Updates on Nat
She called me up at around 1AM telling me one of the cab drivers she was talking to earlier in the day called her and told her that drivers found a diversion around one of the roads they bombed yesterday. He told her if she wants he could take her to Syria for $500. I told her it was her decission to make and that I was half asleep and wanted to go back to sleep. She told me she was going to do it and the driver was going to come pick her up at 11AM, he is coming from Syria to pick her up.
So a few minutes ago I message her asking her what she is doing and if she is packed yet since it was nearly 10AM and I know she leaves things till the last minute. She messages me telling me she is at the Syrian border which pissed me off. I called her up and told her this is no time to joke around but she tells me she IS at the Syrian border. Turns out the driver picked her up at 8AM and when I called her up she had just crossed the Lebanese border and about to enter Syria.
Her cellphone signal was weak so I couldn’t talk to her much but I will post updates when I get them.
update: she crossed the Syrian border
update 2: Nat messaged me at 1:40PM telling me she was at the airport and to call her. I call her up and she sounded a bit freaked. She told me the airport is over crowded and she can barely move. She told me she couldn’t even find a trolley to put her bag on. She was also feeling dizzy since she had been in the car since 8AM and there was no AC so her head was spinning everytime she stood up. Her flight is at 9PM and she can’t find a magazine stand or anything nearby. She is resting now before she goes looking for the Jazeera Airways stand.
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Great News!
yaaaay! I’m so happy she’s out.
I’m disappointed in the lack of humanity shown during a crisis like this. The cab driver is taking too much advantage of the situation, charging so much. I appreciate there are risks for him, but at a time like this people should help each other out, not profit outrageously. However, Good Luck for her safe return.
I’m kinda not in touch but i’m happy nothing happned to anyone i know in this bombing..
tim i believe the cab drivers have a right to charge so much since they are risking their lives on those roads.
7amdilla! Im happy she is ok! And Im happy she managed to find a way out! When will she be back in Kuwait?
Good news! I hope she comes back to you safely and as soon as possible!
waitin for her to write about her experience during the last several days..
$500 seems a bit too steep but they are taking a big risk. Well I guess it’s okay considering she would have lost the MacBook otherwise :)
Great… Congrats Mark…….
“I told her it was her decission to make and that I was half asleep and wanted to go back to sleep.”
wow, you SUCK.
that’s not unusual for cab drivers everywhere in the world and esp. when it’s tourist season, they tend to charge more. But it really depends on how long it was to get there and how risky it was. As it seems it’s a 2 hour ride!
GOOD!
Wohoo thats great news!
Great news…. Poor Nat ma thannet belsafra
good for her and u hope she gets back to kuwait safely.
nice to hear that she’s on her way back.
keep us posted!
good
great news
fwai7 basically i was letting her decide what SHE wanted to do and not what I wanted her to do.
el7mdallah 3la salama,,
al7en ta5th 6ayara mn hnak w trja3 bel salamah inshallah .. bs mta?
I’m so glad she’s okay! il7imdilla
My friends are still stuck though :S
One is on her way to the border, one is stayin in beirut, and two are in the mountains, and still haven’t decided if they’re coming back yet :S I hope they all decide to leave and make it safely…I’m going crazy with worry :/
Good for NAT and yourself MARK, I hope she comes back safe, and bring lots of Photos with her for the BLOG. I hope she does.
Hope Nat returns safely and gives you a big punch on the arm.
i got the impression, that u didn’t care much if she came or not?
let her decide what she wanted to do? *rolls eyes*
So because I am letting her make the choice on what she wants to do thats not caring for her? According to your philosophy she shouldnt have been travelling period, she should have been locked up her at home cooking and cleaning for me while I go out and work.
well.. who is her to judge you if you care or not?
its just between you and nat .. this is so rude from the ppl up there ^ to say such things!!!
ofcaurse you do care!! maybe the thing “I was half asleep and wanted to go back to sleep.”
but stillll who have the right to judge!!
all i care about is nat safety any thing else is between you and nat. and we all should RESPECT that!
OK what about nat’s family?
Nats family are OK. They are not going to evacuate or anything. The bombings are taking place in Hezbollah strongholds which are mostly located in the south and are far away from where Nats parents live.
[...] As I mentioned earlier today Nat arrived at the Damascus airport around 1:40PM. Her flight takes off at 9PM so she wasn’t able to check in until after 7PM. I spoke to her on the phone and she told me the airport is a disaster. Its understaffed, overcrowded and it seems like there is no AC even. She told me a lot of Gulf nationals were panicking and having nervous breakdowns and that the situation at the airport is unbearable. Filed under: Personal, Information, Travel Posted by Mark on 07.16.06 | Related Entries [...]
I think why some are reacting negatively to this post is that you didn´t sound at all worried about Nat. It´s a fine line between letting her make her own decisions and not caring one way or the other! Of course you should let her decide, but a normal reaction to this situation (i.e. your wife being caught in a war zone and needing to rely on a taxi driver to bring her to safety) would be WORRY. Not “wanting to go back to sleep!”