Paris (Day Two) + Passports Mania

After a long disappearance, built not only on love with Malaysia, but also snowballed on guilt of having not been keeping touch, YD timidly peered out to the windows of blogspere, awaiting angry blows, or worse, disappointed sighs. Have I gone overboard in MIA this time?

Some of you have guessed correctly. Yes I am in love - in love with Malaysia, its food, family and friends, and erm... with somebody. (*blush*) I must admit that I am bad at balancing the time of going out and going online...

Anyway, that's another story. In this post, I have to finish my uncompleted story, which also leads to a worrisome experience in Malaysia.

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On the second day of Paris, we woke up early to visit the Eiffel Tower. Bustling along with the Parisians on the Metro was an eye-opening experience for me. The people were rougher than those in London, and politeness was certainly not the way to go around in the subway.

After the long ride, we arrived at the Trocadero station, saw the magnificent tower, and proceeded to line up to buy the tickets. It was then we realized the horrible truth - our passports were gone!

The passports, alongside with 100 Euros and 100 Swiss Francs, were kept in our travel pouch, which dad kept in his trousers. Yet it disappeared mysteriously during our morning journey with Parisians in the packed Metro train. Fast like a flash of lightning.

Our schedule was ruined. We rushed back to hotel to double check, just in case we left them in our room, but alas, we didn't. Luckily I brought along the contacts of Malaysian Embassy and made photocopies of passports and travel documents. We called the Malaysian Embassy and was told that we need a valid police report and photos before we can report this case to the embassy.

Well, we went to a local police station, and found out that none of the policemen speak English, and there was no translation service available in the station. We ended up in reporting our case in gestures and drawings, until now I am doubtful that the policewoman who attended to us really understood all our body languages. We spent more than an hour there, with most of the time wasted on trying to understand one another.

The helpful police officer.

After getting our police reports and photos done, we rushed to the Malaysian Embassy, as the time was running out and the office would be closing soon. After a journey which seemed like forever, we reached the station, and literally ran all the way to the embassy.

The office hour of the embassy has ended (3pm), and the staffs were actually having a farewell party for an ambassador. We begged the clerk and explained our situation to her (we have to depart for Switzerland tomorrow), and she, being such an angel, decided to help us out. Thank god!

The clerk (a.k.a. the angel) gave us many forms to fill in, including the one to report loss of passport, one to apply for emergency certificates and one for records. While we were filling in forms, the angel went to persuade the officer who had initially declined our case since it was past office hour. Thanks to her help, the officer nodded ok.

The long wait in the embassy.

We were very lucky to have such great help in foreign country. We were luckier to have an emergency certificate processed immediately and given to us by the end of the day. We settled everything at around 6pm, thanked our angel and the officer again and left the embassy.

The rest of the trip was brief. Our original plans of spending a day in the Lourve was cancelled. We persisted in going up the Eiffel Tower, but when we came down, there was a downpour, which lasted for about half an hour. Luckily the day was longer during summer, so we had more time to spend outdoors before bedtime. We spent a short time OUTSIDE the Lourve (it was already closed), where dad did his Tai-Chi routine and drew attention of many other tourists. hehe...

While dad was doing Tai-Chi, I decided to have some fun with the Lourve.

We spent the evening in a quiet little restaurant and enjoyed the Poisson soup, then we strolled along the Seine, onto the island, passing the Notre Dame and the Latin Quarter. It was a tiring day for us, but yet we relaxed as we walked along the river, in the romantic atmosphere.

Our saviour of the day - our emergency lunch which lasted us the whole day

This is indeed a memorable trip to Paris. Dad, who already disliked the haphazard traffic and the rude culture, and now coupled with this misfortune, decided that this might be his last visit to Paris. The silver lining of the cloud, is the warmth and the helpfulness of the many angels we have met in the city - the hotel staffs, the police officer and the embassy workers. Thank you very much for your kindness.

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Update:
The passport problem dragged on until we were back to Malaysia. To reapply for new passports, we were told to refill the same forms we filled in while in Paris, due to the lack of coordination of the local imigration offices with overseas embassies. The local imigration officers told us that the process of reapplying new passports could stretch more than one month, and we needed to translate the police report into B.Malaysia, take oath in court, and wait for the HQ to assess our application. Worse, we would be black-listed for loss of passports. But the most frightening prospect was that I might not be able to get my UK Visa in time to go back to London, with this hullabaloo stretching on...

Update 2:
We were lucky again! Someone found our passports (without the money of course) and handed back to the embassy. And thanks to the angel (the clerk) again, she managed to arrange a fast delivery of our passports to us. After the many visits to the imigration office, and the visa centre, I finally got my new passport done, and my UK visa renewed just in time! Phew!

I must really thank all the angels who helped us out. Without them, we would still be stuck in dealing with the immigration office now. In our life, there are so many people who have crossed paths with us with just brief encounters, yet, their impact in our lives are profound. Their kindness touches our heart, their helpfulness makes the world a better place.

It brings me to think about the many friends who have always been there, who care, who watch out for me. It brings me to think about you guys who are reading right now. I am very lucky to have met you in this path of life, and I thank you for your friendship, your care, your kindness. Thank you so much for being there.