Something along the same vein as Bernard’s piece. We arrived in the airport, immigration cards filled in, only to get stuck in the queue behind a group of American’s who obviously hadn’t filled theirs in properly (and at that point it was too late to change our queue). In fairness to the officials, they did begin opening up more gates as the passengers were getting more and more frustrated, and finally we (Miguel and I) were free (or so I thought).
“We just need to check something, it won’t take long”
For somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes I was standing beside the passport control desk, positive that I was going to be on the next flight home, as other passengers were nervously going past me. Finally my passport was delivered back to the control desk (and to me with no explanation) and I was let through (phew!).
We were having a good laugh about it while we were filling the ‘baggage declaration’, when Miguel noticed one of the questions asks “Do you have any Radio Transmitting or Receiving equipment”. BALLS! As I normally carry a VHF/UHF handheld Transciever in the laptop bag, I didn’t relish the thought of being asked to ‘step aside’ for a second time (I had great visions going through my tired brain after about 27 hours travelling). Thankfully I had seen the good sense to take it out before heading for the airport in the first place.
We found our hotel and set about wandering around the city with the sole purpose of getting lunch, and attempting to stay awake as long as possible. After getting a fantastic pizza (hunger is a great critic!), and been offered everything from “Cheap” Watches, Cameras, Hash and other stuff that I won’t go into (I must look more dodgy than Miguel, I seem to get more offers, but who’s counting?)
It’s been over 34 hours now, thats about how long it is since I got out of a bed (Thanks again Mr. & Mrs. K) to head to Cork airport, now I’m about to get back into a bed again (in Shanghai), and I’m really looking forward to getting some sleep, I’m shattered.
