It turned out that they weren't accusing me of smuggling or anything, but my bags had tested positive for explosive residue, or something like that. But that was pretty normal, as one of the bags followed me around to countless blasting jobs. Once I knew they didn't mess with my stuff and they knew I was legitimately around explosives, all was cool. They walked me back to where I was sitting, this time without the guns pointed, and we all had a chuckle. We may have bought the entire team lunches, but I forget.
I did in the end open my bags, but only once the stress left the room.
The ladies at the perfume and booze shops got a bit of a chuckle at it all.
Not so much an enthusiast but intrigued. We are actually heading to Florida in July so I am curious what I am getting myself into.
We went in July as well. It was a hot sweaty mess. A heat and humidity like I've never felt in my life. I'd take Vegas at 44 Celcius over that heat any day of the week. I remember walking up the road once to a bar and the pavement actually felt like it was melting. That said, if you are going To sit by the beach/pool and crush drinks it was manageable.
If you haven't booked a place yet I would highly recommend the Marco Island or Naples area on the Gulf Coast. I would go back in a heartbeat. In July the humidity would build all day and at 4 pm you'd be treated to the most insane lightning show over the water you've ever seen in your life. Would
Last for 15 minutes (downpour) and than back to sunshine. Rinse and repeat each day.
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I was on my way back home from another great trip to Las Vegas. I went for a conference, so work paid my way. Fortunately the conference was at Bellagio! But, this story isn't about Bellagio. This story is about what happened at the airport on the way back.
My wife and I had just got through security and we were gathering our belongings and putting our shoes on again when I noticed an unusually large amount of security guards gathered a couple of lines over from us. They were surrounding two guys, more guards were rushing to the scene, and one of the guards handed a small handgun to a guard who just walked up to the gathering.
Not sensing any immediate danger I took a long time to put on my shoes as I watched what was going on. They looked that gun over and over. The guys they were detaining didn't speak a word of english. Something tells me that may have just been a convenient ruse. I heard them radio for a guard who spoke a certain language, I don't recall what it was now, but it was from a European country.
The guard who kept inspecting the gun over and over finally wrapped his finger around the trigger, held the gun at about his chest level with the barrel pointing towards the ceiling and he squeezed the trigger. There were gasps, and nearby travelers who were paying attention all stopped in their tracks. It was quiet for a moment, but there was not sound of a gun discharging because the blasted thing was a lighter! I don't think they were going to let the guy keep it though, but it looked like he was trying to get it back!
My parents worked for Canadian Airlines in the crew scheduling department back in the day. Their office would be spammed on a daily basis via fax by travel companies offering employee discounts for various tours and excursions. One such offer came in from a Chinese tour company offering a 5 day tour of Beijing and surrounding area in Nov '99 which my parents decided to book.
I can't remember the exact specifics of airline employee buddy passes during this time but I remember my parents ended up inviting like 4 other couples who they were good friends with and then decided it would be a good cultural experience for me and ended up bringing me along as well.
Fast forward to around day 2 or 3 of our tour and we are in the heart of Tiananmen Square with our group, puttering around snapping photos and killing time before we were due to get in line to see Mao's mausoleum. It's was a pretty quiet experience until suddenly, out of nowhere, a group of Chinese men & women unfurl a banner about 20 feet away from about 4-5 of us in our group and began doing exercise movements. I remember thinking to myself, "oh cool, this must be that Tai Chi stuff I keep seeing in the parks". It lasted for about 20-30 seconds before men in plain clothes and police uniforms began sprinting towards the group from all areas of the square and began forcefully grabbing/hitting the demonstrators to stop the movements. Within seconds, the area was flooded with security personnel.
It was clear almost immediately that something wasn't right. You could tell by the uneasy look on the locals faces that this was not a good scene. Almost as quickly as the demonstration was stopped, the sound of sirens filled the air and multiple police paddy wagons ripped through the square at an absolutely insane rate of speed given the amount of people occupying the area. The response time was eery. They pulled up to the attempted demonstration and police began chucking the demonstrators into the wagons. As this is happening, one of my parents friends who is standing right beside me (I'd peg him at about 6'4, 230) snaps a photo of the chaos. Bad move. One of the police officers sees him do this and immediately grabs him and starts directing him to the paddy wagon. I see this happen and nearly crap my pants. I immediately run over to the rest of our group who is about 50 feet away and hadn't really clued in to what was happening yet beyond seeing the lights and hearing the sirens. I remember yelling, "Claire just got arrested!", the look on his wifes face like she had seen a ghost. It was at this same time that our tour guide came over and was suddenly insistent that we leave the area. His wife told him that the police had put Claire in one of the vehicles and that the guide needed to go speak to the police. I'll never forget how insistent the guide was that we leave the area and how reluctant he was to get himself involved. After some insisting, the group managed to convince him to go over to where the wagons were parked where he briefly exchanged words with an officer before he too was placed in the back of a wagon. Seconds later, the wagons took off and ripped through the mass of people in the square with lights and sirens blaring and no regard for the safety of the people who occupied the square. Our group was suddenly alone in Tianamen Square with no Claire, no tour guide, no idea where the hell they were taken and what the hell was going to happen them. Is Claire under arrest? is he going to be deported? are the authorities going to extort him? Everyone immediately began speculating and trying to figure out the next plan of action (of course in Nov. 1999, no one had a cell phone on them to call the tour company to let them know what had happened). After around 30-45 minutes, Claire and the tour guy ended up returning to the square on foot after being taken to a Chinese police station and "voluntarily" consenting to the disposal of his film by Beijing police.
Once we were safely on our tour bus and far away from the area, our tour guide informed us that the demonstrators were practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that had recently been banned by the state and the source of much social/political controversy in China at the time.
One of the craziest, "we're not in Kansas anymore" moments I've ever had in my life, that's for sure.
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