Search
Recommended Products
Related Links


 

 

Informative Articles

Safe Travel Tips On Mean Streets
The best way to avoid any possible dangers during your travels is to keep your head about you at all times. Here are some travel tips to help keep any inconveniences at bay. 1) When it comes to belongings, your passport and your money are...

Travelers Checks Versus Debit Cards
My first time overseas, I had to exchange cash in $200 of travelers checks to pay a mountaineering guide who hadn't heard of American Express. The bank charged me $8. During the same trip, I used my debit card at an ATM to get $200 from my checking...

Traveling Smart Safari Tips
Safari Travel Tips Before stepping on that plane for a marvelous safari adventure, plan like there's no tomorrow. You will thank your self for being precautious when faced with untoward incidents. Here are the important things you...

Travelling to and within Ireland.
To enjoy travelling in Ireland one has to have first travelled to Ireland. As Ireland is an island nation, travelling to Ireland means arriving by either air or sea. One also has to consider the modes of transport on offer to travel around...

Your Guide for Travel and Hotels in Columbia
When you hear the word vacation, what do you see in your mind? Vacations mean assorted things to assorted individuals. Some like to sight see while many others would enjoy nothing more than to spend the whole trip kicking back at the hotel pool. If...

 
Travel Saftey - Using Intuition

"We've been robbed," I told Ana. "All of it." I grabbed the thief, who was no longer acting drunk at all. It was a lesson in travel safety.

It started when both my wife and I had a strong feeling we shouldn't get on that bus in Cuenca. Neither of us said anything, because a taxi was two dollars, and the bus cost only twenty-five cents. It seems a bit TOO frugal now.

Ana found a seat, but there was no seat for me. I was packed in with the other commuters standing up. I noticed the drunk pushing his way through the crowd, randomly going this way and that, and I knew somethimg was up. I instinctively reached into my pockets to check on my money. I had just visited the ATM. The $170 in my pocket was the most cash we had carried during the entire trip. Still there. The old guy pushed against me like he was trying to find a place to stand comfortably. I checked my again.

Five minutes later some space opened up near Ana, and I moved over to her. When I reached into my pocket again, it was empty, and the other pocket was empty too. I never felt a thing. I told Ana, and saw that the old drunk was still on the bus.

We got off at the next stop, dragging the thief with us. An officer appeared, and a crowd formed. The thief was sober now, pulling his pockets out and insisting again that he was inocent. Search him, he said, and I did, but I understood now that his associate was long gone with the money, probably off the bus at a previous stop. His role had just been to distract me and push me into the right place on the bus.

He begged to be let go, and we knew we couldn't get


the money back. Nonetheless, we had the officer take him to the police station on his motorcycle while we followed in a taxi, paying with a twenty from under the sole of my shoe. Filing a complaint at least meant he would spend the night in jail, and though he would be released in the morning for a lack of evidence, his finger prints are on file now.

Travel Safety Lessons

Most likely, a money belt probably would have prevented the robbery. Closing pockets help too, although I had a wallet stolen from a zipered pocket once, and I didn't notice until forty minutes later. Fortunately it was a decoy-wallet, put there for just such an occasion - another little travel safety trick.

Other travel safety tricks? Put your money in at least three different places, like under the sole of your shoe, in a pocket you pin inside your clothes, and in your shaving kit. Carry two credit or debit cards in separate and secure places. Carry a list of "lost or stolen" phone numbers in another place. In areas with much crime, leave expensive watches and jewelry behind.

Learn a few tricks and you can travel more safely. Our experience also shows the importance of learning to trust your intuition. That was our lesson in travel safety.



About the author:

Steve Gillman hit the road at sixteen, and traveled the U.S. and Mexico alone at 17. Now 40, he travels with his wife Ana, whom he met in Ecuador. For more on travel safety, plus travel stories, tips and a free e-book, visit: http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com