The past two weeks would have been relaxing and rather
uneventful, except for the fact that I lost my passport. For those of you who
know me well, you know that I do not typically lose things. My room might be
messy, but my parents are always surprised that no matter how big the pile of
clothes on my floor gets, I always know exactly where each item is.
So, to backtrack a little, when I returned to Singapore from
Hanoi two weeks ago on a Sunday, I scanned my passport at the Singapore airport.
Then on Wednesday (3 days later), when preparing to go out for ladies night, I
went to get my Singapore ID from my travel backpack, which I had yet to unpack.
I keep my Singapore ID and passport together, in a small bag within my
backpack. I was surprised not to find the bag in my backpack, but was sure it
was somewhere in my room. If it wasn’t in my room, the only other places I
could have left it were the airport, the uber from the airport, or somewhere on
the street near my building. I filled out a lost item report for the airport,
asked my building security about it, and followed the uber procedures for a
lost item (first having them connect me to the driver’s phone number- which he didn’t
answer and did not have a voicemail option, and then messaging uber support
describing the lost item and letting them know I was unable to reach my
driver). After spending all day Thursday tearing apart my apartment, I couldn’t
find it. The airport didn’t have it, the building hadn’t seen it, and the only
response I had received from uber was a generic message outlining the
instructions to follow which I was already doing. I made an appointment at the
U.S. embassy for Friday morning, and waited to see if uber would respond to my
multiple requests for help contacting the driver.
I woke up Friday morning and had a message from uber asking
if it would be okay for them to release my phone number to the driver. Obviously
I would not have messaged them ten times telling them I lost my passport and
asking them to put me in touch with the driver if I was not okay with them
releasing my number, but whatever. I decided to go to the U.S. embassy anyway,
because as my friends pointed out, it probably wasn’t in the uber since it had
been almost a week and no one contacted me. Also, I needed to have a passport to travel over my spring break which was getting closer and closer. I must say I was
relatively calm throughout this whole process, but when I arrived at the
embassy, they took my phone (which I guess makes sense but I wasn’t expecting
it) and I wasn’t sure I had all the information I needed to fill out the
application. At this point, I was near tears, but I held it together while I
spoke to an agent for the first of 4 times that day. After a small passport
photo incident (the machine only took bills under 10 and I only had a 50 and
the embassy can’t give you change- thank you to the very nice lady trying to
get a visa for the U.S. who gave me change), I spoke to another agent, who told
me I could not apply for the passport until I filed a police report. He also
said that because of the Chinese New Year and president’s day (causing the
embassy to be closed for 3 consecutive business days), he wasn’t sure the
passport would be ready for pickup before my Feb. 21st trip, so I
should probably fill out another application for an emergency passport, which takes
1 day and has 1 year validity. Then, after sending me back to the waiting area,
him and the other agent stared and spoke about me for a few minutes, before
calling me back over. They said that if I could get a police report and return
after their lunch break but before they leave at 3:30, then my passport would
be ready for the trip. So, two police stations later, I returned to the embassy
with all the necessary paperwork. This time I spoke to a new agent, and when I
told him about my Feb. 21st travel plans he told me to cross my
fingers.
On Saturday night, I had a missed call from a Singapore number.
When I called back, it was my uber driver, telling me he had returned my
passport to the uber hub in Singapore. He was very nice and gave me detailed
instructions on how to get there. After a quick google search, I found out that
you cannot cancel a passport application, and as soon as you report one missing
to the embassy it can no longer be used. So, while the fact that I would soon
have my lost passport back did not do me much good, it still brought to
question when it was returned to the uber hub, and why they had not contacted
me (despite my repeated inquiries about the item). When I retrieved my item on Monday
morning, I got the answer to this question. They had had the item since the day
after my trip (so since the previous Monday). When I asked why they hadn’t contacted
me, the guy responded that the driver did not remember what trip it was from.
When I reminded them that the lost item was a passport (which for anyone who doesn’t
know- has my name in it), so they easily could’ve connected that to my account,
the guy didn’t know what to say. And even if this was their excuse for the
first two days the item was in their possession, there is really no explanation
for how they could not make the connection on Wednesday when I contacted uber
with an exact description of the lost item. The lack of communication was truly
astonishing, and personally I expected more from a technology company like
uber. I guess to get me to shut up, another person came over and apologized and
took my phone number for someone higher up to call me. Not surprisingly, it’s
been a week and that still hasn’t happened. I also contacted uber’s support again,
and received a generic response saying they heard my complaint and are striving
to be better, but changes take time.
Since then, I’ve had some time to relax, study, and attend
group meetings for the 2 projects I had due this week. I also celebrated the Chinese
New Year on Thursday night, which was just slightly more fun than how I spent
regular new years (on a china southern plane following my 10-hour delay). We went to china town, then to a festival that
was happening next to marina bay, and then to Ce La VI, a club at the top of
marina bay sands hotel, where we saw the fireworks. For the next two days I’m
busy with projects and midterms, and then I have 10 days off. I’m leaving for Cambodia
and Thailand on Wednesday (passport permitting), which I’m really excited
about!
Just to wrap up the passport saga- I’ll be going to the
embassy first thing Tuesday morning whether I hear from them or not. Hopefully
they have my passport, but if not I’ll apply for the emergency one, pick it up
on Wednesday morning, and my flight leaves Wednesday night. Feels like
everything is under control, but only time will tell. Hopefully next time you hear from me I'll be the proud owner of 2 U.S. Passports.
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