WickerBill
06-08-18, 03:38 AM
On Wednesday, I arrived in London for an extremely short business trip. I was to depart on Friday morning. The company that brought me here wanted to impress me, and so I was booked into the nicest hotel in the city - the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park.
Got in at something like 9am on Wednesday. I hadn't slept well on the plane (I never do), so I checked in and got my room, fortunately. It was an amazing room. Great view of Hyde Park, but all I cared about at that point was the shower and the bed.
Both were magnificent.
There was a card on the table saying they were going to have a fire drill at 11:45am Wednesday, so I set my alarm for 11:30, but when it went off, I killed it and slept another hour. Never heard the fire drill alarm - whatever, I felt great. But I was hungry...
I got dressed and headed out to a beautiful, sunny day (how often can you say that in London?), wandered just a few minutes down the street and bought and consumed a sandwich.
Returned to the hotel and noticed some black smoke coming from the top. Then more black smoke. Then an INCREDIBLE amount of black smoke, plus ash and soot falling all over me. My hotel was on fire.
https://m.imgur.com/hVCBdu0
It became clear pretty quickly that this was not something small or isolated. As I moved further away to escape the smoke and ash, I started thinking.... my passport is in there. And my car keys. And my laptop. And all my clothes. All I had on me was my wallet and my phone.
So the last day and a half has been a blur of visiting department stores buying clothes, phone charger, etc... and setting up appointments with the US Embassy to try to get an emergency passport so I could get home. The Mandarin put me up at the Four Seasons down the street, which, you know, is nice - but it's a little weird when all you have is a Debenhams bag with one day's worth of clothes and some ibuprofen.
Then the darndest thing happened. About 20 minutes before my embassy interview, the Mandarin called. We've salvaged your passport. Holy salvation, what a massive relief. It was a little wet and a lot smoky. I didn't bother to ask how they found it - it was inside my laptop backpack, but apparently they sent someone in on a mission to find passports and medicine in each room that was structurally sound.
Then, about 8pm last night, the darndestest thing happened. Knock at my Four Seasons door. Dude in Mandarin Oriental uniform standing there... with my backpack and my suitcase. Every stitch of clothing inside the bag had been laundered or dry cleaned. He thanked me for my "patience" (I told him I never expected to see any of that stuff again - I wasn't really exhibiting patience).
Apparently my room was in fairly good shape, and only one sprinkler head had gone off (close to the backpack, but not the suitcase), and it had only run for a few seconds.
Anyway - that's my story. I'm sitting in Heathrow, ready... so very ready... to come home. Passport and belongings in hand. :)
Got in at something like 9am on Wednesday. I hadn't slept well on the plane (I never do), so I checked in and got my room, fortunately. It was an amazing room. Great view of Hyde Park, but all I cared about at that point was the shower and the bed.
Both were magnificent.
There was a card on the table saying they were going to have a fire drill at 11:45am Wednesday, so I set my alarm for 11:30, but when it went off, I killed it and slept another hour. Never heard the fire drill alarm - whatever, I felt great. But I was hungry...
I got dressed and headed out to a beautiful, sunny day (how often can you say that in London?), wandered just a few minutes down the street and bought and consumed a sandwich.
Returned to the hotel and noticed some black smoke coming from the top. Then more black smoke. Then an INCREDIBLE amount of black smoke, plus ash and soot falling all over me. My hotel was on fire.
https://m.imgur.com/hVCBdu0
It became clear pretty quickly that this was not something small or isolated. As I moved further away to escape the smoke and ash, I started thinking.... my passport is in there. And my car keys. And my laptop. And all my clothes. All I had on me was my wallet and my phone.
So the last day and a half has been a blur of visiting department stores buying clothes, phone charger, etc... and setting up appointments with the US Embassy to try to get an emergency passport so I could get home. The Mandarin put me up at the Four Seasons down the street, which, you know, is nice - but it's a little weird when all you have is a Debenhams bag with one day's worth of clothes and some ibuprofen.
Then the darndest thing happened. About 20 minutes before my embassy interview, the Mandarin called. We've salvaged your passport. Holy salvation, what a massive relief. It was a little wet and a lot smoky. I didn't bother to ask how they found it - it was inside my laptop backpack, but apparently they sent someone in on a mission to find passports and medicine in each room that was structurally sound.
Then, about 8pm last night, the darndestest thing happened. Knock at my Four Seasons door. Dude in Mandarin Oriental uniform standing there... with my backpack and my suitcase. Every stitch of clothing inside the bag had been laundered or dry cleaned. He thanked me for my "patience" (I told him I never expected to see any of that stuff again - I wasn't really exhibiting patience).
Apparently my room was in fairly good shape, and only one sprinkler head had gone off (close to the backpack, but not the suitcase), and it had only run for a few seconds.
Anyway - that's my story. I'm sitting in Heathrow, ready... so very ready... to come home. Passport and belongings in hand. :)