Problems, problems …
One of the most important aspects of our job as a tour operator is to think ahead and try to foresee what could possibly go wrong, and then to plan to avoid that situation or, at least, to plan a course of action to minimize the problems that are caused as a result.
One of the most distressing, recurring nightmares that I suffer is not one where tourists are caught up in civil disorder … despite having experienced two revolutions and numerous “little local difficulties” of this sort; it’s not having to deal with a road traffic accident or a natural disaster like an earthquake. All of these represent and present real problems, but are easier to cope with in many respects than my bête noir: problems with the documentation.
What is so frustrating about this issue is that many “problems with documentation” should never happen, they are foreseeable and can be avoided by checking and rechecking … and checking again. Still, they do happen, very easily – a slip of the pen, or a simple oversight of a small detail – and they can be so difficult to resolve.
It could be that someone has simply misread a figure wrong – or swapped two figures over … we had that problem on one occasion with one our registration documents … it took us ages to get it sorted out. We’ve also faced that problem over bank transfers … the transfer has been arranged, but the money doesn’t arrive in the account … you wait for five working days and then ask for an enquiry, or search, to be made … on one occasion it took three attempts to transfer money … on each occasion a bank clerk filling in the paperwork, and on each occasion the money either being returned or credited to the wrong account.
In the case of official forms, such as social security returns, the penalties for making such a simple mistake can be quite serious – 25% of ALL the social fund contributions made by the company that year … which could well be millions of soms. This means that our accountants are especially careful in checking and double checking every box on every form …
On one occasion we had a vehicle stopped by the traffic police in a routine documentation check, and they wanted to impound the vehicle … because the two sides of the document giving that particular driver the authority to drive it were completed in different pens, (one black and one blue). All the details were complete and correct – the stamps were all there and in the right place … but for some reason the Notary who completed the form swapped pens when they turned it over – and nobody spotted the fact until a bright eyed traffic policeman on a routine document check.
Some problems have considerable implications. Take the example of a flight details … Flights are crucial to any itinerary – they are fixed points around which everything else in the itinerary revolves. It is really frustrating when the airline decides to move a flight up or back an hour or two, so that arrangements have to be amended … or even when they cancel a flight and you arrive at the airport to find that there is no plane … that you are stranded and have an extra day, or two, until the next available flight and you need to rearrange you subsequent itinerary. Usually there is a good reason for the delay or cancellation, but not always. Worse, sometimes the client has misread and told us the wrong flight time … and on one occasion, even, the wrong date. Usually we are able to spot the mistake when planning the itinerary, or when we are making arrangements or going through the process of checking and double checking everything … but , unfortunately, it sometimes happens that the mistake gets through without being spotted … not often, but it is not unheard of, either.
Perhaps more problematical are problems over visas. One group had duly got their visas only to discover that the agent had made a mistake with one of them and got the wrong entry date for one of the visas … not only did they not match the itinerary, they didn’t overlap, so there was one day when they didn’t have a visa for any Central Asian country. It took a certain amount of hard work, canceling one set of visas and applying for new ones.
Kyrgyz visas give start and end dates for a visa … Chinese visas, on the other hand are valid for use within three months from the date of issue and valid for ninety days once the traveler has entered the country. To make matters worse, they often have to apply in their home country. This is a problem for many travelers who are traveling the Silk Road and maybe on the road, away from home, for more than three months. We’ve had three cases where the traveler was refused entry because their visa had already expired.
That’s nothing, however, to the problems incurred with lost passports. One tourist was quite distraught and not so happy with the fact that we were so calm about the situation, especially as we were giving her the bad news about what it meant – the complications and delays, the fact that she wouldn’t be able to travel until she was able to get a temporary travel document from her consul … in Moscow!. My reply was to ask her how often she had lost her passport – “Just the once,” she said, “I am not in the habit of losing my passport, you know.” “Of course not,” I said, “but, unfortunately, you are not the first of our clients to lose their passport … and we from know from those unfortunate experiences what sort of complications you are likely to encounter and the procedures we have to go through as a result.” I know that wasn’t a particularly sympathetic response, but it was accurate. As it happens, her passport was found for her and she was able to leave, just one day late … but still in time to get to work when she got home, albeit straight of the plane and a little tired.
To be frank, she was lucky … it could have taken up to a week … or even more.
One pair of Brits, not really our clients, but they dropped into the office to ask for advice, had had their passports stolen in Uzbekistan and were traveling on photocopies. How they managed to cross the border, not once, but several times, on the basis of photocopies I have no idea … but they did … or, at least, that is until they got to Kazakhstan. The border guards looked at the photocopies and asked, “Is this a joke?” and sent them packing back to Kyrgyzstan and Bishkek. That’s how they ended up in my office … asked what could they do next. It didn’t help that it was the height of the season and all the flights out of Bishkek were fully booked … for several weeks … with the help of the local honorary consul and a rather expensive and convoluted route they managed to make it home, albeit a little late for work.
So, what happens if you do experience a problem like one of these? What advice can I as someonoe working in the “travel industry” offer?: …
- First of all … avoid the problem if at all problem:
- Check, double check … and then check again, … all the details of your itinerary … dates, times, terminals and stations, addresses, telephone numbers … anything and everything;
- Make copies of all you vital documents: passports, visas, OVIR registration stamps (wherever they are necessary), itinerary, reservations, tickets, credit cards, prescriptions, emergency contact numbers, etc., etc., etc. Anything and everything. Make several copies: pack one in your bag, (in each bag), and carry one with you … oh, yes, and leave at least one at home with someone you can contact in case of an emergency;
- Keep you wits about you at all times … remember that you are in a strange country, you may not know the language, customs may be different, and any difficulties are likely to be more problematical than at home, so try to avoid “tricky” situations ;
- If you do have a problem then
- seek help as soon as possible … that might well mean informing your consul and getting advice about local conditions …; and
- Be calm, and flexible … face it, your plans are going to have to change … and even if it means that you are not going to be able to fulfill your heart’s desire, you have to make the best out of a bad situation – so look upon it as an opportunity rather than a problem …
Bishkek