Where Were You On Sept 11, 2001?

[TheExpat]

How did you find about the attacks on the twin towers and what were your thoughts / reaction?

[donna]

wow. i didnt even realise that it was the 'aniversary' tomorrow.

i was in ko samui and didnt hear about it til the next morning. i was working as a tourleader at the time and in the morning two of my travelers were watching what i thought wasa a horror movie on tv. i told them to turn it off until they told me what had happened.

after a coupel of hours it was all too much and i couldnt face watching any more of the shocking cnn reporting.

[jumnien]

Sukhumvit Soi 33, saw the second plane hit the world trade center in an Italian restaurant about 300 meters down the soi.

[Crossy]

In a bar called The Millenium near our office in Rome, just having a coffee when the second plane went into the towers, all on the big screen CNN

A day I am unlikely to ever forget :D

[bkkmick]

Delaney's or Shenanigans can't remember.

[stevenjm]

Mount Hotham skiing. saw it on television after finding out from other skiers then lost a days skiing watching television.

first reaction - osama

[Juzrelax]

At home watching it on TV. First reaction was this could be the start of WW3.

The date also marks the aniversary of the opening of Shark bar in Cowboy

[pampal]

I was flying over a middle eastern country when the Twin Towers were attacked.

Upon finding out what had happened, my first thought was War is coming.

[trajan]

I was at the Star City casino in Sydney playing blackjack and took a break at a sports bar in the complex with a gigantic TV screen.....at first I thought the news reports were ads for a new Die Hard movie...it was surreal...

yes, I also thought of war....invasion of a nation (not the USA) for sure....

Edited September 10, 2007 by trajan

[crewcut]

North Patong, Phuket.

I saw it on TV in a bar and thought it was a movie, went home and switched on the TV to find that it was in fact very real.

[donna]

yeah, i thought it was the start of WW3. very scary day and one that i am not likely to forget.

[crowbait]

I was in Crete, recuperating after minor cardiac surgery............so chilled out I didn't even hear about it for three days, until an american started talking about it in a bar

[Insight]

First news was from a Bangkok taxi driver while taking some farang backpacker friends to a Pizza Company.

Foolishly got rid of my UBC package at home a few weeks before so had to persevere with what Thai TV was showing us (very little) while it was all going off - didn't really appreciate the full significance until the next few days.

Signed up for UBC again the next month.

[ChangMaiSausage]

Sat at work in London they actually sent everyone home just in case there was further bombings around the worlds major capital cities. Sad day that should never be forgotten.

[onzestan]

I was at home zapping, and found CNN saying that an airplane had accidentally flown into the WTC, saw the 2nd plane going in and immediately thought "terrorists".

Will never forget!

onzestan

[Naam]

in Florida with my back to the TV till a neighbour called me. saw the second plane hitting the other building live.

[chinthee]

In Phuket at home watching in shock...the same home where 3 years later on boxing day we almost died swimming for our lives.

[dereklev]

Saw it on TV whilst waiting for a doctor's appointment.

A date I shall not forget as it was the first aniversary of my business starting up.

My first thoughts too were of WW3......

[Neeranam]

Coming home on the No.38 bus from Bang Na listening to the radio.

[Carmine6]

Hotel in Bosie Idaho. Was working with colleagues from our New York office which was across the street from the World Trade Center. They were getting Blackberry messages early in the morning asking where they were, and later some horrific messages about what their co-workers were seeing, such as the people jumping to escape the fire. They started driving back to NY several hours later. It's a 2 day trip.

The client in Idaho had offices in one of the towers and about 50 people missing by the end of the day. My boss had had a meeting there the week before. Most of their people made it out ok, but some didn't.

Many months before, I had flown the morning flights from Portland, Maine to Boston and then to Los Angeles. The same route that 2 of the hijakers took, but a different day of the week. Extra unsettling when I heard that later on.

[kat]

I was in the time bubble of a morning class on property rights and the law. Emerged at 11 a.m. to go to my campus job and immediately had people surround me because they knew I was from New York.

*OK, I'll finish: I raced home to my campus residence to find that neither mobile phones or land lines were working. I would find out hours later that my niece who worked in one of the towers had only just left that job a week earlier.

Edited September 10, 2007 by kat

[jEFFREYk44]

I was in Rainbow 2 bar in Nana, was staying in the Dynasty Inn, went back to book a room at Dynasty Pattaya, walked in and this guy screams, some plane just hit the World Trade Center, I turned to the tv just as number 2 came crashing in! Ordered some ice and went to my room to watch tv

This is gonna be one long thread!

[Valjean]

On a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. About 30 min. into the flight the pilot says air traffic control wants us to land in Eugeme, OR. No details but something seemed strange. As we got to the ground and cell phones went on the talk started. The pilot said we might be here for a few hours. I watched CNN for 20 min. and knew nothing was going anywhere so I rented a car and drove back to Seattle.

[soundman]

Watching it live on CNN.

Thinking how air traffic control could <deleted> up so badly as to send a jet airliner into a building until the second collision.....

[thaigerd]

Living in BKK that time, watched from my office TV in the living room, CNN.

First I thought it's a movie, than my telephone rang..........

I was working at Don Mueang at this time, next couple of weeks was horror.

Gerd

[batami]

I was in Manhattan, in the Chrysler building - approx 5 km from the World Trade Center.

Someone walked into the office and said that a plane had crashed into WTC - we thought it was a light aircraft. We stuck our heads out of the window (we were on 42nd floor) and could see the WTC and a black hole - no private aircraft could have made it. in the next 15 mins the Chrysler Building was evacuated and we transfered to a hotel nearby - we were in the course of a business meeting - clearly by this time the business agenda was not in the forefront of our monds.

We switched TV on just as the second plane hit. Manhattan was on full alert, in crisis, and in disbelief simultaneously.

All trains and subways were stopped and NY city was preparing for mass evacuation. There are thousands of people who travel into Manhattan every day to work. The crisis was palpable.

Vague and often conflicting reports of the other planes kept coming in. Then the WTC collapsed - we saw it both on TV and from a distance from the hotel - there are no words that are adequate to describe it... if it was not real it would have been a Die Hard movie or siilar (As another poster wrote).

It was real, it was there, the evidence was indisputable - there was a gaping hole in the skyline as you looked South down Manhattan. Where everyday, you would see the Twin Towers there was now nothing but an unbelievable emptiness in the skyline - a space crying to be filled, a space which every mind filled with their own recollections of two towering buildings drawn from the minds stored video tapes - but then I and we and thousands like us had to try to come to grips with a vacuum, and emptiness that was not to be filled.

by around mid day, or shortly afterwards, those living outside Manhattan were advised to go to Grand Central Station to evacuate. Grand central was on full evacuation mobilization - every track had a train - and when a train was full it left and another took its place - orderly and efficient and thousands of people were moved that afternoon. The trains were almost silent on their journeys - everyone grappling in silence with their own personal state of shock or disbelief.

Many things happened later that day and in the days to follow and it would take me a long time to even construct a cogent posting to try to tell what i felt, what i saw, how my friends and neighbors reacted.

However, I remember one of my most searing memory during the time that followed the impact was "Where the hel_l is the President?" - not from the point of view of his safety (I assumed that) but why the hel_l was he not addressing the nation at a time of crisis -- lending the steadying hand of leadership ... I am sure that others on this Forum can remember better than i just how long it took George Bush to make an appearance and say anything .... I am not trying to score political points - just recalling one dimension of the events as I saw it

Sorry guys, this posting does not and cannot do the subject justice ..... but the words are for you to reflect on. This is the first time I have tried to commit any thoughts to words since it happened - and i am sorry for the inadequate submission.

[garro]

Please RIP 70,000+ Iraqi Civilians and 3,000+ American Civilians

September 11th will be remembered for a long time but I too hope that the innocent in Iraq and elsewhere will not be forgotten. Everyday is an aniversary for the innocent.

[Farma]

I was in Saudi watching it live on BBC. Just after the second tower was hit I drove into town to collect some dive cylinders. The locals were driving around waving flags, hanging out of cars, beeping horns and acting as if they’d won the soccer world cup.

[Gary A]

I was on a business trip and had flown from Los Angeles to Chicago the day before. I drove a rental car across into Wisconsin and got a motel room. I woke up the next morning, turned the TV on and saw a burning tower. There was no sound on the TV until someone said there's another plane. It hit the second tower and then it dawned on me what was happening. I was due to fly out the next day and the rental company wanted me to turn in my car. I refused to turn it in after I found out nothing was flying. I was born in Ohio so I drove from Chicago to Ohio and visited family. Driving from Chicago to Ohio and then back, I found out that when the chips are down Americans are ALL Americans and we DO band together. There were American flags flying EVERYWHERE.

[expatgaz]

Was in a very famous / infamous sports bar in Pattaya.