January 2, 2008
My trip back to the third of my worlds was relatively uneventful. But travel is full of traps for the unwary and requires quite a bit of juggling of luggage and documents. Security checks are always a challenge. Currently they want you to divest yourself of shoes, jackets, electronic equipment and the little ziplock bags of liquids as well as keys, coins, cellphones and place them in little trays and send them through one by one. The less you are carrying the better, But they also tell you not to check electronics, valuables, keys, etc.
Those little zip baggies with liquids are a relatively new thing. They are where you store any non-solids needed for your trip – chapstick, toothpaste, hand lotion, contact lens solution, etc. So you take things out as you use them but you’d better remember to put them back into the baggies lest you suddenly have to go thru another security check!
If you buy anything at the airport – and you will, you need to pay taxi, porter, airport tax, overweight luggage, drinking water (because you can’t take any through security with you.) DON’T put your coins in your pocket – otherwise you might get in trouble if you suddenly have to go through a security check. Pity the poor people traveling with small kids as they juggle kids, strollers, car seats, shoes, jackets, liquids, money, documents, and valuables plus try to keep track of it all!
When I arrived in the third of my worlds there were 3-4 jumbo jets all disgorging passengers at the same time. The immigration hall couldn’t hold all the people so people were piling up down the hallways too and for all I know, all the way back to the runways! In true Asian style there were no visible lines (queues) until you were quite close to the counter. You can’t really see from the back of the hall what the signs said and you can’t get to the front to read them. I kept asking other passengers if I was in the right line. After all you don’t want to wait in a huge long line only to find out you are in the wrong one! But the local passengers said it didn’t matter what line you were in. And I saw that it didn’t, because when you finally got close enough to read the signs and found yourself in the wrong line no need to go to the end of another line. You just slither over and sort of insert yourself into the next line.
The immigration officers were madly stamping passports, even so it took over an hour to finally get to the front of a line. I have a rather strange visa and so sometimes immigration officials don’t know what to do with it especially because I don’t have an “e-card”. I had a special letter I carry with me in case there is a problem, but the officer in my line didn’t even blink. She stamped my passport and card just like it was supposed to be. By then my luggage was on the carousel. Unfortunately, by then there were no more baggage carts and nary a baggage handler to be seen.
I was also sweating bullets because I had read the new customs form and it said that electronic devices had to be reported. That was a new requirement. I have a letter that explains that our contract gives us permission to import stuff needed for our work but I had forgotten to print it out. And I was carrying rather a lot of computer equipment, some mine, some for other people.
I couldn’t see any baggage handlers so I started asking people with badges about it. One guy turned out to be the airline agent and he said he would help take my suitcases outside to where I could get a cab. With a wink and a nod he sailed me thru customs and I didn’t have to explain anything after all!
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