Oh, What A Memory To Remember!!......ouchhh

Screaming loud in a hotel lobby "Give us back our travel documents, you can have all the money and cards, just give us our tickets and passports, that's all we want!!!!"......... Oh! what a MEMORY TO REMEMBER...geezz... I was hysterical that time.




A hotel manager in London calmed us down upon seeing how distressed we were those moments. Actually, I was on the verge of breaking down. Imagine all our travel documents including bankcards and mobile phones were taken away from us by bandits. The first reaction was to scream. All that was left in my pocket was four pounds, yes four pounds!! That amount brought us everywhere though via internet to send emails for emotional support. Four pounds was enough to reach the world.

An unforeseen circumstance happened a couple years ago on a journey. Our train to Scotland was postponed for the next day and we've decided to hang around for another night in London. That was when that incident happened. An experience we won't ever forget with my sweet girl.

As we entered at the doorsteps of the hotel, something strange we've noticed at the back of our coats. A shaving cream and gel was all over our coats - spreadout from top to bottom. We really couldn't figure out how it happened. Our first reaction was to take our jackets off and cleaned the mess in the hotel lobby. I laid my bag on the couch close to where I was standing. In just a spur of a moment, my bag was gone. Flick! All documents vanished in just a second. A slight memory of a man in a suit staring at us prior to the disappearance of my bag. That man had a connection to incident.

“Professional robbers got all the tricks and tactics, by all means.”

We wanted to ring the authority immediately but we're deprived to use the hotel phone. We dragged ourselves to the nearest train station close to Marble Arch and find someone in blue uniform. How awful that was really, much more when we were driven away from the Hotel where the incident occurred. The receptionist on duty didn't want to be involved in the incident.



Fortunately, strangers came to our rescue. Seeing how desperate we were, a next door hotel offered us accommodation and food for free when they've heard what happened. We felt we were refugees for a while. Oh my gosh!! Strangers came to assist us while investigation was going on. Our immediate needs were looked at by these strangers, they've rang the Embassy for us, they've rang Sydney for cancellations of my bank cards and they offered us food. AREN'T THEY GREAT STRANGERS? By the way they're originally from Pakistan.

Who Would Say - Don't Trust Strangers ?

Just what I've always thought, there are strangers with good hearts regardless of colour and race. Since then, my notion about - not trusting strangers disppeared completely. Strangers came to our rescue. Not only that, I've met a friend online who happened to be a local, he came to assist us the next day. He's a stranger to us as well, yet he was there.

To you Ading Gooner, thank you so much. There's no amount of words to express our gratitude to you and your family. We'll never forget what you have done to us.

To The Manager and his staff Fariz, Vicki and Arif who've helped us during those days, for nothing - not even a pence, you've shown really a great deed to us. We will be back sometime this year to pick up the pieces of that very unpleasant experience in your country, we’ll get an accommodation in your hotel once again.

To The Bureau of Tourism, your advice definitely worked. I really appreciate the big help. My greatest thanks also to the Australian Embassy, for the great support and of course The Paddington Police Station in UK.

To the local papers I’ve approached, your publication indeed was a very good medium. Kudos to your papers! The exposure you’ve done affected the business of that hotel who deprived us to use their landline in time of an emergency. Yeah, I was convinced that they're a part of a syndicate.

That incident didn’t stop us from travelling and never will. Now, that everything is over and we're completely out from the emotional stress, we are ready to pass London Bridge again. he he he.

This is just a brief passage from the whole incident, I hope that this may serve as a guideline to other travellers out there.