I owe Melissa a big hug. Last night at the Mouscars awards ceremony she mentioned that one of her relatives wasn’t able to travel because her passport was valid for less than six months from her departure. I checked my passport and sure enough it expired in Jan 2006. Panic ensued. I searched many websites including travel.state.gov and the China consulate and Hong Kong government official sites. There was conflicting data. None of the Chinese or HK sites mentioned it, and even part of the official US site did not mention it while another one did. Traveldocs.com says that you do.
So I began to doubt if I would be able to go. Cathay Pacific was no help (and I was a bit peeved with them for not mentioning this vital fact when I booked my ticket). So at 2am I made an appointment for the Los Angeles Passport Agency. I woke up at 5am and raced to Kinkos for some photos. Great, now I have half asleep photos for the next 10 years.
I raced up to LA this morning and nervously waited for my appointment at 8:30am. Still panicked, the clerk smiled at me and said “No Problem” because I was traveling tonight, they could have the rush passport ready by 1pm. So I am waiting at Dad’s work for a bit and then I am going to head to the Westside Pavilion Mall to pick up some last minute items.
Hopefully the rest of my trip preparations will go smoothly. I am hoping that Matt has some wireless connectivity in his apartment so I can upload photos and blog from Hong Kong.
I’ll also post a photo from the Mousecars before I leave!