Yes, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re on vacation, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re enjoying it. But if you travel to parts of the world where security might be an issue, you might want to tone down the holiday look a bit. Living in the industrialized world and making an average income makes you quite wealthy compared to the locals in many places. This makes you a target for thieves, muggers and panhandlers. Of course, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a 6\u00e2\u20ac\u21222\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Caucasian like me, you will never look truly local in Southeast Asia. But there are other options. A little research can help you find out what kind of expats live in a given country \u00e2\u20ac\u201d language teachers, travel guides, foreign aid workers, etc. All of these groups live and work in the country, and so are less vulnerable to mugging than a tourist carrying his entire travel budget on his person. So adopt the style of any local groups that you can pull off, and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll automatically become much less interesting to potential thieves. I often buy a T-shirt or polo from whatever dive center I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m diving with. Combining this with a bit of local inspiration in your other attire, or simply dressing more like someone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to work, rather than a luxury resort, can help a lot. Dressing like a (penny-pinching) backpacker also works well.<\/p>\n
Keep your camera safe<\/strong><\/p>\n Divers often travel with camera gear that can have substantial value if re-sold, which makes them obvious targets for theft. There are, however, a few things you can do to make your gear less obvious. First of all, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t carry your camera in a branded bag. A shoulder bag emblazoned with the word Nikon or Canon is a dead giveaway that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re carrying something expensive. Put your camera in a non-descript bag, and replace the branded neck strap, too. To make your camera less attractive when you take it out in public, make it look less-than-brand-new. Put a few strips of masking tape on it, in places that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interfere with controls. A thief will have a harder time re-selling a broken camera, so if they suspect that yours is held together with nothing but hope and tape, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll look for another option. And the masking tape comes off easily and with no marks when you get home.<\/p>\n Keep your scuba gear safe<\/strong><\/p>\n The same general rules go for dive gear. Buying a flashy trolley gear bag, filled with logos, is an easy way to signal that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re carrying expensive stuff. A more non-descript bag, ideally one that has seen some mileage, is less conspicuous. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a big fan of Fourth Element\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s travel duffel, which is simple, black, and has a very, very discreet logo. It also carries easily on the back and weighs only about two pounds.<\/p>\n Think about signals<\/strong><\/p>\n Appearance goes beyond just not looking too wealthy. Quite a few male divers favor buzz cuts, as the military-style haircut is easy to deal with when you spend a lot of time in and out of water. But in some parts of the world, that hairstyle is very much a military thing, which can cause problems with authorities. One former travel companion had such a hairdo, and would often travel in cargo pants and a T-shirt, and with a military-style backpack. And I saw him stopped at border crossings, in airport security and at checkpoints more times than I can count. In countries where police and security personnel might be a bit on edge, you want to look like someone who is not a threat.<\/p>\n Listen to the Brits<\/strong><\/p>\n Most countries have foreign offices that formulate travel threats and risk assessments for individual countries. While you should always consult these before traveling, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve often found the British Foreign Offices to be very useful. The detailed information and its relevance is a notch above most other countries. Combine their cautions with your own government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s service for a complete idea of what you need to be aware of.<\/p>\n Wash your hands<\/strong><\/p>\n This one is as common sense as they come, but it warrants repeating. The majority of illnesses, in particular of the gastrointestinal kind, that people suffer while traveling can be traced back to poor hand hygiene. So keeping them clean is our first line of defense against any sort of disease transfer, particularly in foreign countries where hygiene may not be that great and our immune system is bombarded by bacteria and viruses that it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accustomed to. In fact, hand washing is so important that the CDC has an entire web page<\/a> dedicated to teaching us how. So take a few minutes to learn \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the dive vacation you save may be your own.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n The post Staying Safe When Traveling<\/a> appeared first on Scuba Diver Life<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The post Staying Safe When Traveling<\/a> appeared first on Scuba Diver Life<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1,11,39,14,52,54,50,31,43,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-361894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rebreathers","category-scuba_news","category-standards","category-teach-first-aidcpr","category-tec","category-tec-diving","category-technology","category-tecrec","category-tecrec-it-crossover","category-uw-photography","category-wrecks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.proscubadiver.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"safety_featured\"\/](\"http:\/\/scubadiverlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/safety_featured-300x214.jpg\")
Scuba divers regularly venture off the beaten path while traveling. Here’s how to do so more safely.<\/p>\n