How Explosive Can Thai Spices Be?

[dean]

My wife likes her thai spices, enough that she and her mother gave me 10 packets the size of bricks to bring back the the U.S. on Weds. Because of the weight, I put them in my carry on. Going through security in CM was no problem. However, in Bangkok, they wanted to look in my carry on. Of the 10 packets, the security person was concerned about 4 of the packages (all the same dark red/brown spice). He kept saying liquid, even though it wasn't. Maybe, he meant liquid explosive. I knew I wasn't going to win an argument with him, so rather than throw them away (I still had 3 hours to take off), I took them back to check in and tried to get my check bag back. Delta had no desire to accommodate me but did offer to box the spices and told me the Post Office was open 24 hours and I could mail them back to my wife in CM (to take in a checked bag when she leaves a week from Friday). As long as I'm on a rant, I would like to mention that this was the first time that I was searched and had my carry on bag opened 3 times at any 1 airport. When I went through security again, the same person that checked the bag the first time wanted to open it again. At the gate, they were checking about every other bag. Of course, they checked mine. And, I got it checked again at Narita. At Atlanta, I put the remaining spices in my checked bag and, surprise, they didn't check me going through security. As of now, I have enough cloths at my house in CM that, next time, I may forgo any bags and just show up at the airport in Kansas City with my passport and boarding passes and wallet (and no cloths). It should make the airline and security happy.

[baa99]

... As of now, I have enough cloths at my house in CM that, next time, I may forgo any bags and just show up at the airport in Kansas City with my passport and boarding passes and wallet (and no cloths). It should make the airline and security happy.

 

So you'll be butt nekked!

[cavanami]

Like my bumper sticker says....Fly Naked!

[baa99]

 

Well, Dean kept his glasses on.

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"next time, I may forgo any bags and just show up at the airport in Kansas City with my passport and boarding passes and wallet (and no cloths). It should make the airline and security happy."

 

You'd probably get flagged as suspicious for not having any luggage

 

Sanuk!

[think_too_mut]

No any luggage, not even carry on. That crossed my mind. Going to BKK, i need to carry absolutelly nothing, everything is there, even suits and ties.

Hard to prove I am going to my second home without any document showing anything in Thai (condo ownership paper is in the condo).

[Mekong]

Deano,

 

Your original Question, there are many explosives that can be made using "Spices" as the precursor a simple Google will reveal the results, in todays current climate of NSA snooping I wont post a link in case I am mistook as a radical terrorist rather than the laid back Atheist I really am.

 

As for your "No Baggage" policy, I reckon that 85% of my flights are done baggage free or just with a laptop, when I mobilise to a country for an assignment I will take baggage and when I return I bring some back but on rotational leaves what more does a man need than his Passport, Wallet, Credit Cards (in the wallet) and a laptop.

 

Remember Immigration is before baggage retrieval, they don't know if you have, or have not as the case may be, checked baggage.

 

Only once have I been stopped and that was in the 51st State of America, London Heathrow, now that tale requires a post of its own and I wont hijack yours.

[dean]

To a large extent, the post was done tongue in cheek; knowing how hot some thai spices can be, are they hot enough to be explosive? It wasn't that big a deal mailing the spices back to my wife to do whatever she wants with. I do understand the concept of security not wanting a substance, while safe by itself, on a plane with the possibility of combining it with other substances and making it explosive. Having a large DVD collection at my house in CM, I got the chance to watch the movie "Rendition" again and can understand not wanting any record of knowing how to make liquid explosives out there for government officials to find. I do wish that airport security could be more uniform in applying the rules, having no problems in the CM airport but being "busted" at BKK. I really don't see the need for random bag checks (particularly every other bag) at the gate after going through security already. And, if you have cleared security at BKK for a 3 stop trip to Kansas City, while never leaving a secured area, I don't see the need to go back through security at Narita and Atlanta. Its not that big a deal but, at least in the case of Atlanta, it meant that the airline wouldn't put me on an earlier flight to KC and I had to wait 4 hours in Atlanta (part of my 27 hour flight time from leaving BKK to arriving at KC). I do take the minimum amount of personal things in my luggage. But I do try to think ahead and save on things that I need at my house in CM (very good towels and bed sheets mainly, among other household things), or moving things around, as I did on my return this time, taking back the 12 suits that I had brought to CM from the U,S. when I moved to LOS in 2005 (I plan on renting my house in CM out and the suits would be in the way there). I do expect my carry on bag to to opened when I bring to LOS something likea Grundfos water pump (which is still working fine) that I brought 3 years ago, to replace the 2 pumps that my wife had bought and gone through over a 2 year period. I know that Mekong and I have disagreed in the past about buying items in LOS (mainly Bangkok) versus bringing them over in a suitcase or shipping them. Maybe, you can find just about anything in Thailand. But, if it is an imported item, it will be more (maybe much more) expensive than the same item in the U.S. I don't speak Thai and have not lived in Bangkok for 20 plus years. I do know where to buy quality items at a discount in the U.S. On the way to LOS this time, I had in my checked luggage a spray can of expandable foam, used for insulating gaps in doors and windows in houses. It only cost $4 and I assumed it might be confiscated (it was). I went to a large home improvement store in CM (Global House) and couldn't find it on my own and didn't bother to ask one of the many employees just standing around (whose main job is to say "saw wah de kap" and then avoid eye contact). I'm at the point where I don't need to bring anything over with me on trips to LOS and certainly don't need to bring anything back to the U.S. So, hopefully, my criticisms will be moot in the future.

[Specialist]

I've never seen a bag check at the gate at BKK. On the other hand, I've only flown out of BKK on JAL and Cathay Pacific. Maybe it's a United or Delta thing.

 

Now, Cathay Pacific did 100% screening of carryon bags at the gate in Hong Kong, looking for water bottles. Supposedly, that was a US TSA requirement. I've never seen that at Narita, which is where I usually embark for the leg to the US.

 

From what I see on Flyertalk, London Heathrow seems to be some kind of Doom-like intrusion of a Hell dimension into this reality. I'm just as happy never to have seen it.

[Redbaron]

10 packets of a powder, you describe as "bricks"? I'm surprised you weren't strip searched and the long glove bought out.

Internal flights (CM-BKK) don't have as many restrictions. Not sure about the US, but down here we aren't allowed to bring many (any?) foodstuff back from anywhere.