Following lunch, it was time to bid goodbye to Xian as we had a plane to catch to Chongqing. Kimi helped us with our plane tickets and bags. Then, we said goodbye to him at the security gate. All was going well ... until we had our security screen. You see, we are bit spoiled in the USA with our fancy TSA precheck. We are used to tossing our bags onto the belt and walking through the mag gate.
We don't take off our shoes.
Or pull anything out of our bag.
Maybe there was a sign at security that said "remove all lithium batteries from your bag."
But, even if there was.... We couldn't read it. 😜
Needless to say, all of our backpacks got flagged because EVERYONE had a portable iPad/iPhone charger. Everything got pulled out and rescanned.
Then... there was the tabacle of the BIG black multiple charger do-dad.
This handy charging device was loaned to us by friends who recently returned from their own adoption trip. He warned us that it might be a problem. He even said "they (airport security) may confiscate this, but don't worry about it if they do." Since we didn't have any problems on our previous flight, we kinda forgot about the warning.
Well... They pulled this bad boy outta of Dan's bag and started chatting about it like it was a stolen historical relic. They examined it. Showed it to colleagues. Flipped it over. Read the back. And at one point, I swear, they googled it. Having no idea WHAT was going on, Dan suggested that we snap a picture of the event to document our "fun." Now, I don't know about you, but I am pretty sure that the TSA security check point folks are paid to NOT have a sense of humor. I'm equally confident that photos at security are frowned upon. So, y'all are just gonna have to take my word for it... I don't have photographic proof about this "event."
Anyway...
After nearly an eternity, a women with broken English explained that we would need a "flight xxx from desk. ". The xxx is intentional because I have no idea what she said. She had the black do-dad in her hand, Dan's passport, and was pointing to the other side of the airport. Somehow, we concluded that we had to leave security, go back to the ticket desk, and get a xxx. Again, no idea what xxx was supposed to be. Dan looked like he saw a ghost, so I volunteered to go. I sent the rest of the crew to the gate, grabbed my phone, passport, and the black charger and left.
Really, I had no idea what I was going to do. My gut instinct? Find someone who speaks English. There were tons of American people at the airport with their tour guides. Remember those families we kept seeing at the hotel? Well, they were all at the airport too. I figured that one of their guides would still be at the airport, and I'd simply ask them for help.
As it turned out, I got lucky. There was a Hainan airline employee standing by the airline check-in. She spoke English. She knew what I needed. And helped me get the xxx for the black charging box. The mysterious xxx ? It was a 5x7 sheet of paper. Security collected the paper when I went back through the screening area. I have no idea what that paper said ... Or why we needed it. I think it may have been for the wattage of the black box. Maybe
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