Wandering the streets of Buenos Aires
“Robyn, I don’t know if I can come to Buenos Aires.”
“What! Why not?”
“They say there are street protests by students often and there are pickpockets. My mom is worried.”
“Uh, Rachel you live in New York City. Seriously?”
The absurdity must have hit home; Rachel met me in Buenos Aires. And not a minute too soon. I had been traveling for almost a year around the world last year and I was tired. I wanted a friendly face.
I couldn’t believe the United States’ Government had almost gotten in the way. I’ll be the first to admit it: I never check travel advisories. They seem like a waste of time. Unfortunately my friend, and travel buddy, Rachel wasn’t quite so reckless and nearly ruined her trip! We both survived. We actually even saw a protest (it was a bunch of students with a sheet, monitored by Police and controlled through the streets).
Which got me to thinking this week, as I watched Egypt erupt into flames, Tunisia turn upside down and foreigners flee for the first flight, how do you know travel is safe?
Well I suppose my Rock Fever column in The Royal Gazette this week starts with an obvious one: you don’t know. Each time you board that plane you don’t know if you’ll land. When you sail away into the sunset, how are you sure you’ll come back? You don’t.
Which is why you have to head to two which is: plan for what you can control. Get your vaccinations, bring
Be careful with the water when visiting Egypt (and there are no protests!)
your hand sanitizer and check whether you can eat raw food and drink water in your destination! At least if you can keep yourself healthy you’ll be better prepared for anything that might come your way.
Of course, you could check three: the United States’ Government travel advisories at: http://travel.state.gov/travel. On their website you can check the country you are going to travel to and see what the American’s worry about.
I’m afraid they worry about a lot. That’s why my tip four is to take that website with a good dose of perspective. Look at Rachel? New York was the centre of one of the most internationally, transformational terrorist attacks in the last decade or even two and a NewYorker is worried about some pick pockets in Buenos Aires?
What I’m saying for tip five, then, is not to let these advisories advise you against travel to “exotic” places. We don’t think for two minutes about boarding a plane to go to New York, but to head to Malaysia?
Well in Malaysia (and anywhere outside of Bermuda, of course) my tip six would be to adhere to the warnings and advisories of your bank! Tell them where you are going (even if you don’t tell anyone else!) or face losing the use of your credit cards. Or in my case, know which countries are entirely blocked by your bank. Yes, the entirety of Malaysia is blocked for ATM use by Bank of Butterfield clients, apparently. In Malaysia I spent my trip visiting banks to withdraw on my credit card. The trip could have been a lot less safe if I hadn’t had a travel buddy with me to provide cash until I could get to a bank (it was a holiday when I arrived).
Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!
I’m lucky my Malaysia emergency proved to be easy enough to resolve when I knew why my ATM card was being declined. What’s not easy to resolve are major clashes in countries. Which is my tip seven and make sure you check the news for the country you are going to visit or where you are!
Sound obvious? Well I’ll be the first to say I didn’t think about it while navigating the world. When I was in Chandigarh, India it was my mother who was thousands of miles away, mind you, who told me there were violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims miles from me. Luckily they were far enough away from Chandigarh, which was perfectly calm and quiet. I boarded the bus to Delhi and, as you know, I made it.
Of course my mom was worried, but tip eight is a reason I don’t always check the news and the advisories: clashes and protests are never (almost) as bad as the lines in a newspaper or the screen explain it. Well unless the country has literally shut-down internet and countries are evacuating their citizens. Then I might worry. But more often than not the problems are in a particular area of the country. Not in that area? Worry slightly less.
And tip nine is, unfortunately for women: take extra precaution wherever you are. Don’t go out at night on your own; an innocent walk in Cusco, Peru could turn into a drive-by bum grab even with male travel buddies there! Imagine if I’d been on my own?! Leave a bag (light enough so you can move it in an emergency and heavy enough so you hear it move if an uninvited guest arrives) in front of your locked, hotel room door. Want more ideas? Visit my post on female travelers or Wanderlust and Lipstick!
La Cholita wrestling in La Paz, Bolivia: Bolivian women in skirts and braids wrestle with their foes!
And finally tip ten, after scaring the daylights out of you, is: don’t let any country intimidate you from visiting it. Some countries will be poorer. Some will have infrastructure that could use some help. All countries will have a tour that can help you navigate pitfalls that could arise and provide you with tour guides with local insight. That is, if you’re worried about doing it on your own. Just don’t let that stop you from experiencing cultures, food, landscapes and languages that include women with plaits wrestling in Bolivia or the crackling of a glacier in Chile.
Of course if you’re Bermudian or a resident you will be facing questions when you visit these new places, right? You said….you promised you would try somewhere new! Well when you do you’ll want to take with you my travel cheat sheet in next week’s column and of course visit here for your daily dose of travel tips and tales!
Robyn's Wanderings 