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I rushed out of my taxi, flashed my boarding card at the Taipa Ferry Terminal, and fished through my pocket for my passport to exit immigration.
My first reaction was surprise: My passport wasn’t in the pocket I expected it to be.
Annoyance: It wasn’t in my other four pockets either.
Sinking feeling: It wasn’t in my bag either.
I had lost my passport in Macau!
I spent last night at the Grand Hyatt Macau–review forthcoming–and had a 6 AM wake up call to make my 7 AM ferry to Hong Kong International Airport this morning.
My things were strewn across the suite when I woke up–had to take advantage of all the space–so I stuffed everything into my one carry on and one personal item and headed out the door. I was a little later than I wanted to be, and I got down to the check out desk at 6:25 AM.
No taxis were outside, so I started to worry that I might be in trouble for my 7 AM ferry.
A taxi arrived shortly and I arrived at a deserted ferry terminal at 6:40 AM. Nearly everyone had passed through immigration and had boarded, so I hurriedly paid my cab fare and ran out of the taxi.
A combination of my rush, exhaustion, and jet lag conspired to leave my passport on the back seat of the car.
Once I realized I didn’t have the passport, I called the Grand Hyatt. I figured I had either left the passport in my room or in the taxi because I had seen it that morning.
The front desk sent someone up to my room, and it wasn’t there, so the concierge called the taxi company from which he had ordered me a car.
I went outside the ferry terminal to catch a ride back to the Grand Hyatt but there were no taxis around. One showed up to drop off some people for the 8 AM ferry, but another woman had been waiting longer for the cab. It was hers.
I asked where she was going, and she offered to split the cab with me. I suggested that it drop her off and then me, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted it drop us off between our destinations, and we could each walk 3 minutes to where we were going. I pulled out 50 HKD to pay for the cab, and she wouldn’t even let me do that. She was really the exact person I needed to meet as I was freaking out about being passport-less in Macau with a flight in a few hours to Singapore.
When I got to the Grand Hyatt, the concierge gave me some great news. The cabbie had found my passport and was en route to return it. I would just have to pay the meter for that trip.
In half an hour, he showed up with an 80 HKD meter (~$11), and I took his cab to Macau’s other ferry terminal for an 8:30 AM ferry to the airport. The total meter was only about $15. The new ferry ticket was another $30.
Losing my passport cost me 90 minutes at The Wing First Class Lounge–review forthcoming–at Hong Kong Airport and $45. I don’t think I’ll get off so cheaply next time.
When you travel as much as I do, you mess up sometimes. Luckily I’ve learned my travel lessons and tended not to repeat my mistakes. Hopefully that’s the last time I leave my passport in the back of a cab!
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Really glad this all worked out for you in the end. I’d be stressed beyond belief and am so happy that it ended up being solved without impacting the flight itself.
I also lost my ID once — but only a license, and only after I had arrived back in the USA. I’m 99% sure that I had it folded up in my boarding pass and after the flight arrived, I threw the whole packet in the garbage thinking I didn’t need the pass anymore. Now I’ve learned to take the extra 30 seconds to always put my ID away in the same spot.
I let out one growl/yell at the ferry terminal, then resigned myself to missing the first ferry. Even missing the flight would have been OK. There was a $252 flight from Macau to Singapore that day. I wouldn’t have wanted to pay $252, but luckily I could have if I needed to.
I remember losing my wallet in the back of a cab on a Greek island 10 years ago. I dropped it in the backseat the last evening of our stay and didn’t realize it was gone until the next morning. We also had to catch a ferry. We had no name or anything to distinguish the driver, but somehow at the terminal that morning the guy pulled up about 20 minutes before our ferry and I was able to fish the wallet out of the back. It was way too lucky.
How long are you in Singapore? My wife and I arrive tomorrow night and are spending the day on Monday checking out the city flying out to Brisbane on the overnight Qantas 747 flight.
I’ll be here until Tuesday.
Imagining how dreadful you must have felt until it was found, and a great relief that you retrieved it! And lovely to read of the kindness of strangers. I take for granted that you carry a duplicate of all its information in some other place, such as your suitcase. In case it is a help to others, once in the railroad station in Nice, France, I was putting my luggage in a locker and as I bent down to push the luggage inside the locker, my bag with my passport and money at my feet was gone in that moment. And never found. So I learned the lesson of keeping the bag on my body. Always report the loss immediately to the police because you need that report to show the authorities if the passport or green card has to be reissued. I had a green card. I continued to travel for several months, and had to get an entry visa from the Embassy in Beijing to return. The biggest problem was the wait for the reissue of the green card, and it has a mistake when it came, and had to be reissued yet again. It was possible to travel outside the US while waiting, but each time I had to go to Immigration and get a special visa for the specific trip. The loss that turned out to be most distressing was my journal, so whatever matters to you most does belong in those items kept close. And if one does have to remove a bag, at least it should have been between my feet. Good wishes that it never happens to you again!
OMG Disaster in the making
Had a similar event a while back but it was my SO’s camera left on back seat of cab. We went from hotel to cruise terminal in Singapore and were checking in along with 500 other folks when an excited fellow (cabbie) found us in the crowd and returned the camera along with a lecture about how important it is to keep cab receipts because it has his cell # on it. Cost me another tip but was much cheaper than replacing camera.
Interesting that the receipt had his cell number.
Karma is a mysterious thing.
Wow, that had to be so scary. I couldn’t imagine how freaked out I would be if I lost my passport like that. So glad that everything worked out so well for you.
you are very lucky, i lost my passport once in Shenzhen and i was stuck in China for 3 days doing all the formalities before i could leave China to hong kong,
This was my fear, being trapped in Macau for a few days. It wouldn’t have been the nicest place to be at all.
Have you used up all your passport space? If so, what do you do?
Can you add pages at an embassy and save money for the added-page cost?
I did use it all and sent it in to the State Department for more pages a few years ago. I have heard about what you’re talking about, but didn’t try it.
Yeah, it costs $80 just to add pages and $110 for a new one. Pretty annoying.
So glad you got your passport back and didn’t miss your flight. Being rushed is a recipe for disaster when traveling.
Glad it worked out. But you have only yourself to blame for leaving such little time on a departure day. Bound to go wrong for you at some point. Be thankful you found a kind soul to help.