Hello folks! I was looking through some of my belongings the other day and I found my old passport. The one I used in 2011, until disaster struck!
After spending most of the year travelling, I gave my trousers up to be washed by my host family in Georgia where I was teaching English for three months. It turned out that my passport was in there. I had to return to Tbilisi on a certain date when people from the Australian Embassy in Turkey were visiting to organise an emergency passport. I nearly didn’t make it though when I ended up overnight in hospital in Batumi for food poisoning!
All was okay in the end. The saddest part was the loss of the stamps and the visas – I love stamps and visas. Well, all the pages fell out and some things faded away. But, much of it was readable. So today I present my proud collection of visas – some of them back to 2007 (Mali and Russia) from this passport which met such a sad fate.
Coming back to Australia, my emergency passport was washed two days after getting home! Seriously. You wouldn’t read about it. Except that you did!
Andy's World Journeys 
I never put my passport through the washing machine but i have a series of losses of phones in water. There is now a pile of 4 blackberries lying somewhere, every time they fell or were put (thanks to my little ones) in the water. It’s not cool losing the phone but i hate losing what’s inside. This time round i lost LOADS of phone numbers from many different countries and i’m kicking myself now… please someone invent waterproof Blackberries
I’m always paranoid I’ll do something like that while away.
I too love to look back on visas and stamps in old passports.
I love stamps and visas too.
Oh no!! This is like something out of a comedy sketch – I can’t believe you ended up washing your passport! It’s the kind of thing that could happen to anyone but just a bit of a nightmare to sort out and as you say, I love looking back at old stamps and the memories they give rise to! Great story!
oh no…I am paranoid about passport and visa..and I do love visa and stamps too. The coolest visa was from UK which included my photo printed in the visa 😀 but the process of applying UK visa was awful!!
OMG that would devastate me!! I know it’s stupid, but it just would!!
Oh no! The greatest treasure/ souvenir of all! Disaster! They do look kind of arty though (in an old treasure map kind of way), you should frame them!
They ARE arty aren’t they? Should be in a gallery! lol. thanks for reading!
I don’t have the traveling bug like you do, but the photos of the visas do make me feel slightly envious!
I LOVE visas so much. Okay, so when I paid 120 bucks for one for Kyrgyzstan I’d rather have kept the money, but still. better than a photo! maybe….
Ha! Can’t believe your emergency passport was also washed! Too funny. 🙂
Haha I thought the same! Hope your new passport is treated to a water proof case maybe 😉
Well, I usually carry it in the money belt in a zip lock bag. but I had stopped for a few months and was so stupid as to not return it to a safe place. thanks for reading!
I feel that some sort of hilarious road runner sound effect is needed! hmmmm yes…. was not best pleased but it got me home and I couldnt use it again anyway, good for one journey home. Then I needed to provide extra ID to get my replacement.
What a great find! I love going through old passports! I had to change my passport this year, so it’s a complete virgin now ;( Not for long, though!
haha still the empty passport is FULL of possibilities! thanks for reading!