While researching the customs and risks of the trip, the same message was repeated over and over - keep your money safe! So I went online and found several ways to do so.
Starting off with this small collection of day to day items:
A bottle of water, sunscreen, a belt, and something that looks like a sleeping mask at first site.
As these items are so inconspicious, no one would think that they are a great way to hide money or other valuables..
First of all the "sleeping mask" is actually a body belt. It is worn underneath the clothing and can be the home to money, cards and perhaps even a room card key.
It is strapped to your belly and therefore always close to you, making it very difficult for a quick theft.
The next item is the belt. This belt is interessting too as it has a secret compartment. As you can see in the photo above, there is a hidden zipper built into the belt. In this zipper I am planning on taking my emergency funds for when I might lose something or something does happen to get stolen. At least I will be able to quickly find a place to stay / grab a cab / phone home / or buy some food. I was very specific when I decided what I would be taking with me and just plainly looking like some crazy trekking German tourist was not really my idea of travelling. I want to emerge into a culture and when interacting with locals bring them some of my culture too. I wont always be hiking around but actually spending time in cities with people, so I dont want to look like a big idiot. What I am trying to say is that I like this belt and I would wear it at home too and not just because it has a nice secret compartment...
The next two items, the water bottle and the sunscreen can be seen in action in the photo below:
The top of the waterbottle can be taken off to reveal a larger compartment in which I can place Hotel keys, money or copies of my passport.
Same goes for the sunscreen. This can be opened to reveal space for even a mobile phone. Especially interessting at the beach where personal items might be more prone to being neglected. I am quite interessted into seeing how much I am truely going to use these two items, but I thought it was a good buy and something at least I had never seen before. I also did the test with my colleages and they could not identify what I was talking to them about - clearly they were just holding a bottle of water (which actually has some weight to it and flowing water in the top part of the bottle) or recommending me to take some sunscreen with a higher sun protection factor not noticing that the top half could be taken off.
There are some other precautions I took in the form of a tube scarf. For the guys out there - those are the infinity scarves that dont have 2 ends. I bought one - with a stylish pattern, in which I can place my passport and anything else that I need to have with me during long bus rides. It also has a secret compartment and because it is like a normal scarf, it has quite a bit of room even for bulky objects. I am looking forward to receiving the scarf, until now I will just have to wait an see until it arrives.
When I was at globetrotters the vendor recommended to me buying a plain plastic cover to place over my backpack when travelling by bus. This bag supposedly doesnt only protect the bag from water, but when tied shut with a cable tie even looks a lot more like the luggage locals would be taking with them on a bus ride and not so much like the baggage of some fancy tourists. The thieves are much less prone to steeling of locals or their own, so the more the bag looks like a local piece of luggage the better. Also the vendor said that because there is a cable tie attached, it makes it much harder for the thieves that sometimes hide in the luggage compartments of busses to open it, as they would have to actively cut into material. The thieves normally want to make as few inscisions as possible to not make it an obvious theft and to be able to continue thieving even after the potential victim has taken its bags from the bus.
Apart from that I will be taking padlocks with me, in order to tightly close my backpack and to be able to leave it in the room. There are too many stories you hear about valuables being taken out of hotel safes, so I am trying to carry as much of my valuables with me all the time, and leaf the rest tucked away, perhaps in some dirty laundry in my bag.
With money in general I have had a look into the bank DKB in Germany. It enables me to withdraw money from any bank all around the world, without having to pay any fees for doing so. I will also be provided with two cards, meaning that I can split up cards and money and not be completely lost when the other half is either stolen or misplaced. A new card would also be sent to me in less than 4 days no matter where I am.
There are quite a lot of possibilites to keep safe during the trip and I think most of it is calming your mind and giving you a better feeling. I am still quite positive, that the stories I am being told and the warnings I am hearing are more based on not knowing the countries and less on actual crime against tourists.
