On my way home at Hanoi Noiba Airport, the guy had said that my check-in luggage was subject to a security check. So dutifully rounded to the back of the check-in counters. Just one woman Customs officer in the big empty room. She pointed to the three bottles in my suitcase that appeared on the screen of her x-ray machine. She commanded, "What are these? Open your luggage." I shrugged and took out three bottles of fish sauce. She stared at them. "Not allowed."I frowned. I had checked to make sure that this particular SQ flight allowed liquids, lotions, creams and all. "I never had problems taking fish sauce home last time. This airline also said okay. Why now cannot?"
"Cannot. Cannot. Because it stinks." She declared.
Because it stinks? I gritted my teeth. What sort of logic? The spill-proof bottles were thoroughly vacuum-sealed. They weren't durians. Whatever. Fine. I handed over the bottles. Then she handed them back to me and asked, "So what you do you want to do with it?"
I struggled to contain my rising temper. "Throw them away."
She stared at me harder, her face twisting meanly. "Throw away? Are you sure?"
I turned to lock up my suitcase. "Yes. Since cannot take on plane, throw away."
She wrote something in a notebook. My name was the first on the page. She made me sign it. I scribbled a fake signature. She asked, "Are you Thai?"
I gave her a withering look. I wasn't going to be rude and risk her detaining me for further 'questioning'. But I wasn't going to let this pass. I snarled at her in Vietnamese, "I. Am. Singaporean." Then I strode away. There were still only two of us in the big cold room.
Bitch. Why didn't you confiscate my 2 other bottles of mineral water which also showed up on your screen? Did you think only Thais take fish sauce or did you think I was Thai and hence would understand the 'system' and offered to 'negotiate' your demands?
Unless I'm gravely mistaken, she was angling for a bribe. Or I was damn super suay to have been victim to her Customs quota for the day. Three bottles of fish sauce ain't worth offering a bribe for, or take the risk that would put me in a detention cell or be forced to go through further 'checks' and miss the flight home. So much for promoting tourism and anti-corruption in Vietnam. You didn't even let me bring home Phu Quoc and Phan Thiet's prized nuoc mam.
20 comments:
poor thing u. get the dad to freight it over. freight a carton to last the year.
it could have been worse, like ur birkies or something. and they'll say "because it's dirty. so cannot." heh.
i'm sorry babe, but your account's damn funny. even tho i'm sure u don't find it so. maybe by now u've simmered down.
oh why oh why these things happen to u??!!! things like sleazebags asking u to dance. kekekekek.
are these people dumb or what? why would the woman even imagine you'd want to bribe her over 3 bottles of fish sauce!?!?
do u even look THai???!! duh. why didn't she ask if you were frm China? china on the corruption index way higher than Thailand wat. the woman damn stupid.
dumb move. with the advent of blogs, everyone's going to read about concrete examples of corruption in vietnam and everywhere else.
and not disallow Vietnam's famous produce? that is just bad bad pr.
You are right, the fish sauce ain't worth bribing her. This is common in Indonesia too. By the way, I really love the dark blue dao ai that you adorned in your previous pics. Gorgeous. You have such fun lady! ;)
Ao Dai.. Sorry.. I am so confused these days. Hehehe
At first I thought she wanted it for herself. Definitely not worth bribing and also not worth being retained for it.
luckily u didn't put perfume and DFS buys in the suitcase. she must have thought them to be perfume.
so even if u don't give a bribe to get it back, she still gets to use it. or sell it.
but u bought fish sauce! priceless!!! absolutely worthless to her.
i agree. bitch.
That's weird, confiscating the fish sauce. You probably look like you will bite the bait.
meteor: of course. he better!!! hah. birkies indeed. i'd have spat on my birkies and then pass it to her and tell her to throw away too.
jazzgal: still simmering man.
freespirit: irritating.
queenie: i definitely don't look thai.not at all. she must be really dumb.
rachael: exactly.
jomel: thanks!! exactly. i kena that once in Indonesia. but then my dad came over. so it was all settled without a bribe. it's common in China too. i nearly got my camera confiscated in Fujian 2 years back. they tried to say i was bringing there to sell it. i had to shout damn loud at them.
sesame + DR: won't do it. not worth it. can't do it either.
natasha: now that u mentioned it, yah. i think she thought they were perfume. OR alcohol.
whoa. saw ur msn tag. still angry eh??? cool down lah. luckily it's nothing more expensive or of sentimental value to you.
So ridiculous!
cheh....only fish sauce. if it's more valuable, you'd been boiling right over now. ne'er mind lah.
sounds fishy to me
gosh what a bad experience! but I would do likewise too so that I can get out of that place asap and return back home soon. Don't let such incident spoil your whole holiday all right?
that sucks. and i know just how much fish sauce means to you.
clamshell + seth: inexpensive. but i love fish sauce. bah.
cavalock: completely!
lms + msfairface: nothing ruined. just the grrr...feeling. heh.
with all these stupidity and airline new rules, gone are the days of buying back local food and lifestyle. we might sadly be reduced to buying silly tourist trinkets.
She wrote down your name and asked you if you were Thai?!?!?
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