SINGLE PARENT TRAVEL SAFETY - "FLIPPING THE TRIANGLE"
by Brenda Elwell, CTC
When a single adult takes a child on vacation, one of the primary concerns
is safety - safety for oneself and safety for one's child. This concern
is particularly acute for a single parent Mom with young children. As
a woman traveling alone with one or two kids, there is a tendency to
feel extra vulnerable, especially in an unfamiliar or foreign locale.
This needn't be the case if you follow a few simple procedures that
will make your family look more confident and knowledgeable and less
like potential victims.
· Keep your cash, passport and credit cards in a safe place,
preferably spread about your body. For women this means discarding the
purse in favor of a fanny pack or money pouch or pinning some emergency
cash to the inside of your bra. For men it means keeping extra cash
in a money belt rather than the back pocket wallet. Once your child
is old enough to carry a backpack, stash some traveler's checks in his
or her name in the backpack. (Good for emergencies).
· Always keep copies of passports, credit card emergency numbers,
and traveler's check numbers in a safe place other than on your person.
· Walk with confidence. Know where you are going and how to get
there before you leave your hotel room. If you have to stop to consult
a map, get off the street corner and do it inside a store or away from
the crowd. (Locals often assumed we were residents because of the way
we walked. Even tourists came up to ask us directions).
· When traveling in third world countries do not wear any expensive
jewelry. You are inviting theft. Everyone in your family, including
your children, should wear only cheap plastic watches and sunglasses.
· Don't openly display your expensive camera in a crowded area.
Keep it in a backpack or camera bag.
· Trust your instincts. If you feel an area to be unsafe, leave
it or duck into a restaurant and have someone call you a cab.
· Learn the local customs and dress codes in advance. You may
look like a tourist but at least you won't look like a dumb tourist.
· Before you go out at night, ask where it is safe to walk. Keep
in mind areas that are very safe in the daytime may not be so after
dark.
· When traveling in a rental car, keep your windows up and doors
locked when stopping for traffic lights in the city, especially if you
are traveling in a jeep. Jeeps are great targets for quick snatch thefts.
(I had my sunglasses ripped off my face in San Jose, Costa Rica while
waiting in a jeep for the traffic light to change and yes, the windows
were down).
· Have a plan if you get separated in a crowd and make sure all
your children know the name of your hotel or are carrying the hotel
name with them.
When my kids were twelve and five, we took our first single parent
trip to Europe. It was impractical to hold them both by the hand in
a crowded area, especially walking down city streets, so we devised
a method of walking together that we dubbed "The Triangle."
My daughter and I would walk close together, side by side, with my son
tucked in front of us, leaving all of us hands free. This method worked
beautifully as we traveled for years throughout the cities of Europe,
the Orient, and Central and South America. None of us felt confined
and I could always keep an eye on my young rambunctious son.
In the summer of 1995 we planned our first single parent family trip
to the Middle East traveling to Syria and Egypt. We were going to visit
Damascus and Palmyra on our own and then join my daughter's college
friend, Karim, in his hometown of Aleppo, Syria. Upon arrival in Damascus
our first order of business was to purchase our pre-reserved air tickets
from Aleppo to Cairo, something we were unable to do in the United States.
I knew that Syria was a cash society but I was unprepared for the fact
that Syrian Airlines would not take my credit card as payment for the
air tickets. Not only that, payment had to be in Syrian Pounds, not
traveler's checks or U.S. dollars. We were forced to go to a bank about
four blocks away to exchange our money. (ATMs are non-existent in Syria).
Banking in Syria is done outdoors. The bank teller sits behind a caged
window and you, the customer, stand outside, completely exposed, to
complete your transaction. Unable to find a bathroom, my daughter and
I stepped aside to surreptitiously unpin some cash from our bras while
my son shielded us from passers-by. We then approached the bank teller,
cash in hand. In the Arab world, people do not form neat straight lines
when they await service. They noisily crowd around the focal point,
each demanding attention. It is part of their culture. Jet lagged and
nervous, my daughter turned to all the men crowding around us and yelled
"Back off!" The teller, seeing our distress, reinforced our
command in Arabic and we had a few moments of peace to complete our
money exchange. As we turned away from the teller with nearly $800 in
cash nervously clutched to our bosoms, we prepared to resume our triangle
position to walk back to the office of Syrian Air. As I looked at my
eighteen-year-old son, it suddenly dawned on me that my little boy had
become a six-foot-tall, lean, mean, muscle machine.
It was time to flip the triangle.
Turning to Greg, I hastily whispered to him. "From here on in,
you walk behind Monique and me. You keep watch for our backs and if
anyone approaches us, stare them down, and if they still keep coming,
shove them away and ask questions later. I am not about to lose all
this money."
We successfully purchased our Syrian Air tickets and after a wonderful
stay in Damascus and Palmyra we met up with our friend Karim in Aleppo
and told him our banking story. He laughed so hard the tears rolled
down his face. He patiently explained that Syria is such a theft-free
society we could have dropped all our money on the street and people
would have stopped in their tracks to scoop it up and return it to us.
Author's note:
In a recent article in "National Geographic Traveler," Control
Risks Group, a London-based consulting firm, listed fourteen large cities
throughout the world as having an insignificant or low security risk.
Damascus, Syria was one of them.
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