Customised Housings
David from Scubacam visited Bangkok in April to attend a dive show. Arriving late at night with a couple bags filled with prototype video housings intended for display at the show, David was stopped by airport Customs officials and held late into the night, grilled for hours on end about why he was bringing nice, shiny, metallic, expensive-looking things into the country. In the end, all of his gear was confiscated.
What make this experience of David’s particularly ironic is none of the housings he was carrying at the time were functional. They were just prototypes for display. They weren’t even seaworthy.
But to Customs officers, the prototype housings looked fairly sophisticated and expensive, and therefore warranted a thorough check. David produced manufacturers’ invoices showing that the housings were of no commercial value, and explained that he was arriving with prototypes for a trade show, and that he would be leaving Bangkok with the same prototypes in a few days. He even showed evidence of the show and provided show organiser contacts.
You’d think this would suffice, but in this day and age, where the internet is an instant reference tool, the customs officers checked online and determined that camera and video housings are worth a lot of money. It was at this point that Dollar, or Baht, signs started to register in the Customs officials’ minds.
Thus began David’s late-night saga of filling out forms, signing and counter-signing more forms, getting copies of forms, getting copies of copies of forms, having his passport temporarily confiscated, and being “interviewed” by no less than eight friendly Customs officers.
In many years of dive travel, this is the first time David has had his underwater equipment confiscated. Previously, he hasn’t had any trouble…even with large suitcases full of equipment. Even when he has been stopped, David has managed to avoid problems by producing a dive certification, showing the address of the resort he was visiting, and doing a bit of fast talking. On occasion, a small “gift” or “fine” was required (as is the way in some parts of the world), but nothing more serious than that.
In this case…a couple of months, many emails, long distance phone calls, letters, help from friends and an ulcer later, David has finally been reunited with his gear. Hurray!
We were on hand at the moment that David collected his gear. Always fishing for a story, we asked him what lessons he had learned from this ordeal. After a heavy sigh, David responded: “Whenever you’re going overseas for a dive trip, assignment or exhibition, always prepare for the unexpected. Here are few possible ways to prevent a close encounter with the airport customs:
1. Do not travel with your goods. Just send them in advance and just pay the import duty.
2. Use ATA Carnet. Although it’s burdensome and may take some time for the paperwork, it is by far the most guaranteed way of not getting into trouble.
3. Make your gear look less shiny and looked used.”
With regard to the third point, David is currently developing and patenting a travel kit called the “Aging New Gear Stealth Treatment” or ANGST for short…soon to be available from Scubacam after he has conducted a couple of field tests with actual Customs officials. Yikes!
The upside from all this? David got to visit the FiNS Bangkok office and get a sneak peak of the next few issues of the magazine, plus he got to play with Gadget Guru in person, and also dig into some excellent pad thai.
We’ve invited David back for TDEX next year, just to see if the Customs officials will remember him 