Something I discussed on another board....
Came into my mind, just wondering has anyone here..namely those who are with US found it harder to travel to MENA countries (or anywhere at all for that fact)...or no difference at all.
I only say cos I have traveled abit, all over North America, Europe, MENA and western Asia...and with my HU passport have had no trouble at all...but when it came to traveling with any US ID...always some type of hassle or scam went on... People wanting brides? Also have some friends who went to DZ in recent times, where their baggage was searched, several items stolen and were asked to give bribes...but I on, other hand had not trouble at all, in fact the Algerien officers upon arrival and departure were more then helpful...so was I just lucky, or was it cos I did not travel with a "western" passport?
Something to ponder...

Never had any problems with the good ole USA blue book.

In fact, it usually made things easier.

I didnt have a problem either however I think the next time I go I will show my Gov't ID, things seems to work allot faster with it.

people wanting brides.. ...you must mean bribes ??? Cute typo for this site.

I usually have an easier time when I use my sheriff badge along with the US passport.

Sarah, Do you take your badge outside the US? Don't you have to carry your service weapon when carrying the badge?

oops yes i mean bribes...but haha when I was in DZ many thought I would "hook" them up

Many only give foreigners a hassle...thinking they could get come money off of them...esp since no tourist trade there...









Wwow Sarah, you sure have some tricks up your sleeve

I had no problem traveling to Jordan with my passport. I was somewhat interrigated by the police station in Sweileh when I had to ask for an extention...they questioned my two under age children took my phone number and then came crank calls asking for me to meet differnt men for sex. I put my DH the bf on the phone and after doing that twice it was taken care of.
Also I once did NOT take Jordanian airlines I went Air France. I was stopped at least 4 times as was the woman in front of me and searched after finding out where we were headed... They were extreamly rude..I actively dislike France now.



Wendy


http://www.freewebs.com/mrs_odeh/ *Live *laugh Learn

sarah a sheriff.............now that is funny that would explain why there is so much crime... law enforcement isnt doing anything but using the internet while on duty on taxpayers dollars.

I didn't have any trouble when I flew to Germany and back. But I normally always get searched during domestic flights. I have no idea why. I never wear anything unusual. I always travel in my PJs so I don't have to worry about going off in the metal detector. Let's see what happens when I go to and from Morocco in normal clothes.

When traveling in less developed countries, I have had similar problems. Often they view Western passports as an indication of wealth, and many of these countries still have some corruption issues and view the Westerners as a way of making money.

I felt like I sailed through the stopping points in comparison to a lot of the other passengers.

On a side note, at the Cairo airport there were like 6 relatives traveling together in front of me at the passport stopping area. The officer asked if they had any translated info since it was in a different language and they all kept saying "pakistani...pakistani...". The officer smiled and said, "OOOOOH...Pakistani!!! For you I will let you go!"...and they sailed right through. I wonder why that is.

I remember being in Pakistan in the early 90s driving around Karachi- 3 Pakistanis and me. We were stopped by the police and asked to produce our ID papers. I was very young and a little innocent about the world abroad. The police let us go very quickly and I commented how it probably let us go quickly because I was an American. I was then told bythe pakistanis that the only reason we were stopped was because I was an American in the car.

During my 3 visits to Morocco I was never bothered. When my daughter and I left Amsterdam for Morocco, we were the only 2 I noticed who were not patted down. Only issue was being nearly interrogated by the Amsterdam TSA on our way back from Morocco on this more recent trip. They asked more in depth questions than the consualate once they found our reason for going to Morocco.

What is an HU passport Henia?

HU = Hungarian

Sorry Henia, you are slow on the tigger

i never had any problems with mine. my friend did some traveling and she said they usually dont bother u at the airports but if u r going thru border u can run into problems.

When my parents and I went to Jordan they used their Jordanian Passports to enter and I used my US passport since I never had a Jordanian one issued.

The difference? Not much. I needed to pay $30 bucks for a visa, they didnt. They didn't have a time limit on their stay, I did. Thankfully the customs agent gave me a month to stay in Jordan instead of the usual 2 weeks so I didn't have to apply for an extention.

While I was there I got my Jordanian passport and ID issued which I will use the next time I travel.

Good Idea!

I sometimes had a hard time catching taxis. I guess some drivers didn't want to be bothered with the white guy. I also got hassled a lot for extra tips. I guess that's to be expected though. This was in Jordan.

The only issue I had with Jordanian taxi driviers was wondering if I would get out of the cab alive. Crazy drivers.

We took a taxi thru Amman for a few hours while getting papers to marry and I felt the same way! Oh please let me live. It was miracle there were not more crashes. BEEP BEEP BEEP

Jackie

The funniest cab situation we had was during Ramadan. This cab driver picked us up and he had the quran blarrrrrrrrrrrring. So he looks at us and sees that we are christian by our necklaces and he looks at my dad and says excuse me sir, would you mind if I smoke? My dad started laughing and said if you want to smoke then why are you blasting the quran on your radio? It was so funny.

Ohhhh and one time my fiance and I took a cab to go somewhere. It was my first few days in Jordan and I was still adjusting. When we got in the cab I was assuming we would both be sitting in the back seat, well apparently the cab driver gave my fiance the evil eye and he decided to sit in the front and have me sit alone in the back. I was pissed! I let him have it when we got out of the cab and he was just laughing the whole time telling me to calm down.

O snaps....Wicked funny!

lol sounds familiar. i think the first thing a taxi driver in brazil has to show proficiency in is honking the horn

Ok I am now having nightmares of the constant horn honking in Jordan...please make it stop. Seriously there were times when the honking irritated me soooo much that I want to get out of the car and just hit the people that were honking. When I realized that my fiance was also a honker lol, I would give him the evil eye anytime a light turned green. He stopped honking bcz of me. Well maybe just while I was there. lol

It was like that in Cairo too!!! Every time I got in a taxi. Not just honking horns (which bothered my ears plenty), but no stopping at traffic signals, not paying attention to lanes, cars double/tripled parked (just pay your baksheesh to the local guy and he'd take care of it) and pedestrians running across the street any which way. You had to learn how to cross the street in Cairo since no one would stop!! Oh, and one of my all time favorites . . . when the taxi driver would backup down the street for a long way to turn around and get to the crossover point going back the opposite direction (instead of going down the street for awhile) . . . that always caused a ruckus.

I found it hard to sleep in downtown Cairo due to all the honking horns. . . . plus all the other insane noise until everyone decided it was time to sleep . . . I think that was about 4 hours before the early morning crowd got started.