‘Then I Remembered – I’d Torn Off A Piece Of My Passport To Give My Number To Some Fella’

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By Vicki McGrath

"I booked a round the world ticket a few years ago with two work mates. I saved my ass off for about six months and worked three jobs, basically I turned into a hermit and didn't spend anything for those six months. It was pretty grim and fun was pretty limited… but I didn't care because I was going around the world.

Our first stop was Bangkok, so we got on our flight from Dublin to London for our onward flight to Thailand. Everything was going fine, flight went quick enough and when we landed we were all so excited!

But once we landed… it all went downhill pretty fast.

We were all waiting in the queue to show our passports and get our Visa stamp – and passport control in Thailand is pretty scary!

My two other mates went through fine. So I walked up and handed over my passport. The lady started looking through it and then handed me back my passport, asking why was there a rip in one of the pages!

My heart sank… I quickly remembered that during a holiday to Ibiza the previous summer, I tore off a teeny piece of paper from one of the back pages to give my phone number to some fella.

After a few more hours, it was decided that both myself and the man from the Philippines were being sent home

They refused me from entering the country and I was put in a holding cell with a lovely man from the Philippines for over seven hours. I was trying to organise an emergency passport, but they wouldn't let me leave the airport – so I couldn't do anything but wait.

After a few more hours, it was decided that both myself and the man from the Philippines were being sent home. I was devastated! I rang the company I booked my round the world ticket and they advised that it’s fine to fly home and that my ticket will still be valid – I’d just need to pay for a new Dublin to Thailand flight.

So I was put back on a flight to Dublin the next day and went straight to the passport office and got sorted.

When I called the company again to arrange a new flight to Bangkok, though, they then told me that my flight from Bangkok back to Dublin was my return flight of the ticket – and so it was no longer valid.

FML. I went back to Ibiza for five weeks and blew all my savings – but I still haven’t been around the world.

Oh, and for what it's worth... no, yer man never called!

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