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Comment by occamrazor | Hacker News Reader

The shoe thing is an American peculiarity. In Europe I never had to take off my shoes, even when I flew to the US. And now some airports (eg LCY) don’t even require taking liquids and laptops out of the luggage.

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In Beijing when flying to the US they confiscated water that I had bought post-security. There were people on the actual boarding ramp confiscating liquids. Wasn't good for me because my body needs to frequently drink water, I get dehydrated easily.

It didn't happen when flying to domestic destinations in China, so it makes me think the US requested that to happen.

Better bring a sack of fruit with high water content then. Maybe the security doesn't have enough imagination to clasify them as "liquids". For instance China is an exporter of pomelo. The fruit is also used as a good luck charm, consumed during the mid-autumn festival and used in Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations in India, so you could claim it's for "religious use" if they try to confiscate it.

Have you ever tried to eat a pomelo on airplane, let alone cut one open with the only shitty plastic knives you can get on board?

You can peel it without a knife. A bamboo knife is a lot more useful than plastic crap. Or get a Revolut Metal card. Perfect for opening pomelos, also perfectly acceptable for travel.

Every time I'm in Barcelona or Frankfurt airport, they tell me to take off shoes. So I'm pretty sure this also applies to Europe, albeit not at every airport, and not even every time at BCN airport I've had to do so. Maybe depends on the people working the shift?

> The shoe thing is an American peculiarity

Possibly thanks to the shoe bomber.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Reid

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