Last night, after having all the stress of the missing passport mostly lifted, I had a dream where I went in to a pocket in one of my bags, and found the passport.
I woke up, and recalled the dream enough that I felt I really ought to check that pocket, as I also remember that it was one I haad forgotten even existed.
I fished that bag out of the locker, and checked , and lo and behold, there was my passport! The only problem was that now it had been reported lost, it was no longer a valid travel document, so I could not continue on my travels without completing the whole replacement service.
The UK Passport office had advised that I needed a letter from the High Commission in Kuala Lumpur confirming that they were OK with having my passport delivered there, and so I couldn't post the application off just yet - first port of call was to go to the high commission to get the Emergency Travel Document.
I made it to the office and after confirming I had all the documents that I needed, I went out to McDonalds to enjoy breakfast while I waited for the Emergency Travel Document to be prepared for me.
I headed back to the commission, and picked it up, and the High Commission also cut the corners off my located passport.Now that I had this document, and an introduction letter for immisgration officials, which doubled up as a letter confirming where I was receiving the replacement, I had to go to immigration to get my special exit pass. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Emergency Travel Document looked just like a normal passport, apart from the fact that it was cream coloured, and only had a few pages. There were also special notes written in it to state that it was only valid for a trip to Singapore on 2nd June and return back to Malaysia on 5th June.
I returned to the hostel, and wrote the cover letter to enclose with my passport declaration, and then headed to the post office to send them all off to Gordon for countersigning. TO ensure that it would not take too long, I paid the maximum possible for fast signed for delivery, that being 100RM.
After this, I went back to the hostel, and Nafi walked me to the bus station to get on the bus to Putra Jaya, where the immigration office was for obtaining my exit stamp.
The bus journey was reasonably quick, and I made it to the center of Putra Jaya, where I headed towards the Immigration Office. The first building I went to, despite having huge letters on it saying it was the immigration office, turned out to be the wrong building, so I had to go further along the street to the next one, where I found my way to the relevant office.
At the first reception, I was advised to head to counter A to get the documents checked, which I did, then I had to go down a floor to get photo copies made of the police report and other documents. Once I made it back, I had to go back to counter A, and then wait to be called to make payment (100RM).
After all that was done and I had my exit stamp, including letter stating I had to leave the country within 7 days, I made my way back to the main road, and waited for the bus. I waited for some time before realising that I was probably waiting at the wrong stop, and checked with some locals who confirmed that i needed to be on the other side of the road.
I got the bus back, and eaded back to the hostel, somehow managing to avoid the rain again, and getting back to the hostel in time to get some Nasi Goreng for dinner.