Important Precautions To Take While Travelling
Some uncommon travel tips for those who travel a lot.
Introduction
Travelling has come a long way from the nineties. More locations are now connected and accessible by air than ever before. Not only have the connections increased, but so have the bureaucratic hurdles one had to go through to enter many countries once upon a time, now a thing of the past. Visa on arrival is available to more nationalities in more countries than ever in the past.
And while there has been a drastic number of improvements and technological advances in the how we get to places and how we stay and explore them, there has been a simultaneous rise in the number of safety risks one has to face while travelling. There are many ways one can get into trouble while travelling. But more than all factors combined, it is our blind belief in the inherent goodness of people that makes us drop our guard exposing us to various kinds of frauds and scams happening at many tourist locations.
I’ve already elaborated on some of these scams in one of my articles:
It isn’t only tourist scams or real life incidents however which should be your biggest sources of concern but your very own handling of situations, and the way you present and carry yourself at these locations. Being adamant about not adhering to local customs and dressing liberally, straying away from local trekking trails, and blatantly violating the rules and trying to cut corners are some of the ways you’ll pay for your rebellious nature while travelling. However, sometimes no matter how much of a well behaved tourist or civilized traveller you are, some unfortunate incident or the other will most likely happen to you. And as most frequent fliers know, it isn’t a matter of if but of when.
Sometimes, the only way to protect yourself is by travelling as much as you can so that you gain those insights to develop the safeguards for them early on in life. Sometimes the only way to develop such street smarts is by travelling solo and being observant and viligant about what’s going on around you. You can never develop an attentive and watchful nature if you’re always travelling with groups and are totally immersed in all the camaraderie, can you? You’ll get into sticky situations in the most unexpected of ways you wouldn’t even believe were possible if they hadn’t happened to you.
This is just an example:
Being abstracted and zoned out from your surroundings as you search for, or are busy navigating your way to your destination using your phone can cost you dearly in terms of money, safety, and security. You must be sharp, focussed, and have a keen sense of awareness of your surroundings no matter where you are in the world. Being absent minded, or lost in reverie will cost you dearly. You’ll pay the price for your lousy behaviour in ways monetary, or otherwise.
There are many ways in a which a traveller learns these lessons. Sometimes, you learn them the hard way through experience which is the most trying considering that you have to lose something in the process to learn the lesson. Sometimes, it is from the experience of others which is a second hand account of how the incident unfolded with them. And lastly, it is through anecdotes and write ups like this one.
Most surprisingly, such transgressions can happen against you even in the midst of company which is all what the fifth point talks about. So stick around till the end to know more.
Here are some precautions one must take while travelling:
Store all important information across different medium and be aware of local happenings
Information such as phone numbers of lodges, hotels/hostels, tour guides, friends, family members, and fellow travel mates must always be stored offline lest you lose your device and strand yourself in an unknown location without a faint inkling about how to proceed further.
By not backing up your data to an external device and having only one copy of it on your phone, you risk losing the ability to access it in case anything happens to your device. You run the risk of stranding yourself in one place indefinitely by keeping all your information stored on a single medium, or as the saying goes, putting all your eggs in one basket.
Besides, the situation you’re in could coalesce with other factors and act as a double whammy stranding you in a place that’s completely foreign and unknown to you. You could be on the way to a forest cabin or resort located remotely in the woods late in the evening or night. It could be an isolated one far away from any other town or civilization, your phone could get damaged by the rain, you could get stranded by a blizzard or storm, you could get stranded on one side of a beach because the tide came in and closed off the creek crossing, or you could even get pickpocketed while travelling. There really is no limit to the permutations and combinations in which the perfect storm could manifest, leaving you lost and bewildered in a strange place far away from home.
To make matters worse, you might not even be abreast about incidents specific to that place by the very virtue of being a tourist and an outsider.
A few years ago, I was waiting by the side of a mountain road with my trekking group late one evening for our transport to arrive. It was a winding 2-lane hill road that cut through a mountain, or as we call it here in India, a Ghat road. We had just finished our trek for the day and were eagerly waiting for our Tempo Traveller to come pick us up so that we could get to our homestay quickly and have dinner. We waited for a long time for the vehicle to arrive, but received a call that it had a punctured tire and would take more than an hour to arrive. Some group members still had plenty of energy left in them for the day and so decided to keep walking in the direction of the town that we were to camp that night so that they could be picked up by the bus as it came along after picking others from the original pick up point.
The group had split into two; the ones who chose to walk and the ones who chose to stay and wait for the bus at the point where we began our trek earlier that day. It was a dark and desolate stretch of road as this trek wasn’t a popular one, and seldom would any vehicles pass by us. We were surrounded by forest on both sides.
It was only when we arrived at town later that night that we got the shock of our lives. The locals told us it was extremely foolish of us to walk along that highway at any time of day let alone late in the evening as dozens of dead bodies have been found along that particular stretch.
Yes, we literally walked on a mountain road known to be “a dumping ground for murderers to dispose off their victims’ bodies” without even knowing it. This is why it is extremely imperative that you are abreast of all local happenings at your destination.
When you don’t take such preventive measures, you risk arriving at a new place completely vulnerable and helpless without an inkling about whom to contact, where to go, and how. Such instances can easily be prevented with a little bit of planning and forethought. Never underestimate a sunny situation from turning into your worst nightmare. Akin to cloudbursts that happen all of a sudden catching people unawares, so can certain situations in life.
In addition to keeping a copy of all important information offline, you could also back it up to the cloud. But that could still leave you partially stranded as you would still need a device to access it. The best thing to do would be to store it in written form and carry it with you on person while having multiple copies of it accessible to you online as well.
Make offline notes of directions
This is a subset of the above point. Don’t be 100% dependent on Google maps or handheld navigation devices.
Google maps isn’t going to be there all the time. Your phone could lose reception, it could get wet in the rain, you could leave it behind in a cab, or even get pickpocketed. This is why it is extremely imperative to make written and mental notes of directions to your intended destination. Even remembering the landmarks surrounding it will help.
While navigating using your phone, make a mental map of all the towns, cities, villages, settlements and significant landmarks near your intended destination. So even in the unfortunate event of getting pickpocketed or losing your phone, you still have a faint idea of where you are and which direction to head in.
Make offline notes of all emergency services surrounding it such as police stations, hospitals, fire stations, search & rescue services, and tourist offices as well.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
Just like how you shouldn’t store all information in one place or on one medium during solo travel, you similarly shouldn’t keep all information on one phone or with one person during group travel.
While travelling in groups it is best to distribute information amongst everyone, so even if something happens to the person holding all the information or his device, the information is still accessible to everyone else. As a trek lead, I make it a point to share the trail map not only with my co-organizers but with all the participants as well. So that even in the unlikely event that anything should go wrong and incapacitate the organizers, the participants can still navigate their way safely out of the forest and quickly get help for the others.
This is the most underestimated rule while travelling. You won’t believe how many times people take this particular precaution for granted. Many newbie travellers are delusional. They assume and believe that they are invincible and that nothing can happen to them or their devices. They downplay and minimize the risk of being stranded in a place all because only one person in their group had all the information on their phone and their device ran out of power or got stolen.
Be armed
While most places in the world aren’t hostile and unwelcoming to tourists, it always pays to be cautious and well armed regardless of the location. This one is another aspect that most optimistic tourists and backpackers tend to take for granted. They have a delusional belief that the world is an inherently well meaning place with the rotten bits only scattered here and there. They assume that they are capable of dealing with the most hostile and tense situations using their altruistic and sociable nature alone.
They believe their people skills are enough to get them through difficult situations. Well, you can believe in the power of words and diplomacy all you want. But you can’t bring a knife to a gunfight, metaphorically and in this particular situation, quite literally.
While not every citizen of every country possesses second amendment rights like Americans that allows them to bear arms, one can always protect oneself with less lethal forms of self-defense such as daggers, sickles, knives, or pepper spray. If you’re driving, you can additionally arm yourself with a machete, or cricket/baseball bats to protect yourself from highway robbers.
Hopefully, it goes without saying that you should use any of these tools only as a last resort before attempting to de-escalate the situation as much as possible by employing defensive and non-confrontational measures.
Be cognizant of the false sense of security within large groups
I recently came across a very heartbreaking video on social media. It was from a popular travel blogger in India who goes by the name of ‘trulynomadly’ on Instagram. In the video, Sharanya elaborates on how she fell for the false sense of security within groups, and how that very trait was exploited and taken full advantage of by a pickpocket.
Here’s a screenshot of the caption of the video:
Juse like Sharanya, you could lose everything in the blink of an eye. Always keep an eye on your belongings regardless of where you are, or amongst whom you are. You might be on a train journey with a dozen of your best buds from college letting loose some steam and enjoying some crazy shenanigans together.
But the onus of ensuring the safety of your belongings? That’s still on you!
Keep cash and documents spread out over all your luggage
The “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” idiom literally repeats itself over and over again when it comes to staying safe while travelling. If in the above mentioned case, had Sharanya been a bit more careful and discerning in spreading out her valuables amongst different bags, she wouldn’t have lost everything all at one go.
She lost her 8 month old Macbook Pro, Passport, and “hard disks full of her life’s work” just in the blink of an eye! Let that sink in for a while.
By storing all your cash, gadgets, personal belongings and documents in a single piece of luggage, you risk losing all of them at the same time. In case you’re carrying multiple bags and the bag with all your valuables gets stolen, you lose all your precious belongings and you are left with a bag that has nothing of significant importance or things that are easily replaceable.
So beware of the false sense of security within groups and always keep a watchful eye on your luggage at all times.
Conclusion
Sadly, while no amount of planning or preparation can prevent an unfortunate incident from happening, it pays to be aware of them and sufficiently prepared for them well in advance. Throwing caution to the wind with phrases like “what must happen will happen” and deliberately not preparing yourself for any of the above mentioned incidents is just asking for it.
Have incidents of such nature ever happened to you while travelling? As a frequent traveller and explorer, what safety measures have you developed over the years to keep yourself safe from such incidents? Let me know in the comments bar to the side.
