In Reply to: Customs hassle at perth posted by bigbadbull on Thursday, 3. June 2010 at 11:51 Bali Time:
after my last trip to Bali
Because i had become very ill from a virus in my last week in Bali and had barely slept, packing all our bags involved me just throwing all of our stuff in suitcases and taking nil notice of the amount of tobacco i had.
Well the 120 extra cigarettes ( 6 packs) that showed up in the xray machines got them pretty excited because they weren't declared. I took immediate responsibility because i'd packed all our bags and told them so.
There was no point in telling the three unsmiling stern officials how sick i was, it was more than obvious, and i don't think it would have made any difference anyway.
I was told i had lost all my duty free tobacco allowance and could forfeit the cigarettes or pay the duty. So now it seems i'm a tobacco smuggler öf interest. Also to appear in the system on all future travel. LOL
My irritated husband who was about to come down with the same virus i had, the virus lasted one month for all of us, made the silly comment to customs, "haven't you got anything better to do than make things hard on my wife?" He was told that we were liars because of the undeclared tobacco, and that "we can make it a lot harder for you."
Did i deserve to be pulled aside at the airport? Of course i did, it doesn't matter that i was in complete ignorance of the amount of tobacco i had, they haven't got a crystal ball and cannot make exceptions. But i didn't like the unveiled threat made to my very mildly spoken husband.