I sympathise with this poster. I am also from Australia and was hassled to high-hell and back when I went to Canada.

This was back in 2000, and I was traveling from DC to Quebec City (via Montreal) for about 2 days. Upon arriving in Montreal I was asked what the purpose of my visit to Canada was. I just said I wanted to see Quebec City. They then asked me why I was only in Canada for 2 days etc...

It went down hil pretty quickly from there as I was hoarded off into an interview room. The lady there started asking me all sorts of personal questions like whether I had a criminal record, whether I used drugs, whether I was a drug trafficker. They then asked me whether I intended to ever leave Canada to which I replied with "I am from Australia why would I want to stay in Canada". They didn't like that one bit, but all I meant was that I am not from a poor country (ie, Afghanistan) so why would I not want to return home.

Then they asked me what hotel I was staying at (the Hilton) and they called the hotel to check my reservation. Next up they went over my ticket (a RTW) and asked me what I had done in every city I had visited. Next up, they went right through my bags, the pockets in my clothes, and even took drug residue samples from my clothes and bags.

They counted my money, asked me what my limit was on my credit cards.

About 2.5hrs later I was finally let out of the airport.

I was disgusted at how rude the airport staff were to me, and I know this is going to sound terrible, but it left me with no desire to go back to Canada, ever. I know this was a very small sample of the Canadian population, but the experience was so awful, I never want to (and prob never will) set foot in Canada again.

Maybe someone should send Canadian customs some advice on how to be friendly with travelers. I was not rude to them in the slighest (except for my Australia reference which they mis-took), had done absolutely nothing wrong, yet was treated like a criminal for 2.5 hours for no reason at all. Not even a "thank you, sorry for delaying you" at the end.

I have had one other "thorough" experience with customs officers and that was in the USA (same trip actually, must have been that black overcoat). They searched my bags (presumably for drugs) but all the officers were extremely friendly, explained why they wanted to look in my bags, and were altogether quite pleasant to be around.

I have no problem with customs searching people who they suspect may have drugs, but I have a big problem with people who do not show others basic courtesy and respect.

Rant over.

As for other cities, I have transited Singapore about 30 times and have always gone through immigration and customs, even on just a 2 hour connect. Never, not once, have customs hassled me in the slightest. As a matter of fact, in recent years I have gone on many 2-3 day trips to Asian countries like Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India and have never had any troubles with customs at all.

London ask a lot of questions, but are friendly enough if you are honest.

The USA can be quite thorough, but again, in my experiences, the customs officers are friendly enough.

MD

[This message has been edited by MilesDependent (edited 04-26-2003).]