Not quite so easy in the 1980s I got mugged in Saigon, consulate didn't want to help, had to travel the length of Vietnam to Hanoi, to UK embassy it took 12 weeks to get a new passport,
Once I got a passport I could cash my renewed American Express checks, I then tried to leave the country back to home in Thailand, my first attempt to leave the country by air was denied no entry visa stamp in new passport, I had police report saying passport say it had been stolen, I later learned that you had to put a $50 bill in the new passport,
I was only ment to be there 3 weeks!????