Trouble for Backpacker – Power of Passport

But, I don’t know, what happened to me at that time, I was obeying his order without any resistance or query.

It was like, something was forcing me to obey his orders or may be it was my attitude towards the cops, “Kar lo jo karna hai”, if I am not wrong, let him do what he wants to do.

He was audacious in his behaviour but I was also responding him calmly. By investigating more and more, he was trying to irritate me but I was keeping myself calm, by following his orders, after all “Banarasi khoon daud raha hai”.
I took of my t-shirt and kept on the chair, he than asked me to take off my Vest. I obeyed his order and took off my vest and kept in on the chair.

He asked me to raise hands and take a turn of 360 degree.

Now, after all these acts, I also became audacious and kept on following his order. These words started flowing inside my mind” Dekhte hain kitna karta hai” (let me see his limit).

After I removed by cloths, I made my mind that today I will go to the heights and limits, “let him do what he wants”.

He than came near me and started investigating, lower part of my body.

He started search from my waist. I was wearing elastic track pant which was having drawstring, so he was pressing the area where drawstring was resting, as if, I was hiding something inside the area. Than he moved to my pockets, where he tried to search each and every corner. Normally, there are multiple pockets in the track pants and sometime, there are cheat pockets too, but I was wearing a simple one, with two pockets only. He tried his level best to search inside my pocket but there was nothing and finally he moved down to the ankle part of my track pant. While he was searching my pockets and waist area, I was feeling that he was tickling me and there was a mild smile on my face, but I was trying to control myself in such a tense situation.

But before starting all this search, he asked me to keep my footwear away and I was barefoot and before frisking me, he did search in my footwear as well, from top to bottom, inside, outside, etc. and asked me to leave it along with my bag. While searching, he used his hands as well as sensor equipment.

He started searching inside the stitching done, at the ankle of track-pant but all there was no result.

After searching so much, he did not loose hope and than what he did was not pleasant for me but really disgusting for him. I would not like to narrate more on that incident, since whatever happened at Bali Airport, was like a nightmare for me, which I had not forgotten till date. But I still feel bad for that cop, whose job is to carry out unpleasant and disgusting things.
Nevertheless, after his investigation was over, he asked me to dress myself and I was still calm. However, I made my mind at that point of time that, I will lodge an official complaint at Foreign Ministry, after returning to India.

Calm and politely, I asked him reason for such intensive investigation. He told that many Indians visit Bali either alone or with friends and they are involved in many illegal activities here. As per him most of the Indians are involved in drugs smuggling and hence they investigate those Indians who are either alone or visiting with friends on a random basis. I also complimented him for the hard work which he was doing for his country, but he was lying and I can not afford to say this on his face, after having faced so much hassle. I saw many non-Indians were being investigated in other rooms, so his clam was false. And whatever he said about India and Indians was not acceptable for me, but without any data or information, i could not respond.

By the time, everything was over, he sensed my irritation and asked me about my feedback. He asked me, whether I am unhappy with this investigation and will i lodge complaint any kind of complaint.

I had made my mind, till the time he asked this question but why to answer him and what authority does he have to stop me from filing any protest or complaint, but i simply stated that, since he was performing his duty, so i would not mind and would not lodge any kind of complaint.

In order to shift my mood, he said that he is also a Hindu and he loves India, he also wanted to visit India and visit temples. All those sentences were now not required as damage has already been done by him. I took my bag and came out of the room and continued my journey.

The experience to travel as a backpacker was turning out to be bad for me, in terms of attitude of immigration authority to handle solo tourists, why can’t there be a solo trip??

Why always a backpacker is treated as criminals??

Why a backpacker trip, a crime in eyes of laws??

I leave at the discretion of readers to think and respond on the above questions….

But, since i decided to lodge complaint of such harassment, when i returned back to India, i lodged an official complaint with Ministry of External Affairs, both through e-mail and official complaint letter which is as under: