AlAggie said:

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YouBet said:

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The Fall Guy said:

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YouBet said:

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Pre-9/11 we would cross the US-Mexican border at Boquillas. Pay a $1 to get ferried across the Rio Grande, and then $1 to ride a donkey into town (if you wanted) and go get hammered at the in-town bar on Soto.

Would do the same coming back. No border patrol in site. Just freely roaming across the border.

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In 1992 came across from Nuevo Laredo drunk and in the back of a pickup. Those were the days when you didnt need a passport and just your Texas ID

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Yep. Spring break South Padre in mid-90s a friend of mine and my GF at the time simply drove across border at Matamoros and went inland a few hours. No idea where they went but he was on some kind of quest to find a certain bottle of tequila or some ***** I didn't really care. I think I told them, "Good luck". And went back to drinking.

Imagine doing that now. No way in hell. And I refused to do it then when it was "relatively" safe.

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Same thing, except we were looking for the bull fights. Never found them, but thankfully no one kidnapped the two drunk gringo's cause no one would have found us either. So damn stupid.

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Did you find the donkey show?

Used to cross at Laredo 2-3 times a month. Ex grew up there. Went on an alcohol/tobacco run on a Friday evening. Used the old bridge for the same on Saturday night. Turns out she knew the guy manning the booth, and they chat for a moment. We get up early on Sunday and walk over. Carry back another round of liquor/tobacco. Damned guy was working the morning shift in the foot area and gave me a ton of grief about the 30 day rule. We did get to keep everything, though.

Another trip, we drove back over. Got pulled for inspection, so it was "pull forward and park in a bay on the left". After the inspection the agent said now go pay the tax on your stuff, and pointed to a booth where we would have to either back up or drive the wrong way thru a crap load of traffic. He walked off, so I said screw it and drove off.

Another trip, we drove over early on Saturday morning. No one else in sight except for an ancient Mexican cop standing on a corner. I pull up to parallel park, and he stops me. He steps into the street, where there isn't a moving car in sight, blows his whistle and "stops traffic", and motions me to park. As I get out of the truck, he walked over with his hand out for his tip. Gave him $5 for his trouble.

Costa Rica about 2015. Decided to ride around a bit and drove by what looked like a ranch-style house with a veranda. Two guys in some kind of uniform laying on chaise lounges waived at me going by - turns out it was the Panamanian border.

I've had to travel halfway across the country of Brazil to go to some Amazon customs office to have my visa interview because my work visa was expired. I almost wasn't allowed to board a flight down there because of this lapse. I literally flew to southern Brazil then had to fly back north to Rio or something then get in a car for 5 hours to go to this random office.

Because their system is so ******ed, next time I go down there I have to go back to that same place in order to pick it up. Nope, can't pick it up at one of the convenient ones. Have to go bum**** Amazon.

Moved to Canada for a couple years for a work assignment and was on a work visa. Traveled back/forth quite a bit from Houston/Toronto/Canada and the US border patrol was typically 'all business'.

The Canadians were chatty and friendly, but they always found a way to ask several different ways if I was familiar with their handgun laws and what I thought of Canada.

MIne were all coming back into the US. Spent about a week near Whitehorse, Canada. Drving back through the check point I was very sleepy since it was June and it never really got dark so I slept little. The official asked where we were coming from. I couldn't remember. He didn't think that was very funny. He thought it was even less funny when my response to "Do you have any animals with you?" was "Just the dog on the back seat." which was my 6 year olds stuffed animal.

We went to Mexico for my honeymoon. A year or so before, my wife had traveled to Europe. She got sick on her return flight and left a half eaten sandwich in her purse which was discovered upon her return. She was written up for transporting illegal meats. When we got to customs on our return trip from Mexico, the customs line looked like it would take a couple of days to get through. But after a couple of minutes an agent comes up to us and says we need to come with him. He took us to a booth and a couple of agents started questioning her about what had happened. When they found what it was all about they apologized and sent us on our way.

I also got to do surgery on a giraffe at the Brownsville Zoo. On the way out, I was still wearing my scrubs from surgery when I got to a checkpoint. No big deal. Until they started walking up with a drug dog. We had used some very potent narcotics on the giraffe, and I could just imagine somehow having gotten a drop on my clothes that would set the dog off.

zooguy96 said:

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Went to New Zealand in 2004. They asked us 100 questions - had to show all our shoes and make sure they didn't have any dirt on them. Also asked about any food (seeds), animals, etc.

Got the same lecture on the way out.

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Yep, New Zealand doesn't play when it comes to biosecurity. They're very strict.

In high school I went on a mission trip to Laredo


I was painting a church in the sun during Spring Break


I have always been a quick tan and tend to get pretty dark


My youth director kept cracking jokes that it was my fault our van was always the one getting stopped coming back across the border

"Cristo me ama, Cristo me ama, Cristo me ama, La Biblia dice as"

Rattler12 said:

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No stories to tell because I have neither the need nor desire to travel to any foreign country for any reason past present or future.....ever.

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Reminds me of a customer of mine in San Diego who was late to a meeting we scheduled.

He was headed south on Interstate 5 and missed his exit. Took him 3 hours to get back across the border from Tijuana.

Ragoo said:

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I will say, walking out into a less "international" airport in china as a 6' white man was a weird all alone experience. Not a soul looked like me. Not a soul spoke English.

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Back in February 2020, I made a sales call in Kawasaki, Japan.

Talk about feeling lonely as a 6'3" man with long blond hair. There were no Europeans to be found anywhere.

The Japanese folks are polite. They just kind of looked at me, stared for a second and kept moving.

In China, they stop, stare, point, giggle like I'm a freak of nature - which in China, I am.

2000AgPhD said:

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Costa Rica about 2015. Decided to ride around a bit and drove by what looked like a ranch-style house with a veranda. Two guys in some kind of uniform laying on chaise lounges waived at me going by - turns out it was the Panamanian border.

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At Sixaola? I've seen across the border there several times, but always stayed on the Costa Rica side.

Hopefully I can at least participate in the thread...

I had my global entry renewal online today that took less than 5 minutes with US Customs and Border Protection...don't know why I was flagged for the interview since most are automatic.

Personally, never had any issues in any of the countries/islands other than when some random island pull "my suitcase" for a bag check.... basically everything was comingled at this point with the family and American had randomly tagged bags.... Had no clue (not expecting issues) what people repacked when they called me in.

I used to fly my private plane to Mexico all the time in the late 80's and early 90's. Sometime around 1990 Mexico started charging a $25 departure tax on private aircraft passengers. They always charged it for airline passengers, but they changed it to include private planes. I decided to avoid it by flying directly into Texas and skipping the Mexico border airport. The border airport typically just took my aircraft entry permit and made a note by hand in a little logbook. This was before computers and I figured they'll never connect the dots that I didn't turn in the paperwork, especially since several airports were available between Matamoros and Acuna.

I did that several times until one flight into Nuevo Laredo the customs officer asked me about the previous flight where they show I had never left Mexico. He showed me the logbook with an empty space on the exit date for my plane. I told him I exited through Reynosa, and damned if he didn't have a copy of their logbook also, and he showed me they also had no exit noted. Then I told him I just remembered my wife was feeling sick so we flew straight into McAllen. He was very polite about it but told me to please radio the tower if that ever happens again. He didn't say anything about the uncollected departure tax.

I'm still impressed with how well they kept track of entries and exits and coordinated between airports in the days before computers.

China. Multiple Xray scans and manual pat downs.

India seems obsessed with nail clippers and cuticle clippers.

Australia was really bad during Covid. They seemed to have lightened up some lately, but I miss clearing customs in the Cockpit before the Vid.

That is all in the Crew line with a handler.

Um..... why not just slip your Aggie ring off, scan your finger tips, and then slip the ring back on again. Might have saved you some time. If I were the immigration officer, I would have requested that of you to speed things along for the others behind you.

I have a couple…

Back in 95' our youth group took a mission trip to Saltillo Mexico. Two vans full of kids, six adults including my dad as a chaperone. Got stuck for five hours in a Walmart parking lot in Laredo in the July heat, waiting on our escort. Waited another four hours at the border while several adults were questioned, and then about an hour into our trip got pulled over while the Federales went through our suitcases. Still a great trip, though.

My husband traveled to do some contract work for Saudi ARAMCO in 2013-ish. Flies from Houston to Frankfurt, then into Dammam. On the flight into Dammam he's sitting next to a Saudi student that's been studying in Canada and is making the trip back home.

The entire flight, the kid is knocking 'em back, talking about all the drugs he's tried and how he's basically living the high life before he passes out midflight. They get ready for their decent and the attendants come around with the forms for customs- in English and in Arabic. The guy reads it, looks at my husband, points to the Arabic portion and says "when I read this, I become very sober." He never translated it for my husband, but the guy was completely quiet the rest of the way in.

He had to wait in customs for about six hours. He said people would get lazy, take off their shoes, sit down or wander. Customs guys would come in and start yelling at everyone to get back in line. Another American starts taking pics of them and they drag him off- never saw the guy again.

His entire trip was pretty wild, he's got lots of great stories.

Last one is my MIL, who traveled to China in the early 2000's to visit her husband who worked for US Zinc. She's an ordained minister so getting her Visa was almost impossible. First time she applied, they outright declined it immediately. Second time, she didn't include her profession and they approved it but they only let her in with the condition that she not try to convert anyone along with a few other stern warnings. She's pretty sure she was followed the entire two weeks she was there.

hsjnlssmith89 said:

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Um..... why not just slip your Aggie ring off, scan your finger tips, and then slip the ring back on again. Might have saved you some time. If I were the immigration officer, I would have requested that of you to speed things along for the others behind you.

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Fair questions.

At my 3:00 am arrival in Dammam, there were multiple lanes for "returning visitors" and there was nobody in line behind me. I decided to use the "returning visitor" line - because that was the truth - it had just been 40 years since my most recent visit. LOL

That was a particularly long travel day because I left my hotel in Stuttgart around 10 am to drive to the airport in Frankfurt. Then flew 7+ hours in an A380 to Dubai, changed planes for 2 hours and then took the short hop in a 777 to Dammam. I booked this route so that I could use Qantas points to fly First Class on Emirates and use the shower in the A380. It was incredible. Almost equally impressive was the personal escort they give you to golf cart you around the terminal at DXB.

During this long travel day, my hands and feet swelled up a little bit so I could not get my Aggie Ring off. Likewise, when I landed in Dubai, I couldn't get my cowboy boots back on. Luckily, I had packed my True Blue Aussie - Mick Fanning - Reef Sandals in my carry on.

I'm a fat, old person who routinely takes really long flights so, this is probably more common for me than it is for others but here's an article about it.

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/why-we-get-puffy-swell-on-flights

Quote:

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If you're a frequent flyer, it's highly likely you've also experienced puffiness and swelling in your hands, ankles, and face at some point. That's because air travel, particularly over extended durations, creates "cutaneous puffiness," which is characterized by swelling or bloating of the skin, notably around the eyes and extremities.

But why does it happen? Is it because you drank 12 mini wines? Or because you couldn't sleep until you had finished the entire Godfather trilogy? Below, we uncover why you get puffy on a flight and what to do about it.

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I laughed when I read that because I did watch the Godfather trilogy between Sydney and Los Angeles about 15 years ago.

Went to Afghanistan twice while working for a GC who did primarily DoD work. First trip involved a day layover in Dubai to get my visa. The company we used picked up two of us at the hotel, drove us to the Afghan Visa, Hair Care and Tire Center, and we sat and waited for a couple hours while they greased whomever they greased to get our visas. There were plenty of other folks who were already mad from waiting so long when we got there. They were 9 kinds of mad when we left visas in hand. On the second trip, there were a few other folks with me. This time the company dude just collected passports and said I'll be back later today. That's a special kind of trust to hand some dude your passport in a hotel lobby. Mine was still good, and if it weren't, there's no way I'd have just handed him my passport.

Leaving Afghanistan the first time there was an Afghan National Police dude manning the immigration booth at the airport. He had pure RBF and just about mean mugged everyone as he stamped passports before you went through security. I handed him my passport, half smiled and said hello. He snatches the passport out of my hand and starts flipping through it with full on stank face. When he read the info, he looked up at me and said, "Texas?" I said, "yes, I'm from Texas." His face lit up like a little kid at Christmas, "TTEEXXAASS!!!" and he threw up touchdown arms. So I replied in kind, "TTEEXXAASSSS!!" He hollered again, stamped my passport, politely handed it to me, nodded and said "Texas" one more time. I looked back when I reached security and he was back to RBF.

Second trip over there I picked up a bottle of Jack at the Duty Free in Dubai and took it with me. A coworker in-country asked me to grab some cheap booze, and said worst case the customs dude at the Kabul airport would confiscate it to drink it. Apparently they would all grab bottles on the way back from R&R and never gotvhassled. This bottle was a collector edition and came in a metal tin instead of a box. I used to collect Jack stuff so I hung on to the empty tin to bring home.

When I left, the Kabul airport had shifted around entry control points and added remote inspection stations. Our security team took me to the airport and handed me off to their local fixer dude named Yama. Yama would walk you through the checkpoints and get you to security to make sure you didn't get shaken down by all the new folks and gates. At the first inspection point, the ANA dude opens my suitcase and roots around a bit. He finds the metal tin and starts shaking his head and barking like he'd found the mother lode. He starts hollering at Yama, and Yama asked me what it was. I said it's just an empty tin from a bottle. Yama replied to the dude, who was now holding this thing - a decorative tin box for a Jack bottle with logos and Lynchburg scenes on it - up in the air and hollering. Yama nervously asked me what was in it. I said "nothing". Security dude was still hollering when he popped open the top and tipped it over. He stopped hollering when three pairs of rolled up dirty socks fell out. Yama snorted. I kept quiet. I don't speak Dari or Pashto, but the way he tossed the tin, pushed my suitcase, pointed at the terminal and hollered, I'm 99% sure he said get this MF outta here and take your dirty **** with you.

Crossed the River in a boat, road a donkey into town. Had lunch and a couple cervezas. Bought a serape. Walked back to the river, crossed the river back to the Texas. Tipped the boatman and shook his hand. Told him I'd see him again later this year. Good times.

Nor does our very own TSA… Tender Qwik, a morton salt product test positive for an explosion material. I found out the hard way. Thank Goodness it was in its original packaging.

Years ago, my family drove over to Mexico for the day. Not sure exactly where ... probably Matamoros.

Coming back, we stopped at the border crossing. Long lines. Finally get to the agents. Our windows were rolled down to get fresh air. Border crossing guy sticks his head in, asks my dad a couple of questions, then waves us on. But before he leaves, my little brother -- probably five at the time? -- says loudly, "WHEW ... that was a CLOSE one!"

We all freeze. Agent does a double take, then realizes it was just a kid who didn't know what he was saying.

This is how I drive to work everyday pic.twitter.com/T3HmyURB1s

— captaincrunch (@Ze1ooooo) January 15, 2026

I was flying out of Vietnam to return home. Flew from Da Nang to Hanoi and arrived 20 mins before midnight. Debarked plane, went and got my luggage and transitioned over to the international side of airport.

Now it is past midnight and I am at the United KIOSK waiting to get my ticket. Can't get it because my VISA had just expired. I was then escorted to the Military side of the airport to be interrogated. During this interrogation I bribed the Air Force officer $200 USD to avoid being arrested. This officer escorted me back to the United KIOSK and told them to issue my ticket. Then he escorted me to the assigned gate. I mead we walked through every line. No metal detector search……nothing.

When we got to the gate the Officer gave me stern talking too and told me to never let this happen again because next time I will be jailed.


Then there is frickin Canada. Flew straight to Calgary from Houston and arrived at 13:00 am. The passport agent got spooked because all of the Vietnam VISA's I Had stuck into my passport. I told him I had a special skill set….to which he didn't appreciate.


To make a long story short and tolerable I had my passport taken away from me. A Canada Airport police officer to me to a hotel and i was told to go no where and a different officer would pick me up at 8am for a 9 am court trial in the Airport. I had no idea some airports have courts in them. I was found not guilty for violating Canada Right to Work Laws…..stayed for 2 days and then went home.

There have been a few other border incidences but I can't talk about those.

Vietnam and Thailand are super strict and cracking down HARD on visa issues. We went to Vietnam for 3 weeks last year and loved it, will return in July this year. The online visa process is a joke, but a a necessary evil unfortunately.

Hoyt Ag said:

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Vietnam and Thailand are super strict and cracking down HARD on visa issues. We went to Vietnam for 3 weeks last year and loved it, will return in July this year. The online visa process is a joke, but a a necessary evil unfortunately.

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There is a consulate in Houston. That was where I would go get mine. When I worked there I had to get new VISAs every three months. I can remember if they changed to 1 or 2 years.


Vietnam is a great place to live……as long as you are healthy.

We used to own funeral homes in Alpine, Pecos, and Fort Stockton.

In Fort Stockton there were 2 funeral homes. One owned by us and another owned by a man named Ray Chapa.

Rumor was that Mr Chapa had some ties with the cartels and could dispose of bodies (crematory).

There were a few times where we got a families business that he though he should have had, and we ended up with a few bullets in our windows.

Close the border!

Late 80s we were drilling in Del Rio, the crew was from Kansas. When we were finishing up they said they wanted to go to Mexico because they were so close and never had been. I told them it was only Acuna and just look around, it will look the same only a lot poorer. They insisted so I told them we would walk across, no way was I taking the company truck.

We drank some beers at several places, ate, they bought some tequila. When we came back through they declared the liquor and the agents took it, our DLs, and escorted us to a side room. As we sat there for about 30 minutes the drillers were getting all nervous and I told them to settle down, they were just watching us. We were in dirty jeans, shirts and work boots and looked like we could have been buying drugs. I told them it was their fault for wanting to go across.

On a trip back from Puerto Vallarta, the customs guy asked my wife if she had anything she was bringing back to declare. She said "other than the amoeba in my stomach making me **** my guts out? No." He got a kick out of that one.

Flew into Montreal last night. Customs kiosk couldn't take my picture and printed out my customs paper with an X where my face should be.

Made me think.

I have been to Tarawa twice, my Dad was wounded there in 1943. The second trip was on the 75th anniversary of the fight. A few months beforehand, I had met via a Facebook group, the brother of a Marine who was in my dad's company, likely in his platoon, and who was killed on the first day of the battle. Evidently my dad was buddies with that Marine, he had some pictures of some of the guys in his platoon/squad, and a couple of the pictures included this Marine.

This brother either due to health reasons, or financial reasons (I didn't dare ask), could not go on the trip though he said he had always wanted to. A Texas boy, he now lived in California. When we got to Tarawa, on one of the days I got a bottle of sand from Red Beach #1 where his brother was killed and some seashells. When headed home, I did not try to hide the bottle of sand, put it in plain sight in my luggage. The forms you get to declare things, said you are not allowed to bring soil, among other things. I said **** it, beach sand isn't soil in my mind. Decided to take a chance.

No problems in the small Tarawa airport. We flew to Fiji, no problems there. Then flew into LAX and I was sort of drained after the long flight. We had flown 7 times in 7 days as well. My wife and I put our bags on the conveyor thing in security, and after they went through, she grabbed hers but in my stupor I walked off without mine. Within 50 feet or so, I realized it and turned back to get it. The security dude had already snatched it and put it by the wall behind him. I asked for it and he said oh, that is your bag then? I said yes sir. He asked if I minded if he looked in it and I said you are the boss and can do whatever you think you need to do.

So, he unzips it and there on top of everything is a clear bottle that had something in it, sand to be exact. I guess to a stranger, it could look like a lot of things, things that might go BANG or something. He grabbed it like the last French fry and said "just what is this." I told him it was sand, sand I was bringing to a man in California whose brother had been killed on the very beach that I took that sand from and I am damn well bringing it back to Texas to ship to him. He said "tell me about this battle." I gave him a couple of minute recap, 76 hour fight, number of dead on each side, and a few other details. He looked at me and said "good luck and good on you" and put it back in my bag. I was sweating it though, lol.