5 Balinese Women Escape Mumbai Attacks

(12/1/2008)

The horrific terrorist attacks on downtown Mumbai, India also put at risk 5 Balinese women working as spa therapists at the Hotel Trident-Oberoi.

According to Kompas, as events progressed in Mumbai on Wednesday, November 26, 2008, Wayan Sandat (53) and his wife Ni Nyoman Pangid (50) of Blahbatuh, Gianyar, Bali received a telephone call from their daughter, Kadek Edi Dharmayanti. That call, made via a hand phone, carried the tearful, whispering voice of Nyoman telling her parents that her place of employment was under terrorist attack.

The two farming parents who only occasionally venture the 30 minutes drive to Bali's capital of Denpasar, were overwhelmed by the drama unfolding involving their daughter in far away India. Friends, neighbors and Kadek's boyfriend, Kadek Toris, gathered in solidarity at the home. Banten offerings were made at the family's ancestral temples while feverish attempts were made to re-establish phone contact with the endangered daughter. When phone contact could be established the sound of explosions could be heard in the background as Kadek whispered reports of armed terrorist circulating just outside the room where she sheltered with a group of 5 Balinese therapists working at the hotel.

Seeking to earn money to assist their families "back home" in Bali - Kadek Edi Dharmayanti (Medahan, Gianyar), Ni Nyoman Sri Arini (Bangli), A.A. Komang Triastina (Negara), I Gusti Putu Sri Rahayu (Tabanan) and Luh Gede Mahendrayani (Nusa Penida) – the women were working on one year contracts with between 5 and 10 months in-country at the time of the attack.

Later in the day, an officials from the Indonesian Consulate General in Mumbai called the families of the 5 women in Bali with the welcome news that their daughters had been safely evacuated form the hotel and were now resting comfortably and safely at a secure location.