It was 10 years ago when a young Chestermere, Alta., woman was an eyewitness to a major attack while travelling in Bali.

Deanna Thompson was across the street in her hotel room with friends when twin bombs went off at the Sari Club and Paddy's Pub in Kuta.

The suicide bombers killed 202 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Thompson, who's in Bali today to mark the event, lost a friend in the explosions.

"You never believe that you'll be someone that witnesses this first hand and I think we were really lucky ... that we survived," she said. "We'll forever have scars from it and memories but we were the lucky ones."

Relatives and survivors of the 2002 Bali bombings grieve as they attend the memorial service in Bali. (Firdia Lisnawati, Pool/AP)

More than 2,000 people attended a memorial service held in Jimbaran, including survivors and victims' family members.

Thompson, who spoke with CBC before she left, escaped the incident without any injuries and even managed to help others at the scene.

She remembers helping burn victims by using her own shirt and bottles of water to cool them down.

While it's hard for her to watch the home video she has of the explosions, she said "it's interesting to be able to show other people what we experienced because it's very hard to explain in words."

She says she's going back for the anniversary not to remember the tragedy but to remember the beauty of the Indonesian province.

People attend a memorial service Friday marking the 10th anniversary of the 2002 Bali bombings at nightclubs in Kuta that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and seven Americans. (Made Nagi, Pool/AP)