What NOT to do in Russia
- Kei Lau
- May 8, 2019
- 10 min read
So this is not a baby related post. However it is an EPIC story about the time I lost my passport. It's also a little walk down memory lane of my pre-mum life. It's a bit of a read, so grab a glass of wine, some popcorn and hold on tight!
The top thing NOT to do on a holiday is to lose your passport. Somehow I managed to lose TWO passports at the SAME time in RUSSIA (where almost no one speaks English)!
We were on a two week trip from St Petersburg to Moscow and through to Beijing on the Transiberian Express. I carried two Passports with me for the trip (Australian and HKSAR) in order to avoid visa fees. I heard it was unsafe to keep passports in the safe in the hotel, so I kept them with me.
Throughout the whole trip, I had been extremely vigilant. I kept all my tickets and cash in a security pouch. My passports were kept in a leather pouch to protect it from the rain. The leather pouch was neatly tucked in the back of my slingbag which was locked most of the time. This was the one and only time my bag was unlocked as I was getting out my wallet to pay for food.
It was on a Friday night and it was our last night in Moscow before boarding a train to Beijing. We were getting ready to go to the Moscow circus. There wasn't enough time for a sit down dinner, so we decided to buy food from a street vendor. A lady was standing quite close to me. I assumed she was trying to jump the queue. My natural competitive feeling was to prevent her from pushing in. As my bag was zipped up and in front of me the whole time, it didn't occur to me that she was trying to steal anything out of my bag. She was so light-handed and it was seriously a one second job! I didn't even even notice her reach for it.
We went to sit down in the park to eat our food. A strange feeling came over me. I decided to check on my belongings in my sling bag. That's when I discovered both my passports were missing.
Suddenly I felt like I was on the amazing race! My whole world started spinning around me (like how they film it on TV). I started running around and jumping up and down hysterically. I am normally quite a calm person, however in this moment I could not keep calm. I could not control my body.
All these thoughts started streaming into my head. I had lost my identity, I didn't know if I would be able to get onto the train with my friends, I didn't know if I would be stuck in Russia, I didn't know if I would be allowed back into the UK, I didn't know if I needed to go back to Australia to reapply for a visa, I didn't know how much this would all cost me and more importantly I didn't know who would be stealing my identity and what they would use it for.
We went back to the food vendor to find traces or evidence. Absolutely none. The vendor couldn't speak word of English and we didn't speak a word of Russian. She just stood there and stared.
There were two other Hong Kong tourists also around the area. They noticed that something wrong and offered us help.
As I was hysterical, I was not in the mind space to think about what I needed to do next. Our two new friends suggested we report the loss to the police station and also to contact the respective embassies. They gave us numbers of the Chinese embassy, offered their phone for us to call with, reassured me and helped me calm down. It is so nice to see some friendly faces and people from home.
I traveled with a good group of friends. They worked together to help me find embassy numbers and police stations. One person was online trying to find the local police station. (Thank goodness for smart phones!) One was trying to contact both the Chinese embassy and Australian embassy. As it was a Friday night, all the embassies were close and didn't open until Monday. Unfortunately we were only in Moscow for 1 more night.
We googled our way to a local police station. The police didn't understand a word of English. We had booked the trip through a travel agent and they had a Moscow representative who came down to help us with translation. We were told we had to go down to the Central Police station. So the police packed us into their cop cars and we were taken for a ride to the central police station. My first (and hopefully only) time in a cop car.
The central police station was definitely a sight to be seen. It is like a scene out of the movies. Metal detectors as soon as you enter the station. Fully armed offices with rifles strolling around. The office was a dusty old room with two desks, a couch and a small box television set. There was a small waiting area outside of security with a wooden bench. My friends couldn't go into the office with me, so they waited outside.
Here I sat inside the office alone with a policeman and our travel agent. It was a long wait for the police report to be written up. At one point, a policeman with a huge rifle came into the room. He was speaking with the officer writing up my report. Meanwhile his gun was pointing directly towards me as he was stroking it. What if he accidently pulled the trigger?
I had heard that Russian police were not trustworthy or reliable. I was skeptical of everything they gave to me. They wrote up a police report but never asked for my particulars (i.e. passport numbers, etc.) I offered the information but they assured me they didn't need it. After a couple of hours, they finally issued a report in Russian and told me that is all I need to get out of the Russian border. Although I was slightly skeptical but I didn't know what or how to respond.
It was close to midnight by the time we finished with all the procedures. As soon as I got my police report, we left and headed back to our hotel to rest.
The next day, I tried to enjoy my last few hours in Moscow, however all sorts of worries were streaming through my head.
Our train was in the evening. We headed to the train station a bit earlier in case there were any complications. Unfortunately there were more complications and boarding the train turned out to be another obstacle. The carriage conductor denied my entry onto the train as I did not have my passport. She was not able communicate in English. Once again, we had to ring the agent for translation. Meanwhile I was panicking thinking that I would be left in Moscow when all my friends would be going on to Beijing.
Our agent explained to the conductor that I had a home return card which will allow me across the Chinese border. (A home return card is a travel permit for Hong Kong citizens to enter into China visa free.) They had an in-depth conversation and after a little wait, she let me onto the train. I sighed a little sigh of relief (for now).
When we stopped in the morning at one of the break stations, the conductor asked to speak to our agent again. I panicked a little - where they going to take me back to Moscow? The agent explained to me the full situation. It turned out I was not able to leave Russia without a passport and without a stamp to signify my entry into Russia. However instead of going back to Moscow, I can go to a Chinese consulate in Irkutsk (a Siberian city) to get my passport there. I would then fly into Beijing, which would be a few days earlier than when my friends arrive. This would give me enough time to sort out my Australian passport.
The next four days were spent in the train. During the train journey, we changed 5 different time zones however the train would always keep the time the same as Moscow. The train experience was interesting but also sometimes quite boring. Each day, the train would stop at a 3-4 stations for 15mins or so. This would give us an opportunity to stretch our legs, get some fresh air and buy some food from the station. At many of the stations, there would be vendors on the side of the tracks selling local food. I must say it is definitely an experience that I will never forget. We met new friends, tried local foods and played games.
I arrived in Irkutsk on Wednesday morning at 8am. The tour company had sent a local agent to help me out for the day with translation, organising appointments and driving me around to the different offices. As it was a rare case, even the agent wasn't quite sure what the process was to get me out of the country. She made various phone calls along the way and thankfully she had friends in high places who were able to help us out.
There were only 2 flights out from Irkutsk a week: Wednesday afternoon and Saturday. My flight back to London was on the Saturday. Therefore I had to catch the Wednesday afternoon flight to Beijing in order to make it back to London on time. My agent checked the flight availability the morning I arrived in Irkutsk and there were only 3 seats left on the Wednesday flight. Unfortunately I could only book my flights once I got my passport.
I had only 5 hours to get an emergency passport from the Chinese consulate, a stamp from Russian immigration to signify my entry into Russia and plane tickets to fly out at 4:50pm on the same day to Beijing.
Firstly, we went to the Chinese consulate to obtain an emergency passport. They were not familiar with the HKSAR emergency passport process and therefore had to make a few phone calls to understand how the passport could be issued. Originally the passport would have taken 1.5 days, we had to negotiate to get them to produce this in 3 hours. Somehow (and I don't know how as everyone was speaking in Russian), we managed to get the passport completed by around 12:30pm.
By around lunchtime, we were able to go to the Russia immigration desk. The staff were actually on holidays, however they came in to help us out and even worked through lunch. They noticed a discrepancy between my travel documents. The Chinese consulate had translated my name in Mandarin pinyin ("Liu Ying Qi") for the emergency passport. Whereas my name on all other official documents was spelt using Cantonese pinyin ("Lau Wing Kei"). Therefore my names on all my documents were inconsistent. After a couple hours and a few phone calls, they managed to work around it and issued a travel document to acknowledge my entry into Russia.
Finally at 3pm, we went to the travel agent's office to book one of the last plane tickets from Irkutsk to Beijing that afternoon. We then raced across the city to the airport. I held my breath and crossed my fingers as I crossed passport control. Somehow made it to the gate with time to spare.
I was so relieved and thankful when I got onto the plane. I was also exhausted, I passed out on the plane.. I was only running on 2 hours sleep. My body was still running on Moscow time. (Moscow time is 5 hours behind Irkutsk)
My adventure didn't stop there! As I arrived in Beijing 3 days earlier than expected, I had no accommodation booked and very little RMB. I went to the hotel service at the airport and found a hotel with availability in the city center. It looked a lot better on the brochure, but in actual fact it was probably only 2*. The rooms were dark, everything smelt and looked a bit dirty.
First thing the next morning (Thursday), I went to the Australian embassy to get my emergency passport. This was where I encountered yet another obstacle. The police report was issued in Russian which had to be translated into English. In addition, my application for the emergency passport (including translated police report) had to be returned to the embassy by 5pm that day in order for my passport to be issued on time. It was 10am in the morning and I had 6 hours to get my police report translated, take some new passport photos and return all the documents to the embassy.
The embassy provided 2-3 places that offered translation services, unfortunately they were on all different sides of the city. If anyone knows Beijing, it is a massive city and so easy to get lost! I literally ran around Beijing trying to find a translator who would translate from Russian to English within 2-3 hours. The first place I went to, flatly declined and said its impossible. The second place I went to said it would take a day. Somehow I managed to negotiate for it to be done by 3pm.
There was a delay by the translator to get back my documents. In the end, I got my documents back at 3:45pm. I jumped in a taxi and headed back to the embassy, only to be met by traffic. I prayed and hoped that I would make it back to the embassy before it closed at 5pm.
I got to the embassy at 4:45pm and ran straight to the desk to lodge my documents. I made it!
As I left the embassy, it started storming. Loud claps of thunder, lightning, heavy torrential rain and wind. I was wearing a white t-shirt, carrying my SLR (with no camera bag) and also important documents (with no plastic sleeve). I waited at the embassy hoping it would stop. I was hoping that some kind-hearted person would offer to walk me to the nearest metro station. I waited for 2 hours. There were still no signs of stopping and no one to help out. Everyone just looked at me and walked off.
At around 7pm, the rain died down slightly, so I decided to make a run for it. I got a plastic bag from the security guard and covered my documents and camera in it. I used my red scarf to wrap around my t-shirt so it wouldn't go see-through. I then ran for 10 mins down the road to the metro.
After collecting my passport on Friday afternoon, I checked myself into a 5* hotel. That night, I had the longest shower and the best sleep from the whole trip!
My friends arrived in Beijing on Saturday morning. We enjoyed a full day of sight-seeing and Peking Duck. We flew back to London that same night and thought about the adventure we had.
This was definitely a trip to remember. I have never felt so glad to be going back home. The UK immigration officer was empathetic of my whole situation. I was so happy to be back in London!!
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