Bishop

Arrival.

January 23rd, 2009

Wow, I am tired.  One interesting note when I came through customs in Bangalore.  I had a ‘X’ in white chaulk on my bag.  Apparently, they scan the bags coming in and if they see anything that looks like electonics they mark the bag so customs can go through it.  I had some electronics in my carry-on but only a power supply in my checked bags.  Had I known about the ‘X’, I should  have taken my bags to the bathroom and scrubbed it off.

Well, I come up to customs but I told them I have nothing to declare as that I am taking everything I bring in back with me when I leave.  The older customs agent wasn’t having any of it, even though he was very nice and get a smile on his face.  Well, I show him the power supply and explain that it is just a power supply, when he looks over at my other bags and wants to open them up too.  This is going to be bad.

He has me lay my bags out and opens them up.  He sees the hardware in the checked bag and his eyes light up – like he won the lottery.  If I only knew how right I was at that instant.  He then asks me how many laptops I am carrying my other case.  I reply with two and his eyes get even wider.  He explains that I am limited to only bringing one laptop into the country and that I would have to pay a tax on it.  Also, he wanted me to pay a tax on the equipment he found in the carry-on.  We negotiated down to a total import price of $750 and I was to pay a 33% tax on that.  I was pretty nonchalant about it as that I was just going to put it on the corporate AMEX card, but he kept asking me if I thought that the company would re-imburse me.  Apparently, he didn’t really know how corporate AMEx cards work so I replied, “Maybe” just to see if I could get him to bite.  He motions for his supervisor and he comes over and directs me to a back room.  I ask the supervisor, “How much?” He reples $60.  I tell him I will pay $50 and he then says I should pay in Euros then.  I ask him how many Americans he has seen with Euros in their wallets and I get  a shake of the head.  “You get $50,” I tell him and the money passes hands and I am out of the terminal in a flash.

I meet up with a guy who has my name and company on a placard and we hurry outside and load my bags into his car.  I take a quick snapshot of a wild dog scurry by me while the bags were being loaded.  The air is dry and sweet.

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