the need for caution in travel is nothing new

Here is a Popular Photography ad for travel from October 1940.

 

WW II had already started in Europe and East Asia, and submarine warfare was active in the North Atlantic especially. Maybe traveling by boat wasn't the greatest idea, even though the USA was still neutral!

 

As for my personal experiences:

In 1973, I went to Cairo shortly after the Ramadan War.

 

I went through Rome airport hours before the 1973 attack LINK

Later on the same trip, there were rocket attacks in Asmara (then in revolt against Ethiopian control) just after I left.

 

How about you? Any close shaves?

 

Asmara Fort

Edited December 28, 2018 by JDMvW

The closest was 2nd August 1990 - we arrived in Cairo from Cyprus and heard about a wee bit of trouble between Iraq and Kuwait.

It was a bit tense in the region.

When I was traveling in the American Southwest in April, my wife nearly let me have it.

Popular Photography is history now, sad. Nobody will warn us anymore.

I hitch-hiked 10,000 miles in one year (Mexico, US, Canada) in the early 70's after doing my time in the Marines (69-70) and was in a earthquake in Mexico City and a car accident in Mazatlán where the taxi I was in got t-boned. Was all quite fun actually!

Any close shaves?

Hitchhiking around the country in 1972. I wonder if we crossed paths tholte....

.

In Brownsville Texas I woke to someone crawling in my sleeping bag head first.

When I opened my eyes I saw a second person sitting nearby against a wall playing with a hunting knife.

 

 

someone crawling in my sleeping bag head first.

 

Sounds like a Far Side cartoon:)

lol 'head first'

I was hitchhiking to Yaroslavl when Chernobyl catastrophe happened, lucky it was further away from epicenter and Moscow where i lived.

I was hitchhiking to Yaroslavl when Chernobyl catastrophe happened, lucky it was further away from epicenter and Moscow where i lived.

If that counts, I was in the middle of Atlantic Ocean on that day.

I was walking around the docks in Reykjavik the same day American and Icelandic fisherman were brawling in Boston about unloading fish from a factory fish processing ship. Luckily news traveled slowly then.

Despite a lifetime of travel- including traveling somewhat widely on my own as a young lad during school and high school, I've never had any "close shaves" while traveling, if that implies my being in danger.

 

Sure, while hitch hiking around the country or locally in my youth I had encounters with weirdos and whackos and people who tried to take advantage of me in various ways, including sexually in one or two cases, but honestly, I have never once felt that my life, my person, or property was endangered.

 

That said, there are a few simple rules that are mostly just plain common sense, to insure safety when traveling- whether locally, around the home country, or abroad.

 

Travel in groups, important for older people or people who have difficulty getting around

 

travel in daylight, especially if solo in foreign lands- Mexico comes to mind here

 

don't make yourself a target- don't appear indecsisive, unsure of yourself, don't walk around absorbed in your phone or map, don't walk at curbside while carrying bags or packages, be aware of your surroundings at all times, pay attention to what is around you and who is nearby and know where you're going or appear to. Keep valuables secured against pick pockets, don't put all your valuables in one place on your person, etc. but the one big thing is simply to pay attention!

 

Make sure your pockets and bags have zippered closures and keep them closed at all times unless you have to access them like when buying or paying for something. Carry shoulder bags across your body rather than slung over one shoulder.

 

Nowadays, with technology run amok,

there's a big movement with RFID blocking fabrics, clothing, and bags- so that people cannot access ID or credit cards on your person and in your pockets, bags, or purse, remotely.

 

If you travel with your mobile phone, remove the battery to be certain nobody is accessing it while you're not using it. If traveling abroad, buy a cheap, unlocked, world-band phone and get a local SIM card for use in whatever country or region you're in.

 

Whether you believe it or not, people have the means to access your phone, to glean info from chips in credit cards & IDs. A person can access your phone, activate the audio recording and or video capabilities and record what is happening in the room you're in. I've had my phone hacked into and somebody sent a vulgar text message to an employer of mine in response to a request for work availability (this was in NYC).

 

Do a search and read about business travelers leaving their phones in hotel rooms, turned off and with the batteries removed- if not leaving them

Home altogether- rather than have them in their pockets or on their person during business meetings, to get some idea of what is possible just with your phone!

 

The world has a certain number of crooks and ne'er do wells. These folks are imaginative, incentive, technologically savvy and never tire in their attempts to "get" you. However, it is my firm belief that these people are in the vast minority and that the far larger number of folks, world wide, are pretty much just like you and just like me.

 

There is every reason to travel widely & often. And it's pretty much up to us to keep ourselves safe along the way.

OMG! Dues anyone know how to remove an iphone battery. I am off to the USA in 2019

There are two small JIC screws either side of the power port. Remove those, then the bottom edge, apply heat to the cover glass and pry. Maybe utter a small prayer and hope for the best. The battery is held in with a double-sticky tape made from unicorn hooves. It's also used to attach the wings to 747 airliners.

 

OR! You could hold the lock button until the slider appears, and power the unit down. A password must be entered to restart the phone. US Customs can force you to use a fingerprint or face recognition to open the phone, but not a password. Hooligans on Michigan Avenue in Chicago don't bother with details. They'll take. your phone anyway. (Just don't talk to them. If they think you're American, they will assume you're armed and run away with it.)

OMG! Dues anyone know how to remove an iphone battery. I am off to the USA in 2019

 

You could always buy a cheap trak phone not linked to a mobile provider, and get a local SIM card during your trip. Or, as I just did when I was in the EU recently... don't worry about it. Tho I did have my phone hacked once in NYC, I've mostly only read about people traveling for business purposely not taking their phones into settings or even just leaving them at home and doing as I suggest above, cheap travel phone + local SIM card.

 

While it's always a good idea to be aware of possibilities for being ripped off, I wouldn't let that stop me from enjoying a vacation abroad. A couple years ago we were in Senegal and had zero hassles or trouble.

If you shoot nudes and store the photos in your phone, make sure you have model releases, in case CBP wants to take a look, and some of the subjects appear underage. :)

How does a business person travel without his own phone? How would anyone contact him?

Most cell phones stolen in Chicago are snatched from the hands of people walking and texting, unaware of their surroundings. They're approached from behind in a grab-and-run situation, without a physical confrontation. Cameras are treated differently. A common strategy is to strike up a conversation with someone who might be a tourist (including from the suburbs), size up the risk, then return with friends. This happens increasingly in the middle of the day, with dozens of people nearby. You can present yourself as "strong", hence risky, without being unpleasant, by the way you speak and convey self-confidence.

 

Phone users are at risk from hackers even (perhaps especially) in physically secure environments. The best protection, aside from never using your phone, is to subscribe to a VPN service. A VPN masks your location from eavesdroppers, including websites, and encrypts all data to and from your phone. You can use this service to protect TRAK phones you might acquire as well.

I was in Argentina during the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas brouhahah. US citizens were not popular, due to our support of British military missions.

 

Any close shaves?

Seems JDMvW knows how to not travel faster than his guardian angel can fly...:rolleyes:

actually LINK: Joe Btfsplk - Wikipedia

As for phones. I have service through Verizon, here in the US. When I went to India I called them up and they switched things so that when I got there my phone just worked. I had service from almost anywhere we were in northern India and the signal was cleaner and clearer than from my home in Illinois to the Seattle area.

You also have to wrap your phone in tinfoil and microwave it after each call. Unless you’re Jason Bourne, there’s no reason to remove your battery. iPhones are nearly impossible to break into once they’re locked with a password and/or finger scan. For browsing, use a cellular data plan. When using public wifi, install a VPN.

 

Don't VPNs cost money? Know of good, free VPNs? Post us some links.

 

Not everyone with a mobile phone is smart, wary, tech savvy, or paranoid enough to keep from getting hacked. Phone hacking is a thing that still happens a fair amount, apparently, and a search revealed multiple recent articles on the subject. Like this one:

 

Want Your Phone Hacked? Visit These 10 Airports

My VPN worked in Iceland, saying I was calling from Amsterdam. Why there, who knows? Google is fine with that (email-wise), but AOL and Microsoft choke at times.As long as Adobe CC listens and smiles, I'm good.

 

Would you trust a free VPN. Free stuff on the internet is a ruse to obtain and sell your personal information.

 

I get dire emails from AOL and Microsoft, claiming that my accounts have been compromised. When I log in directly, rather than through a link in email, everything is fine. Phishing? Maybe.

A bad shot of me at the start of a very bad year. All of my Vietnam shots are at the bottom of the Ong Doc river, along with my Canon 35mm camera.

 

How does a business person travel without his own phone? How would anyone contact him?

 

How soon we forget! You leave your itinerary with your boss. He calls you at the hotel where you are. If you are out, the hotel switchboard person will take the message and inform you. If you have not yet arrived, the message will be clipped to your reservation folio and handed to you when you check in. You may instead be reached at a client’s office. Some variations may involve teletype, telegram or fax. If time will allow, you tell your boss to send a letter addressed to you at a hotel or at General Delivery, Main Post Office, City where you will ask for your mail. These methods were all still in use in the late 1970s, when I was working as a desk clerk at the Hôtel Château Frontenac in Québec, Canada.

 

Don’t you remember the early TV ads for Phillip Morris cigarettes with the hotel bellboy walking around the lobby shouting “Call for Phillip Morris”? It was a clever play on words alluding to the way hotel clients sometimes received messages.

 

“I blinked my eyes

and in an instant,

decades had passed.”

― John Mark Green

Phil S,thanks for your input.

 

I have ATT as my mobile carrier. I activated the International Roaming plan they have and for 10.00 USD a day I can use my phone in any one of a couple hundred countries outside the U.S. Granted, 10 dollars a day added a somewhat not insignificant cost to my 12 day rip to the EU recently. I doo have an old unlocked iPhone 3s I have used with local SIM cards when out of the country a few times in the past. It is SLOW but perfectly adequate for in-country calls & texts, and for checking emails, maybe the occasional FB post. Honestly it really is not quite up to par in today's reality but is OK in the most rudimentary way. For this recent trip, I figured I'd try taking my regular phone with the new roaming plan feature and turns out the cost isn't justifiable for me.

 

As to how a business traveler operate abroad with out a phone, we've already covered that, and who said they would be without a laptop or tablet? Phones are volatile but I'd think the greatest danger is in business meetings or if discussing sensitive subjects, be they work related or otherwise. One of the articles I read last night mentioned free, public, and open WIFI networks, just having your WIFI turned on, and having bluetooth activated as primary ways somebody can get into your phone.

 

Really, it just pays to be smart about what you are doing when you travel with your phone. Technology has advanced, and hurray! The downside of that is thieves and ne'er do wells are usually more tech savvy than the average tourist. Consider it simply one more aspect of "pay attention" and "be aware".