One-hand dexterity at airport security

A reader writing to the Hints From Heloise column suggested five ways airline passengers could move more quickly through airport security. Four of the suggestions are fine, but the fifth one is a head-scratcher:

"Do not stop on the other side of the X-ray to reassemble your belongings."

Huh?? Don't stop? Just leave your stuff behind? Well, I guess that would speed things up. Although TSA would soon see quite a backlog of those gray trays filled with miscellaneous stuff.

Or perhaps the writer means you shouldn't put your things back together. How would that be possible?

If you follow suggestion No. 3 -- "Have your ID and security document in your hand, ready to go" -- you already have one hand occupied. You've also got two shoes, sometimes a laptop, a cell phone, perhaps a backpack or a purse, maybe a belt, keys. Sometimes they even make you take out your wallet, passports, money belt and random papers and put those in a bin. And now you're supposed to pick it all up with one hand?

See the column here.



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Book review: "Wildlife Wars" by Richard Leakey

When it comes to protecting wildlife, Kenya is one of Africa's leaders. The country has set aside nearly a quarter of its land for parks and reserves where animals roam free.

But even in Kenya, conservation is a continual battle, as Richard Leakey makes clear in his 2001 book "Wildlife Wars."

Leakey was head of Kenya Wildlife Service – the agency that oversees the country's game parks – from 1989 to 1994 and again in 1998-99. In this book, he describes his fight against poachers, corruption and political rivals to protect elephants, rhinos and other wildlife.

Leakey was thrust into this role in an odd way. After speaking out on the importance of protecting elephants from poachers, Kenyan President Daniel Moi suddenly put Leakey in charge of the national parks – without telling him. Leakey only learned of his appointment when a colleague heard a news report on the radio.

Still, Leakey leaped into his new role with a zeal, battling to improve the ill-equipped and undertrained ranger force so they could go after the poachers who were killing elephants for their tusks. He had to fight government bureaucracy to push out incompetent and lazy employees. He made a lot of enemies by steadfastly resisting the accepted culture of bribery, refusing to give handouts to favored friends and hiring employees based on their qualifications rather than their connections.

None of this was easy, and it wore Leakey down. Certainly Leakey is telling the stories from his perspective, and others might put a different spin on events. Still, I liked how he admits in the book to doubting his abilities and wondering whether he was up to the job.

The KWS battle with poachers is a focus of much of the first half of the book, and makes for interesting reading. In the second half, Leakey's battles become less tangible, as he delves more into the murky world of backroom politics. The story perhaps loses some of its zip here, but I still found it worthy reading.

I read this prior to, and during, a safari trip to Kenya. This worked well, as Leakey's book give some background on the history of the parks.

I did find it interesting that one of Leakey's goals in the early 1990s was to get the Kenyan government to improve the bone-rattling roads leading to some of the national parks. This is clearly one goal Leakey failed to achieve. Having just been there, I can assure you that the roads are still horrible.


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Kenya travel: Coping with Mombasa's "Beach Boys"

North of Mombasa, Kenya, is a long stretch of sandy beaches bordered by hotels and restaurants. The warm water and relaxed atmosphere attract visitors from around the world.

If you go, though, be prepared for the "Beach Boys."

The minute you set foot on Bamburi Beach, you will be surrounded by young men trying to sell you snorkeling trips, jet-ski rentals, guide services, wooden trinkets, jewelry. They are called the Beach Boys, and they are very, very, very persistent.

They will follow you down the beach, even if you've told them "No"  multiple times. I practically had to shout "No!" at one of them to get him to leave us alone. We saw people sprint from their hotel grounds into the ocean – and later back again – just to avoid the Beach Boys.

Each hotel has its own pack of Beach Boys who loiter on the sand waiting for people with money. We were at Kenya Bay Beach Hotel (see my review) which wasn't very crowded during our July visit. Normally I'd like that, but in this case it meant that there weren't many other potential customers for the sellers to badger.

Bamburi Beach, by the Kenya Bay Beach Hotel

When I asked one of the young men why they didn't go down the beach  to where there were more people, he said, "If we go down there, it would be a problem." Clearly, they have designated territories.

It's incredible to me that the hotels along Bamburi Beach haven't done something to restrain these persistent sellers. Sure, the beach should be open to everyone, but that doesn't mean it should be open to every sales pitch. The Beach Boys are hardly a secret
– they're described in guidebooks and online forums – so no doubt some travelers take their money elsewhere.

When we first arrived, we found one of the Beach Boys to be so annoyingly persistent that I deliberately avoided him when setting up a snorkeling boat trip for our family. I went down the beach and made a deal with another young man name Mali, who picked us up the next morning in his boat and took us to the offshore reef.

The Beach Boys in front of our hotel noticed. When we returned from our snorkeling trip, we were surrounded by several of them who "accused" us of booking our outing through the hotel. This wasn't true, of course, but it didn't matter to these men, who acted as if we were obligated to give them all our business.

When I tried to hurry my wife away from this group, one of them accused me of not liking them because of "our color," pointing to his black arms to emphasize the point. This was the only time during our two weeks in Kenya that I heard any racial reference. I somehow resisted the urge to tell him that it was not his color that bothered me but his nonstop talking. Instead, I just said I was eager to go to lunch.

Another problem created by the Beach Boys is that is made it hard to tell when a Kenyan genuinely wanted to talk. We found the vast majority of Kenyans friendly, and many were happy to talk about our visit or their lives. Indeed, some of the Beach Boys seemed perfectly happy to talk rather than sell. We definitely wanted to learn about Kenyans and their lives, so we were always hopeful that a conversation could be, well, just a conversation.
 
But in many cases, the talk was only a precursor to get you to buy something.

See also these articles:

• Review: Kenya Bay Beach Hotel, Mombasa 
• Kenya travel tips: Money, credit cards, cash, ATMs

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