Nothing to declare

As I walk through the customs green lanes, I always imagine scenarios
where someone has slipped drugs into my bag or I have accidentally
bought something made of crocodile and sea turtle. Then I'd wonder
how I would deal with getting caught (I worried about this even before
Bridget Jones). Singapore has the death penalty for drug trafficking,
and my nerves are always on high alert through customs there.

We flew into Singapore from Thailand, and given the free wifi in their
fabulous airport, we poked around a bit in the terminal before going
to fetch our luggage. The carousal was almost empty by the time we got
there, and my bag was lying on the floor at the end while Aaron's
continued to circle.

Having other thoughts in my mind, I actually didn't think about this
or the worries of the green lane, and so of course this time I was
pulled over, before even starting through it. The customs officer
asked me if I had anything to declare (no) and then took my bag for x-
ray. Three officers were now involved, not that there was anybody else
around for them to inspect, and they asked what I had that was metal
and circular in the top of my bag. I could only think of my funnel and
they asked me to show them.

The crappy headlamp we bought (and didn't need) for viewing the Borneo
bat-dung caves was (as always) turned on, so that a red glow filtered
through the top of my bag. It must scare the baggage handlers a bit
when a bag suddenly has LED lights go on. I pulled out my little
electronics bag to turn it off, but the agents took the bag from me to
xray separately. As I fumbled around looking for my funnel, worrying
that they thought I was hiding a bomb, they were very interested in
the contents of that bag and started pulling out my battery charger,
iPhone USB charger, and various cables. They got more excited as they
neared the bottom and pulled out... my three bronze medals.

I breathed a sigh of relief. One asked "olympics?". I guess that they
thought they might be Olympic Medals and therefore valuable. They were
all smiling though when I said they were from the dragon boat world
championships and one asked "what country?" Then they congratulated
and apologized to Aaron (!) and we left.

So, the medals catch even the eyes of customs officers. :)