“No stamp in the passports, please,” I politely asked the Egyptian Immigration Agent before handing over our passports.
“Ok,” replied the Immigration Agent.
Cha-chunk, cha-chunk (stamping my passport).
“What are you doing!?! I asked for no stamps in the passport.” I said with an elevated voice.
Cha-chunk, cha-chunk (now stamping Amy’s passport).
“Stop! Why are you not listening to me?” Now I’m quite loud, and the chatty Indonesian tour group behind us in line has grown silent to see what the crazy American is yelling about.
Two other Egyptian Immigration Agents come over and are trying to quiet me down by explaining, much to my frustration, that this is not an Israeli stamp, which I am of course well aware of. They then escort me out of line.
Let me back up here a bit. Crossing the Taba boarder from Egypt into Israel, Amy and I had planned to have Immigration stamp loose pieces of paper, not our passports. This is because while a Taba exit stamp is not an Israeli stamp, it might as well be in some countries (Syria, Lebanon, even the occasional overzealous UAE Immigration Agent) because there is only one place you are going if you leave from Taba, you guessed it, Israel. That is because after you exit Taba you then walk 100 meters to Israeli Immigration at Eilat. There is nowhere else to go unless you wanted to jump into the Red Sea and swim to Jordan. Now we are not planning on going to Syria or Lebanon but why not avoid potential future headaches by having the Immigration authorities simply stamp a piece of paper which they were happy to do after stamping “Cancelled” across our Taba exit stamps? In the end we will be fine, but it was a final less than awesome interaction with the Egyptian government.
Once we made it to Israeli Immigration the agent was more than happy to stamp a piece of paper once we explained we are going to the UAE. Even though the official stance of the UAE is that an American traveling on a US passport is permitted to enter, even if they have an Israeli stamp, we figure why ask for trouble when it is so easy to avoid? Well, easy when dealing with the Israeli agent.
So what is your best clearing Immigration story?
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Keith and Amy – Love the picts from Petra! Amazing!!!! I always wanted to go there and now I have! Just saw the pictures from Isreal – unbelievable. You walked in Jesus footsteps. Leave for New Orleans (30th), Cruise (7th), Home (14th). Will try to keep in touch. Take care of yourselves and will talk to you soon. Love – Grandma B.
Hi guys!
Great to keep up with you online. Sarah and I miss you guys and can’t wait for you to be back in Philly.
So… March 1999, I go to Seville to visit Sarah, who is studying abroad. Fly overnight, get bombed on the plane… I land looking like… I don’t know, I suppose somebody suspicious. Barely awake, jetlagged, drunk at what is about 10 am local time, I am trying to hold it together in the customs line. It must not have worked. I get pulled out by the Guradia Civil (who, incidentally, if you hadn’t seen their uniforms, look rather comical, like bad guys from an Indiana Jones movie). I speak some Spanish at this point, but not at interrogation speed. Rifling through my suitcase, he says ‘blah blah blah…’ I say ‘solament hablo un poquito, mas lente por favor’. He smiles, motions to his mouth and asks ‘toma drogas, si?’ This I understand. He thinks I’m a drug addict or a drug mule of some kind. ‘No, no drogas’ I reply. Unconvinced, he mutters and continues to rifle through my suitcase. Amidst my boxers, he finds my Centrum vitamins. ‘Aha! Drogas’ he says
I protest ‘No drogas. Vitaminas!’
He then opens the bottle, spills them out into his hand, and sniffs them. At this point I realize I will not be taking vitamins for the entirety of the trip.
He realizes the err of his assumptions and now tries to make a joke: “Vee-agra?” he asks, smiling. What can I say? ‘haha, si, viagra. Lo necesito. haha.’ He puts the pills from his hand back in the jar, closes the cap. I am free to enter Spain.
Mark that is a great story. Thanks for sharing it. I can say I am thankful that we cleared customs in Dubai much easier than that yesterday. Could be the fact that they will let in anyone with any money these days. Something about a 60b default that has everyone on edge.
Dude, that sounds exactly like how you used to scream at your Russian teacher. At least you had enough common sense in this scenario to not throw anything…
Pics of Petra were spectacular!