File this under “stories too dumb to even make up.”
A lady was flying Emirates from Glasgow to Bangkok via Dubai, and upon arriving in Bangkok she was denied entry due to missing pages in her passport.
Via the Daily Star:
Dozy Faye Wilson, 28, had to explain to Thai immigration officials that she had used “two or three” pages of her passport to wipe herself on a drunken night out.
Faye said: “Thai immigration just opened my passport and started looking through it, and asked ‘what’s happened here’?
“I just said that I had lost the pages because I was too embarrassed to explain the real reason.
“Before I could explain more, they had deported me back to Dubai and then to Glasgow and confiscated my documents.”
Faye had her passport taken off her and was escorted back to the UK with a security guard.
It’s kind of shocking they sent a security guard all the way back to Glasgow with her. I’ve heard of people being deported all the time, but sending someone with the passenger over a technicality seems odd. It’s my understanding that only happens in extreme situations. There are lots of harmless reasons pages can be missing from a passport, like a toddler accidentally got ahold of it, or… you were drunk and thought wiping yourself with the passport was a good idea!
So what exactly happened, which caused her to lose pages in her passport?
But baffled Faye has used the passport up to eight times in the past five years since she ripped out the pages and never experienced a problem – until last month.
To make matters worse, she said she remembers little of the night out which caused her so much trouble.
She said: “We were walking from one bar to the next and we must have been desperate for a wee and obviously didn’t have any toilet roll.
“We decided it would be a good idea to use my passport, which is obviously really stupid.
“It was maybe two or three pages.”
A lot of people do dumb things when they’re drunk, though I feel like this is next level stupid. No matter how impaired I was, I’d never think using my passport as toilet paper was a good idea. Ever. Though perhaps I have different priorities.
Bottom line
(Tip of the hat to LoyaltyLobby)
Thailand is notorious (or perhaps rightly so in view of recent 'security issues') for denying entry to visitors with damaged passports. Google Australian passport and Phuket and you'll probably find plenty of articles about Australians denied entry with water-damaged passports even if the identity page is intact.
Ah, the classy stuff the Brits do, we are all used to that by now.
Probably not any rougher than much of the toilet paper I've found in Europe.
I've traveled plenty of places in Asia where, if one didn't plan ahead, they might well find themselves without better options.
It's normal to get asked for ID before being let into bars and clubs in the UK no matter how old you look and not everyone has a driving license so your only other option is a passport.
Anyway she is from Glasgow so it's perfectly normal behaviour. Your see many a drunken girl squatting down with their knickers around their ankles on a Saturday night in Glasgow
Ben, I think you are using the term "lady" rather liberally in this instance…haha
Lucky....Great site .....This stupid lady is getting a lot of publicity out of this although suggest negative. Couple of points ..Emirates fly from Glasgow to Bangkok via Dubai...and there no mention anywhere that she is/was Scottish. Further reading reveals that she hails from the Lake District which is as every traveler knows is....where?...yes....that's correct. Also seems that her drunken night out was 5 years ago...younger but obviously hasn't learned anything. One other suggestion is that...
Lucky....Great site .....This stupid lady is getting a lot of publicity out of this although suggest negative. Couple of points ..Emirates fly from Glasgow to Bangkok via Dubai...and there no mention anywhere that she is/was Scottish. Further reading reveals that she hails from the Lake District which is as every traveler knows is....where?...yes....that's correct. Also seems that her drunken night out was 5 years ago...younger but obviously hasn't learned anything. One other suggestion is that she visited Thailand before and overstayed and just maybe had a "stamp" in her PP saying don't come back.....hence the ...etc.(not confirmed) Finally more than likely the security just guy escorted her to the departure gate(not all the way back to UK) in case she tried to enter via another Immigration Office/location...but mai ko jai,,,
My Dear Wife decided to wash some of my slacks and , you guessed it , my passport was still in a pocket .
I took drastic measures to retrieve my soggy passport . I decided to try the microwave to dry . When there were sparks and smoke I hurriedly shut off the microwave . One of the visa pages had a gold foil seal which was charred and cracked . Fortunately this...
My Dear Wife decided to wash some of my slacks and , you guessed it , my passport was still in a pocket .
I took drastic measures to retrieve my soggy passport . I decided to try the microwave to dry . When there were sparks and smoke I hurriedly shut off the microwave . One of the visa pages had a gold foil seal which was charred and cracked . Fortunately this was never a problem and I now await my replacement passport .
I would never do as Dozy Faye has admitted and if I had I would never tell anyone... ever .
Plain stupid ..
@Phillp - I am not sure that is true at all and i say that as someone who lives in the Uk. We have had photo driving licences for since 1998. Ironically an experiment was carried out to prevent fraud on the photo driving licences by putting the word fake or copy on the license which could only be seen when copied. Only thing is years later few people knew about it so when employees copied them for id purposes all they say was the word fake!
Dozy looks as stupid as her name sounds...
Sounds like she would have been a perfect person to have on "Bangkok Airport"
When I was 19 i ripped out a page of my passport to give my number to a girl on a drunken university trip to Brussels - again, the only source of paper I had on me at the time. Fortunately, they let me back into the UK without issue. Decided to not push my luck any further and got it renewed before my next international trip. Not my finest hour, but when needs must...
Well you don't mess with a Glaswegian on a big night out - so maybe she was escorted home in case she had a tipple on the plane back to the UK. I've never taken my UK passport out with me drinking - ever - when I was underage or after, but yes passports are a lot more common here per head than in the US. Not taking my passport with me did lead to...
Well you don't mess with a Glaswegian on a big night out - so maybe she was escorted home in case she had a tipple on the plane back to the UK. I've never taken my UK passport out with me drinking - ever - when I was underage or after, but yes passports are a lot more common here per head than in the US. Not taking my passport with me did lead to me not being allowed into a bar in NYC last December, although I was thrilled to think that anyone could possibly imagine I was anywhere near my 20s....
Her name fits her...
stupidity knows no borders
@Gene, it's very common in the UK and Ireland to take your passport out with you on a night out. Pretty much everyone has one and until only a few years ago, driver licenses were in paper form and easily faked. It's not like in the U.S. where everyone has a state drivers license. In Ireland and the UK it's the passport that's more common.
@gene because she needed ID for the bar?
Do Scottish people normally carry their passports in their home country while they're out drinking? I only carry my passport when I'm travelling out of my country.
That's a shitty situation to be in.....I'll see myself out.
Plus what idiot takes their passpor out for a night of drinking? Mine stays in the safe in my hotel room when I am traveling.
This is why I love this blog.