How To Secure Pockets When Travelling

Photo by Michael Sheehan in Wikipedia.

The ideal travelling jacket has outside pockets for quick access to unimportant or not valuable items such as handkerchieves and combs, but secure inner pockets for money and credit cards and identity cards or passports.

If you don't have the time or money, some inexpensive items can be bought new or second hand. Search for photographer's jacket, fishing jacket, travelling jacket and pockets. Other words such as gilet may bring up more results. I check Amazon, Ebay, Pick pocet proof clothing.

You can also find belts with pockets at camping shops and ski and outdoor wear shops.

If the clothes you order on line have pockets which are not secure, or you have clothes which you love, but want to add security, here are some options.

1 Wear a belt with a zip compartment under your jacket.

2 Make a belt with a zip. Cut a wide hem off a long dress or old coat or old coat or jacket lining.  fold it horizontally and before seaming it up, add a zip in the middle.

 3 Secure all the pockets on all garments you intend to wear whilst travlling and clothes you are packing to wear at the destination.

When buying bags and tote bags, look for zips and press studs or Velcro (touch and loop closure).

Inserting a zip is easy. Decide where you want the pull part to be and pin or safety pin that in place. Decide if you want the zip visible or hidden half an inch inside. Sew down both sides of the zip. Secure the end by sewing across.

No time? No Zip?

Use a small zipped fabric toiletry bag. One you already own or buy a cheap zipped bag. Sew it inside a tote bag. Remove the inner pockets from a garment you were throwing away and keep them in a sewing box and add them to your travel garments.

Do you have a garment with false zips, ones which actually work but have no pockets behind them? Add a pocket behind. The simplest pocket is just a square sewn up on three sides.

Useful Websites
amazon
ebay
pickpocketproof clothing
https://www.facebook.com/ClothingArts
https://www.clothingarts.com/

About the author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer.

Packing, unpacking and re-packing tips

Problem
As a teenager I carried too much and ended up with clothes which could not be worn because they did not match anything. I once had orange nail vanish, red lipstick and a pink top. I had to go without wearing the pink top, or go without lipstick. I went without wearing the top.

Answers
Later, as a busy travel writer, I kept a case permanently packed for short trips.

COLOUR CO-ORDINATION
My colour scheme was black white and red. lack trousers and black skirt for day, satin black skirt for evening. two tee-shirts and a smart white blouse for the evening. Two different scarves so I looked different on two evenings.

More recently I have had another method. I wear two reversible dresses with a loose white blouse worn open like a jacket and a black wrap around skirt on top. If my luggage goes missing, I have five outfits.

SECURITY
On a plane I also keep my phone, passport and credit card on my body in concealed pockets or a photographer's jacket rather than in a bag. I can go to the loo and leave my bag behind, sure that I won't come back and find my passport gone. If I had to abandon a plane or train or car suddenly, leaving my bag behind, I would still have my identification and a source of communication and funds.

EMERGENCY FOOD
Many people like to travel with a chocolate bar, just in case of delays. I once sat in a plane for several hours on a runway.

If two of you are travelling, with two suitcases, you might have half of each person's clothes in each suitcase. That way, if one of the suitcases goes missing, you both have some clothes.

Always carry a book or notebook to keep yourself occupied in the event of a delay. Sometimes I notice a book i have not time to read, or a magazine, and I put it inside the suitcase of carry on bag for my next trip.

PACKING LIST STORAGE
Where can you keep you magic packing list? One copy pasted inside the wardrobe door. A second copy inside the suitcase, (so you don't go home leaving  your slippers under the bed. A third copy emailed to yourself. If your luggage goes missing, you know what to claim for.

COUNT YOUR CASES
One checked in bag
One wheel on bag
One umbrella
One shoulder bag
4 items.

Removed your jacket on the plane? 4 items.

Luggage Photos
I photograph my luggage at the airport. If it goes missing, I can spot it on the luggage carousel, and describe it accurately in the forms you have to fill in.

CHECKLIST
Number of days at destination. Number of evenings. Number of days travelling.

Suitcase and key, luggage tag, identifying ribbon tied around the handle or coloured strap around whole case, especially for a black suitcase..
Umbrella.
Coats or jackets, shoes, hats, travel outfit.
Underwear.
Socks
Medicines
Diary, address book.
Phone, camera and ipad or laptop.
Swimtuit and hat or sportwear, gym kitc, tennis, golf, ski clothes.
Hiking outfit.
Maps and travel insurance.
Reading matte, diary, dictionary.
Business cards.
Medicines and first aid kit, dental repair and glasses repair.
Sunglasses and spare sighted glasses of prescription.
Sewing kit.
Gifts for hosts.
Money for taxi or shuttle bus at destination and for taxi home from the airport.
Note of car park at airport.
Hotel name and printed booking record.
Frequent flyer number - check additional potential perks such as extra baggage allowance, fast check-in.
Check in online, choosing seat.

Seat Choices
Window seats are good for photography and sleeping propped against the wall. For more tips on seats,  see later post.

Fro
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.

How To Avoid Losing Things: On Aircraft At Airports, In A Mall, And When Travelling

Problem
Airlines have lots of items left behind.
1 Once you are off the aircraft which has landed, they will probably refuse to let you board again to look for lost items.
2 A lost item could be taken by passengers, crew or cleaners.
3 A black jacket or suitcase could be taken by somebody else accidentally.

What experience do I know about?

Passport Losses

1 Indian friends who lived in the same block as my family in Singapore lost her passport at Changi Airport. She said her passport was taken from the luggage trolley as she stood in the check-in queue. A group of lads had been standing, talking and larking about behind her.

2 My passport was stolen in Singapore along with everything else in a shoulder bag taken from me by what I later realised was a classic triple action. An elderly man behind me bumped into me from my right to distract me. I felt my bag go - my left arm felt lighter. I turned to see two younger men apparently in deep conversation. Presumably the nearest had slit the strap and passed the bag to the furthest. Or it was concealed between them under a newspaper.

When I reported the loss to the British Embassy in Singapore, I was shocked to learn that if anybody handed in the bag and passport and money, nothing would be returned to me. A sign said so. The embassy confirmed it.

3 A couple left their passports in the seat pockets of the plane. On the newspaper report, more than two pages of comments came from people who were unanimous in saying: do not put passports or other valuables in seat pockets. Nor anywhere else. Keep passports in your clothes' pockets or handbag.

Never put down valuables. In a second you can get distracted and your valuables could be stolen or you could forget.

Don't expect any help from anybody.

Stolen Passport Story
When my passport was stolen in Singapore, the British passport I was given cost me a lot of money and was only a temporary passport to get me back to the UK. That took three trips, to register my loss , deliver photos signed on the back to verify they were a likeness, and collect the new temporary passport.

At Heathrow, that temporary passport was taken by officialdom.  I had to go to London after filling in more forms, getting more photos and spending more money to get replacement passport.

I had hoped that if my stolen passport was ever round or used, it might be returned to me as a souvenir of my travels, or with my photos intact. Or that I might be informed of the country where it was used and the nationality of the person fraudulently using it. Was it somebody in Singapore? Somebody from a nearby country such as Malaysia or Indonesia? Or a member of a gang from South America.

Stolen Bag
A friend from my South African book group had her bag taken by a South American in a shop in Singapore. She ran after him and a man with a walking stick, resting at the top of a flight of stairs was able to point to the ladies hairdresser which the man had run into to hide.

She ran into the hairdresser, asked if a man was there. Yes, he had run in and was in the toilet. He'd said his wife was having her hair done. Nobody in the shop knew him.

She told the shop owner to lock the door and call the police.

The thief eventually emerged and said, "I give you back the bag. I give you back your money. Let me go."

The shop owner retorted, "The police told me not to open the door until they arrive."
The police arrived quickly. An easy job for them. Three witnesses, the woman who lost the bag, the old man who saw the thief run past with the bag. The hairdresser shop owner who saw the man with the bag hide.

The police raided the place where he was staying and found a group of South Americans, supposedly on holiday, evidently a gang which had come to Singapore supposedly on holiday. Their rented flat was full of stolen bags and the contents.

The moral / lesson is this.

1 Never let anything out of your sight.

2 Don't put valuables down when unpacking. 

3 Put everything into your internal zipped safety pockets.

4  Alternatively use a lockable bag which you keep on you.

Fire Alarm Story
I recently had to leave a building when a fire alarm went off. My bag, a few feet away, had to be left behind as we were all ushered out of the exit. 

Later, other people went back into the building and could have taken my bag, a person searching for the key to the office to switch off the alarm, assuming it was a false alarm, the firemen, any passer-by who felt like ignoring the alarm, anybody else getting back into the building after we were allowed to return, who managed to reach the room before I did. 

At this point I realized the importance of always having your credit cards with you:

1 So the vital cards are not lost, missing, stolen.

2 So you can use credit cards to buy clothes, transport replacements for your bag and laptop left behind when you leave a bus, coach, plane, or building in a fire or other emergency.

3 You also need your phone on you to summon help. If you heard an explosion and ran, you would not run towards the smoke or terrorists looking for the phone which was only the other side of the room in your bag. You would race away and have no means of summoning help or telling anybody you were safe.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Photos and Privacy: Are You Followed As Photographer And Your Subjects Safe?

Photo Problem

What does your photo reveal?

How Data Can Help You - Locate You In Emergency

I have looked at lots of photos on Wikipedia which show the type of camera and place. They get the place from a GPS reading built into the camera of smart phone. That's really handy. If you are floating out to sea and need help, lost in a snowstorm, trapped by an abductor, in a car which rolled off a road into a gully, your photo will tell anybody you send it to where you are.

Revealing Location Of Valuables
What about your own photos? Supposing a film star or a friend is showing their diamond engagemnt ring? You take a photo.

They change their mind and say, "I don't want my photo taken."

You agree not to put it on Facebook. Then you decide to just show the lovely ring but not the face which would reveal who it belongs to. The photo data might reveal the jewellery shop, the hotel, or the country.

Marketing Fusion and Ages

Marketing organisations use fusion. They piece together a mosaic of their customers. They know that elderly people buy walking sticks, that mothers buy nappies, that large families buy giant packs of rice. No surprises there. Older people read the Help The Aged magazines, whilst young mother are likely to read Mother and Baby or Parents. The readers of car magazines and bikers' magazines form another subgroup. Some categories overlap. Others are separate.

It doesn't happen every time. You could be buying goods or magazines for somebody else. But it happens more often than not.

Government Data

The UK government has already sold off your address to marketing companies. I once filled in a library car application. My name was mis-spelled, on their computer. My library card was printed with a C instead of an L. Years later I started getting information from companies spelling my name with a C.

Marketing Areas and Journals

The marketing people also know that the seafront in one remote resort has small bungalows; another area has opulent Hollywood mansions. They know that Irish people read Irish newspapers; Indians read newspapers in their language. Technical journals are read by people with Phds. By asking you two questions about yourself, they can guess another fact, or track it down from another survey.

Seasonal Buying

Sellers, insurers and burglars know that people buy gifts at Christmas time. The same applies to other national holidays. The same goes for weddings. Birthdays also attract advertisers. I am very a happy to be emailed by Café Rouge offering me free Champagne or sparkling white wine if I book a table for four or more, better still if the offer has no minimum persons requirement. Otherwise, if one person is ill with flu, we cancel the dinner, postpone it, find the voucher has expired and never go.

Hotel Customers

It is the same sort of piecing together information as is done by the shopkeeper who ask a tourist, 'which hotel are you staying in?' If you are staying in the five star hotel, he gets out his more expensive goods. If you are staying in a youth hostel, he find you something in your budget.

GPS

When my photos are stored on my computer, it's quite handy to have the rough location. Sometimes the location is wrong, off by a few miles. The GPS is at fault.

We were looking for a cemetery for a funeral in the car. The GPS was wrong. We were in the adjacent road, separated from the cemetery by a road of houses. The entrance was around the corner and down a side road.

Delay

However, I am getting increasingly wary about which photos I show. I often put up photos a week later, after I have changed location. I no longer feel guilty that my pictures are no longer news, that I have not shown a photo taken right this second. I am not into 'news'. I am into features.

Wikipedia warns about photos:

 A photo taken with a GPS-enabled camera can reveal the exact location and time it was taken, and the unique ID number of the device - this is all done by default - often without the user's knowledge. Many users may be unaware that their photos are tagged by default in this manner, or that specialist software may be required to remove the Exif tag before publishing. 

For example, a whistle-blower, journalist or political dissident relying on the protection of anonymity to allow them to report malfeasance by a corporate entity, criminal, or government may therefore find their safety compromised by this default data collection.

In December 2012, anti-virus programmer John McAfee was arrested in Guatemala while fleeing from alleged persecution^[15] in Belize, which shares a border. Vice magazine had published an exclusive interview on their website with McAfee "on the run"^[16] that included a photo of McAfee with a Vice reporter taken with a phone that had geotagged the image.^[17] The photo's metadata included GPS coordinates locating McAfee in Guatemala, and he was captured two days later.^[18]

According to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA is targeting Exif information under the XKeyscoreprogram.^[19]

The privacy problem of Exif data can be avoided by removing the Exif data using a metadata removal tool.^[20]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5448389/Facebook-personal-data-files-Australia-inquiry.html

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.

Food on the train from England to Wales: bara brith

You can find out in advance whether your train will have a trolley or a buffet car. Some tickets say any route.  But if you have a reserved seat this may complicate the situation. If you have documentation confirming passenger assistance, you may have to specify whether you are in a wheelchair or simply need help transporting luggage.

I received literature specifying where I was receiving assistance and the train times and seats reserved On the back was the explanation of symbols showing whether each train had a trolley or buffet service. As I was travelling with two suitcases on wheels, a bag and an umbrella, I knew  that once I was seated I was unlikely to want to walk along the carriages, either without my luggage, or dragging it all behind me.

If you have a reserved seat far into the carriage, but have to leave one of your suitcases in the luggage area by the exit doors, you may want to keep any valuables such as a computer in your shoulder bag or a bag small enough to keep with you. You might also want to lock your luggage. Alternatively to leave an old phone or out of date laptop inside it with 'find my phone' operating, in the hope that if you luggage goes missing, you can see where it is.

I can't say it helped me. When my shoulder bag went missing from over my shoulder as I got off a bus in Singapore, my phone simply registered phone turned off. So neither the phone nor the bag it was in could be located.

As a result I am not keen on trusting my bag out of my sight. Not sure the insurance covers it anyway. I did know that I would not be keen to change carriages leaving a bag behind.

If you switch routes, you may find the food service on your train is different. On some trains passengers are allowed to buy food from an area within the first class carriage even though they are travelling in a different class.

The food may be provided for the first class passengers in their ticket price but cost extra if you are in another class. If you expect to drink a lot of coffee, it could be cheaper or better value for you to pay for an upgrade to first class on a certain section of the route, and get free coffee, rather than travelling second class and paying for several coffees (or other food and drink, depending on price and route.

You are likely to hear an announcement after you have boarded the train telling you the cost of upgrading for different sections of the route.

Bara Brith
On a train I took to Wales, the buffet trolley included bara brith. I looked this up on the internet and found it was Welsh fruit cake. I enjoy the opportunity taste local food. The journey becomes part of the adventure, before you reach your destination.

Bara brith can be not merely a fruit cake (in a square shape so known as a fruit loaf). It is known as speckled or mottled bread. The speckling comes from the currants or raisins I suppose. It can be made with candied peel as well, and enriched with tea, orange or lemon juice, honey or other ingredients. Check the packet before or after buying to see what you are getting. An English fruit cake is eaten on its own. The Welsh fruit cake is traditionally eaten with butter, Welsh butter.

http://www.visitwales.com/explore/traditions-history/recipes/bara-brith
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bara_brith_33441
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bara_brith
Angela Lansbury, travel writer.