Teacher on Two Wheels

Above: One of the outdated Colombian bills the crooks tricked me with. From 1967!

Thursday 7/3/08 Huaquillas, Ecuador

My lentil soup was so good and so shockingly meat-free I almost ignored the man to my right who was trying to get my attention. I was on the Ecuador/Peru border in a dusty town swarming with touts, food vendors, money changers, and taxi drivers. Just another guy who wants me to buy something, I thought as I looked down into my bowl.

The man persisted.

“Sir, sir. Excuse me, sir.”

I looked over at him.

The man said nothing and simply pointed down at my feet. I looked down and noticed a wad of money, neatly folded, a few inched from my right foot. Having made sure I saw the money, the man turned and walked away. Even though the money wasn’t mine, I assumed it was my lucky day and that the man had kindly drawn my attention to the cash because he took it to be mine. I leaned over and picked it up. When I sat back up, my handlebar bag, the one I had placed on my table right in front of my bowl of soup, was missing.

I was shocked.

The whole incident lasted no more than five seconds. In five short seconds, a thief walked off with my things and slipped into the chaotic dusty sea of drink vendors, shoe shine boys, police men, families, construction workers, fruit salesmen, and homeless people that clogged the street in front of me.

I laughed out loud.

“Did that really just happen?” I said quietly to no one in particular.

I would have been frustrated beyond belief by the robbery had I not done one crucial thing prior to entering the border town of Huaquillas, Ecuador: A few kilometers outside of town, I stopped by the side of the road and moved my iPod, camera, and Steripen (a device that cleans water with UV light) from my handlebar bag into my large, yellow trailer bag. I assumed the town would be dangerous, that my chance of getting robbed would be high, and hid my valuables. Because I did this, I only lost the bag, my headphones, and my bicycle computer—all things that can be replaced cheaply (kind of). It’s frustrating having to buy yet another handlebar bag and bike computer, but things could have been far worse. Having to replace a camera sucks. Having to replace a bike, I can only imagine, sucks even more. I still have the bike and my health—life is good.

This robbery, the second one on the trip for me, however, did force me to think about how safe a trip like this is for a solo traveler. I still think traveling solo by bike is safe, but there are clearly times in which a solo cyclist must be hyper-alert. When you let your guard down, you invite mishap to weasel its greasy foot into your life situation. I allowed myself to be pulled away from the present moment by a good bowl of soup and a wad of money that wasn’t mine. Had I treated the border town experience, every moment of it, with the caution it always deserves, I’d still have my stuff.

For other travelers out there who are reading this, below are a few other instances in which I was scammed/robbed while traveling. Please use my experiences not as anecdotes that scare you from traveling but as stories to learn from and use (because, as I’m learning more and more everyday, thanks to traveling, the world is not something to be feared but a beautiful place that is absolutely teeming with kind-hearted people.)

1. Thailand: In Bangkok, a bus driver approached me outside a famous temple. He was waiting for his tour group to return from the temple. We talked for 20 minutes or so, and after a while, he asked if I’d be interested in a tour of the city. He said his friend was a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled Thai taxi) driver and that I’d get a great rate for the day. I accepted (even though the rate was suspiciously low for a whole day of driving). We went to three different temples. At each one, strangely, I had to register and state my name and nationality. At each temple, a person approached me and tried to start a conversation. At one temple, a construction worker talked to me. At another, a man smoking a cigarette talked to me. Each man mentioned a great jewelry store in Thailand that he thought I should visit. I became suspicious after the first temple. By the third, I knew I’d be taken to this jewelry store that everyone kept talking about. Sure enough, the driver took me there. I refused to buy anything even though the sales women were pushy and pleaded desperately with me.

2. Cambodia: I bought a van ticket to travel from the beach in Cambodia to Bangkok. After four hours of driving, the van pulled over and the driver said he received a call saying that the road ahead was flooded. Even though it was the middle of the dry season, he swore there was water up ahead (us passengers couldn’t see any water). The driver said we just needed to wait a bit for the water to recede. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, after hours, the driver said we’d need to go back to town and that a van would drive us the following day, once the water receded. “I’ll take you to a nice guesthouse where you can rest for the night and then we’ll leave early the next day.” Of course, the driver had an arrangement with a guesthouse owner so that he’d receive a commission if he brought customers to the guesthouse. I refused to stay at the guesthouse and demanded to get my money back.

3. Honduras: I had a bit of money left at the border that I wanted to change. I approached one of the money changers loitering in front of the immigration office. I told him how much cash I had. He typed the figure into his calculator and divided it by the exchange rate. A low figure popped up on the screen. I excused myself and walked to a hotel nearby. I checked the figure with a hotel calculator and discovered the man had fixed his calculator to show the numbers he wanted it to show. For this reason, if you plan on using money changers (I rarely do), carry your own small calculator.

4. All over the world: Classic annoying scam: You sit down to eat a meal without asking for the price before hand. You finish your meal and go to pay and the owner quotes you a price that is two or three times higher than the standard price for your dish. With all the food in your belly, you have little you can do other than pay or argue. The tip: Always ask how much something is before you order it.

5. China: Someone stole traveler’s checks from my suitcase while staying in a hotel in China. I never figured out who stole them or the circumstances in which they were stolen, but I made the mistake of leaving traveler’s checks unattended in my luggage. I never use traveler’s checks anymore (debits cards are far easier to use), but I always keep my valuable documents, debit card, and money in a money belt. I wear the money belt around town and hide it in my trailer bag while riding.

6. Cambodia: I went swimming in the ocean and asked my ex-girlfriend to watch my shirt that was wrapped around my wallet. While I was swimming, a group of kids approached her and tried to sell her necklaces. A few of the kids distracted her while one stole my wallet. Luckily, I took my dummy wallet to the beach that day and the thief walked off with a crummy wallet, two or three dollars, and nothing else.

7. Costa Rica: You can read about how I was robbed in Costa Rica here.

**Can you add a travel-related scam to this list? If so, please include it in a comment to this post. When it comes to scams, educating ourselves is the only way to combat them. Thanks!**