Lost Passport: The Most Humiliating Travel Mistake of My Life

By Sean Ogle •  Updated: 08/29/21 •  2 min read

Over the years I’ve made a lot of stupid travel mistakes.

There was the time I was supposed to have a meeting in Ubud (the center of the island in Bali) and after two hours of riding my motorbike, I ended up at the ocean.

There’s the time I almost lost my laptop at Boston Logan International Airport.

There’s the time I got in a shady cab in Guangzhou, got ripped off, and then had to wait outside my friend’s door until they remembered I was showing up…at 4am. Fortunately, I was able to guess their wifi password…

But all of those pale in comparison to that one time in Japan…

That time, that I got on a bus in Niseko, preparing for over 24 hours of straight travel, back to the United States, and 30 minutes into the bus ride it hit me.

I left my passport at the hotel.

Lost Passport Horror Story

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words – but I think this video does a better job of summing up the experience of losing your passport, better than I ever could:

Fortunately, before the whole lost passport debacle, we had a pretty incredible experience in Tokyo.

Sean Ogle

Sean Ogle is the Founder of Location Rebel where he has spent the last 12+ years teaching people how to build online businesses that give them the freedom to do more of the things they like to do in life. When he's not in the coffee shops of Portland, or the beaches of Bali, he's probably sneaking into some other high-class establishment where he most certainly doesn't belong.
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2 comments on "Lost Passport: The Most Humiliating Travel Mistake of My Life"

  1. Love I love your video presentation dude. I recall at the beginning of my trip, the person I was with walked away from the ATM in Bali, being flustered by the hawking transport drivers begging to drive us to the airport. The person I was with – whom I love dearly – and I spent time at the airport trying to fix that ATM situation nearly a decade ago. Times was tight. 1 ATM card. No cash for the Indo tax you paid leaving in those days, nor for stuff we needed to get in Phuket on our next leg. All worked out eventually but goodness it was a toughie for my wife and I. I mean for a person I love dearly. LOL.

    PS….Did you wind up in the Bukit in Bali? So easy to get lost in Bali, especially riding to Ubud. We rent motorbikes but usually just taxi-transport places then simply motorbike around town and the surrounding villages.

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