Shuttlecock XXXI: Someone start a new in-joke so we can get a better title

[No spoken words]

For what it's worth, I've done 4 trips overseas and planned all of them myself.

And, yeah, keep records of everything on your person, and have electronic back-ups e-mailed to yourself in one big folder.

Also, make a photocopy of your passport and keep that someplace safe, just in case you lose yours.

But mostly, don't get too panicked or overwhelmed by all the advice/cautionary tales/warnings you'll get between now and when you depart. At the end of the day, you will be fine and you will have a great trip. Have fun researching and planning it. that's a big part of the fun.....

 

[corianderstem]

But mostly, don't get too panicked or overwhelmed by all the advice/cautionary tales/warnings you'll get between now and when you depart.

I've started a spreadsheet to start jotting down all the stuff I'm looking at, and learning. I'll sort it out as I go. I'm sure I'll have moments of sitting-in-the-corner-and-rocking panic along the way!

The passport copy is a tip I hadn't heard of yet, so thanks!

I put it on Facebook, so it's really official and junk now. I'm waiting for the parents' reaction. I'm expecting some level of trepidation of me going alone. Maybe I should have first told them "Hey, I'm going solo to Iran next year! ... just kidding, I'm going to Ireland!"

Or "Hey, mom and dad? I'm knocked up. Just kidding! Ireland doesn't sound so bad now, right?"

 

[Lila64]

My friends who moved to Australia travelled here last summer with an extra copy of their passport, so I knew that tip . I had taken Maddy & her friend on a tour at Paramount Studios (relative worked there), and thought I needed the girl's ID to get in. Turns out they only wanted my ID.

\my 2 cents

 

[corianderstem]

I'm just happy I already have a passport (and one that doesn't expire until 2012). At least that's one big piece out of the way.

I may or may not have picked up yet another travel book on the way home. I didn't mean to - I stopped into Elliot Bay Books on its closing day.

I'm happy it's just moving and not closing, but I'm seriously bummed it won't be at my bus stop anymore. I never go to the neighborhood where it's moving, so I had to buy something as a last hurrah.

 

[coolian2]

i'd never thought of the photocopied passport idea. i do know i need to carry around an extra form of photographic id because i bear very little resemblance to my passport photo - as i found out arriving in december.

my only useless tip is to put a copy of your itinerary in your suitcase with your address and contact details in a big black sharpie on the back so if all else fails you should still get your stuff back if your bag goes horribly missing.

 

[martha]

I make copies of my credit cards and leave one here at home and take one with me. I'm not sure why I do that.

 

[coolian2]

i also make two copies of all reservations, itineraries etc and then store them all together anyway.

i guess whatever horrible thing that happens to my backpack to destroy my printing will only ruin half of them and will magically stop before getting to all of my spares.

oh, and speaking of my awesome backpack, RIP. one of the straps broke as i was lifting it off the arrival x-ray in auckland a month ago. poor thing had travelled everywhere with me since 2007.

 

[No spoken words]

I also carry a knife in my shoe or boot.

I've only had to remove it from its hidden sheath twice.

Needless to say, I can no longer visit Morocco.

 

[coolian2]

I also carry a knife in my shoe or boot.

I've only had to remove it from its hidden sheath twice.

Needless to say, I can no longer visit Morocco.

i'm surprised you're allowed back to paris. just barely enough self control?

 

[No spoken words]

i'm surprised you're allowed back to paris. just barely enough self control?

Too many potential witnesses.

 

[corianderstem]

They won't let me into Wal-Mart anymore for similar reasons.

 

[coolian2]

Too many potential witnesses.

i like to think they'd have understood.

plus even if you did go to jail, you'd be in jail. it's a win for society either way.

 

[No spoken words]

i like to think they'd have understood.

plus even if you did go to jail, you'd be in jail. it's a win for society either way.

Agreed with the former, not so much with the latter cos I like not being in jail and all.

 

[u2popmofo]

i bear very little resemblance to my passport photo

I was briefly taken into a detention room in China while coming back across the border into Hong Kong, because the immigration agent didn't think I was the same person in my passport picture.

While funny now, I was absolutely terrified.

 

[martha]

Oh man. That would be terrifying.

 

[No spoken words]

I was briefly taken into a detention room in China while coming back across the border into Hong Kong, because the immigration agent didn't think I was the same person in my passport picture.

While funny now, I was absolutely terrified.

I don't blame you.

In Salzburg, I lost my passport and went to report it missing at a police station not far from the hotel. Just being in the fucking police station reporting something of mine missing freaked me out.

 

[coolian2]

I was briefly taken into a detention room in China while coming back across the border into Hong Kong, because the immigration agent didn't think I was the same person in my passport picture.

While funny now, I was absolutely terrified.

see post #312




but yeah, it's not fun. it's the sole contributing factor to my decision to drop the money for a new passport two years before i need another one. i at least had the first documented instance of a likable american immigration officer.

 

[u2popmofo]

It actually ended up playing out like the type of thing that could have happened in a comedy. No one said a word to me, they just escorted me (with armed guards) to a windowless room and closed the doors. Then 5 people walked in, the first looked at my passport picture, then at me, then back at the passport, then at me. He then handed it to the next person who did the same thing, then the next, the next, the next, etc. Once the last guy did it, they all looked at each other and shook their heads in a positive manner and motioned for me to get up and leave the room. During the course of this scenario, no one said a word to me, or even attempted to explain what was happening.

When I walked our of the room, the guy I was with was standing through the immigration gates (on the Hong Kong side) with this equally terrified look on his face. We both laughed for quite some time after I finally was let through.

 

[No spoken words]

You laughed your ass off, likely, cos all that adrenaline had to go somewhere.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

but yeah, it's not fun. it's the sole contributing factor to my decision to drop the money for a new passport two years before i need another one. i at least had the first documented instance of a likable american immigration officer.

gg.

what humours me is i could apparently use a photo of me when i was 12 on my passport and still look okay. all that's changed is my hair colour/length, the glasses i wear, and the nose piercing.

 

[No spoken words]

I need a new passport, actually, like now. Mine just expired. I need a new passport photo, too, due to aging many years while in Paris. I saw something nobody needs to really see, and it fucked my ass up.

 

[u2popmofo]

I saw something nobody needs to really see, and it fucked my ass up.

Friggin' Frenchies.

 

[martha]

Friggin' Freedoms.

Dude. Patriotism and shit.

 

[No spoken words]

Well, to be fair, Paris was the site, but what I saw was not French. No, not French at all.

 

[corianderstem]

..... I could say something really super awful mean right now about what that might have been, but I will not.

 

[u2popmofo]

Friggin' Freedoms.

Dude. Patriotism and shit.

Because of my mistake, the terrorists have already won.

 

[corianderstem]

Ian, your backpack that was your backpack love of your life - what kind was it?

 

[No spoken words]

..... I could say something really super awful mean right now about what that might have been, but I will not.

Probably for the best.

 

[No spoken words]

Because of my mistake, the terrorists have already won.

With 24 being cancelled, the death knell has rung.

Terrorism truly won.

 

[corianderstem]

Probably for the best.

Definitely.

Plus, I don't know if you actually saw something really horrifying, or if you're making a joke about something that was horrifying, but not, you know ... actual real-life horrifying. More like internet horrifying.