Thai customs escapades
That already sounds damning doesn't it? Oh if only I could have taken pictures... I will try to if mom provides a repeat performance on our next trip. So it all started with a jar of moisturiser and a flagrant violation of international travel rules. Prior to PK trip, I'd been busily packing my toiletries which were >100mL into checked-in baggage but mom chastised me throughout the packing, saying I was paranoid and no one would check volumes or items. I left her in fairy-land and proceeded to reality. My bags got through fine, her bags were opened up and emptied of their >100mL jars and then she was allowed on her way. I think she accepted that fate quietly b/c uncle had just died and she was a bit sad therefore not thinking like her normal self. But not before she blamed me for conspiring with customs and engaging in show-and-tell with her creams and potions etc. I did not escape lightly.
However, the trip back home to Perth proved that she was heartily back to her normal self and I think I may now have experience travelling with recalcitrant children so i'll be an ok parent :) Of course, she didn't pack properly again and insisted there should be no problem with carrying containers of 250mL and this time she packed not one but TWO mositurisers after turning down the offer of my 50mL cocoa cream. PK was not a problem b/c they'd rather you take stuff out of the country so they don't have to deal with it :p But at thai customs, an officer flagged mom over and checked her handbag, retrieving the Loreal and discarding it although mom protested it was used and just a cream and not a hazard. She asked mom if she was carrying anything else in her cabin bag >100mL and mom was still in fairyland b/c she said no, "forgetting" the Skin Doctor's formula in her other bag.
The fun and games started after the bag X-ray when they pulled mom aside and asked her to empty her bags. She protested loudly and bitterly so the officer just calmly started taking things out herself. Out came the guilty 250mL cream which had hidden itself in a corner and not said anything to anyone. Naughty, naughty! Mom was told she couldn't take it so she .... SNATCHED it back from the lady and declared they weren't going to take her 2nd cream! I took 5 steps back and watched, wondering why I can't have a normal life. Then began a semi-contact grabbing match between mom and the lady for the cream which ended only when the officer suggested the cream could go if it was <100mL. Mom produced a bottle of her meds and asked if she could take the cream in a bottle and the officer said "yes if it's <100mL. Mom instantly empties the pills from said bottle into her bag and starts scooping out cream into the bottle. So fast the officer didn't even have time to react. And when she did, she checked the size of the bottle and announced it was >100mL and therefore, unacceptable. She took the bottle. And binned it.
At this point I start pleading with mom to please stop making a scene, that the cream isn't worth it, I'll buy her more in Oz, can we just go now? I manage to find mom in fairyland and hear her say "no, this is about the principle now! If they make my life difficult, I will make theirs hell!" I realize it is impossible to bring her out through the gates of logic and make my own exit, followed by another few steps away from her, in case this gets aired on the local Border Security show so that at least I'm not in frame of the footage :D Mom refuses to be beaten and produces yet another pill bottle! This one is smaller, passes size control checks and Mom triumphantly proceeds to fill it up with what's left of the cream. She fills up what she can and then looks around, lost, not sure what to do with the left over finger full of cream in the jar. I step further back, in case she expects to use it up on the spot and involve me in the excercise.
Of course, now there was another twist in the plot. The bottle was designed for pills and to hold air, not liquid so the stopper wouldn't push down! Mom bore her weight down on the poor little bottle to force the stopper down and then bound it with plastic strips to stop spillage before placing it all in a plastic bag customs gave her. I almost hugged the officer for her patience and not putting us in jail and then escorted mom to board. She was very pleased with herself for teaching customs a lesson and I resolved to travel alone in future.
The final turn in our chapter took place at perth airport. After declaring all teas, spices, food flavorings, wicker baskets (yes, mom believes in pushing her luck till it snaps), we were cleared to go ... pending a final X-ray of our bags. At which point, the customs lady pulls mom aside and asks if she's carrying any pills? Mom says yes. The lady asks why they are floating around loose in her pockets and not in their container. Mom replies, deadpan, indignant, "Thai customs kept the bottle!" The officer asked why. "They wouldn't let me bring my moisturiser in it" mom replied, earnestly. I started laughing, holding my sides because they hurt and cautioned the officer "don't ask; it's a long story and you should have been there at the start". She asked about the other, coloured pills and mom happily stated she had the bottle for it. She brought out the forlorn looking bottle, swaddled in plastic bags, labelled "multivitamins" and oozing cocoa butter formula.
Customs cited regulations which prevent you bringing unidentified pills and potions into the country and confiscated all tablets and creams.
Mom lost her medication, vitamins, moisturisers. She was livid!
Umar and I have revised our concept of "cuckoo". We realize how naive our concept was.
And with such fanfare, I returned to Perth, ending my PK trip, so glad not to have been shot, drowned, wrongly medicated, or jailed.