage in style.

"We want to spend our honeymoon at the same place because the Thai people are wonderful and after the tsunami struck they could not do enough for us," said Mr Galley.

"In spite of what happened there, it still seems the perfect place to spend our honeymoon.O

Their terrifying ordeal on Boxing Day last year began shortly after breakfast. The door of their holiday home was flung open by a powerful wave and the two were confronted by water rising at a half a metre a second.

Mr Galley tried desperately to swim and open the back door, which was totally underwater, as Kristen struggled to find a rapidly disappearing air-pocket by the ceiling.

The couple were only saved when the force of the water blew the windows of their bungalow out and sucked them outside where they clung to palm trees to avoid being swept away.

They praised the reaction of the Thai people in the aftermath of the disaster. Mr Galley said: "The Thai people were phenomenal and they couldn't do enough to help us.

"Local people volunteered their personal vehicles to transport survivors or reunite families. They allowed us to use their personal mobile phones to call our families to let them know we were safe."

The pair returned to the holiday bungalow to find it had been looted, but luckily their passports and flight tickets had been left behind.

Shanghai-based Mr Galley was forced to return to China to face temperatures of -2uC wearing just swimming trunks, a T-shirt and a pair of shoes given to him by an Austrian tourist.

Describing his good fortune in escaping the tsunami, he said: "We realised just how lucky we were, especially as we continued to watch the events unfold on the news."

Mr Galley, aged 36, met his wife while working as an executive for JCB at its North American headquarters in Savannah, Georgia. The couple have been together for 13 years and tied the knot in July in Winchester, near Boston, where English teacher Kristen, 33, comes from.

They decided to delay their honeymoon until Christmas so that they could return to the Thailand.