UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan saw the scars that the tsunami left in Sri Lanka, where lives are in ruins but where hard work and outside help have started to make a difference.
As the lush island turned its attention to rebuilding, hardest-hit Indonesia was still counting the dead, with almost 3,000 more bodies uncovered to take its toll over 104,000 - two-thirds of all those who died in the killer waves.
Mr Annan visited Hambantota, a popular tourist resort in southeastern Sri Lanka, which has been largely ruined and where exposed concrete foundations showed where houses used to stand. "From the air I saw a beautiful country, but there has been a lot of damage," he told reporters after flying in by helicopter today.
In Hambantota district alone, nearly 5,000 people died, most buried before they could be identified. Mr Annan saw the region's traditional salt pans, where sea water is evaporated to leave salt, but where residents were now draining off flood water from the tsunami that washed in corpses.
The United Nations said that by this weekend, relief workers would get at least some food and other emergency supplies to "every person in need" in Sri Lanka, a figure officials put at around 750,000. A pledge by rich nations yesterday to suspend debt repayments by tsunami-hit nations may also free resources for rebuilding, on top of almost $6 billion in aid the world has promised.
Sri Lanka lost 30,000 people to the waves. India and Thailand were also badly hit, but most of the tsunami's more than 156,000 victims died in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
More are still missing, along with whole towns washed away by the sea. Every piece of positive news around the stricken Indian Ocean region is dwarfed by one awful truth: after almost two weeks, whole swathes of Aceh, along the remote but populous west coast that faced the waves, are still out of contact.
"Where are the people?" a shocked Mr Annan asked after a helicopter trip over Aceh's tsunami-ravaged landscape yesterday. "I have never seen such utter destruction, mile after mile."
The United Nations warned the fate of tens of thousands was still unknown and that the death toll could soar if survivors succumbed to dysentery and cholera for lack of clean water.
Mr Annan was later due to head up Sri Lanka's east coast to the port town of Trincomalee, before returning to Colombo and leaving tomorrow to assess damage in the Maldives. But the government stopped Mr Annan from touring tsunami-ravaged areas controlled by its Tamil Tiger rebel foes, despite his requests, officials said.
He is also not visiting India, where about 16,000 people have been killed or are missing after the tsunami. New Delhi has said it does not need foreign aid.