Many travelers are frightened to go outside the country for the first time, especially the Filipinos, because of the Horror Stories we heard from someone or watched on YouTube. Offload is one of scariest term when travelling abroad, where in the Immigration Officer won’t let you fly for some reason and one of that is you cannot justify your purpose of travelling. I will discuss with you some tips and what to prepare on a separate post.
My first plane ride was in 1998, I was 7 years old then and it was a domestic flight. And my family starts to travel since then (Philippines). But My First International Flight was our travel to KOREA. Yes, it is an OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) that requires an Entry Visa. Can you imagine the pressure? But here’s another thing, I was with my group, I was leading more than 25 passengers. And as a Travel Agent I have to be professional and composed myself because this people trusted me and they looked up to me.
But everything was new to me then, the Travel Tax, the Security measure, the Immigration. The Immigration Officer couldn’t believe that I was a Tour Leader, that I have a Travel Agency, I was only 27 years old then, and my passengers was twice my age or more. He was asking for proof, good thing I have had my documents with me, but still he was digging, he wanted to see a document of me as a tour leader. I was thinking then, is there such a thing? Or should I write myself a Certificate of Employment or Certification wherein I am the consignee since I own it? Luckily my bank officer wrote on my payment slip for the Supplier, my name with my designation in it. That’s the only time he let me go~ All my passengers were able to cross and I was the last person.
Everything went smoothly during the flight, when we arrived at Incheon Airport, South Korea it was freezing. All of us loved the experience and the food of course.
That’s why Korea will always be special to me, my first travel abroad, my first International group tour, my first Immigration Officer experience.