One of the worst things that could’ve happened to us on our Family Round-the-World Trip did. What was this terrible thing you ask?
Losing the passports? Worse. Getting Sick? Worse. A cash machine swallowed our credit card? WORSE!
We lost our 3 year old’s teddy!
Ok, in all seriousness it’s not the worst thing that can happen and we’ve probably had scarier moments whilst travelling, being chased by an elephant in Habarana or our Tuk-Tuk accident in Yogyakarta come to mind. But it was a pretty traumatic night none-the less.
The Realisation!
It all started when we entered our latest hotel, one of the RedDoorz chain hotels in Bandung, Indonesia. We checked into our new accommodation and walked to our room, plonked all our bags down and started to settle in.
About 10 minutes into unpacking I was looking for something of Aden’s, our 3 year old, so started looking for his bag. Calmly at first, but then beginning to panic more and more as I realised the bag was not in the room! The bag had a few items of clothing and other bits and pieces, but most importantly it had Teddy in it!
We must have left it in reception! We raced down, but we had already started to place little hope in it being present when we arrived. Our subconscious was now registering the bag was already absent at arrival to reception.
The staff confirmed our fears as it was no where to be seen. We racked our brains to remember at what point it had gone astray.
We had offloaded our bags onto the street initially from the taxi on arrival before entering the hotel. Had we left it on the street? Surly not, we would have noticed it, right?
The Investigation…
The staff at the hotel kindly offered to take us into the CCTV room to have a look through the footage of when we were dropped off by the taxi.
Luckily the camera was pointing pretty much directly at the boot of the taxi when we arrived. We watched in anticipation as our bags were off loaded 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… Aden’s was not there.
Either the bag was still in the taxi or we had left it at the previous hotel before we got it.
We had used a Grab, South East Asia’s taxi share app, which had an option to contact them and the driver of your journey.
We rang customer service who helped us get the drivers number, then with some help from the hotel staff manged to explain the problem and enquired if the taxi driver had the bag… he stated he did not!
Had we left it at the hotel? I was almost certain we hadn’t and had a clear visual recollect of the bag being put into the boot of the taxi. But our minds were now playing tricks on us, so came round to the possibility we had left it at the last hotel.
Retracing our steps
Thankfully we had only moved across the city of Bandung, so we weren’t too far from the previous hotel. A massive stroke of luck! As we would normally move great distances across countries and potentially boarders.
We had been staying in the Crown Plaza across town. Much above our usual standards, but we had decided to splash out for Eid. We decided I would get a taxi back over to the Crown Plaza to investigate there whilst Nadia would wait with the kids in our new hotel. Aden was now asleep and completely oblivious to Teddy’s absence and we intended to keep it that way for the time being!
Aden’s older brother was still awake and was becoming quite concerned now for his little brothers bear.
Kids Quote: “We’ve got to get Teddy back! Aden will be devastated if he gets lost!”
Laith, Age 9
A short taxi ride and I was back in the Crown Plaza. We had checked out earlier that day and put our bags in the luggage locker. The first thing the staff did was check with house keeping if it had been left in the room. Nope. Then if it was still in the luggage room. Nope.
They told me it would take a while to check the CCTV to see if it was dropped on the way to the taxi. I think they thought this might put me off and send me on my way until the next morning. Little did they know I had 5 episodes of my latest Netflix series downloaded on my phone. I was quite happy to binge whilst I waited. I was not ready to return to Nadia empty handed without the Teddy (somewhere along the line the situation had managed to be pinned to me as the fault!). So I put on my headphones and got comfy on the foyer couch.
Just 15 minutes into my first episode the manager returned having checked the CCTV, obviously not the mammoth task they had made it out to be. He had in his hand a confirmation of my worst fears, a photo of the bag being carried into the taxi.
So we now had visual confirmation of the bag entering the taxi and not exiting.
My heart sunk.
The taxi driver had already denied any knowledge of the bag. So either he had kept it or the next customer had taken it. Either way, the likelihood of getting the bag back was fading.
The manager offered to give the taxi driver a ring to re-try asking again in Indonesian. Maybe he could put some pressure on with the latest development of CCTV showing the bag going into the taxi.
Worth a shot.
Then, just as I was messaging Nadia to ask for the number I received the best picture message of my life…
How? What? When?
I didn’t care, I thanked the manager for his help and shook his hand over excitedly, then skipped out of the hotel like a kid on Christmas morning.
A Happy Ending!
Arriving back at the RedDoorz hotel, Nadia explained how the taxi driver just turned up and dropped it off! Either a genuine mistake and he had found it or the pressure of the constant phone calls from us and the hotel had worked.
Either way we didn’t care. We had Teddy! And could now sleep soundly.
Aden never even knew the adventure his bag and Teddy had been on. And we will eventually tell him, one day…