I didn’t intend to continue the saga...honest!My Insurers didn’t live up to that old
strapline “we won’t turn a drama into a crisis”. They turned it into a bumper
edition of Eastenders.
After the fantastic hospitality of Mike and Celeste at Lao
Hostel. Have I mentioned Lao Hostel....a real Laotian paradise, with owners who
have more than a great place ( check it out), they also have a good heart. They
more than comfortably fit into the category of life’s great people. They
provided me with a bed, money for food, not to mention a very welcomed beer and
aided by Silvano, Rikki and Emma arranged my money to get transport
Buenos Aires to get a
replacement Passport.
I’d spent about two days calling banks, credit card
companies, AMEX (travellers cheques), UK Embassy and FO trying to make sure
that everything was cancelled and to work out the best way to get a replacement
passport. It’s a strange position to be in. You can’t get a passport without
money and you can’t get money without a passport. It’s what the inimitable
Milburn Douglas would define as a Catch 69, but more commonly known as the
catch 22 position. Whilst it was possible to send the money, forms and photos
to get the passport sent by post from
Buenos Aires
to
Mendoza, all the advice pointed towards going
to
Buenos Aires
to get it. Firstly there was the issue of time. Secondly, there was problem of
completing forms and getting photos done to precision standards. However, it
was the post that was the deciding factor. Nine times out of ten, post doesn’t
get where it’s supposed to.I had that
on good authority from others in
Mendoza,
and even the Embassy admitted that there were problems with the postal system.
So I left you with a hurried BLOG to tell you about what was undoubtedly my
most hairy moment of the journey, not to mention the most expensive visit to
the toilet ever.....close to £1,200 and that doesn’t include my swiss army
knife and chargers!
Though an 18 hour bus
journey to BA filled me with more dread than cycling through the Angostura
tunnel, I arrived with nothing but a small bag, fully expecting to be down for
a couple of days and back to Mendoza by the weekend, ready to continue the
journey. It had been arranged that as soon as I got the Embassy, I was just to
call Euro Assistance and the money would be delivered to me at the Embassy that
day. I got off the bus at Retiro, BA and made my way on the subway to
Recolleta, closeby the embassy. I was given a very nice greeting, together with
the forms to complete and attended to by the Embassy staff who were great, esp
Maria-Jose.
The Embassy allowed me to phone Euro Assistance to get the
money sent over. I phoned the
UK
and they said that their Agent in
Argentina would bring the money
over to me right away. I explained that the Embassy closed at 2pm, and that it
was important that they were there before then or else I might not get the
Passport by the weekend. 2 pm came! No call, no money! I asked if the Embassy
would allow me to stay a while longer. Finally about 2.15 I received a call
from their agent to say that they did not have the money and that I would not
get it until tomorrow. I explained that that was no good to me. I had travelled
to BA on the understanding that I would have this money transferred to me. I
had no ability to get accommodation, food or a passport. I won’t bore you with
the full saga of getting this money sent to me, but suffice it to say, it
involved a three page letter going to Insure and Go, My travel insurers, who
charge me over £360 a year for the privilege of having emergency cover!
One of my calls with Insure and Go went a bit like this.
“Sorry sir, but it is a separate company that provides emergency cash” ( money
that had already been transferred to them from my account!) and that I’d have
to raise it with Euro assistance direct. Very calmly I explained that I have no
contractual or business relationship with Euro Assistance, only with Insure and
Go which is the company I pay my annual premium to. They are unable to help me,
so it is clear that this has become insure and Go’s problem. You don’t understand
sir, it is a separate company..... Don’t you just love it when an idiot say’s “
you don’t understand Mr Dunbar” “STOP!” was my response; you don’t understand!
That separate company works for you, not me. It is therefore up to you to
ensure that they deliver the money that was promised to me for today. They are
trying their best sir, there is nothing else we can do!
Cut a long story short...... I received the money at 11.30
on Friday three days later, after a three page letter the night before. It was
looking as if, without writing this letter, I was going to be here a for five
or six days without money. That would not have enabled me to get my Passport,
as the Embassy needed everything at least 48 hours beforehand to ensure that
the passport would be ready.
Here’s the rub. I spend a considerable amount of money on
travel insurance to cover me for this sort of disaster. So why do I have to
rely on people who are delightful, but only brief acquaintances I’ve made
during my journey ( though undoubtedly now, lasting friends). After Mike and
Celeste at
Mendoza, enter both Pablo and Marta
from
Buenos Aires.
You may remember I met them in El Calafate, when I was visiting the Perito
Moreno glaciar. Absolutely brilliant human beings. They fed and watered me.
Introduced me to Fernet and LOST. More about LOST later.
Can someone explain to me why we waste such exorbitant sums
of money on Travel Insurance when they cannot deliver even the basic
contractual obligations. Now had I been in the middle of the
Congo, or the jungles of
Borneo,
I might have accepted that getting emergency money to me ( which they had
already taken out of my account), would be a shade difficult. But I was in one
of the biggest cities in the world! I really was close to breakdancing in front
of cars at traffic lights to earn some money to eat and was almost reduced to
sleeping on a park bench for a few days! Instead Marta and Pablo, who I’d only
me once before, a small Hostel and of course, Mike and Celeste, who I’d just
met, all came to the rescue. Undeniably, this is humanity in action. If
however, you’d heard the telephone conversations with Insure and Go ( f@@@@.
yourself!)... my new name for this company; and Euro Assistance either in the
UK or in
Argentina, you would have heard not
only inhumanity, but utter incompetence.
Now as I put it to them. I am middle aged, have been
sleeping in a tent by the side of the road for much of the journey and could
probably have survived even without money for a couple of days, though I didn’t
have a tent, nor could I have used one in BA. However, think what it would have
been like if I had been a young single female (not trying to be sexist). It
would have been criminal and extremely serious. It was, no, it is unacceptable.
However, they were trying their best!!!!! Well that’s ok then!
Incase you’re
wondering, I was only getting £500. It’s about £130 for a replacement passport!
