** I wrote this on a shattered iPhone screen (not “their” fault) after passing one of the most erm, memorable security checks (totally “their” fault :D)
Safely boarded. Where’s Rockstar?
Doing best gangsta impression with plastic gun from egg (Gapochon?) machine. Notice anything interesting? Answer at end..
Now. Security checks. Apparently no one has ever brought Mustela diaper cream through Okinawa because they had huge problems with the Little Miss’ diaper cream. Huge. As in, hunt down every single zip-locked Mustela (I had like, 4 or 5 tubes spread about each hand-carry bag – Little Miss goes through a lotta diapers and often clothes get soiled as well, hence the multiple tubes of diaper cream zip-locked separately with whole outfits) and re-x-ray the bags three times huge. That was not some kucing kurap diaper cream ok, it was freaking MUSTELA diaper cream. For Her Highness’ royal bum. Because I am very freaky at the thought of diaper rash <make signs to ward off evil>
This almost did not make it through – I had to indicate the diapered teddy bear. Seriously. Why don’t I leave it behind? Because each tube if I recall correctly is HKD 118 or thereabouts..
This also almost did not make it through – I had to demonstrate by washing my hands with the baby sanitizer foam, and also wash Little Miss’ hands. And yes they checked the baby wipes too.
And the feeding bibs from Bumps to Babes and Mothercare
Everything is laid out in trays (you can imagine what this did to the germ-freaky in me). A teenaged boy behind us who looks to be Middle-eastern retrieves one of the diaper creams for me when it goes rolling across the floor, with a rather sympathetic look on his face. Actually I turn and realize a lot of the queue behind us are watching with not unsympathetic looks as we lay all the baby stuff out…
And this also almost did not make it through!! I had to point out the chicken leg and make eating actions. SERIOUSLY.
Little Miss decides to do a nutty. We had been queueing to get through the security check for more than 15 minutes prior. I retrieve her soft leather-soled Shoo Shoes, which is when a security officer jumps and checks them by thoroughly scrunching and rolling them back and forth to make sure I am not concealing any weapons in them because he wants to re-X-ray the rest of my back pack.
Little Miss the terrorist. We must all look like terrorists. They even leaf through her paper feeding bibs from Mothercare. We throw away the outer ones the customs officer touches with his white gloves.
Who eventually made it on the plane. 19 months old and already has had the most thorough security search of her stuff, of any of us!!
When they spread out the several packs of wipes Kings can’t hold back a swear word. I look at him anxiously. We’ve never been strip searched before. What if they now decide we look like drug smugglers with a balloon full of cocaine up our bums?
Reading between the lines, I would conclude Japanese are erm, very “patriotic” about using their own products only, because the premium French diaper cream, expensive baby-safe hand foam sanitizer and organic food pouches from the UK had to all be taken out and checked over. Re-x-rayed.
I am going on about this in a not very angry tone (but not a quiet one) when we’re cleared into the waiting hall before boarding, and then I realize the people around us have amused and mildly smug expressions. As in Hah HK Does Better – they pointedly start speaking to each other in heavily Hongkie-accented English instead of Cantonese <sheepish> Belatedly I recognize LV. Prada. Tod’s. Yeah, just like home. Hongkies are patriotic too! They love their LV! (So sez my Hongkie friends haha)
Now, we’ve been screamed at going into Australia with an undeclared half-eaten banana (never said we didn’t deserve that), we’ve been terrified at American (well, NY so that must be why) airports, told to stand in corners and not touch stuff (Kings tried to help one lady officer heft a bag onto the table for examining). This was different – they really weren’t being difficult, they were polite and later rather apologetic – but they couldn’t recognize any of this stuff we use on a daily basis and take for granted we can buy anywhere in HK. Not even the chicken smoothie. I didn’t even bother with “smoothie”, I repeated “chicken” and point to Little Miss and say “eat”.
What’s really funny about this is I had forgotten Rockstar was holding a toy gun we got from a Japanese egg machine (gapochon?). Rockstar basically walked through airport security holding a little “handgun” that frankly looks authentic to me at a glance and no one blinked because they all knew what that was and YES THAT IS MADE IN JAPAN 😀
Rockstar’s “handgun”
ps: Some friends speculated it might have been the combination of alien baby products and our Malaysian passports. It’s a theory, because they also apologetically checked our HKIDs and the kids’ HK birth certificates very carefully and thoroughly. It took me a few days to figure one of their concerns might have been The Rockstars weren’t really our kids and we are actually using kids to smuggle stuff… Well anyway their being careful is for the protection of all right, we should probably look at it like this is how thorough they would be with other “suspects” too….
Oh, and coming in when Kings was trying to rent a car there was a guy with a Singaporean driver’s license (we overhear Singlish here and there during the trip as well btw) who was about to have a fit that he couldn’t rent a car with his license (you have to convert to International)
What an experience. They must be wondering why you did not put those cream into your checked in luggage.
I think in the x-ray they initially thought maybe it’s something like hairspray, if not familiar the cylindrical shape must look quite dodgy… But they even checked through the baby food smoothies and wipes very carefully after that – they x-rayed the packs of wipes and leafed through the paper feeding bibs so I think they really, really thought something was up… Now I look back I think they may even have watched us a bit when we went into the waiting room in which case kudos to them for not getting mad at my (while unheated certainly un-Japanese-ish outspoken) comments about us apparently looking like terrorists trying to smuggle things in the kids’ stuff.
In fact after thinking it through I realized that was one of the main reasons I then understood how they really saw something that had somehow made them uncomfortable and were just doing their job – because considering Japanese are so very polite and I’m making snide comments in earshot of other amused passengers they didn’t serve up any ‘tude of their own.
In some parts of the States or Australian airports though we weren’t checked so thoroughly they were wayy less pleasant