Customs is Evil

Since I am in Turkey for work I managed to insist on a shipping allowance. So while I was packing up my apartment in DC I organized everything into 'things my parents get to send me' and 'things my parents get to store'. Lucky them.

Unfortunately my allowance only got six of the eight boxes I wanted shipped to me; but at least those last two I had labeled 'send only if there's enough money'. The six that made it to me were the boxes I really needed: my clothes, shoes, DVDs, hair products, etc. FedEx assured my parents that all was good with the shipment and that they had taken care of all customs details and forms.

Big fat liars.

Last Monday I got a call from FedEx cargo here in Istanbul saying there was a problem with my shipment and I needed to contact their customs office. Over the next two days I called the customer service number and asked to be connected to customs; where no one ever picked up. Then customer service gave me the direct line to customs, which was an invalid number. I finally called customer service US, explained my problem, and asked if they had a directory of numbers for global offices. It didn't help, btw, that three of the six tracking numbers I was given in the original call were incorrect. 

I finally got hold of the FedEx customs office (through no help of FedEx US) and was told I needed to go to their office to sort out the shipment. So on Friday I grabbed a cab and got to the office at 8:45 AM. I did not leave until 4:30 PM.

When I got there they explained that the problem was the hair products, lotions, and makeup I had packed. Apparently these are restricted items and even though some of the things had clearly been used and were definitely not for resale, they were still prohibited. Okay, that's fine. I should have read the customs regulations more closely (although I still blame FedEx US because they have a handbook outlining restricted items in every country to which they ship). Let's toss the stuff and get everything else delivered.

Nope. I had to wait for the customs guy to show up. When he finally did around 11:30 the very helpful FedEx guy, Cihan, explained the situation to him. I was all set to go to the warehouse and dig through my boxes, cry a little as I saw my Curls Rock being trashed (oh the future bad hair days!) and go home.

Still no. Apparently customs guy had to leave abruptly for some important meeting and would be back around 2. Sigh. I was so glad I brought my Kindle. I managed to finish the less than thrilling book club book I'd been slogging my way through.

Around 1:30 Cihan said customs guy was back so we hurried to the freezing warehouse. Where I waited, shivering, for another half an hour. Suddenly there were like six people gathered around my boxes digging through my clothes, underwear, cosmetics, and random other things. I managed to rescue my contacts and, oddly I thought, contact solution but everything else was purged. I was proud of the stoicism I maintained while watching my conditioner and hair product be tossed. It's hard to find that stuff in the US and I have no hope of finding it here. I was a little nervous when they opened up the CD storage books in which were packed all my DVDs. I was prepared to fight for the death for my movies. Taking away my hair product is one thing; leaving me with only Turkish TV to watch is a crime. Thankfully customs guy just grinned at me when he saw the roughly 600 DVDs and put them back in the box.

Sigh of relief and now we're done. But no.

Next I got to go to the main customs office at the airport and fill out some forms. Cihan didn't think anyone there spoke English so he wrote a note for me and told me to just show it to anyone and I'd be directed to the correct person. Happily the first person I gave it to was not only the person I needed, but he also spoke English. He sat me down to wait while his colleague filled out the paperwork for me. Once that was done I had to take it to someone else to get signed, then brought it back to the original guy. They did some more signing and stamping, took the original copy and gave me two copies and sent me back to the manager to get yet more stamps and signatures.

I then rushed back to FedEx hoping to take care of everything in that one day. While the customs forms were done I still had to pay FedEx a surprise ransom for "storing" my boxes. The fee was about $250...and of course they didn't take credit cards.

Monday morning I got yet another cab to go back to FedEx with all the necessary cash to ransom everything. Cihan took me back to the payment office where three different people shuffled through my paperwork for like 15 minutes. They gave me the new ransom price (about $280) and I was just handing it over when the office boss noticed a mistake on the customs paperwork...the paperwork the head customs office filled out for me.

I thought I was going to scream when they said I'd have to wait for the customs guy again. Thankfully I once again had remembered to bring my Kindle.

An hour or so later Cihan, I think at his manager's prompting, said that he'd just take me to the customs office rather than waiting for the guy. Once we fought through the ridiculous Istanbul traffic and got to the airport we were in and out of the office in under five minutes. As soon as we got back to FedEx we went to the payment office where I expected them to note the correction on the paperwork and take my money so I could leave.

Oh poor naive me.

I think we were in the payment office for another 30-45 minutes while several more people shuffled through the paperwork, signed and stamped it all some more, and then created five separate invoices (which also had to be signed and stamped by several people). I made the payment and then Cihan, after making copies of everything, took me to another office where yet someone else signed and stamped all the originals and copies. Then we went back to the warehouse where I stood around in the cold for no reason I could figure, then it was back to the main office; where I sat some more while Cihan ran around.

Finally at, what was surprisingly only about 11:30, Cihan handed me the papers that I got to keep and told me that everything would be delivered that day. Which it was at about 5 PM.

Lessons learned:

• Thoroughly read all customs regulations to wherever you might be shipping something. 
• Do not assume that your shipment carrier will know anything; even if they have all the information available to them.
• Live in the same three shirts and pack everything that might be prohibited in your suitcase.
• I am sooo glad I left my alcohol collection with my parents.
• Screw it and buy everything new when you get to your destination.

I'm just so glad that this over now and I finally got all the things that survived the customs purge. I'm still bummed about all my future bad hair days but have decided that the fee for staying with me will be to bring me Curls Rock-so as long as I can make what I have last until my first visitor comes I should be okay. I'd also like to thank Cihan and the staff of FedEx cargo in Istanbul for making the process less horrible for me.

Also-before I leave Turkey I'm just going to burn anything that doesn't fit in my suitcases.

Petra!

Ah Petra...I think if people know anything about Jordan they know about Petra. Or at least they've seen whichever Indiana Jones movie was shot here. Personally of all the ancient cities I have privileged to visit-this has been my favorite. The buildings were carved right into the mountains for Pete's sake. I just don't think you can beat that.

The way to Petra

If you're going to Petra the first thing you need to know is that holy cow the entrance fee is high. Like, dude. It's 50JD (roughly $75). However what is nice is that you can purchase multi-day tickets for what turns out to be a steep discount. A two-day ticket is only 55 JD and three-day is 60 (or 65?) JD. The next couple things you need are lots and lots of sunscreen and water. After you pass through the entrance gate there's still a kilometer to walk before reaching the Siq.

Genie rocks

You won't be bored though because there are some things to see along the way. Like the Obelisk Tomb and genie rocks.

Obelisk tomb

You may also hire a cart or take a horse (horse included in the cost of your ticket) to the Siq. However after looking at the state of the poor creatures, Sarah and I decided to walk. The horses are very sad.

It is a burning burning hot sun though, even in October, so sunscreen, water, and even a hat are highly recommended.

Entrance to the Siq

Once you get to the Siq, a narrow gorge which is the eastern entrance to Petra, you finally find shade. I was very happy with how much shade there was throughout the entire site. I enjoyed walking through the Siq almost as much as anything too. The gorge was really interesting and I enjoyed the sharply rising, twisty-turny cliffs.

Niche (probably for light?) at the Siq entrance

Inside the Siq

Enjoyment aside though, the walk through the Siq is also quite long. However just when you think you can't take it anymore...

BAM!

View of the Treasury at the end of Siq

The Siq opens up right onto the Treasury, arguably Petra's most famous and most photographed feature.

That's Sarah-she's very tiny

In close in shots of the Treasury I don't think you can really appreciate its immensity. Having tiny Sarah in the above picture helps...but I also think pulling the frame back a little provides an equally good idea of just how freaking huge the structure is.

Again-BAM! It's really big

Detailing on the top of the Treasury

The area in front of the Treasury is a large gathering place with a vastly overpriced cafe, gift shop, hawkers, tour group assembly points, people trying to get you to buy a donkey ride through the site, and camels. I *heart* camels!!

Camels!

I liked the white one best

Once you're done oohing and ahhing over the Treasury, you head off to the right (because to the left is a dead end) to greater Petra. We were pleasantly surprised that it wasn't overrun by people; in fact it was pretty empty. The conclusion locals seemed to have reached, which we learned from shopkeepers, was that the tourists who used to number 10,000+ daily were staying away both because of the general global economic downturn, and because of Syria.

One pointed out, which I thought was interesting, that foreigners seem to think of the Middle East as a unit and if there's trouble in one country, then obviously the entire region is a roiling mass of violence. However, if there's trouble in Europe (like the riots in Greece and Spain) it doesn't stop anyone from going to say France or Italy. And in fact, both Sarah's and my mom were concerned about whether it was safe to go to Jordan. Sarah assured her mom that I was going first and would make sure it was safe for her. My assurance was less than assuring as I told my mom it didn't matter if people wanted to burn down the US Embassy-I wasn't going to Jordan to take pictures of that.

Don't know what this is-random building #1

I decided to confer with Wikipedia to see if I could match up some of my pictures with its map of Petra. Not only can't I, but wow we missed a lot! You really could use all three days if you wanted to see everything. There are a lot, a lot a lot, of different trails you can take to see tombs and temples and such that are scattered about on top of the mountains. We knew we were ignoring some of them, but I didn't realize how many.

Houses maybe? Shops?

If you do decide to go for all of them; I suggest either a rigorous pre-trip training regime that combines regular cardio with stair climbing. For at least 12 hours a week for two months. There's a lot of climbing and a lot of stairs. And we know how much I love stairs.

Urn Tomb

We started late on day one and since you have to be out before dark it was just a short visit. Our last stop was the Urn Tomb. Frankly I wasn't even sure I was going to make it up there. I have no idea who or what Urn was-my thoughts were more on survival than Sarah's excellent impression of a tour guide (she even makes grand gestures while reading from her book or signs).

Top of the Urn Tomb

But eventually make it I did! Little did I know that this would be the easiest climb. So temporarily safe in my ignorance I savored the view from the top and enjoyed exploring its chambers. Although explore might be a little too grand a word. I was more like, walk inside and look around because they're empty. And dark.

Inside the Urn Tomb

They were interesting though if for no other reason than they demonstrated the multi-coloredness of the rock. One of Petra's nicknames is the Rose-Red City which I think is more obvious when you see the inside of the buildings.

Obviously I should have paid more attention to Sarah's guidebook and all the various signs because now I don't really know what any of these are are.

More camels!

Theare

On day two we moved pretty swiftly through the first part of Petra as we'd devoted a couple hours to it the day before. Walking past the trail up to the Urn Temple we noticed a turn off we could have taken while we were up there. Finding another way up We poked around this (below) tomb and then followed an arrow sign that was supposed to lead us to a church I think, but we stopped looking for it when the path ended at the edge of a cliff. Out of view of the picture to left was yet another staircase cut into the rock which apparently lead to yet more tombs. Sarah took pity on me and we did not go up the staircase. I mean stairs are bad enough on their own, but when they're cut into the face of a mountain and don't include handrails?! That just spells disaster.

Corinthian tomb (l) and Silk Tomb (r-out of pic)

After going back down the trail to reach the main Petra thorough fare, we came across a lovely cafe/gifts shop. There are many cafes and gift shops actually that line the main pathways of Petra. This one was a very welcome site as the sun was quite hot over head and we (i.e. I) were pretty tired from clambering around mountain top tombs and almost walking off cliffs because a sign told us to. In any case, if you're ever in Petra I highly recommend this particular cafe. It had ceiling fans which kept it nice cool and the prices weren't highway robbery. I had a mint lemonade-something I discovered while in Lebanon and now would happily drink every single day if I could. I probably spent more money on mint lemonade than on anything else during this trip!

What I call the 'half-way cafe'

Once we were sufficiently refreshed we pushed onwards towards what I will forebodingly (which is a word and is spelled correctly even though Firefox thinks different) refer to as - the trail to the monastery. It doesn't really sound all that foreboding does it? And I know Sarah's probably rolling her eyes. But darn it all, 800 or more steps! 800!!

Hadrian's gate in the background there

The colonnaded street above leading to Hadrian's Gate (dude seriously got around!) was likely lined with shops and such. How I wish they were still there as window shopping would have been a great excuse to delay taking the trail to the monastery.

Only free standing structure in Petra

Here also were gathered many donkey and camel drivers trying to entice people into renting a ride (on the donkeys) up the mountain to the monastery. I was torn about the donkey really. While I had no desire to make the journey on my own feet and a friend recommended I take the donkey-someone else told me that the donkey ride was 'both thrilling and terrifying'. Not really a great recommendation that. And while I'm sure the donkeys are far more sure footed than am I (what isn't really?), perching precariously on an underfed donkey while it trudged up the mountain for its upteenth trip pf the day...eh.

There were many tombs and interesting rock formations on the way up to the monastery. However I didn't take all that many pictures because I knew from my experience on the Great Wall that I was going to want my hands free and not worry about falling and breaking my camera. My Nikon 200 went back into the camera bag and I stuck a small Coolpix in my pocket for some quick shots along the way.

Of course I also used every excuse I could think of to stop for a break along the way up. Oh look, a tomb! Oh look, goats! Oh look...an interesting cloud! Sarah, who may have reached sainthood by the time we got to the top, stayed with me for the entire climb, bought most for my excuses to stop, and helped make up excuses for my utter lack of in shapeness. I was pretty frustrated that I was so out of breath considering I go to the gym for dance classes and other cardio 5-6 times a week.

Goats

We stopped briefly for a breather at a cafe and discovered that we didn't have far to go after that at all. Everyone we passed from that point promised that we were almost there. And we were, around a corner, up a few more stairs, then down a few more. The problem was, even though I was literally steps from the end, I almost didn't make it and was convinced the end (my own, not the path's) was at hand. Sarah's long suffering silence prompted me on though and I gathered what little oxygen was left to trudge on.

The Monastery Al Dier

The monastery is even larger than the treasury and if you compare the picture further up of Sarah by the Treasury compared to the itty bitty speck that is Sarah in this picture-you have some idea. It was pretty vast. I could barely see into it's depths and I had to stand on tip toe to peek over the wall below the opening.

Everyone says that, whether you climb under your own power or take the donkey, it's worth the trip once you get up there. Eh. There's also a cafe at the top that's only mildly over priced but I bought a well deserved coke anyway. We stayed up there for a while, mostly I suspect, so I could gather myself for the trek down. Going down stairs is physically easier but far more disturbing to my mental faculties.

My brother-in-law said that we absolutely should not miss the High Place of Sacrifice-which is apparently located roughly above and to the left of the Treasury (so above that dead end) and reached by a trail. We did not go there. And if I ever go back to Petra I highly doubt that I'll go then-unless jet packs for personal use have been invented by then.

United's New Baggage Regulations: It's gonna cost you!

On Monday, United Airlines announced that as of May 5, all passengers will have to cough up 25 bucks to check a second bag. This charge affects all tickets purchased on February 4 and later.

United is expecting this new charge to generate up to $100 million a year in increased revenue. Now that the airlines already make us pay more for "Economy Plus" seating, when previously it was just a regular seat, and the former economy section has more, smaller seats cramped in the tiny space. With this new regulation, I think that most people will either start trying to stuff even more in overhead and under-seat compartments, further cramping people in an already limited space in an effort to not have to pay the $25 dollars. Unless I'm traveling for several weeks or months, I will do everything I can to pack into one back. Money doesn't part from my sweaty clutches very easily, especially when it could buy an outfit or new pair of shoes instead.

So what does all of this mean, and what do you think of it?

Personally, I usually only travel with one bag even if I'm going for a long time. I once packed for three months in Russia with just one bag. However, if I had to work for several months while abroad, I would want some extra luggage for my clothes. Do you think that this new charge is ripping off the little guy that only travels a couple of times a year? This charge only impacts domestic flights, so if your destination is international, the charge doesn't apply to you. What if, however, you're going on a cruise? I wonder how people will be impacted that way. Even though I usually only travel with one checked bag no matter what, I am even less likely to travel on United in the future because of this.

What about you?