Pongo

Can you ‘wear’ them if small enough?

MaltVM

Not wearable

martinbkk

It is certainly quite likely that they will search every box. Remember that we are talking about customs agents, the zealousness and arrogance are generally at pretty high levels with many of this crowd to say nothing of the region in question and nothing makes their day more than to pull a few items of contraband from some poor schmucks personal belongings. For many it is their whole reason for being.

I still say the best chance is whatever you can carry with you that can be sufficiently disguised to not raise any curiosity. It should be clear though that we are talking about smuggling here which no matter the apparent harmlessness is illegal, so you are totally on your own.

Of course you could leave all that and get inventive. You can buy most of the parts locally or have them shipped in quite easily. A battery drill or old windscreen wiper motor, some linear bearings and shafts, angle iron and other hardware, motor speed controller, a few other simple parts and you can be in business.

weasel decentral

I have an old Hitachi pneumatic concrete breaker that might work hooked up with the maximum spin cycle of a washing machine and a litre of extra virgin olive oil or axle grease.

scrubbedexpat141

Rolling pin, tub of Vaseline and if you want to get extra fiery, a bag of sand to dip it in.

Millhouse

A remote-controlled car and a watchmaker's hammer are all that is needed.

jam25mack

I bet you could get most things here if you look hard enough.

martinbkk

See, I told you it was easy. Seems some here have already tried a few things

Everything bar the blueprints

The Tournesol Blowrocket

Homemade Sybian

MaltVM

these responses cracked me up, thanks all
Not sure what I am going to do yet...

MaltVM

Martin, just to come back to this one, what happened to your friend? Any formal-type warnings of the type that go on a 'record', or a slap on the wrist and the items confiscated?
I take it from your note that bags with electronics in them (e.g. speakers, keyboard) are far more likely to be searched? I considered putting the toys (that do not look remotely pornographic) in with those electronics.

And to anyone who can answer -
My suitcases have TSA style locks on them - what will Qatari customs officers do about this, if anyone knows?

Millhouse

generally the way it works is:

1. there is a screening before you collect the bag. It gets flagged or tagged

you won’t know it’s tagged unless you know what to look for.

2. as you leave there is a second screening for the tagged bags. If you have been tagged you’ll be asked to go through the second screening. You may be required to open it there in front of the customs person.

sometimes all bags are screened on exit. Not sure how Qatar is these days.

martinbkk

I don't believe anything further happened. The occasion was a couple of years ago, he's still working there and still a government employee. As I understood it they just removed them and advised him he could not import them.

Qatar today has fairly good bag scanning and uses the double screening method. I don't know the precise method they use to activate the second screening sensor but I presume they enter interesting baggage tag data into the system and the second sensor picks up when that bag passes through. That way no tell tale marks exist on the bag.

I can't answer the TSA lock question but I suppose it's likely Qatar customs has a travel sentry master key so could potentially open such bags. If not and they want to look inside before the bag is delivered to you they will just cut it open. More likely they will flag it in the system and then have you open it in front of them.

https://trackit.aero/entrackbag/

FriendlyExpat

Personally I would consider taking off any rubbery parts (most awkward to explain and easiest to spot during scans) and stuff in your pockets as you deboard and then put the rest in checked luggage. I imagine that'd be fine.

And do you get cold on flights? Have you considered wearing a ski jacket or similar with massive pockets? Or something like this? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/t...r-luggage.html

MaltVM

I do have a heavy coat which would take the items, but SURELY a coat with big pockets is gonna get scanned on arrival in Doha? If it won't be, then sure, will carry in hand luggage then move to coat after. Not flying for another few months so got time...

martinbkk

The hand carry doesn't seem to be a foolproof solution. Depending on what you carry it may get picked up in the departure scanners, if they are interested in such things. Certainly anything electrical usually gets an interest. In Qatar hand carry is scanned on arrival, after passport control and before checked baggage collection. This is specifically for alcohol but I have no idea if they might pick out anything else. Wearing a heavy coat to a destination with a typical 35-40 degrees C temperature might raise suspicions of a different kind.