Everything had gone so smoothly on my trip, until yesterday.
Earlier in the day, I had a bad omen with my passport. When checking in for my flight from Hanoi to Bangkok, something about my passport bothered the clerk, so much so that she called over a supervisor.
Afterward, the clerk asked me how long I planned to spend in Thailand and then wanted to see proof I had purchased a return flight to America. Hmm.....When I showed her my flight confirmation, she was satisfied and printed my boarding pass.
The one hour, twenty minute flight was great. If you ever have a chance to take Qatar, do it. The plane was spacious, the attendants well trained and professional, and even though it was such a short flight, we still got fed.
Immigration in Bangkok was a breeze and soon I was checking into a hotel. As in my countries, the receptionist asked to make a copy of my passport. I set it on the counter. While she was filling out some paper work, an American man and his wife walked up and began talking to me. A few minutes later they left for dinner.
After paying for the room, I asked for my passport back. The woman said, "You never gave it to me."Fear welled up inside me.
Most of the year my passport sits in a drawer collecting dust, but when I'm abroad, it's my most important possession. No passport meant no flight home.
The receptionist said she felt the American accidentally picked it up because, at the time, he was also checking in and put his valuables in a safety deposit box. She just didn't seem overly concerned, which made me angrier and angrier. "Something like a passport disappearing off the counter can't happen," I said.
She did a cursory search around the desk and said she was sorry, which set me off even more, especially since she insinuated it was my fault for talking to the American, even though I had set the passport on her desk, trusting I'd get it back.
For about an hour, I sat and waited for the American to return from dinner. Visions of spending days filing police reports and begging the American embassy to issue me a temporary passport filled my head.
While enduring the tense hour, a man walked up to me, who said he travels to Bangkok often. He wished me luck, but he said scams are common in the city and that my passport was probably gone.
That didn't help, and it infuriated me off even more that the attendant still didn't seem overly concerned. I had to take a walk.
When I returned, she held up my passport, saying the American had accidentally put it into the safety deposit box, not realizing his mistake. I felt like jumping for joy. This morning, I ran into him, and he said, actually, she had put the passports into the box.
I apologized to the clerk for getting upset, and she finally acknowledged she had made a mistake not immediately securing my passport.
I'm always so careful with my passport. I learned a valuable lesson that I never should let my guard down with such an important document, even if the hotel clerk is three feet away.
With the relief of getting my passport returned, my spirits were high, meaning I had a terrific final night. Central Bangkok reminds me a lot of Times Square back in the 1980s - bright lights, excitement, great food, people from all over the world, and a lot of seedy characters and illicit activities. Let me put it to you this way. Today, two different prostitutes at 7 a.m. were already pestering me to pay for their services.
Tonight, around 3 a.m., I begin my flight home. I'll let you know when I return to America. As always, I'll be in touch, but it might be a couple of days because of the jet lag.
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