POZ Community Forums
Main Forums => Living With HIV => Topic started by: Downunder21 on July 11, 2013, 10:13:49 am
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Hi all - I will be travelling via Singapore to Europe in a few weeks and will have a 7 hour lay over so I was hoping to go out of the airport to check out the city.
I will be travelling with HIV meds - has anyone travelled to Singapore before with HIV meds & know whether they search your bags for medication?
I'd appreciate any advice people have
Thanks
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no problem. they may xray your bags after u have picked up your bags and before exiting customs...... but I have sailed through without issue everytime even with an xray......still get nervous though when this happens.
Still conservative and socially very backwards in spore
Good piece of advice......dress professionally, carry a laptop so you don't stand out. Also avoid eye contact with the custom agents and go though the doors with a crowd. I have been known to pretend to talk on my phone to avoid inspection!
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Just carry a letter from your doctor and you should be all right even if they want to check your meds.
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Ok thanks for the feedback. I always carry a letter from my doctor for my medications. Fingers crossed that will suffice.
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I've never thought to carry a letter from my doctor when I travel with meds, I usually just keep my meds in an unlabelled pillbox. So I am curious: What do you ask your doctor to say in the letter? Is it just supposed to say that the meds are legitimately prescribed to you? Is the letter supposed to disclose details of what exactly the meds are and the conditions they are treating? Just want to make sure I don't run into problems in the future when I travel...
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When I've had a letter to cover my meds while travelling, my doctor only stated that I was carrying meds that I needed daily for a chronic condition. There is no need to specify what that condition might be. Just make sure it's written on paper with a hospital or practice letterhead and having a stamp (such as a date stamp) on it doesn't hurt either. I never had to produce the letter(s), but it made me feel a little easier to have it just in case.
It has to be said though, that the meds I got doctor letters for were drugs that had to be injected so I also had needles with me. I was able to carry the needles in my carry on - and this was not long after 9/11 when they were being extra strict about what you had in your carry on.
These days I regularly fly with three or four months worth of meds in my carry on and even though I'm doing what's basically a domestic flight, the outbound security at John Lennon airport is pretty rigorous. I've yet to have a problem. (now just watch, when I go next month I'll probably get pulled aside and asked to explain my portable pharmacy) ;D
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The letter I carry just states the medications that I am on - not what they are for. I agree there is no requirement for the letter to state what your condition is.
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Yes the letter does not specify the condition. Mind you I traveled with 3 months supply so it would be hard to travel with so many pills in unmarked container...
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Yes the letter does not specify the condition. Mind you I traveled with 3 months supply so it would be hard to travel with so many pills in unmarked container...
It's also not a good idea to travel with meds in unmarked containers (or putting them in vitamin bottles when they're obviously not vitamins). If they're found, having them in unmarked (or vitamin) containers will arouse suspicion far faster than when they're in their original containers. It's only smugglers of illicit drugs who try to disguise or hide what they're carrying.
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Hi all - I will be travelling via Singapore to Europe in a few weeks and will have a 7 hour lay over so I was hoping to go out of the airport to check out the city.
I will be travelling with HIV meds - has anyone travelled to Singapore before with HIV meds & know whether they search your bags for medication?
I'd appreciate any advice people have
Thanks
Since you're a transit passenger, the worst they can do is deny you entry into Singapore. So you would have to wait in the airport. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
That said, I think there are even expats who live there with HIV now that sneak in their meds, so I don't think they're particularly focused on enforcing that HIV ban.
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never had a problem traveling there with meds (original packaging, no letter)
since 1997.
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Traveled to Singapore and Malaysia several time with HIV meds with original container. Never have a problem with them. I don't carry a letter from my doctor either.