Customs
I always feel a bit nervous when I have to go through these ... And it didn't change much with increased experience either. I mean, I did go through the process seven times in three weeks, but it still felt a bit nervous each time. There is something unnerving about waiting in line for some uniformed and serious-looking guy to inspect your papers, especially when you're entering or leaving a communist dictature. Like they might decide not to let me in, or out, because they didn't like my looks or something ... Luckily it was all in my mind. Never any checking of, or even glancing at, bags. It's good to be wrong ...
The passport got a share of close inspections though. One time, when entering Macau, the checker tried to run it through some scan several times, appearantly failing each one, and then started typing stuff in by hand. That was a bit scary :-) ...
Those little departure cards added a bit of nervousity too, especially the first one, which was handed out on the plane without further explanations. Apart from that I think they had a kind of charm though, like some kind of relics sneaking into the age of computers (the nice stamps in the passport has a bit of the same feeling). It's a pity you can't keep a copy or something of each one, that would have been fun. Kept one I filled out wrong as a memory though, a trilingual (extra nice!) one from Macau.
Then I forgot to fill out a departure card once too of course, but that was just stupid, not scary ...
