I have travelled all over, and seen different places. I have been to museums, churches and even historical Roman sites. It was nice, in a tedious sort of way. When you travel to a place that has some history, it is almost a prerequisite to go there.
What I really enjoy during my travels is witnessing the strange behavior of people as they globetrot. I have seen Kuwaiti families load crates of frozen fish, sacs of rice and tomato paste while on their way to London.
I realize we are in a banking crisis right now, but I don’t recall reading anywhere that there was a famine in London.
Anyway, I digress. What I saw recently really made me laugh, someone loaded a ….just have a look.
Woo HOOOO Don Veto. It’s good to hear your voice again.
For me, the funniest, scariest kind of baggage is the stoves some people carry. Once I saw a guy trying to set it up on the plane, to make himself some tea. The cabin crew kept explaining he couldn’t, but he wasn’t buying it. I was SO afraid they would let him go ahead . . .
Ahh the fish…
Many years ago I arrived at Heathrow from Kuwait and on the baggage carousel there were 3 styrofoam boxes full of fish. Zubaidi to be exact
But one of the boxes had cracked open on impact and all the fishy smelling water leaked out of it while the box went round and round on the carousel. I guess its owners were too embarrassed to pick it up in front of us so they just left it there!
I know exactly what you guys mean – I can never forget the infamous metallic boxes stuffed with Zubaidi, with the oily stuff oozing out of them.
I have a personal anecdote – I was a victim of circumstance once concerning the transportation of ‘Fagia’a’ (or however the hell they spell it in English – I’m not good at ‘3s and all that Arab-English lingo).
Anyways, I was asked to take two boxes of it to a relative in DC which I did. Arrived in Washington and the boxes were soggy and stunk of Vodka (I could never figure out how or why). Apparently, the high altitude cold wreaked havoc on the contents.
“Sir, what exactly are in these boxes?” asked the Customs officer.
I didn’t know what Fagia’a was called in English so I said “desert potatoes.”
“Desert what?” he asked.
“Potatoes, desert potatoes,” I answered as he looked over the contents and then went “Don’t bring these again, whatever they are.”
Hell, I couldn’t have agreed more.
Why didn’t I say ‘Truffles’?
A good friend of mine used to work in the baggage department at Toronto Pearson Intl Airport. I remember how he used to complain about unloading the New Delhi/Mumbai-Toronto flights as the baggage was very heavy. He said there was a persistent urban legend around the airport that new immigrants on these flights used to check in big barrels of water.
‘The Diwaniya’ Opens Its Doors, More Visitors Incoming
We’ve had a great new ‘Diwaniya’ relaunch for the blog, the ‘Guest Contributors’ have done a stellar job so far. We’ve had an entertaining piece by Don Veto (‘Things People Carry As ‘Baggage’ When Travelling’), a politically passionate one…
I hope I will not embarrassing my shelf like that all people. 😛