No easy task

I'm in Tibet! But not without issues. So here's the story: We left yesterday morning (seems so much longer ago!) from home. But we had to wait for Terry because he forgot his camera at the office and had to get Kiet to drive him to get it. No big deal for us but Terry had to get up earlier than normal. At one point I said to Eileen, "I know this is a stupid question but do you have the tickets?" Terry does, shes said. "Have you seen them?" Yes, she assured me he had them. Okay, before I go further, he DID have them. So we drive to the airport and take our happy photos of our pre-trip like luggage and Terry and Eileen standing together - - happier times. So Hoe and Son get there. Hoe says, "I forgot my passport." What? No passport? No way! All of a sudden Eileen says, "I can't find my resident's visa!" What is happening here?! No visa? So pretty soon Hoe is on the phone calling all of his people to get the passport and subsequently Eileen's visa, or so we think. He calls his guard for something, he calls his driver for another, he calls Miss Somebody because she has a motorbike and can drive to the airport in half the time as a car. Our plane was at 10:40 which means we had to begin boarding at 10:20 which means we had to be checked in with our luggage at 9:45. So time was a wasting at what seemed like warp speed. Suddenly Hoe comes through the door waving his passport and what we hope will be Eileen's visa. But when Eileen looked through her stuff the visa wasn't present. Now what, now what. So Hoe and Son each got on the phone and called their "friends" in the government and police. I said to Eileen, "This is where a corrupt government might work in our favor! This is corruption working for us!" They whisked us through, escorted, to immigration. I went through my line, got searched because they thought I had scissors, and I never saw Eileen again. She did't make it. So it was just me and the boys.