Everyone who was cognizant at the time remembers where they were and what they were doing on September 11, 2001. I am no exception. I was actually in a plane flying from London to Amsterdam when the first tower was hit, and I was in the Schipol airport in Amsterdam when the second plane crash into the second tower and when both towers collapsed.
It was a surreal experience. I went to the UK on a 10-day holiday as gift to myself for completing an incredibly difficult project that left my sleepless for many a night over 6 months. I was supposed to have a business trip in Vietnam on September 12 but I wanted to maximize my holiday so my plan wast to fly straight from London to Ho Chi Minh. I was pretty relaxed and still buzzing with excitement from my first international trip that was purely for leisure when I arrived in Schipol airport from Heathrow for my stopover.
When I got there, all TVs in the airport were showing a building with smoke coming out of it and everyone there was watching. At first, I thought it was some movie or TV show but it quickly dawned on me that this was actually happening in Manhattan. It was while I was in Schipol airport that I saw another plane crash into the second tower. It was unbelievable! And scary. I started thinking about those global domination movies were a lot of major cities are attacked at the same time and I worried that maybe Amsterdam would also be attacked. My stopover was supposed to be for only about an hour but all flights were delayed so I was still in the airport when both towers collapsed. It was beyond belief.
When I reached the Bangkok airport - my second stopover - someone from the airport was holding up a sign with my name on it and told me that my company had called them. Apparently, my company had put a travel ban in place so everyone had to stay where they were. That meant I had to stay in Bangkok for the night. My boss informed the next day that I could fly again, but since our business trip to Vietnam was postponed due to the travel ban - it was our entire team flying there - I now had to return to Manila.
I still recall media being filled with news related to 9/11 weeks after that horrific event. And now, 10 years later, the families of everyone who was impacted by this unimaginable act of terror return to Ground Zero to celebrate the memory of their loved ones. I can only hope and pray that we see less suffering in the world brought about by war or acts of terror.
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