Stopped at the border today

[Trigger]

On our way to TRNC we were waiting to cross the border at Pyla today when the custom officers from
The SBA walked over and asked for our passports. I questioned his motives as I was heading over the Turkish side. He said that he wanted to search our vehicle. He then made us leave the queue to cross and then go the sba border crossing place. He then called a squad of police officers who then proceeded to search our car. Our crime? We had stopped off at a supermarket in pyla to buy a watermelon!

Crazy. Not a pleasant experience. Not sure what they were hoping to find / achieve.

Anyway, what with all of the hassle of crossing borders / hiring cars / being able to visit friends south / north, it is with great sadness that we have admitted defeat and have sold our house in the north. Todays experience just confirmed that we have made the correct decision.

Thanks to all of the posters that have helped me over the past years with their invaluable advice and experience.

[Groucho]

We are sad to see you go.... travel via the south is proving to be an issue for many now, we made the decision that flying via Istanbul - Ercan is the only sensible route these days.

[ljarvo]

Sorry for your experience - it’s not right to be treated like this

It’s of course personal opinion whether it’s an issue or not if you can’t use Laranca - and for shopping etc

It is for us and fortunately we have also sold our house and will be off as soon as we can!

[waddo]

Trigger, that is interesting indeed. Were you in a North registration vehicle or a South registration Hire Car? You say he called a "Squad of Police" were they RoC Police or SBA Police? I take it you were in a queue of vehicles on the South side of the border crossing and heading towards the TRNC checkpoint at the time?

I understand the function of the SBA Customs is to check for illegal importation of goods/people into the SBA but was not aware that they were also there to check for illegal exportation of the same things! They are of course at liberty and well within their rights to stop and search any vehicle within the bounds of the SBA at anytime should they suspect illegal trafficking. They have nothing to do with the RoC at all in this respect and it is strange that they did this.

Concerning as well as we regularly shop at lidl near Dhekelia and I suppose a boot full of produce could well class as illegal exportation - particularly if we had a watermelon in amongst it - lol.

[Deniz1]

Be like me never go south I would never give up my home here because of them!

[Groucho]

To be fair Trigger, you had already decided on a new start in the UK after taking up positions there on leaving Qatar.... Now you are UK based travel via Istanbul would have been a simple choice, so I don't think this one incident should really confirm your decision one way or another... Still sad to see you both pack in the good life...

[Trigger]

Hi waddo. We were in a south plated hire car in the queue to cross to the north. Whether or not they were sba or cyprus police im not sure, it was quite stressful at the time and I was too busy noticing things like taser guns etc to check!

And yes Groucho, we had already decided to sell up and leave but one of the main reasons for doing so is because travelling to our home has become more and more difficult. When we go on holiday, we just don’t need these types of complications.

When we visit the north again, which we always will, we will travel via Istanbul to avoid these type of situations. However, whether or not a 5/6 hour split flight will be preferable to a 2/3 flight to Spain/Portugal/Croatia etc, I think it might be some time.

Anyway, it is what it is. We’ve had a fabulous time here and met some wonderful people. Hopefully one day this split island stuff will be a thing of the past and people will have the freedom to do what they want to do. Will definitely catch up for a beer before we head off.

[greenockmorton]

Since we've been able to use our villa we've always flown in to the North from Edinburgh with a 2 hour 20 mins stopover in Istanbul. Probably because in Scotland we have limited options with Jet2 to Larnaca just as expensive as Turkish Airlines to Ercan. Saves us any hassle and we like the service we get with Turkish Airlines.