{"id":6221,"date":"2011-09-15T07:14:01","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T07:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/?page_id=6221"},"modified":"2011-09-18T15:13:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-18T15:13:02","slug":"money-issues","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/advice\/travel\/money-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Money issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Money Issues while travelling<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re walking around with a bunch of expensive cameras be sure to make eye contact with the bad guys so that they know that you see them.<\/p>\n

Keep your head on a swivel, as you walk around; always have an \u201cescape route\u201d. In crowded market places \u201cmake friends\u201d as you walk along. Talk to people, especially the vendors, smile and make personal contact with folks. If you end up in a bind, your \u201cnew friends\u201d are more likely to intervene on your behalf than people who either never saw you before or who you never took the time to acknowledge. Keep track of where you are and where the exits are. If you think you are being followed, or set up for some bump and run scam, take a photo of the person who you think is following you. If you raise your camera to take a photo of someone that you think is following you, and they run away, you can be pretty sure that you were correct in your assumption that they were up to no good. In Mexico a few years back several guys pretending that they were interested in photography asked to \u201csee\u201d one of my cameras\u2026I said sure, but let\u2019s go into the lobby of my hotel first\u2026.at that point they tried to take my camera, so I took off and ran in the back door of the kitchen of a hotel, amazingly they followed\u2026I got to the front desk and quickly handed my camera to the (surprised) clerk and said\u2026keep this I\u2019ll be right back. I then returned to the street and with my tiny point and shoot camera (which was in my pocket) I approached thewould be robbers and snapped off a picture before they could run away. Next I contacted the police. I spent the next few days in the same town and never saw the \u201crobbers\u201d again.<\/p>\n

Another time, in Laos (and let me clarify this\u2026.I have encountered hundreds of Laotians, without a doubt they are among the most honest people on earth\u2026.in all my years only ONE Laotian guy tried to scam me) anyway, I had hired a boat to take me from Zieng Kok (north) to the Thai border at Chang Khong…My boatman tried to drop me off 10 miles upriver of town, saying that we had arrived in Chiang Khong\u2026I knew we were nowhere near Chiang Khong, so I refused to get out of the boat. Ten miles later, he pulled over to the river bank and tried to drop me off again\u2026.now, about a kilometer north of town, saying that his boat was not allowed any further. I told a friend of mine to stay in the boat while I went and asked a local guy in a bamboo hut nearby. It turned out that the boat guy didn\u2019t have the paperwork needed to dock his boat in town. The guy in the hut had a motorbike and agreed to drive me the rest of the way into town. Anyway, I went back to the boat, where my buddy was waiting with the boat guy, grabbed my luggage, and as I left I took several photos of the dishonest boat guy. When I got to town I showed the customs people his photo\u2026they recognized him! Hopefully he was reprimanded enough that he doesn\u2019t try and take advantage of other travelers in the future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I guess the moral of these two stories is that your camera can be used as protection\u2026robbers are generally opportunists who don\u2019t want confrontation any more than you do\u2026 they want to be anonymous\u2026they don\u2019t want any evidence left behind, and a photograph is darn good evidence!<\/p>\n

Well, it seems with that little story that I have gotten off of track\u2026\u2026back to the topic\u2026.<\/p>\n

When driving around (if you are driving yourself), when you pull behind someone at a stop, never pull really close, leave yourself enough room to make a quick u turn, or go around on the shoulder or the oncoming traffic lane (don\u2019t get boxed in by two cars working together\u2026one in front, one behind). When driving be aware of \u201croadblocks\u201d and obstructions in the road ahead\u2026if it looks fishy, turn around, take a different route or go back the way you came and come back later.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t wear flashy jewelry and watches, or if you must, move that stuff to your pockets when you enter dubious situations.<\/p>\n

Keep a small amount of cash in your breast pocket or in a zippered leg pocket, keep the money belt in a \u201cleg stash\u201d around your ankle. (Eagle Creeks makes one, I have two, which I alternate throughout my trip…unfortunately the Velcro straps that keep them attached to your leg wear out fast\u2026I keep returning them to Eagle Creek, they keep sending me new ones (free of charge due to their satisfaction guarantee)\u2026some day they will fix the problem, probably because they are losing so much money on me). Meanwhile I supplement the cheap Velcro with an additional elastic strap of my own, fitted with good Velcro.<\/p>\n

The Eagle Creek Leg Stash is fairly \u201cunknown\u201d to thieves as compared to the \u201caround your waist\u201d style. Although, I have been \u201cpatted down in airports hundreds of times\u2026officials (even in the US) only notice the \u201cankle stash\u201d about 5% of the time.<\/p>\n

If you get held up, and they are bigger and meaner than you (or if they have a weapon) give them the cash in your pocket\u2026it\u2019s not worth getting injured or killed over\u2026 besides, you still have bulk of your cash hidden in your leg stash.<\/p>\n

If you have small cameras put them in a bag.<\/p>\n

When you are standing in line step through the straps of any luggage you have set down on the foor.<\/p>\n

When eating at restaurants put your camera strap or back-pack strap around your leg..<\/p>\n

\u2026it might be a good idea to take Karate classes\u2026my friend Theresa Vernetti a fellow photographer who often writes for me, is a black belt in Karate. As a single female traveling alone in strange cities across the world she feels more comfortable knowing she can protect herself if need be\u2026but of course she would rather avoid conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Money Issues while travelling If you\u2019re walking around with a bunch of expensive cameras be sure to make eye contact with the bad guys so that they know that you see them. Keep your head on a swivel, as you walk around; always have an \u201cescape route\u201d. In crowded market places \u201cmake friends\u201d as you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":6187,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6792,"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6221\/revisions\/6792"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karlgrobl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}