Customs screening when on weird itineraries
 

Evening all,

Just arrived in Bali and got almost the full rubber glove experience from customs - apparently deemed suspicious because a female travelling alone (😴😴😴) on a fairly unusual 2 stop itinerary in both directions

of course my strategy was to be completely honest about the (mostly stupid) reasons for the complex routing. Of course was also not carrying anything I shouldn’t have been but the guy seemed a little disappointed, they obviously thought they had some decent intelligence going on

got me thinking- as Bali is an easy choice for me to launch relatively cheap itineraries via the Middle East to various places- is there anything else I can do to help reduce scrutiny? He wanted to know where I worked and what I did, luckily I had a copy of my contract in my emails but I also have an unusual working arrangement which I suspect would raise eyebrows eventually. Also wanted to know about Mr Pants and who he is/what he does, luckily also had my travelling photo frame with pictures of the two of us (including one of him in his uniform) which answered that question.

Not sure if i’ll now be flagged every time I go to Indonesia or if I transit DPS again

Any thoughts appreciated

Nancy

That's surprising to hear.

I've been through numerous Indo airports over periods as short as 1 night, arriving from and departing to various exotic destinations, and never had a question...

I wonder if the guy just had a problem with you being a woman travelling unaccompanied :(

I had a similar issue when in Israel (apparently being a female travelling alone was the single most suspicious thing about me on that trip); I was going to ask the customs man here but thought better of it- not sure if Israel travel is an issue for the Indonesians but I figured perhaps not a good plan to draw attention to that fact I’d been considered a customs risk before

it was all a bit strange. He seemed genuinely disappointed to not have found anything dodgy on me, so they obviously thought it was decent intelligence. And since I’d been trekking I had about a million tonnes of (non-narcotic) medication with me which was all checked. All a bit strange

I have done 5 single visit in Indonesia this year, 3 in a row in may, 2 in a row in September, for just one night each time since I was doing the AUH-CGK TP run on Srilankan. I am female, I traveled alone, and basically no one asked me anything apart from the usual reason of visit. Just once at CGK immigration, leaving, not arriving, the officer commented with surprise the fact the passport stamp for the entry was just from the day before. But that's it.
Next month I have a two night trip to Bali, coming from IST. I'll see if someone will ask anything particular on arrival.

thanks, this makes me a bit more hopeful it’s a total one off!

I'm sure that the "weird" itineraries can trigger customs intelligence gathering. Once a upon time, I watched an episode of Suomen tulli (a docureality TV show following the work of Finnish customs) and this time there was a case where a babushka had travelled somewhat complex itinerary from a former Soviet country (I think it was Moldova) to HEL. So, triggered by this travel route (and there might been also information about suspious ticket payment), Finnish customs stopped her and checked thru her belongings. Nothing suspious found and they tried to interview, but the questioning was challenging since she spoke practically no English and the customs officer didn't talk Russian. At one point, the customs officer noticed a family waiting in the landside waiting hall and somehow got the idea that they must be waiting for this older lady. Little chat revealed that babushka's daughter had moved to Finland and had invited her mother to visit her and the grandchild(ren?). Case solved and the reunited happy family was able to continue their journey.

I went to South Korea (from Durham NC) for a job talk, just for a couple days. Just brought a school back pack because I am sick of paying for check-in or having to wait for luggage at the carousel. The customs guys seemed really suspicious.

I have yet another weird trip transiting south east Asia coming up, although it doesn’t touch Indonesia so we shall see! Hasn’t been a trend so far but you never know

SE Asia and odd, short trips are just the sort of thing that interests the new risk prediction systems Australia and New Zealand C&I have deployed in the last ~2 years. They're really ramping up their efforts on human trafficking and organised crime (from SE Asia and OMCG from Oceania) going into the Australasia and Pacific regions.

interestingly I was expecting to have an issue on returning to Australia but there wasn’t one. On reflection I wonder if the Malaysians had flagged me as I had an overnight transit in KUL immediately prior to the “Bali incident”

Only full treatment I've got in recent years was in Bali. Immigration officer asked where I'm coming from (Bangkok), who I travel with (But no one travels alone!!!!!) and they were already waiting for me at customs. Nothing found. I'm a male btw, so it's not just females travelling alone who are suspicious. Another visit year after that, not a single question asked or eyebrow raised.
Speaking of Finland, early-mid nineties I was pulled over by customs every single time. Must have p... them off somehow.

Just got back from a 2 days in Bali, via IST. I had a bit more questions at immigration than I had in CGK on single night trips doing the "famous" AUH-CGK run (I've done 5 this year).
The immigration officer asked me reason of visit (short break vacation), from where I arrived (IST), if I lived in Turkey (No, just transited there from Europe), and got the comment "you have a lot of visits [in Indonesia]" while browsing passport pages, to which I replied "I like the place, love the food and it's good for shopping".
And that was it. Passport stamped and no further questioning or stops at customs.

For 2019 I'm done with SE Asia, but I have already another Bali trip planned for early April via DOH - with the whole family this time - and I think i'll go there again alone in early May, taking advantage of AY promo to HKG and then using the "cheap" TPE-DPS fare on CX. That could be a bit more weird itinerary :)

Thanks for this- my flights for the AY fare are booked through SIN as the price was similar and the timings much better; will see how the Singaporeans (and indeed, HKG and China) feel about the whole thing!!

Interesting. I am in and out of Thailand and Philippines a lot and sometimes just an overnight and never have they asked me anything apart from how many days this time. When I say just one night, they have said Oh transit.
By the way at departure check in for your flights to Indonesia, do they put in the return ticket information?

what do you mean by return flight information? This last time I was booked BNE-DPS-BNE with a nested DPS-KUL-KTM-KUL-DPS, all round trip tickets, so the airlines would have known I had onward travel booked. Not sure what APIS Indonesia asks for? The bloke at BNE check in was looking at Timatic I’m reasonably confident as he was asking questions like country of residence (mine isn’t the same as my passport)