We've tried to calm your fears, showing you that things are much hairier at home than on the road. There is one thing we should tell you. Given a choice between popping an 80-year-old peasant woman or a rotund 50-year-old Rotarian from Cleveland, the choice becomes easy. Tourists are fodder for fiends.
We are pickpocketed in the street when we bend over to give money to a blind old woman, our car window is smashed in and all our clothing is stolen when we are having an audience with the pope, our hotel is ransacked when we visit a village to help a sick child. We are scammed, lied to, beaten, shot, raped and in some cases murdered. Why? Well, look at it from the bad guy's perspective. He has a family to shelter, a vein to feed, a donkey payment, even an employer who will break his nose if he doesn't make the weekly number.
Examine the modern touristicus domesticus. They travel in predictably jabbering gaggles, following well-worn trails. Monolingual, they pay little attention to their environment since they are terrified of being left behind or having the bus leave without them. They are usually wearing outlandish colorful plumage. Gray walking shoes sprout cream of mushroom legs marbled with blue veins topped off by what could be spare tire or a bulging overstuffed money belt. The neck is usually tilted up with a rhythmic swivel bent slightly forward by the weight of their Sears Camcorder and SLR with zoom telephoto, binoculars and silkscreened vinyl camera bag. The right index finger is either pointed at the local attraction or pressing a shutter. The mouth is in a state of continual movement as they talk, not necessarily to each other, but to ensure that they are having a good time and seeing wonderful things. They usually arrive in shiny buses, descending like locusts as they strip souvenir stands clean and cluster in tight groups under the watchful eye of an overly pleasant multilingual guide holding an umbrella.
Tourists are not dumb or bad people, but they are the main source of sustenance for touts, louts and thugs. Some of these tourists do funny things. They sneak away from those bus tour hotels and migrate to seedy places to watch local women take their clothes off. They drink too much. They make friends too easily. They stay out too late. They stagger home at four in the morning singing German drinking songs and get lost. Not bad people, just trusting naive people in the wrong place at the wrong time.
There is a subspecies of the touristicus domesticus. It is the fabled touristicus backpackensius. Unlike the much derided domestic version, this species is more likely to be solitary, but most likely will be seen with a same-sex partner. The key indicators are hiking boots or Nike ACG's, hairy legs with knobby knees (often with scabs from mountain bike spills), T-shirts with politically correct slogans, hiking outerwear (with ski tags still attached), UV block sunglasses. The older members will have a gray pony tail. They like to think they are independent, even though they bunch up at the same youth hostels and flophouses each night. The key determinant is the right index finger jammed into the same page on their shoestring guides.
These folks are college educated, world wise and in their minds unlikely to be a victim of any criminal (after all they're not rich and obnoxious, like those other tourists). They are one with the earth and its cultures (they were into world music, waaaay before Sting or Gabriel), giving them a sense of love and harmony.
So what's to worry? Could it be that entire year's supply of money in their "secret" neck pouch? How about that new altimeter, stopwatch, chronometer watch? Those $120 boots are worth a quick $20. And the $400 backpack can fetch another quick $20. These travelers often enjoy entertainment and souvenirs of the narcotic kind, carry everything on their backs and wouldn't be noticed missing for at least a month. Good pickings for the charming bandito or even drug planting polizia.
The point of the two cheap shots above is to tell you that it doesn't matter who you think you are. You are a wealthy unarmed foreigner in a land that is not your own. If you are the victim of crime you will hotfoot to your nearest embassy or the next town. You will not be back to file charges or even see what happened to your favorite watch. So consider yourself the ideal victim. And unlike most books who tell you the same dumb stuff, DP is going to give you some tricks we don't want you to pass on to your friends.
The good news: The major purpose of crime against tourists is to quickly remove money and other valuables. The perpetrator does not want to hurt you or escalate your brief meeting into assault or murder since the federales will be more interested in finding him.
Rape is a function of social cultures clashing-usually a result of unaccompanied western women who travel in rural or sexually frustrated cultures. In a world where "Baywatch" and "The Young and the Restless" are the most syndicated shows in the world, one can do little but hope that they remake and syndicate "The Flying Nun" soon to balance things out.
In the case of homicide or brutal attacks, you have to look at the track record of the country you are going to visit. It is not uncommon for bandits to execute robbery victims simply because they won't get caught. Look for countries where they make tourist attractions out of skulls (Cambodia) or eat smoked monkeys (Congo) to give you a heads up.
Crooks need you to be distracted, lost, in need of assistance, or simply in the wrong place. Just adopting the habit of stopping and watching people around (and behind you) will arm you against crime.
Alcohol, drugs, jetlag and having too good a time can fuzz your common sense, making you think for one unfortunate moment that you are with cool cats when you're really among wolves. Even pleasant encounters with the locals in bars can lead to ugly bruises and lost pesos if you don't stay in control. Scams begin when the perpetrator thinks he can overcome your better judgement. Bars and nightclubs are also where bad people hang out.
Preventing theft begins when you pack. If you are taking too many things or are forced to leave items in your car or hotel, you dramatically increase the chances of losing those things. Travel light, plan on giving away most of the items you bring and perhaps buying local clothes at your destination.
I know this is something Marlin Perkins would tell you, but it really does make a difference if your camera, clothes, health and even life are insured against loss when travelling. Travelers checks are a pain, but worth it for large blocks of cash. Also, credit cards let you do everything from chartering aircraft to buying blowguns, and even medivac insurance ensures that you can be flown to your local hospital if you get hit by a poison dart.
When you travel, you will meet hundreds of strangers with either pure or unpure thoughts. It all depends on the image you present. If you are interested in their kids, their health and their family, the chances of something evil happening to you decrease. At the same time understand that financial pressures in some countries might force these same people to finger you to a gang of thugs, or pick your pocket.
Tourists attract petty criminals and con artists like dogs attract fleas. It goes without saying that crime occurs at youth hostels, tourist attractions, main plazas, red light districts and other popular spots.
Crime generally occurs after you change $2000 at the Amex office or your wife hitches up her girdle to get $10 to pay the museum tickets. Zippers on back packs, luggage circling carrousels, papers sticking out of breast pockets, fat purses and bulging pockets are "Rob Me" signs. Places like trunks of rental cars, towels at beaches, and daytime hotel rooms are areas where cameras, money, and just about everything of any value should be expected to disappear.
The best defense is preparation. By being careful you will avoid unfortunate incidents and wonder what all this fuss is about. Most hotel rooms can be flipped open by a 90-lb. maid, so it doesn't take much for a 200-lb. thug to enter your room at night. (That is where you keep all your worldly possessions isn't it?) Although this is not as pervasive as street robbery, hotel robbery is more serious. Use a wedge, motion detector or chair against the door when you go to sleep. During the day, leave a TV or radio on. Take the room key with you and keep your valuables in the hotel safe. In less developed countries, leave your valuables with the innkeeper or his family.
Use a retractable cable to tie your bags together even when in your hotel. Put locks on all openings, use twist ties on zippers to keep them together, etc. The harder you make it to steal your things the less chance they will be.
If you find yourself being trailed by an unshaven man through the back streets of Malta, then it's time for Plan B. Strange as it seems, the act of throwing down your decoy pouch will defuse most situations. (Unless of course the swarthy man is just trying to catch up to you to return the camera you left at the restaurant.)
Assume that your attacker is just after your money. So give it to him, but not much of it. Carry a moneybelt, pouch, wallet and neck pouch with a little bit of money in each place. Protest a lot, and then run like hell in the opposite direction.
When you are being robbed, your attacker may have a weapon. The trick is to keep slowly shuffling backward as you fumble with your decoy pouch or wallet. If you think you can sprint into a safe place, do it. Most thugs will not chase you when other people are around. The attacker is as much of a coward as you. The difference is, he knows what he is doing and you don't.
If you feel mad as hell and decide you aren't going to take it anymore, try this trick I have used with complete success. Simply stick your hand in your shirt or waistband, turn around and start walking forcefully and directly towards your potential assailant. Never take your eyes off him. When he zigs, you zig and when he zags, you zag. In most cases (I repeat "most") he will think you are going to pull something on him and will quickly walk in another direction. Anyway it's more fun than waiting around, knees trembling, to find out what his real intentions are.
If you are forcibly restrained or bushwhacked, see the "Take 'em Out" section.
If you are attacked, your attacker will have the advantage. He will either sneak up behind you, walk up to you and then quickly turn, or he will hit you with a pipe or stick. Violent attacks often are performed by gangs. They will typically continue to kick and hit you while they tear off your possessions and empty your pockets. Quite honestly, you are better off shielding your head and stomach and helping them find what they are looking for. Keep in mind that if you choose to fight you are endangering your life. If you choose to fight back (you big bully) you must also be prepared to see this through until your attacker may become the victim. Not a comfortable thought for tourists out on the town for a night.
Any book that tells you how to be like Jackie Chan is, for lack of a better term, bullshit. People are all animals when attacked. When someone comes at you with an intent to hurt you, the last thing on your mind will be which smooth Kung Fu moves you will use to pulverize your opponent.
Typically the aggressor will have staked you out and followed you until you were in a place he wanted you to be. At this point everything you do must be reactive. By all means learn the basics of self-defense. Boxing, karate, knife fighting, SEAL training, are all fine. They will tell you which parts of the body really hurt when you jab them and a few nasty tricks that will leave your attacker sucking wind through broken teeth. You will only have this opportunity three or four times in a lifetime, and the downside is that if you do get a chance to be Bruce Lee, the locals will gather around and call you the bad guy.
Responses that are always successful in dealing out pain, regardless of relative size or strength are the heel of the hand under the nose, the bowling ball eyeball grip and the knee in the groin. Keep in mind that if your attacker wasn't pissed or violent before, he will be after you try any one of these attacks.
Any violent encounter has an emotional after-effect that may turn your trip into a nightmare. On one of my recent expeditions through Borneo, a female member was sleeping in a building on the end of a dock over 100 yards from shore. That night a person slit her sleeping bag, her underwear and began to feel her up. She was in the company of two other males who were sleeping. The next day she reported the incident and the police chief of the small fishing village trotted out the entire male population for her to make an ID. Terrified that she would identify the wrong person she hesitated. The police said if she did not identify the person, the entire village would be suspect. She identified one man and he was taken away. She was wrong. Fortunately, the villagers knew who it was and brought the guilty man forward.
It would be unfair to assume that there are specific forms of tourist crime and specific tips to prevent it. Just a quick glance at the clippings that pile up at DP and our firsthand experiences would scare anyone from wandering out their front door. But luckily crime is "relative." You stand a much better chance of being murdered or waylaid by a close acquaintance at home than a total stranger when you travel.
But nothing we can tell you can prepare you for the dangers out there. Safari tourists are robbed while on safari in the north of Kenya, while backpackers have sleeping gas injected in their sleeping compartments in Bulgaria. Most thefts on trains happen in stations, usually just before border crossings where thieves hop off before customs (but not before giving the conductor his cut).
Isn't Technology Great |
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| The new counterfeit proof $100 bill is now busily being counterfeited in Russia, Lebanon and Syria. |
In Colombia and Thailand, young lasses drop scopolamine into overpriced drinks, whores with hearts of gold instruct cab drivers to take you to their rendezvous, which is a back alley where only your wallet is emptied.
Shirt slashers in Venezuela snick through your shirt and grab your neck pouch; Mexicans spill beer on you while their compadre empties your pocket. Even cops will arrest you for phantom transgressions, and customs officials will tax you for imaginary activities.
Swarthy men will wave pistols at you urging you to pull over in Italy, Spain and Turkey. Colombian guerrillas, Chechen mafyia, Yemeni tribesmen, Afghan drug runners and Kashmiri mujahedin will kidnap you and maybe release you.
Out of work Khmer Rouge will kidnap and then clobber you with a hoe in front of your self-dug grave in Cambodia while crack heads in Miami will blast you right through your rental car window if you are too slow to find the electric window button.
Believe it or not, it gets worse. A busload of Greek tourists is machine-gunned to death because Egyptian terrorists think they are Israelis, a Palestinian man starts shooting at people at the top of the Empire State Building because he is "despondent." Afghan mujahedin behead a Norwegian tourist after they carve their group's name in his chest. It seems they were supposed to find expats or engineers, but found it was easier to kidnap a hiker. Next year who knows?
So before you weld your door locks shut and burn your passport, remember that despite all the efforts of the world's criminals to ruin your vacation, most tourists will complain about cold French Fries and lumpy mattresses. Oh, I almost forgot, the most common problems for travelers are diarrhea and sunburn. So, hey, let's be careful out there.
Criminals know where, when and how to find tourists. And they know exactly what to say to them. They're nice. They'll ask you where you're from-and then jack you up for your wallet, camera and jewelry. You'll then have to leave town or spend all day in the police station filing a report. You'll have to rebook airline tickets and then hit the VISA or AMEX office to get new credit cards. Chances are you'll never be back to file a charge or testify.
Every year about half a billion people become official tourists. They leave behind about $423 billion in money on the official level. No one knows how much they contribute to the local thugs and con men. Tourists are robbed and beaten in most countries, but many never bother to report the incidents knowing full well the futility.
Tourists congregate in the same places. They drive in a state of rubbernecking ecstasy. And they are terrified of local law enforcement.
One of things that bad people want besides your money is your passport. The U.S. Embassy issued 1100 replacement passports to travelers last year, 1060 in Italy and 250 in Prague. The most common problem is pickpocketing (about 30 percent of crimes), followed by break-ins into cars. Nobody likes to be considered a tourist; we are travelers, cultural ambassadors yearning to soak up new experiences and sights. In America, few local people stray downtown after dark. Unfortunately, many tourists stay in business hotels built downtown and go for early morning jogs or late night strolls. Are they crazy? No, they're just tourists.
It seems odd, but the most dangerous places for tourists are where tourists hang out. In Europe, pickpockets and thieves like to hang out exactly where you will: the American Express offices (how did they know I just picked up a ton of cash?), popular tourist attractions, main squares and train stations.
Crowds are ideal areas for minor theft, getting on buses or trains, waiting in line for museums or even going to the bathroom. But the top spot to get ripped off is where the tourists are. It's the ideal place to meet con men, gypsy beggars, pickpockets and other minor ne'er do wells.
If you want to meet violent thugs and muggers you will have to wait until the sun goes down and hang around tourist bars. You know, those places where bus tourists sneak you away to down a few drinks and see the local lovelies without the benefit of clothing. Sometimes your new friend will drug your drink or will cause a scene with the bouncer resulting in your expulsion (minus your wallet). Your new drinking buddies may invite you to a swinging club which just happens to be in a deserted alley.
In Russia, China, Central and Southeast Asia, Georgia and Eastern Europe, trains are targets of organized thefts and abductions. In Central Asia and Eastern Europe thieves inject gas into sleeping cars. Pickpockets and petty thieves jump on at one stop, clean out cabins and then jump off at the next stop usually before a border.
Buses are prime targets of criminals and terrorists because they hold a lot of people in a confined area, have few exits and generally travel rural routes-also, the unarmed passengers are usually carrying most of their earthly belongings with them. Buses also follow regular routes along remote roads which allows the civilized bandit to pull off an 11:30 a.m. ambush and make it home for lunch. Checkpoints will shake you down for nonexistent drugs, unexpired visas, and lack of special permission for their area. Local thieves will jump aboard, rummage through the roof luggage and then jump off long before you notice your nice frameless pack missing.
Young kids will watch you park in the tourist attraction's parking lot and then swoop down to clean out your trunk. Junkies will smash every single car window along the beach in the Caribbean to find the wallets kept safe and dry inside. Skinny teenagers in cheap leather jackets will wait until you park your new rental car in Moscow before stealing it and hustling it off to Baku.
Here's a brief overview of where tourists are considered the daily sustenance for bad people.
The United States is plagued with inner-city crime. Guns are commonly used, and convenience store clerks should get combat pay. Tourists are under attack, often with more violent consequences than are found in many "uncivilized" countries. Mexico is still wild and woolly. Big, bad Mexican desperadoes still exist. Mexico's frontiers are rife with mean, dusty border towns where anything can be had for a price. Corrupt federales, will steal your money and sell you back your personal belongings. Cheap, dark bars still sell ammo, drugs and women. Convention hall-sized whorehouses feature nonstop knife fights. Petty crime flourishes in resort areas.
Jamaica mixes ganja, sun and reggae with a massive murder rate. Other Caribbean islands have their grubby little spots where tourists come to do bad things and end up thumped, robbed or killed.
Mexico is Utah compared to Colombia. Kidnappers in Peru, Bolivia and Brazil await you. Pickpockets and thugs in Rio hope that tourism will pick up before the death squads kill them all.
In Algeria, Islamic fundamentalists are killing foreigners as fast as they can. Nobody even thinks of going to Mauritania unless they want to be kidnapped and sold off as a white slave. Djibouti still has rebel activity and Ethiopia and Somalia have the meanest bandits in the world. The Sudan has a very vicious war being waged in the South.
The Hutu and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi are still whacking each other with pangas and, if they by chance see a tourist, will stop fighting long enough to roll them. The mean deeds of folks in the Congo, Central African Republic, South Africa, and Nigeria would make a Russian gangster blush. Desperately poor urban thieves and roving bandits in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda are stepping up crimes against tourists, and Madagascar requires a cautious approach as it slides into anarchy. Adventure travel to the outlands and cities of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Angola are strictly for soldiers of fortune since even aid workers are fair game in these places.
Eastern Turkey is a mess: The Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, has the tourist- terrorism thing down pat. The PKK issued a warning that effectively broadens their battleground to hotels, beaches and other tourist attractions. They take great pleasure in ensuring that the lives of all people visiting Turkey will be in danger. There are also nasty things being done by rival Kurdish factions, Armenian terrorists, the special ops groups, drug smugglers, Hezbollah and more in Northern Iraq.
Europe is supposed to be a safe haven for tourists, but petty crimes in the tourist areas and central cities are common. Skinheads are busy in Germany, bashing people with brown eyes and foreign accents. The Basque ETA in Spain likes to blow things up. Paris is crawling with gypsies and petty thieves. Sicily is still home to bandits who like to prey on tourists with lupares (sawed-off shotguns). Petty thievery runs rampant along the beach resorts of Spain, France and Italy during tourist season.
The southern part of Russia is a seething mass of conflict with separatist, ethnic, mafia, drug and religious groups blasting each other into shreds. Afghanistan and Tajikistan are destitute, perpetual battlefield crisscrossed by drug smugglers. Pakistan has roving bandits and hot-headed killers that will rob policemen and armed convoys just for their bullets. Northern Sri Lanka is a bona fide war zone even though the beaches are full in the south.
Cambodia is a continual game of push-me pull-you as they play tug of war for control of the country. Meanwhile there are still enough land mines to put Doctor Scholl out of business. The north of Myanmar is still controlled by drug lords and hardwood timber smugglers. Papua New Guinea and Irian Jaya still have local tribal wars that break out around eco-trekkers. The sex tourism industry in Thailand and the Philippines along with prevalence of AIDS in Southeast Asia poses a different type of threat for the adventurous.
THE STING |
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| When traveling through Asian countries you could be the victim of overzealous law enforcement agents. In India and Thailand, there have been reports of threats of arrest on drug charges unless you give officers money. In Thailand, police officers make a monthly salary of about US$200. Thai police officers and their informants can receive a reward of 10,000 baht per kg of pure heroin recovered. It has been stated that after refusing these demands some foreign travelers were booked and charged for using heroin. |
| Some travelers have paid US$150-200 to get these cops off their backs. If you are taken to court in Thailand, the odds are not good. No foreigner has been acquitted of an offense in more than 20 years. In India, there are 40 young Westerners serving lengthy jail sentences who claim they were sent to prison on bogus charges. |
| Due to the severity of sentences and the low salaries of officers, Thailand, Malaysia and India can be considered the most dangerous destinations for backpacking youngsters. Indonesia, the Philippines and Latin America are also danger spots. The only solution is to avoid looking like a hippie, don't travel alone and try to get witnesses if you feel you are being pushed into an unethical transaction. |
China is pushing its people to desperation and, despite more executions than there are daytime soap operas in Hollywood, crime is increasing.
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