02 "What I learned from losing my credit card while traveling: 4 valuable lessons"

Traveling to Krui in December 2023, the trip started with excitement in the air. Vicus even went through the trouble of paying extra so that we could sit in the slow lounge in Cape Town Airport, enjoying a glass of bubbles to set the tone for the trip.

Our wedding anniversary is on the 19th of December, so we stayed overnight in a hotel in Jakarta, instead of opting to kill time in the airport and sleeping on our suitcases.

* Second time around, we don’t have the excuse of our anniversary, but we think it’s worth it to spend that little bit of extra money. With the 6-hour long drive from Bandar Lampung to Krui ahead of you after all those flights, a good night’s sleep before that is well worth it!

Shout out to Anara Airport Hotel in Jakarta. The hotel is in the airport, which makes it very convenient when you have to catch an early morning flight the next day. The room was clean and had all of the facilities that you would want and expect from a 4-star hotel at an affordable rate.

Since it was our anniversary, we wanted to at least have a nice meal at a restaurant. We put our luggage in the hotel room, freshened up, and when I wanted to get my credit card, I realized it was missing! There were two places where I could’ve misplaced it. I freaked out completely! This was something that should’ve happened to Vicus, not to me… I’m Mrs. Organized!

Well, I think the universe wanted to teach me a few lessons that day.

Lesson nr. 1: Chill out. Freaking out won’t make the card miraculously reappear.

Lesson nr. 2: Show grace to your partner when they screw up. If the roles were reversed I think I might have done the cliché thing of: “I told you so!” “You should keep your things organized and together!”  Vicus, on the other hand, stayed calm, helped me search for my card, and helped me cancel it when we couldn’t find it.

Lesson nr. 3: Make the most of any situation. In our search for the credit card, we walked around the airport, retracing our steps. Vicus, seeing a group of workers gathered together for some kind of training, saw an opportunity for a group selfie. The workers were immediately game and full of smiles and laughs, obviously enjoying the foreigner who made them feel like celebrities. I couldn’t help but look at them, smile and laugh.

Lesson nr. 4: The world doesn’t stop turning. We had a fantastic meal and time. And guess what? Life went on, and it didn’t spoil the trip.

Something that you probably already know but that you can maybe learn from this: don’t put all your eggs in one basket. It may be worth it to take a few cards with you when you travel. Some ATMs don’t work with certain cards, and if a card goes missing, you at least have a backup.

With that, I’ll leave you with this beautiful quote that I think sums up this whole story:

Travel is not a reward for living, it’s education for living.

- Anthony Bourdain