After writing about our most memorable travel experience our next task was to write 250 words about our reaction to it. At this stage in the course we students had no idea what we had to write about in future weeks as they were embargoed until the Monday morning of each week. Perhaps if I had known what we would have had to write about I might have chosen an entirely different “memorable travel experience”.
Our trip had been organised a year ahead when we read that Azamara, a cruise line we love, was starting cruises in Australasia. It was for a celebration of my 60th birthday and our 30th wedding anniversary that we decided to do this particular cruise. We had therefore been looking forward to leaving a wintery UK in January 2016 to fly to a hot Sydney to meet the cruise ship.
However, a lost passport would mean that no doubt we wouldn’t be allowed to enter Hong Kong in order to change planes for the flight to Sydney and the cruise. As we all know the passport was found and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip seeing parts of Australia and New Zealand.
Perhaps for once I was more emotional about the “misplacing” of the passport that my wife was. Would the trip have to end in Hong Kong with us being sent back home without getting a sniff of Sydney and beyond? As a Scot would the money I had paid for the trip have to be forfeited? Would our travel insurance cover the cost of maybe cancelling our trip at this late stage?
Fortunately we had a wonderful holiday visiting new places and having novel experiences that perhaps only “Down Under” can offer. The “lost” passport was put aside and we relaxed, but it is a good story to bore friends with and perhaps offer a warning to keep all your documentation in a safe place at all times when travelling.