Going through the customs

Customs regulations are on the whole similar in any country of the world and a businessman should know them. When you get off the plane you go through passport control, where an immigration officer asks you to show your passport. He asks you about the purpose of your visit to the country and the length of your stay there. You may answer that you have arrived on a business trip for a week. If your passport is in order and you go through the customs.

It's not difficult to get through the customs but you?ll have to fill in an entry form (customs declaration) and then produce it to the customs officer, who checks the declaration. The customs officer inspects your bags (luggage) and asks if you have things liable to duty, any presents, things for your personal use or money about you. He informs you about what items are liable to duty and what things you may have duty free. As a rule personal things may be brought in duty free. The customs officer also asks you to put your suitcases (my luggage) on the scales, and if there's some extra weight you?ll have to pay extra taxes.

Two special signs are sometimes used to show passengers which way to go through the customs hall: ?Nothing to declare? and ?Goods to declare?. In some countries they have the system of red and green doors. If the visitor has nothing to declare he walks through the green door, if he has goods to declare ? through the red one.

In some cases the customs inspector may ask passengers to open their bags for inspection. It sometimes happens that a passenger's luggage is carefully gone through (examined) in order to prevent smuggling. The formalities at the customs house usually take some time. After you are through with all customs formalities the inspector will put a stamp on each piece of your luggage and wish your to have a good stay in the country.

Staying at a hotel

As I?m the manager of our company I often go on business trips to visit our trade partner's manufacturing plant London. When the plane lands at Heathrow airport I go through passport control and check my luggage at the Customs house. A representative of our Trade Delegation meets me at the airport and takes me to the Embassy Hotel. I often put up at this hotel. It's a comfortable hotel in the center of London near the Hyde Park. Prices for the rooms are reasonable and the hotel is usually full (booked out), so the rooms are reserved in advance.

It takes us about half an hour to get to the hotel. At the reception desk we address the receptionist and say that we have reserved hotel accommodation for Mr. Petrov at the hotel. The receptionist checks the reservation and informs us that one single room with private bath is reserved for Mr. Petrov from this day. The room is on the third floor, number 301. We thank the receptionist and I fill in the following form:

The receptionist thanks us and gives me the key to my room. He calls the porter and asks him to take (show) me up to my room in the lift. My room is large and very light. There is a lot of sunshine in it. There is a big window faces a side street. To the right of the window there is a sofa and a standard lamp. To the left of the window there is a television-set. The wardrobe is in the left-hand corner of the room. Near it there are two easy-chairs and a little table with newspapers and magazines on it. The walls of the room are blue. The ceiling is white. The floor is brown. I like my room because it?s very comfortable and there is a hospitality tray.

The receptionist asks me not to miss breakfast served from 7.30 to 8.30. He also warns me that the hotel charges include breakfast and maid-service and I don't have to give any tips to the maids. I ask him to make a wake-up call because I set up an appointment. The receptionist wishes me to enjoy, my stay at the hotel.

Date: 2016-06-13; view: 514