Just got back from Grand Cayman, ITS a thread about the TSA!

[Wise Old Owl]

Well Traveling by plane outside the USA is quite an experience. Its been a while for me, I am sure others possibly do it all the time. But here is a few things I found out by watching others and myself as I crossed into British Territories.

Carry-on, Take the smart phones! & Camera, As the tablets might take over a smart phone is all you need. ATT with an international small additional fee was a clear winner over Verizon. My dad had to get a different chip for his Verizon phone. Take your Snack bars and sandwiches with you on the plane. Do not take any water or liquids. They will be provided for free. There is some strange problem with taking lithium batteries. They do not mean the AA's they mean spare Phone batteries, possibly shorting out and catching fire, tape them up. Make sure you change your message and know your password before you leave - we had no access to our messages - we didn't know a code for voice mail

Backpack - fully loaded and checked as baggage. a small UL pack will make it as carry on, but will trip you up with all the checks. Knifes can be in baggage but not on carry on, so stow it. I watched a few people yanked form the line to explain privately what was in their stowed luggage. I also watched 10 percent of the line diverted to a guy who swabbed QTIPS in womans purses, and mens hands for the cocaine machine.

Coming back into the USA I dumped all metal including coin. I switched to a web belt to speed things up. And accidentally got into that new radar/xray machine that can see you naked... Oh well It was quick easy and got through the line again quickly. Having a stripped wallet of just necessaries and your passport in your pocket and a plastic pen for the forms really speeds things up! I kepted a few Caymen ones and American ones for tipping good baggage handers, and taxi folk. There are two checkpoints now, one for TSA, one for Customs, Bags are dumped and rechecked back onto the destination planes. The lines are long & slow for people that don't pay attention, at one moment the room at the TSA is empty to step into the men's room and come out a couple of minutes and you are 200 people back. ( No kidding )

Above all, before you decide to go hiking in another country, make sure you understand what the current exchange rate is. Understand what is going to be hard to get when you get there. Right now Cayman Islands have $6-7 dollar a gallon rate and a loaf a bread can be $5-6 a dinner a so so restaurant can average $35 - $55 a person. Why ? - in the last two years our buying power internationally has tanked.

[Bare Bear]

The hand swab was probably a spot check for nitrates (bomb making residue) not cocaine.

[dragoro]

Yeah, can't test for cocaine that way (well ya can but it wouldn't hold up in court, almost every dollar bill in circulation will test positive for cocaine, and transfer to hands is relatively easy).

[Wise Old Owl]

OK I will buy that - but why swab 55 year old woman's purses?

[aaronthebugbuffet]

OK I will buy that - but why swab 55 year old woman's purses?
To prove they aren't profiling.;)

[Trailbender]

To prove they aren't profiling.;)

If they want to be effective at stopping threats, they will profile. Whiny political correctness has no place in military or police, especially when they are doing something as important as trying to stop a terrorist.

[aaronthebugbuffet]

If they want to be effective at stopping threats, they will profile. Whiny political correctness has no place in military or police, especially when they are doing something as important as trying to stop a terrorist.
They probably have a quota of checks too so when they didn't see any young Arab males they just grab whomever.

Sometimes there are circumstances regarding your tickets that will get you checked. When I used to travel for work I would get the thorough check every time. I commented about this to a TSA screener and he said it because I was buying one way tickets usually the night before or day of the flight.

[Bronk]

None of the new security put into place at airports since 9/11 would stop someone from doing the exact same thing today. This "security" can only serve to violate people's rights, and yet we have all these morons telling us that we must do everything possible to prevent another terrorist attack. I totally disagree. If we give up our freedoms for the illusion of security (because an illusion is all it really is) then the terrorists have accomplished their goal...they have scared us into giving up our rights.

[Toolshed]

I travel frequently and am fortunate enough to have a passports of 2 nationalities. Everything you mention is a common occurrence that we have all had to get used to. Make sure you either contact your local bank and order currency a few weeks ahead of trips, or hit up the foreign currency exchange (commercial enterprises) at the international terminals of airports. They will usually buy back your excess foreign currency free of charge when you return.
Although I am completely against cash advances on credit cards. For foreign travel, we usually just use our Credit Cards (never a debit card)and take local currency cash advances out from banks/ATMs while traveling (works great if you are hitting different countries that do not all use the same currency). I also like paying with cash to avoid handing my credit card to a stranger (with a language barrier) to walk away with for 5 minutes in a restaurant.

As far as TSA, They all profile and profile regularly. If they ever catch someone who fits the expected profile of a terrorist, they need to be able to prove that everyone who comes through was treated equally, regardless of assumed nationality, origin or race, to avoid having the case thrown out of court.
i.e. that 79 year old grandmother with a walker,oxygen and 1960's Samsonite; publicly; is treated as equally as that guy from a third world country buying a one way ticket in cash, with no baggage.

[Stir Fry]

What did you think of the $5.15 L gas?

[TD55]

OK I will buy that - but why swab 55 year old woman's purses?
Age old smuggling method. Convince someone (middle aged or older woman are easy) to carry an "EXPENSIVE GIFT" and deliver it to "my brother".

[Trailbender]

None of the new security put into place at airports since 9/11 would stop someone from doing the exact same thing today. This "security" can only serve to violate people's rights, and yet we have all these morons telling us that we must do everything possible to prevent another terrorist attack. I totally disagree. If we give up our freedoms for the illusion of security (because an illusion is all it really is) then the terrorists have accomplished their goal...they have scared us into giving up our rights.

Exactly, it is like gun control, it only makes people feel safer.

[Wise Old Owl]

What did you think of the $5.15 L gas?

Honest there wasn't enough bicycles on the island. After the exchange rate that was more like $7 a gallon. Everyone has tiny cars, and the poor lived in areas where the bus went. This is an Island with NO middle class. Either you had it or you didn't... Trade offs - No taxes, Multimillion dollar homes and Fresh Fish daily... an unsustainable culture where everything is imported. This is one of the biggest Scuba location to go due to the wide amount of wrecks around the island.

[Toolshed]

Honest there wasn't enough bicycles on the island. After the exchange rate that was more like $7 a gallon. Everyone has tiny cars, and the poor lived in areas where the bus went. This is an Island with NO middle class. Either you had it or you didn't... Trade offs - No taxes, Multimillion dollar homes and Fresh Fish daily... an unsustainable culture where everything is imported. This is one of the biggest Scuba location to go due to the wide amount of wrecks around the island.
$7 a gallon or $7 a Quart/Litre??

[Crotalus]

Did some work on GC a few years back, was very happy to find out I was getting a $108 per diem for meals. Until I got there and found out the exchange rate knocked me down to about CI$80 then found out that everything is 25%-30% higher. Thank God for continental breakfast at the hotel :) There are "taxes", everything is shipped in and everything that comes through the ports has a tariff added to it. The shipping costs and tariff result in the 25%-30% markup.

There is a middle class of people that work and live there, but there is also an ultra-rich element and a very poor element. We found most of the people to be friendly as we spent considerable time interacting with the "regular" population.

I never minded going there on the company tab, but it is not really on my list of places to visit on my own dime.

[Crotalus]

Learning to drive on the wrong side of the road was interesting. I did very well, the roundabouts were tough to learn. The only place i really had problems was parking lots, on the road i was very focused and always paid attention to where i was, in parking lots i would relax and find myself drifting back to the right side of the "road".

[berninbush]

None of the new security put into place at airports since 9/11 would stop someone from doing the exact same thing today.

Well, in theory, it was legal to take box cutters on a plane on 9/11 and now it isn't. If you actually put one in your bag, will they catch it at security? A toss-up, I'd say.

I think the real difference is in the mindset of the passengers. Before 9/11, we'd all been taught the conventional wisdom that if your plane is hijacked, you should do exactly what the terrorists say and hope they don't kill you, because that was your best chance at survival. That mindset ended by the time the third plane had crashed. The people on the fourth plane in Pennsylvania already knew better, and determined that if they died, they didn't want to take a building full of people with them. As long as the memory of 9/11 lasts, plane passengers will not be led by terrorists like sheep to the slaughter. If they tried the same attack again, it wouldn't work, simply for that reason.

[WalksInDark]

Last airplane trip I took: they let the guy behind me keep his less than 3" blade knife; and (having duct taped the plastic covers on) let me bring my trekking poles on board.

Don't know if my TSA guys were on drugs...or if they have some leeway. Would love to hear from someone from the TSA regarding possible new knife rules.