It was December 1995. Bangkok was bustling and glowing in celebration of the king’s birthday on December 5th and the upcoming Christmas holiday. Twenty-five college students from Chicago on a foreign study seminar were checking into the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel when a student informed the seminar leader that one of them was extremely ill. The lobby was busy and the front desk packed when the student informed the leader that he was a diabetic taking a rare type of insulin, which he had left in a hotel in Vientiane, Laos, and the group’s previous stop. He said that if he did not get his insulin soon, he would be in serious shape.