On guarding your valuables—go ahead, be anal

Poor John—new mosque, new robe, same stride—carrying the camera as usual.

Remember—your passport and money are the most important things you’ll take travelling. Everything else can be purchased or replaced. That said, I have to admit that I’m extremely attached to my laptop, camera and iPod. I don’t have a mobile phone to obsess about, so that’s one less worry.

Of course, the next most important thing is to hang on to all these cherished possessions for the duration of the trip. I almost hate to bring up this subject before the end of this trip, so picture me touching wood all over the place and listen for my bloodcurdling screams if anything goes missing.

Passport and money

My passport and money usually live in the truck safe—referred to cryptically as the fridge, as in ‘Does anyone need to get anything out of the fridge?’ I have a story about a fridge named Trevor in Africa, but that will have to keep for now.

Our fridge is concealed somewhere in the truck. I won’t say where. Every truck is different, so wait and see where your fridge lives. Our fridge has two different padlocks, each with its own key. We take it in turns to ‘mind’ the keys. Every week, two people—never a couple—each hold one of the keys. We open the fridge occasionally—at border crossings (when everyone needs their passports) or when people need money. The truck door is shut during this process so prying eyes don’t see what we’re doing.

But for several weeks now, we’ve had to carry our own passports. That’s because instead of bush camping, we’ve been staying in Southeast Asian hotels and hostels, and they always want to see our passports and record the details. We have our passports tucked away in pockets that have velcro flaps.

As of yesterday we’re carrying our money, too. The truck doesn’t travel beyond Singapore—it’s shipped back to the UK—so we’ll be travelling on public transport until we reach Australia. We have a deluxe money wallet—sure beats the crappy black plastic bag we used in Africa—but the money isn’t in it. Our shorts have zippered pockets and we reckon the money is safer there than in the wallet in the backpack. Pickpocketing is an art form in the developing world. Plus, backpacks can get slashed, yanked off arms or forgotten in restaurants.

Every morning before we set out, I do a personal pocket check to make sure everything is in place and secure. So far, so good.

The gadgets

I pay just as much attention to the laptop, camera and iPod.

The camera lives in it’s carry case and lucky Poor John usually gets to carry it. 🙂 I’m so used to him picking it up that a few terse words are fired his way if he ever forgets to bring it, which happens occasionally. The laptop and iPod ‘ride’ with me in the daypack.

Nothing gets left behind on the truck. The exception is sometimes overnight when I think there might be a chance that the tent could be slashed, in which case, I think the gear is safer locked away in the truck. That’s when I park it out-of-sight on the overhead rack.

By and large, we’ve been lucky on this trip. One camera has been stolen and that was from a hostel in Tbilisi in Georgia. A few other items have died, been lost or broken.  The truck that left London just after us has not fared as well. In Turkey, someone left a truck window open when they all went to lunch. An opportunist climbed in and stole everyone’s precious gear—laptops, iPods, phones, cameras, e-readers. What a blow.