unnerving experience at darwin

my former colleagues from balestier, nah and his wife betty and kwan were at the budget terminal to see me off. nah and betty had gone in their car to pick me from bukit panjang.

tiger airways' flight time to melbourne, including a two-hour transit at darwin, is about thirteen hours, five and a half hours longer than normal airlines'. in spite of the additional time, it was quite a pleasant experience. this was, however, spoilt by the 'ordeal' i went through at the darwin's customs and immigration.

the customs people could be acting on a tip-off that some courier or trafficker was trying to smuggle drug into australia. after clearing immigration, quite a number of asians, myself included, who had boarded the plane in singapore, were asked to step aside for more than the usual questioning.

following the 'interview', we were asked to remove every item from our bags and to spread them out on a long table . the customs officer meticulously inspected each and every item. my packets of shokubutsu body foam were taken away for x-ray. they were also suspicious of the dried seaweed in a bottle.

the woman customs officer even checked the lining of the suitcase. using a special device, she swapped the inside of the bag. she then passed the strip of paper, used in the swapping process, through a machine. i became really worried when she told me that traces of cocaine had been detected.

i shall explain the cause of my worry. over at the budget terminal in singapore, while i was checking in my stuff, this young indonesian girl ahead of me, a student at latrobe university in melbourne, had looked at me pleadingly to help her unload some of her stuff so that she could avoid paying for excess baggage. she transferred three items - at least two of them appeared to be foodstuff - to my 11kg bag.

however, immediately after collecting our bags from the conveyor belt in darwin, i returned the stuff to her. still, the officer queried me on my relationship with her. i told the officer exactly what had transpired.

i did not want to miss my connecting flight to melbourne so i decided that i would cooperate fully with the customs officer. when she asked for my mobile phone, digital camera and wallet, i handed them over. i did not make a fuss when she asked me to turn on the mobile phone so that she could check my in-box. she even scanned the images in my digital and checked the amount of cash i carried.

satisfied that i was telling the truth and having not found anything else incriminating, she asked me to repack my bag and told me that i was free to leave the terminal.

from this episode, i am resolved not to extend help to any stranger at the airport when it comes carrying stuff on his/her behalf.