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Here is an example of an article on TRAVEL:
St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society
St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine
vol. 23, no. 7 JULY 2001
LOST IN PLACE
Last year, the St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine
published my article on travel safety. Perhaps they will publish it again this year as a companion to this one. Why? Because
the tips I offered were very valuable—and I proved it! By not following my own advice (dumb!), I managed to lose my
passport, money, driver’s license and other papers. I was persona non grata, nobody, nothing! I was lost, in place.
Let me start at the beginning: “a very good place to start…” No, no that’s a song start, not a story!
Anyway, I decided this year to put all my documents, credit cards, and money of all stripes in one portfolio. Rule #1 says:
Do not put all your valuables in one place! Especially your passport! But I know better than I do! So I did it. I buried it
all in a deep zippered pocket where no thief would ever find it. And he never did! We stopped for gas on our way to Bordeaux
(City), and I removed said portfolio from its safe place to use a credit card. I left it near me in the front driver’s
stash place, and we drove on. Bordeaux was difficult to navigate, and we could not park successfully. So we parked on the
street. Rule #2 says: Do not park on the street when you have luggage in the car! But I know better than I do! So I did it!
And guess what? I got out of the car, grabbed my portfolio and put it down on the fender of the car while I gathered my camera
and jacket. Then I went to feed the meter. Then I started off to sightsee… And then I remembered!! It’s on the
car!!! “Please be there, please be there, please be there,” I kept saying. But, you already know because this
is a story about losing your passport that I lost my passport!! A kick in the stomach would have felt better than that feeling.
Here we were, in France. We had planned a great vacation, and I (dumb!) loused it! Despondent, rejected, depressed…
I felt every one of these. My wife was really good to me that day. Usually, I would get a lecture on my dumb stunts, but this
one was so way out there stupid, that she did not find the words to make me feel any worse. In fact, she was supportive, bless
her. I was undone. We spent the better part of the afternoon at the Bordeaux Police station—another experience in itself.
Have you ever been to a police station in a country where you are not totally conversant in the lingo? Gosh, it was fun! And
my wife (who does speak the lingo) was pretty quiet, except when she had to correct my constant incorrectness. And between
my gesticulations, her vocabulary, and the police officer’s (barely) English, we were issued a Police Report (a.k.a.
driver’s license) and “hope.” So we continued our journey. We arrived at the lovely country chateau where
we had booked a weekend and sight-seeing excursions. Since there was nothing to do at 10 p.m., except eat a late dinner, we
did just that. And it was very good. A good night’s sleep followed plans for the next day’s decisions. Early the
next day, we called the U.S. Embassy in Paris. They explained that only Paris has the ability to remake my passport, and I
could not leave France to go to Britain without one. “Why don’t you drive the 400 miles to Paris this morning,
and you could be back by nightfall?” the young lady said. I placed the question before my wife, who said: “We
have reservations for lunch! We can’t go to Paris!” So we went to lunch. Several phone calls later we had a plan
to go to Paris the following Monday and retrieve lost passport. It was a U.S. holiday, but I was assured by the embassy that
they would be open. That settled, we continued our lovely sojourn in the Dordogne and dreamed the dreams of the contented.
On Sunday afternoon, we drove into Paris. Usually the weather is gray and rainy, but today it was sunny and pleasant. “Wow,”
we thought, “we should have planned to stay in Paris, not London.” But, we had our mission: go to the embassy
guard and get the papers for our passport remake. Then the next morning, we would be able to go right through and catch our
train in the afternoon. All would be well, and we were only 12 hours off our original schedule. At the embassy, we were taken
to the officer of the day, and we stated our request. “You will have to wait until Tuesday, sir,” he said. “The
embassy is closed tomorrow.” “I knew it!” I shouted, sotto voce. “Bummer!” I said to my wife.
Now we have to stay in Paris for 24 hours. My ever-resourceful wife pulled out her guidebook and planned the next 24 hours.
The hotel was kind enough to extend our stay and call the London hotel to explain our predicament. We called a good restaurant
that could take us early (like good American tourists), and we settled in for our (unlucky?) stopover. On Tuesday, it was
pouring rain. (The Paris I remember.) We made it to the embassy and waited with dozens of other passportless victims. We all
exchanged stories: The leader of a high school group who somehow had his stolen while the kids’ were fine; the opera
student whose passport was taken from her jacket while she slept on the train (She was wearing the jacket!); the couple whose
trunk was busted at a tourist area. Yes, folks, the stories abound, and everybody feels stupid and careless. Ah, how misery
loves company.
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Tips for Travel — Before You Go
Make sure you have a valid passport
and visa if needed for foreign travel. Take extra passport photos.
• Find a safe pouch for your passport and valuables:
leg wallet, money belt; neck pouch, etc. • Only take the things you need, e.g., one or two credit cards—not all
of them! And your driver’s license if you plan to rent a car. (Telling about that would take another article.)
•
Make copies of pertinent documents and tickets and put them somewhere else, e.g., hand luggage.
• Check on immunizations
and travel insurance if they are needed. Take copies of prescriptions you take and an extra pair of glasses. Pack a few basic
meds: aspirin, antacids, bowel regulators, antibiotic, Ace wrap, Band-Aids, antibiotic spray or ointment, antihistamines and
an “epipen.”
• Tell the police and a contact person where you will be. Find out about medical help abroad
if needed.
Packing
• Try to pack a light suitcase if possible to avoid muscle strain. Use porters, wheels and
help whenever you can. Sore arms, shoulders and backs make for an unhappy trip.
• Pack for the weather, but wear
as many coats as possible. I wear a sport coat and slacks that are carry a raincoat, and pack a pair of dress slacks for special
dinners. • Pack or wear good walking shoes.
• Don’t pack things that will blow up or leak with pressure
changes. Pack liquids in plastic bags in case they leak.
• Don’t pack valuables, medications, etc., in checked
luggage. Carry them with you.
• Pack one change of clothes, preferably wash-and-wear material, plus underwear in
your carry-on. On the Plane
• Get comfortable in whatever way you can—loosen clothes, shoes off after takeoff.
• Drink plenty of water. The planes are dry, and some jet lag is due to dehydration. Avoid alcohol in excess. (A
little will make you relax!)
• Get up and walk. This will help avoid venous stasis and swollen feet. (You’ll
thank me in the morning.)
• Sleep!BBR> Being There
• Get situated. Find your things. Get to the hotel.
Clean up. See how you feel. It is not advisable to drive right away. Get some rest and get acclimated to the time change.
•
Try to adjust your body to the rhythm of the new time. Eat at meal times. Stay hydrated. Try to adjust naps to allow for a
real night’s sleep. Drive when you are awake!
• In countries where you do not speak the language, ask your
hotel concierge or desk person to write the name of your hotel on a card and carry it wherever you go.
• Get a map
of the city—in English—and plan your forays. Avoid areas of the city where tourists are not abundant.
•
Keep your cash and valuables out of sight. Use traveler’s checks or small amounts of cash for purchases. Be cautious
at ATM machines.
Coming Home
• Maintain a list of purchases for customs. Check if items are duty-free or if the
country you have visited has a special rating. Check if all of your items will travel safely.
• Keep all jewelry
and valuable purchases with you.
• Be honest at customs—list your most valuable items at the top.
Harry
L.S. Knopf, MD
REFERENCE:
Going Abroad: 101 Tips for Mature Travelers; Boston, MA; Grand Circle Travel. Abridgement
from St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine, Vol. 22, No. 6, June 2000.
To get back to your citizenship, you must identify yourself in some way.
This part of my travel tips I did follow: always make a copy of your passport picture and inside front I.D. and put it somewhere
else. (One youngster who was at the embassy had no identification, and she may still be there for all we know.) Once identified,
the actual time to obtain my new passport was minimal. Rearmed and ready, we found our way back to the hotel and train station.
Off to London and then back to the good old U.S. of A. The moral of this tale: Don’t be stupid. Take precautions with
all of your things when you are abroad. There are people out there just waiting for you to have your loss of conscientiousness.
They watch, they wait, they act in the wink of an eye! By the way, six months later I got back my portfolio with everything
in it except the money and the passport. I hope this story helps you not to lose your passport, and if lost, to retrieve a
new one. The only “silver lining” of this stormy vacation is my souvenir police report and a passport that says
“Issued in Paris, France.” Is my wife jealous!
Harry L.S. Knopf, MD
Dr. Knopf, editor of Harry’s
Homilies, is an ophthalmologist in private practice.
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