At the Changi Airport – Part II

Stranger and his attempts were not the only thing that happened at the Changi airport. There is more to it. I was traveling light, with just my laptop bag and a small suitcase. I happily took the boarding pass and went off without getting any luggage checked in. Cleared the emigration and went shopping at the duty free for the customary stuff.
I walked towards the boarding gate when there were some 45 minutes for my flight. As luck had it mine was the farthermost one.
At the security clearance the guard asked me to open my suitcase. This has never happened with me before and I did quick recall of what all I had stuffed in. There is a limit of carrying only 100 ml of liquid content and that is when it struck me that my suitcase contained my brand new perfume bottle. An Elizabeth Arden, 125 ml.

The security guard told me I had to dispose it off. No. How could I do that?? I had paid a fortune for it. No no no. I am a sucker for perfumes. Let alone a full bottle I don’t even throw empty ones. I couldn’t believe what was happening. And in a la Indian style I started pleading and getting all emotional. But that lady was made of steel. My innocent requests had no impact on her. She said I could either throw the perfume or miss my flight. I was completely heart broken and then I conceded. There didn’t seem any other option.

That’s when the guard picked my perfume and moved towards the bin in slow motion. She pushed the lid but it didn’t open, she tried again and it still didn’t open and then once again and it still didn’t open. That was it. That was the signal of the divine forces. Even God didn’t want my perfume to be wasted. Instantly I screamed asking her to stop. I realized that there were some 50 more people staring at me at this point of time.

I told her I wanted my perfume back. I was going to go back and get my luggage checked in. She gave an incredulous laugh and said that I couldn’t go out as I had already cleared the immigration. I insisted that I wanted to try. With a shrug of the shoulder she handed my perfume back to me. I stuffed it in my suitcase and ran towards the immigration. There was some 40 minutes before my flight’s departure and the immigration was at quite a distance.

At the immigration counter I had to come up with a heart wrenching story of how important this perfume bottle was for me. A story of how this was the last gift from my now non existent dead Aunt. Finally the immigration officer gave in to my requests and let me out. I ran to the ticket counter and got my baggage checked in.
But the ordeal was not yet over. There was quite a distance that I had to run to get back to my departure gate. There were some 20 minutes left. With all the energy I sprinted towards the gate. The same security guard was there and she almost fainted when she saw me without my baggage.

Ah, and did I mention that this perfume smells even better now??

There is more to what happen when I landed, but that’s another post.