Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I don't. But apparently the idiot TSA guy wanted to know "ALL THE PLACES I HAD BEEN" and got pissed because I didn't mention that one country I had been in.
Well, I've learned. If it doesn't have a STAMP, I don't mention it to TSA.
No Unless you cross immigration, technically you are not even in the destination. It is just Sterile Area / Air Side and it should not be counted as a place you hae visited.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
34,722 posts, read 58,067,115 times
Reputation: 46190
By 2015 the 'new' Hong Kong Airport is no where "in sight" of the 'community' / city of Hong Kong. (A few housing blks and lots of airport hotels / offices
It is EZ to 'get-there-from-the-airport' but is a 40 min ride into Kowloon, THEN a transfer over to HK.
Similar in Tokyo.. the main airport is not too close to the city.
So... I would not claim I have 'been there'... just 'transited' via layover @ airport. (Unless you are doing a domestic flight which requires you to transit to one of the other regional airports via immigration / bus / train.
no... layovers count only if you pass immigration, and leave the airport (in a general sense).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Siegel
I do not count it if I never left the airport, but I do count it if I left the airport and did not spend the night. We all have different ways of counting where we've been.
As others have pointed out everyone counts differently and there is no right/wrong answer, but I'd definitely take it a bit farther than having been through immigration.
We often transfer planes in Kuala Lumpur, and if we have a few hours (usually the case) we enter Malaysia because it's free and the airport is physically attached to a shopping mall with a much wider array of restaurants at more affordable prices than in the airport. Somehow it doesn't seem right for someone to count Malaysia if they've gone from customs to the McDonald's in the mall for lunch and back.
And one should not claim to have been to country X when he only visited one city either.
This is absurd.
There are plenty of locals in large cities like Bangkok, Capetown, Guadalajara, Manila, etc. that have never traveled outside their home city. They know the language, culture, food, customs, politics, etc. better than you ever will with your little vacations, but you don't want to count them as having been to their own country?
We shouldn't count someone who spent six months in Tegucigalpa working with local officials to develop a recycling strategy because they didn't have the time/inclination to explore more of the country, but we'd count all the people in the tour group that had stops in both Copán and Roatán? Wee a van ride to the ruins and some good snorkeling in the sun, we're practically locals!
By 2015 the 'new' Hong Kong Airport is no where "in sight" of the 'community' / city of Hong Kong. (A few housing blks and lots of airport hotels / offices
It is EZ to 'get-there-from-the-airport' but is a 40 min ride into Kowloon, THEN a transfer over to HK.
Similar in Tokyo.. the main airport is not too close to the city.
So... I would not claim I have 'been there'... just 'transited' via layover @ airport. (Unless you are doing a domestic flight which requires you to transit to one of the other regional airports via immigration / bus / train.
I saw a busy highway, a cluster of very modern-styled buildings, and a sea with several hills outside of the window (it all reminded me of the 2015 movie Blackhat, which took place in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia). Not at all like Narita airport in rural Chiba, maybe more like Haneda airport in a lesser populated area of Tokyo (I lived all over Japan for more than a decade). But point taken that I've never "actually" been to Hong Kong.
There are plenty of locals in large cities like Bangkok, Capetown, Guadalajara, Manila, etc. that have never traveled outside their home city. They know the language, culture, food, customs, politics, etc. better than you ever will with your little vacations, but you don't want to count them as having been to their own country?
We shouldn't count someone who spent six months in Tegucigalpa working with local officials to develop a recycling strategy because they didn't have the time/inclination to explore more of the country, but we'd count all the people in the tour group that had stops in both Copán and Roatán? Wee a van ride to the ruins and some good snorkeling in the sun, we're practically locals!
Exactly correct, and Botticelli's criteria is absurd anyway. If a person flies drop overseas to JFK and spends a week in NYC they cannot claim to have visited the US, but if they fly into Newark and take a taxi to NYC and spend a week they can claim the US as a destination?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
