Travel tip #2 - What is that round your waist?

I can never understanding why so many people like to put on a waist-pouch when they travel overseas.  Aren't they telling all the crooks, "Hi, I am a tourist.  All my valuables are in my waist-pouch here! Please help yourself to it.".  Some time ago, there was a case of a Singaporean tourist who was kidnapped overseas and when the kidnapper was finally arrested, he confessed that he identified his prey as a foreigner because of the waist-pouch he was putting on. The point here is that when we are overseas, we should try to melt into the crowd and not stand out amongst the locals.

Talking about melting into the local crowd, a friend once told me that he was walking on the road in Guangzhou, China, with his friend when they noticed they were being stalked.  As both of them are Cantonese speakers, they started talking to each other loudly in Cantonese and spicing up their conversation with typical Cantonese vulgarities. Their stalker left.  Vulgar language does have its usefulness!

Let's come back to the waist-pouch.  The waist-pouch tourist will tell you that he needs the waist-pouch because he needs to carry his wallet with all his cash and probably with a NTUC Passion card in it, his passport, his airticket, his hotel voucher, his sun glasses, his reading glasses, his Tiger Balm, his Axe brand medical oil, his sour plum (very useful in case he gets motion sickness), his tissue pack, a foldable umbrella, a bottle of mineral water and so many other things that he cannot leave home without.  Oh, yes, not to forget something very important; toilet paper!  Mr Waist-pouch heard that toilets overseas don't provide toilet paper.  He is right on the spot for this.

Coming to passport.  I realised that a lot of Singaporeans also bring their identity card along when they are overseas.  Whatever for?  A more useful thing to do is to make a couple of  photocopies of your  passport and keep it at separate locations.  Please leave your identity card at home!