Amit Sinha's Travelog

Confessions of an Asian World Traveler

Following the uncovering of the London terror plot to blow up planes, life’ s gotten a little more difficult for the average air traveler, and more so for the “middle-eastern looking” ones. While extra security is warranted, a nd even welcome, I do worry about the new “Salem Witch Hunt” that’s emergin g amongst passengers, where passenger paranoia can cause a couple of studen ts on a holiday to be evicted from a plane.

Having traveled by air a fair bit, and across various parts of the world, b ased on my profile, I expect to get additinal scrutiny at airports. I am In dian, and therefore, for the chromatically challenged, I could qualify as ” middle-eastern looking”. I generally travel light, with hand baggage only. Most of my flights are booked last minute, as I generally don’t plan in adv ance. The bulk of my baggage is electronic goods- laptop, cellphone, iPod, voice recorder, three cameras, two lenses, USB card reader, and various wir es, chargers and associated parapharnelia.

I’m used to being checked by security. I was stopped by security just prior to boarding a flight from Istanbul to JFK, and questioned for twenty minut es by security personnel, who finally let me go after scrutinizing all my w ork papers, my business card, and all prior air tickets and hotel reservati ons. In Kunming, China, where I was the only Indian on the plane that came in from Laos, a customs official decided to try using all the skills he’d l earnt in training on me, and scrutinized every single article I owned, and asked me about each and every item he found, why I was in China, how long I planned to be there, etc. etc. I’ve already mentioned in this blog about h ow authorities in Jamaica and Amsterdam convinced me that its better to be clean shaven when traveling.

I don’t complain when stopped. In fact, I feel more confident that security procedures are working, when I am stopped for additional scrutiny. I find it worrying when the security official does NOT ask me to open my laptop or iPod. Or when he opens only the front flap of my camera kitbag, and not bo thering to open the other two flaps where I have another camera, USB card r eader and other stuff stowed away. I would complain, however, if I was boot ed off a plane because the person next to me felt I was suspicious, because I looked different from him, or spoke in Bengali, which being non-European , could be mistaken by the phonetically challenged to be middle eastern as well, to my mother on my cell phone just before the closing of cabin doors, to let her know I was on the flight, or if, my inadvertant gesture of pray er, a casual hand movement from my heart to my head, a mixture of Hindu and Christian gestures that my non-religious sub-conscious mind inculcated as a child, turns out to be a signal for someone of my not-so-holy intention o f blowing myself up.

I know its hard for someone not to harbour such suspicions- its human natur e. I will admit, when the news broke of the students being booted off the f light in Spain because of “dress inappropriate for the environment”, I seri ously considered, for a moment, whether to wear my Hugo Boss suit on the fl ight, instead of my usual summer wear of jeans and kurta. I also felt glad I wasn’t muslim, even though “Amit” and “Ahmad” sound similar to the untrai ned western ear. And then I wondered- if I feel this insecure being non-mus lim and non-middle eastern, what about the travelers who are muslim, and ar e middle eastern, and not terrorists? i.e., a profile that fits 99.9% of mi ddle-eastern, muslim travelers.

Even I have been led to double standards. I will also admit, that when I se e someone young and middle-eastern in line at security or check-in, I do gi ve him more attention. I remember in Bangkok, standing in line at departure , with two young Saudi gentlemen. They wore flashy gold rings, necklaces et c., and had in their hands large stuffed animals. Instead of standing patie ntly in line, they were jumping from one line to another, trying to find th e shortest one. While their trying to find the shortest line was annoying, and they looked horribly out of place holding stuffed animals, neither I, o r any of the other passengers around, felt that we should take the law into our own hands and insist that they be removed. You’ve got to figure that t he security personnel probably have the same fears as you, and will take th e necessary security measures.

Which brings me to the point of this long rambling post- Tightening of secu rity, leading to inconvenience and questioning, is welcome, and maybe even necessary in this world. But passenger paranoi, fed by an over-zealous medi a, only leads to creating an environment of suspicion and fear which leads to nowhere.

I wonder what would happen if the next terrorist to be arrested and convinc ted turned out to be Caucasian or Oriental in appearance?

People in Lao are genuinely friendly. I’ve made really good friends at the travel agency a friend recommended to me, and they’ve helped me out and have gone way beyond the call of duty. From providing me with USD to frantically calling me to let me know that Lao Airlines cancelled my flight, to just making sure I enjoyed my stay in Lao. I’m definitely coming back here again, and spending more time exploring the countryside… its a fascinating, unspoilt country, that you need to see by road, and not hop from place to place on a plane.

Its around 4am so pardon me if my judgement is partially tainted by
fatigue-infested neurons. On my visits to India, I normally come in
through Chennai. The airport may be small, not particularly slick,
but the staff is friendly, courteous, and efficient. I was therefore
a little taken aback earlier today at the Delhi Indira Gandhi
International Airport, where despite the modern facilities, the staff
still appeared to be from the dark ages, when flying in and out of
India was a nightmare.

It first started at the baggage screening, where the attendant at the
baggage area persuaded an Italian couple to give him a Rs. 500 “gift”
for having their bags moved through screening. This was in front of
higher officials who chose to turn a blind eye towards such activity.
A slight contrast to Chennai where I’ve not come across this, or the
Mumbai airport where staff would wear jackets stating that they do
not accept tips.

At the immigration counter, despite having ten open counters the
lines were moving slowly. The gentleman at my counter, Mr. Praveen
Kumar, decided that taking fifteen minute breaks in five minute
intervals would really endear him to weary travelers at two in the
morning. Of course there were no customer service or senior officials
around for us poor travelers to request either a change of line or
another officer. We waited, and subjected ourselves to Mr. Kumar’s
dedicated work schedule. I am sure he had certain reasons for taking
such breaks, but whatever they were, having them not affect the flow
of passengers would have been helpful.

However, the person who really made me upset with Delhi Airport was
the security guard allowing people to board. Once the announcement
came for boarding, as usual a long line formed at the entrance.
Business class passengers were being let through the side, and
Turkish Airlines staff were checking boarding passes to verify that
it was indeed business class passengers who were boarding. Unlike
flights to the UK and Europe from Chennai or Mumbai, Indians in
Business Class were the minority here, i.e. just one, me. Despite
having my boarding pass checked and verified by the staff, the
security guard, without even checking my boarding pass rudely asked
me to head over to the back of the line.

Overall, I was a lot more satisfied by the professional service of
the smaller, less-equipped Chennai airport than the large, fancy, yet
human-unfriendly Delhi Airport.

Is it a good idea to start packing twelve hours before leaving for your six month trip? Probably not. But I ended up doing it anyway.

This is what I planned on taking with me:

As you can see, its all about the important things in life:
– a couple of cameras, associated cords
– a USB reader to upload while on the road
– Paperwork
– Books (Shalimar the Clown, Samarkand, 1000 places to see before you die, Bill Bryson down under, Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk)
– gifts from work colleagues (note the I love NY boxer shorts and toilet paper)
– laptop
– toiletries
– medicines (though I have no idea what half of them are for- succumed to consumer marketing and got swindled into buying an “Adventure Medical Kit for Zone B travel”. “Zone B”, for those of you unfamiliar to the world of consumer marketing in the travel world, refers to what is commonly known as “third-world nations” or euphemistically as the developing world)
– All-important “Not all who wander are lost” t-shirt gifted to me
– running shoes and clothes
– oh, and some clothes

Unfortunately, about twenty five seconds into packing I discovered that my goal of traveling around the world with airline-compatible carry-on backpack alone was not going to happen, and so had to resort to adding a duffel bag to my travel group (primarily for the winter clothes for Europe).

So, after hmming and hawing, I finally managed to fit all my stuff into this:

Of course there were some casualties who couldn’t make it:

I have a sneaking suspicion that I won’t use half the things I’ve taken with me, and will probably find a dozen things I should have taken. Well, I guess part of taking such trips is to take things as they come and not try and plan everything. Anyway, I will be touching India in March and can buy stuff there or drop stuff off there to lighten my load. Plus I can impose on friends in London as well next week!!

Well, this is my last post from New York. Expect the next one either from sunny Jamaica or drizzly London.