Coming Soon.....
A refinement on the Cactus Kate "rules to travel by"!
It will start with - ditching the standard black luggage and going for as brighter colours as possible so you know when your bag has been thrown in the wrong pile. The thief may spot it sooner but then so do you when the thief takes off with it.
Oh....and shopping for one of those (previously deemed) gay strap bags where passport, tickets and cash can be stored.
It's a wee bit of a lesson for a girl whose only substantial loss to date was that of virginity.
It will start with - ditching the standard black luggage and going for as brighter colours as possible so you know when your bag has been thrown in the wrong pile. The thief may spot it sooner but then so do you when the thief takes off with it.
Oh....and shopping for one of those (previously deemed) gay strap bags where passport, tickets and cash can be stored.
It's a wee bit of a lesson for a girl whose only substantial loss to date was that of virginity.
posted by Cactus Kate at 1:51 PM
14 Comments:
Aw CK, I learned that years ago. Get a bob the builder or fantasia or some such shit case and you will never be robbed again.And, being much "cooler" than I am, you'd probably be seen as iconic, or some such nonsense. Cheers.
Wouldn't it be great if people could keep their hands to themselves?
Never let your passport or other documents leave your hands until you reach the hotel. Keep lappy and phone and other valuables in a small carry on bag.
I don't often use shuttle buses, but I've never been on one yet that wouldn't let me have a carry on bag on my knee. And I sure as hell wouldn't be putting my valuables in the hold of any shuttle bus if I do get told to. How far away was your hotel? All the big ones are a very cheap taxi ride away. The furthest away I've stayed in transit is Marina del Ray (Foghorn Inn - very nice alternative to a sterile Marriot or Hilton by the way).
Your fault Cactus. But I don't hear you blaming anyone else so that's cool.
Definitely ditch the black bag; at the very least get a coloured strap with TSA combi lock to help you spot your bag from a distance.
cargo trou/shorts with big pockets for your wallet, passport, phone, pen, important data notebook.
bummer about the bag, that truely sucks...
BTW, the paper indexed note book of important information is a system I have used religiously for 10 years and survives phone and pda failure and transition. Its hard to brick paper. You just need to apply a basic crypto replacement algo to bank acct and password details.
I still can't get over the fact that you, of all people, were traveling in some sort of van, with other members of the public, rather than in a Lincoln Town Car with a driver who says "maam" a lot and wears one of those little caps.
The black bag is an issue, my samsonite has some dirt bike stickers to make it stand out & I once had a g'friend who tied some material to hers around the handle, but so many people have samsonite style bags now, let alone a black oyster, it's tricky.
But commiserations, CK, that really sucks !!.
Bad trip... agreed. What a bummer... but, honestly... you allowed yourself to be separated from your vital stuff????
I know its not much of a help now, but when I travel I keep scans of my passport, birth certificate, credit cards, phone nos etc on an encrypted USB stick wrapped in a plastic ziplock bag shoved up my (OK joking about that last bit).
Also, I have a duplicate of this info stored on an email sent to myself at a hotmail account.
So far, using this system, I have had NO PROBLEMS with loss of vital stuff EVER (but I did rather badly break my arm when I was clipped by a bus in Rio after stepping off the sidewalk and looking the wrong way!! lol... well, actually I was looking... but not at the traffic ... anyway...)
You know what would be cool.
Phone in pocket. GPS transmitter in bag.
Thief steals bag, pull out the GPS in pocket. Trace bag. Get locals to beat thief using the classic and valuable help me I'm a foreigner line. Call police (in that order).
And btw GPS is an invaluable part of a traveller kit. Easy to see when the taxi driver is taking you around in circles. I use Nokia E71.
Also, its very possible to follow a red dot to a hotel on a cellphone screen with the ol' single eye open drunkeness in a strange city....
Not that we ever do that in strange cities of course... as it makes us prone to thieves....
What you need is a 'man bag' - not a hand-bag-men-can-carry-and-not-feel-gay, but a man-to-carry-all-of-your-shit.
Anon 8.14
Airport Hotel. There is never anything nice about them. Even the Hilton which in the US is nothing better than the Mt Eden Motel.
Try getting a taxi or a town car (you must be New York) on a Friday night.
Dave Mann
Up until Friday my system had worked perfectly as well.....and it would of if there weren't so many people on the shuttle and we were allowed to sit with the bags next to us.
CK B****r Good luck, I hope it gets sorted out fast & well; we do all learn from our experiences & sometimes others if we're wise. I also use scanned doc copies on pda, stick & hotmail a/c ( passport, tickets, spare photos, Marriage cert. - my wife is Chinese & relationship has been questioned). When you recover get yourself an APEC card - apply at http://businessmobility.org/ for some real classy travel service.
Regards, Neil
When I travelled my passport and money were always down the front of my trousers. Anyone tryign to steal them woul dhave to be getting very friendly with me. Never lost anything...except for that once when someone got friendly with me.
I had a similar fright a couple of yhears ago in Tokyo. For some stupid reason (perhaps to do with the 12 hour flight) I left all my travel documents in the seat pocket of the shuttle bus. Hopped off at a hotel near my mates place and only discovered what I'd done the next morning.
Luckily for me the bus company and hotel (where I wasn't even staying) got everything back to me by 5 the next night. Truly awesome 'customer' service by the hotel (it was a Westin I think). Was left with a very favourable impression of Japanese honesty and helpfulness...
I carry lot of stuff in the back pack Kate, and if i include booze they take that of me and ignore the rest,
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