Aug
11
Written by:
David Strickland
8/11/2007 1:57 AM
I never actually saw the movie "Escape from L.A." but I did see escape from New York many years ago. I figure they probably are about the same story line. In escape Snake (the star) is forced into trying to get a politician out of New York. If I remember right it seemed the movie started out exciting and then went dull in the center only to get exciting again at the end.
After our wonderful experience at the airport in L.A. and a night’s sleep. Things did look better. We realized that if we could rent a car we could get up to San Francisco Thurs. Night, be at the Indian consulate first thing in the morning and make it back in time for the flight on Friday. I sent an email to the consulate and not getting a response for a couple hours so I called (I later did receive a response I just got in a hurry). I explained the situation and they said to come on up to the consulate and they would see if they could help. We rented a car checked out of the hotel and drove 6 hours north.
The drive was uneventful really. The scenery was beautiful. Perhaps the most exciting part of the drive would have been my reaction to having to pay $3.40 a gallon. Ok maybe that is normal everywhere else at the moment but in Iowa it was $2.70 when I left and $3.40 was a little to much for me to handle on a trip that wasn't in the budget to start with and getting more expensive by the minute. Everything in California seems expensive to me.
We got a room last night just north of San Francisco. We got up early this morning and went to the consulate. Being married to an Indian Citizen and living in India for 2 years I've spent more then my share at consulates, embassies or immigration offices. The Indian consulate in S.F. was incredible. We got there early around 7:50. By 8:00 there were 4 people in line. When the consulate opened at 8:45 there were 30+ people in line. The busyness of the office wasn't what impressed me. Every office whether American or Indian I've been to has been a very busy office. (Accept for the Houston Indian Consulate which had 3 people at it when I went.) What was impressive was the organization. One person was the center pin. She organized the people like a rancher does cattle. Pushing us along, it was great. She told each person where to go what to do and what to expect and answered any question calmly and with respect. It's the first time I've ever been to one of these offices and felt like I knew what was going on, what was expected of me and what I could expect next. I'd very highly recommend the Chicago consulate take a page from the S.F. play book.
We got all our paperwork finished and paid the fee to have the new passport rushed through so we could continue on our trip. The staff was helpful courteous and professional and we would like to extend our thanks to them. Unfortunately though couldn't get out this evening. When we where told that we would have the passport today we called Malaysia Airlines and found out that while we were on our way to the consulate the plane for tonight had sold out. In contrast to the excellent service at the S.F. Indian Consulate the service from Malaysia Airlines has so far been very poor. At this time I can not recommend them. Though they are cheap the terrible service and risk of problems far outweigh the benefit. Of course I have yet to actually fly with them so maybe my opinion will change but so far the pre-flight and problem resolution service has been terrible. The soonest Malaysia Airlines can get us out is Monday. So we are in that dull period in the middle between the high excitement of the start and what we hope will be a very boring finish as we “Escape from L.A.”