The Australian Embassy warned me that the only travel I should be doing was to return back home.
But I had too many plans to be thinking like that and I like challenges ?
So after receiving the passports and visas you would think the rest would be easy .. right ?
Wrong ... It is now November and I am only just now thinking that having lost my passport is behind me and will no longer affect me.
Rejoining the group in China
After getting my China Visa in HK the next step was to book one of the flights from HK back to Xining to join the others in China.
The best flights to Xining appeared to leave from Shenzhen so I booked a flight that departed at 7 am.
The next step was to get a bus from HK to Shenzhen but I had plenty of time to get across the border.
The mini bus getting across the border was a very slow process but there were no issues when I presented my passport and visa.
I arrived at Shenzhen at 1 am and had plenty of time to relax before my departure at 7 am.
When I went to the counter at 5 am to collect my ticket they indicated to me that I did not have a booking.
Unfortunately I could not access gmail and Google is blocked in China.
I had already downloaded a VPN client when I was in Mongolia as a trail but the trail was only for a couple of days. Now that I needed access to my gmail account I had to activate the VPN subscription.
I eventually got the VPN to work and logged into my gmail account.
The booking had been made for the flight but had not been confirmed.
I spent the next hour booking several other flights only to find when making the payment that the flight was no longer available.
I eventually was able to get one flight booked that departed at 5 pm and would arrive in Xining at 10 pm, which would give me a couple of hours sleep before getting up at 4 am and joining the others for the train to Zhangye.
This was a much needed sleep since I had not slept in the last few days.
Rejoining the group in China
After getting my China Visa in HK the next step was to book one of the flights from HK back to Xining to join the others in China.
The best flights to Xining appeared to leave from Shenzhen so I booked a flight that departed at 7 am.
The next step was to get a bus from HK to Shenzhen but I had plenty of time to get across the border.
The mini bus getting across the border was a very slow process but there were no issues when I presented my passport and visa.
I arrived at Shenzhen at 1 am and had plenty of time to relax before my departure at 7 am.
When I went to the counter at 5 am to collect my ticket they indicated to me that I did not have a booking.
Unfortunately I could not access gmail and Google is blocked in China.
I had already downloaded a VPN client when I was in Mongolia as a trail but the trail was only for a couple of days. Now that I needed access to my gmail account I had to activate the VPN subscription.
I eventually got the VPN to work and logged into my gmail account.
The booking had been made for the flight but had not been confirmed.
I spent the next hour booking several other flights only to find when making the payment that the flight was no longer available.
I eventually was able to get one flight booked that departed at 5 pm and would arrive in Xining at 10 pm, which would give me a couple of hours sleep before getting up at 4 am and joining the others for the train to Zhangye.
This was a much needed sleep since I had not slept in the last few days.
Booked Transport
I had a few flights and several train journeys that had been booked in Mongolia, China and Tibet using my old passport number.
At the start of every new trip I had the constant fear of not being allowed onboard.
My tickets would be looked at and the details checked and always there were questions in a foreign language that I had to answer.
On the train from Xining to Lhasa in Tibet they eventually let me on the train but kept my passport.
My passport was returned to me about an hour later and I assume a lot of discussions about my passport and visa was going on.
I had the added problem that my Tibet Visa had my new passport number updated manually rather than anything official looking.
If I had my computer I could have done the change more professional so they would not even know.
Most of the time it was just a matter of speaking to the person behind the counter and them taking pity on me for losing my passport but sometimes it involved consulting a supervisor and a few others.
There were at least 10 trips that were booked and where I had issues ... but in all cases I was eventually given passage.
Expiry Date
The Australian Emergency Passport is only valid for 7 months after the date of issue.
Most countries only allow entry if you have at least 6 before expiry which normally means you can only travel on an Emergency Passport for 1 month.
But I wanted to travel for at least 2 months !!
I was fortunate the first country I went to with less than 6 months before expiry was Bangkok.
When I investigated online Thailand did not appear to have the 6 months validity for Australian Citizens as a requirement nor do we need an approved visa for less than 30 days.
So the booked ticket from Chengdu to Bangkok almost went without problems.
I say almost because I did not spot that the airline had changed the time and when I was at the airport I was advise that they had also changed the date!!
Lucky for me that the date was the following day and not earlier.
So I went back to the hostel and booked in for another night.
I had a change of plans in Thailand and decided to leave earlier and also visit Singapore.
I had a quick look online to see if Singapore required 6 months validity but could not find any information so I just booked a ticket even though on the ticket it said that I needed 6 months validity.
But after traveling so long I now know there is often a difference in what people say the rules are and what actually happens.
But sure enough when I arrived at the airport and asked for my ticket the woman spotted that I was traveling on an Emergency Passport with less than 6 months before expiry.
She called her supervisor and I went off to his counter. The supervisor said that he had checked the rules and advised that Singapore would not allow me in so they could not issue me the ticket.
He offered to show me the rules that said anyone traveling on an Emergency Passport had to have at least 6 months before expiry.
I asked him if there was any other sort of a transit visa that I could get ... so he phoned up another person to inquire about that.
When he got of the phone he said that he had been speaking to his duty manager and that the duty manager said that it would be ok for me to be issued a ticket.
But they warned that Singapore may deport me back to Hong Kong or to Melbourne at the airlines expense.
The beauty about not having anything booked is that I did not care what would happen.
They got me to sign a letter of acknowledgement about what might happen then issued me the ticket to Singapore.
Then he took a copy of my passport and visas using his phone as an after thought.
I arrived in Singapore and was granted entry without any issue !!
I had done it ..
My travel on an Emergency Passport:
The Australian Emergency Passport is only valid for 7 months after the date of issue.
Most countries only allow entry if you have at least 6 before expiry which normally means you can only travel on an Emergency Passport for 1 month.
But I wanted to travel for at least 2 months !!
I was fortunate the first country I went to with less than 6 months before expiry was Bangkok.
When I investigated online Thailand did not appear to have the 6 months validity for Australian Citizens as a requirement nor do we need an approved visa for less than 30 days.
So the booked ticket from Chengdu to Bangkok almost went without problems.
I say almost because I did not spot that the airline had changed the time and when I was at the airport I was advise that they had also changed the date!!
Lucky for me that the date was the following day and not earlier.
So I went back to the hostel and booked in for another night.
I had a change of plans in Thailand and decided to leave earlier and also visit Singapore.
I had a quick look online to see if Singapore required 6 months validity but could not find any information so I just booked a ticket even though on the ticket it said that I needed 6 months validity.
But after traveling so long I now know there is often a difference in what people say the rules are and what actually happens.
But sure enough when I arrived at the airport and asked for my ticket the woman spotted that I was traveling on an Emergency Passport with less than 6 months before expiry.
She called her supervisor and I went off to his counter. The supervisor said that he had checked the rules and advised that Singapore would not allow me in so they could not issue me the ticket.
He offered to show me the rules that said anyone traveling on an Emergency Passport had to have at least 6 months before expiry.
I asked him if there was any other sort of a transit visa that I could get ... so he phoned up another person to inquire about that.
When he got of the phone he said that he had been speaking to his duty manager and that the duty manager said that it would be ok for me to be issued a ticket.
But they warned that Singapore may deport me back to Hong Kong or to Melbourne at the airlines expense.
The beauty about not having anything booked is that I did not care what would happen.
They got me to sign a letter of acknowledgement about what might happen then issued me the ticket to Singapore.
Then he took a copy of my passport and visas using his phone as an after thought.
I arrived in Singapore and was granted entry without any issue !!
I had done it ..
My travel on an Emergency Passport:
- Russia: St Petersburg, Moscow
- Mongolia: Ulaan Baatar, Ulgii
- China: Beijing (72 hr Transit Visa)
- Hong Kong
- China: Shenzhin, Xining, Dunhuang
- Tibet: Lhasa, Everest Base Camp
- China: Chengdu
- Thailand: Bangkok
- Singapore
- Australia: Melbourne
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