that I am not quite as naive as you might think. I´m pretty good at evaluating risks (it helps that I´m a decent reader of body language), and I´m also a pretty paranoid traveler when it come to petty theft et al. I keep my bags and daypacks locked, I lock my bag to the bed if there´s any concern about security. I also have caches of money, ID, etc. in three different places in case of theft–money belt, first aid kit (which is often but not always in my daypack), and taped into the bottom of my pack—the last is particularly hard to find and also particularly likely not to be stolen, if the pack is chained to the bed. I keep the bulk of my cash in a money belt, and only carry about fifty dollars in my wallet. This is enough to make a robber happy but not enough to be a serious loss….Also, if I absolutely have to, I spent five years teaching self-defense, and have a decent chance of taking apart anything up to four unarmed attackers, or one armed one.
It´s also pretty unlikely that I´ll get killed. Most crime against tourists is economic–the biggest one being petty theft, pickpocketing, etc.–so unless someone panics during a robbery, it´s unlikely I´ll be harmed. I´m colossally unworried about losing my stuff; it would be irritating, but problems that can be solved with a credit card really aren´t problems, at least while traveling. Nonetheless, I take all those security precautions anyway.
This is probably way more security than I need (most tourists don´t do even a tenth that), but being a project manager, I prefer to prepare for contingencies.
But really, 90% of not being robbed is simply paying attention in the first place.
Just got up, showered’–there´s a weird looking thing on the head of the shower that looks like a small propane gas tank with a lampshade on top of it, which presumably heats the water–and will shortly be out and into the city. There´s a large market today, and I hope to get a look at the local textiles. From what I´ve seen, they´re stunning.
Tien
