Mumbai - Perception of a Friend

And here's another look at the events which have just occurred in the International realm of politics - the Mumbai incident. One of our close family friends was over in the area and went through hell to get back to safety here on American soil. Just thought that people would appreciate reading a first-hand account of the event that didn't have the PC-bull that so many of us are used to seeing in these things.

Dear family and friends,

I am safely in San Francisco this evening after a rather harrowing 28 hour
journey. It was so good to turn on my computer tonight and see all your
good wishes for my safety. Thank you all for your support and prayers on my
behalf.

I got up at 5:45 am on Monday morning in Thailand, had breakfast with Chris
and met Tay (my Thai military nurse friend) at 7:15. We took a taxi across
Bangkok to the main offices of Thai Airlines. It was pretty chaotic, with
"queues" for everything. Tay managed to get me #5. The work force arrived
but did not start business until 8:30 am. Having someone with me who spoke
Thai was invaluable - I'm sure I would have ended up in the wrong line! It
took about 45 minutes, but I was able to purchase a ticket from U-Tapao
(pronounced oo-ta-pow) to San Francisco. It was scheduled to leave U-Tapao
at 4 pm. I was to be at another hotel in Bangkok at 10 am to get the bus to
U-Tapao. Tay organized another taxi ride back to our hotel, helped me
finish packing (I'd really not thought I'd get out today), and then another
taxi to the hotel. The first image is what the reception area there looked
like. No organized lines, paper signs on the walls and what appeared to be
1000 people all trying to leave! In retrospect, they were pretty organized.
They offered water for anyone who wanted it, put a sticker with my bus
number and destination (HKG 2) on my chest and directed me to the
immigration officials. They also checked my bags, but only to HK - I'd have
to get them there and transfer to Singapore Airlines to get them to SFO. I
said goodbye and thanks to Tay and went to wait for the bus.

We boarded the bus about 10:30 am, and finally left for U-Tapao about 11:15
am. The reason for the delay was that they arranged a police escort for the
6 buses of people who were going from that hotel. They offered us water, an
orange and something brown with rice on the side. I drank the water. We
arrived at U-Tapao about 1:20 and were left off in a parking lot about 1/4
mile from the building we checked into. The second picture is the road down
which we schlepped our luggage to the departure terminal. Let me say I use
that term loosely. It is a building with 2 gates and very few seats. The
third image is of the crowd outside the door waiting to get inside to check
bags and wait for the flight.

As I said, we arrived about 1:30. It was a bright, sunny, HOT day in
Thailand, and we stood packed in like sardines in the sun for over 2 hours
before we finally inched our way to the door. Once inside, the luggage went
through the scanner - how anyone could have checked anything would be a
miracle - they threw the bags on the belt as fast as they could and stuck a
sticker on when they came out the other side 2 seconds later. Then it was
another line to check your ticket and passport and then another line to go
thru immigration again. Now realize, when I say line, think of a huge crowd
trying to squeeze through one small door with no one doing anything to
organize them. It literally was every person for themselves, and trust me,
the Asians and Indians are NOT shy about pushing ahead. Once finally
through immigration (again!) I went thru another security check (ha ha) and
landed in the departure "lounge". It too was packed like sardines with the
few available chairs all taken. We stood again until about 6 pm when they
finally called for us to board the bus to go out on the tarmac to our plane.
I have to say, I was pretty happy to sit down after all that time.

Wheels up was about 6:30 pm and although no one cheered out loud, I did say
a small prayer of thanks. We had an uneventful flight to HK, but arrived
quite late - my flight from HK to SFO was scheduled to leave at 10:45 and we
arrived about 9:45. At the end of the ramp there was a young girl from the
airline who had a paper with my name on it. She told me I had to check in
by 10 pm so we had to run. I told her running was not possible but I did
hurry as best I could as she scurried on ahead looking back and waving at me
to "Hurry Missy, hurry!" I told her I needed to get my luggage but she
pretty much ignored that. We got to the Singapore Airlines transfer desk
where they gave me a boarding pass and took my baggage claim tags from Thai
Air and then sent someone to get the bags. There was one other American in
the same boat re luggage. I decided I'd fight the luggage battle later - my
goal was to get back on US soil!

We left the transfer desk and rushed thru the airport to the gate. The
flight was loading, but I got there in time. I thanked my escort and called
[her husband] to let him know I'd made it that far.

The flight to SFO was uneventful. I slept most of the time - I was
exhausted! It was about an 11 hour flight and after I cleared customs I
went to the baggage carousel pretty sure my bags would not have made it.
Well, today was really my day - THEY ARRIVED!!!!

Irene had kindly arranged the next leg of my trip which continues tomorrow
to ----, four days later than scheduled but looking pretty good right now!
Irene arranged for a hotel so I could get some rest and an early flight out
in the morning.

So here I am, getting ready to try to sleep again and deeply grateful and
thankful to be back on American soil.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your support and prayers! It's great

to be back in the USA!