Salon Wanderlust | Safety strategies

[Salon Wanderlust: Travel with a passion]

R E C E N T L Y
Tampax nightmares
By Susan Hack
It's hard to find a good tampon in Yemen
(07/22/98)
Homemade heaven in Italy
By David Downie
Wild boar stew and other delights in Italy
(07/21/98)
Couped up in Cambodia
By Rosemary Berkeley
Remembering the right place at the wrong time
(07/17/98)
Mondo Weirdo
Nude beaches of the week
Favorite nude beaches around the world
(07/17/98)
Tour en Irlande
By David Moore
Tour de France: Pomp and pedaling in Ireland
(07/16/98)

Browse the
Wanderlust Road Warrior archives

SAFETY STRATEGIES | PAGE 1, 2
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Are there any places that you would think twice about traveling to?
I'm worried about people traveling through Asia. To the everlasting credit of the average Asian citizen, who's being pounded by these currency devaluations, the region's been remarkably calm. But that may change. Look at Mexico -- which is suddenly being perceived as a dangerous place. This has come right on the heels of the currency devaluation. People who were just at the edge of surviving were suddenly thrust into a situation where they're stealing to live. Korea scares the hell out of me, because the won has gone from 880 to 1,500. There are going to be elements that are going to turn to crime. Think about it: If you are going to Jakarta on business and the rupiah goes down dramatically, there's a whole part of society that has suddenly become dispossessed. They will turn to street crime as they did in Mexico. The danger is not likely to be political terrorism or having your plane hijacked. You hear people talking about only the sexy issues, not the basic safety issues.
You don't need to tell business travelers to avoid mass transit because they tend not to [use it], so the tip for the business traveler is that in many destinations, it is probably not safe to hail a street cab. Business travelers are being mugged in cabs. You should only drive around in a cab arranged by the hotel and you should never hail a cab off the street.
Even if you're at a restaurant, you should still call your hotel?
People say, "OK, so now I got to the restaurant. How do I get back?" Instead of calling the hotel and waiting 20 minutes or being smart enough to call 15 minutes early, they wander out and hail a street cab and -- boom! -- suddenly they've got a gun to their head and they're off to the nearest ATM to empty their bank account. Of course, if you're working at a big multinational company, they tend to have people you can check with both before arriving and after to avoid having something like this happen.
So you recommend calling the company prior to arriving and talking about these issues?
Yes. Call either the client or your own company, and keep in mind that a huge amount of travel is intracompany -- I'm going to visit the branch or office. Well, if you're going to the branch office in Des Moines, Iowa, why aren't you asking the person in Des Moines whether there is a problem or not? The smaller the town gets or the more exotic the locale, the more at risk a person is because he or she is doing less homework. I hear more conversations of New Yorkers getting mugged in Des Moines than they do in New York -- and it's not because Des Moines is more dangerous, it's because those people in New York think that no one's ever been mugged in Des Moines before.
We're in a good period right now. Eighty percent of the travel in this country is domestic and virtually everywhere crime is down. We don't have a spate of terrorism going on right now; the bigger issue is not terrorism or kidnapping, it's the man-on-the-street crime. But, for example, you should know that a small portion of American executives is being snatched off the streets of Peru each year.
What can executives do to avoid something like this?
Take basic precautions. Vary your route every day if you're going from a hotel. Especially U.S. travelers or executive travelers overseas, they tend to be going from their hotel to their office, or whatever facility they're visiting. It doesn't take someone very long to figure out what their patterns are. So every day they've got to come back by a different route. Avoid riding in cars with vanity license plates because poor people don't have limos that say "Exec1" on them. Some people say that maybe they should be packing heat. I don't recommend this. Yeah, right, that's where you want to be, in a foreign country claiming self-defense.
Any particular issues for women business travelers?
Women business travelers should get a suite hotel instead of a regular hotel. This way, they can invite someone back to their room, close the bedroom door and hold the meeting in the living room. You can't do that in a regular guest room because somebody ends up sitting on the bed. When you're sitting in the living room, you're in control of the situation; they can't claim you're sending out the wrong message.
Also, if you check into the front desk and someone says, "Here you go Miss Smith, you're in room 212" -- you should be out of there. Just look at the person, put on your best steely glint and say, "Give me another room and if you call my room number out again, I'm calling the general manager." That's a big problem for women business travelers. The line between safety and plain old crime and being hit on once too often blurs, but hotels are the one place that women need to -- and do -- take more caution.
Are there any places that business travelers feel safe but that are actually common places for theft and other crimes?
Any place that looks like a resort. Now I'm sitting here in Honolulu, where there are no hotels in the business district; all the rooms are in the resort/vacation area. That lowers the business traveler's antenna even further. Suddenly, everybody is dressed down, they look cool. Everybody's going to the beach and you're not, so you must be safe -- but that's actually where it's more dangerous, in my opinion. There are a lot of cities where the downtowns aren't safe anymore. So that you go to the best hotel in town, the hotel whose name you know, but you're in a district that nobody is in after 5 p.m. and it's dangerous. Take a look at Cleveland, L.A. or South Africa, where the hotels in downtown Johannesburg have closed because it became so dangerous, nobody at all was there.
So should business travelers not necessarily stay closest to the office?
Find out what district the company is located in. Manhattan, with the exception of Wall Street, doesn't empty out; it goes 24 hours a day, so it's relatively safe. But in smaller cities, like St. Louis or Detroit, the downtown areas empty out after the classic business day. The department stores close, restaurants don't do business. So how do you know if that's the case? You've got to ask. It's always a matter of information; you could take all of these precautions and still get mugged. Business travelers need to reduce the risk. Don't carry wads of cash -- but then that brings up its own problems when you go to an ATM and walk out counting your cash.
How about theft on airplanes -- do bags get stolen from the baggage compartments overhead if you fall asleep?
Look, I flew 14 hours to get to Honolulu after working all day in Hong Kong -- what are you telling me, not to sleep on the plane? That's where you have to draw a line. Being worried about your wallet being stolen on a plane is paranoid, but sitting here worried about my laptop on the desk is not paranoid. But another person might think it is. That line is very fuzzy. It's a personal line that you have to draw.
Have you ever been in any dangerous situations?
I tend to be an explorer and a street person, so I always find myself wandering aimlessly around a city. But suddenly I look up and I'm the only one in a business suit in what is clearly a bad neighborhood. I've been very lucky. But I'm also 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds; I'm the kind of person people cross the street to get away from.
SALON | July 23, 1998
Do you have a safety tip to share with fellow road warriors? Send your advice to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com.


	R E C E N T L Y Tampax nightmares By Susan Hack It's hard to find a good tampon in Yemen (07/22/98) Homemade heaven in Italy By David Downie Wild boar stew and other delights in Italy (07/21/98) Couped up in Cambodia By Rosemary Berkeley Remembering the right place at the wrong time (07/17/98) Mondo Weirdo Nude beaches of the week Favorite nude beaches around the world (07/17/98) Tour en Irlande By David Moore Tour de France: Pomp and pedaling in Ireland (07/16/98) Browse the Wanderlust Road Warrior archives		SAFETY STRATEGIES \| PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - Are there any places that you would think twice about traveling to? I'm worried about people traveling through Asia. To the everlasting credit of the average Asian citizen, who's being pounded by these currency devaluations, the region's been remarkably calm. But that may change. Look at Mexico -- which is suddenly being perceived as a dangerous place. This has come right on the heels of the currency devaluation. People who were just at the edge of surviving were suddenly thrust into a situation where they're stealing to live. Korea scares the hell out of me, because the won has gone from 880 to 1,500. There are going to be elements that are going to turn to crime. Think about it: If you are going to Jakarta on business and the rupiah goes down dramatically, there's a whole part of society that has suddenly become dispossessed. They will turn to street crime as they did in Mexico. The danger is not likely to be political terrorism or having your plane hijacked. You hear people talking about only the sexy issues, not the basic safety issues. You don't need to tell business travelers to avoid mass transit because they tend not to [use it], so the tip for the business traveler is that in many destinations, it is probably not safe to hail a street cab. Business travelers are being mugged in cabs. You should only drive around in a cab arranged by the hotel and you should never hail a cab off the street. Even if you're at a restaurant, you should still call your hotel? People say, "OK, so now I got to the restaurant. How do I get back?" Instead of calling the hotel and waiting 20 minutes or being smart enough to call 15 minutes early, they wander out and hail a street cab and -- boom! -- suddenly they've got a gun to their head and they're off to the nearest ATM to empty their bank account. Of course, if you're working at a big multinational company, they tend to have people you can check with both before arriving and after to avoid having something like this happen. So you recommend calling the company prior to arriving and talking about these issues? Yes. Call either the client or your own company, and keep in mind that a huge amount of travel is intracompany -- I'm going to visit the branch or office. Well, if you're going to the branch office in Des Moines, Iowa, why aren't you asking the person in Des Moines whether there is a problem or not? The smaller the town gets or the more exotic the locale, the more at risk a person is because he or she is doing less homework. I hear more conversations of New Yorkers getting mugged in Des Moines than they do in New York -- and it's not because Des Moines is more dangerous, it's because those people in New York think that no one's ever been mugged in Des Moines before. We're in a good period right now. Eighty percent of the travel in this country is domestic and virtually everywhere crime is down. We don't have a spate of terrorism going on right now; the bigger issue is not terrorism or kidnapping, it's the man-on-the-street crime. But, for example, you should know that a small portion of American executives is being snatched off the streets of Peru each year. What can executives do to avoid something like this? Take basic precautions. Vary your route every day if you're going from a hotel. Especially U.S. travelers or executive travelers overseas, they tend to be going from their hotel to their office, or whatever facility they're visiting. It doesn't take someone very long to figure out what their patterns are. So every day they've got to come back by a different route. Avoid riding in cars with vanity license plates because poor people don't have limos that say "Exec1" on them. Some people say that maybe they should be packing heat. I don't recommend this. Yeah, right, that's where you want to be, in a foreign country claiming self-defense. Any particular issues for women business travelers? Women business travelers should get a suite hotel instead of a regular hotel. This way, they can invite someone back to their room, close the bedroom door and hold the meeting in the living room. You can't do that in a regular guest room because somebody ends up sitting on the bed. When you're sitting in the living room, you're in control of the situation; they can't claim you're sending out the wrong message. Also, if you check into the front desk and someone says, "Here you go Miss Smith, you're in room 212" -- you should be out of there. Just look at the person, put on your best steely glint and say, "Give me another room and if you call my room number out again, I'm calling the general manager." That's a big problem for women business travelers. The line between safety and plain old crime and being hit on once too often blurs, but hotels are the one place that women need to -- and do -- take more caution. Are there any places that business travelers feel safe but that are actually common places for theft and other crimes? Any place that looks like a resort. Now I'm sitting here in Honolulu, where there are no hotels in the business district; all the rooms are in the resort/vacation area. That lowers the business traveler's antenna even further. Suddenly, everybody is dressed down, they look cool. Everybody's going to the beach and you're not, so you must be safe -- but that's actually where it's more dangerous, in my opinion. There are a lot of cities where the downtowns aren't safe anymore. So that you go to the best hotel in town, the hotel whose name you know, but you're in a district that nobody is in after 5 p.m. and it's dangerous. Take a look at Cleveland, L.A. or South Africa, where the hotels in downtown Johannesburg have closed because it became so dangerous, nobody at all was there. So should business travelers not necessarily stay closest to the office? Find out what district the company is located in. Manhattan, with the exception of Wall Street, doesn't empty out; it goes 24 hours a day, so it's relatively safe. But in smaller cities, like St. Louis or Detroit, the downtown areas empty out after the classic business day. The department stores close, restaurants don't do business. So how do you know if that's the case? You've got to ask. It's always a matter of information; you could take all of these precautions and still get mugged. Business travelers need to reduce the risk. Don't carry wads of cash -- but then that brings up its own problems when you go to an ATM and walk out counting your cash. How about theft on airplanes -- do bags get stolen from the baggage compartments overhead if you fall asleep? Look, I flew 14 hours to get to Honolulu after working all day in Hong Kong -- what are you telling me, not to sleep on the plane? That's where you have to draw a line. Being worried about your wallet being stolen on a plane is paranoid, but sitting here worried about my laptop on the desk is not paranoid. But another person might think it is. That line is very fuzzy. It's a personal line that you have to draw. Have you ever been in any dangerous situations? I tend to be an explorer and a street person, so I always find myself wandering aimlessly around a city. But suddenly I look up and I'm the only one in a business suit in what is clearly a bad neighborhood. I've been very lucky. But I'm also 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds; I'm the kind of person people cross the street to get away from. SALON \| July 23, 1998 Do you have a safety tip to share with fellow road warriors? Send your advice to wanderlust@salonmagazine.com.