money and safety

Selkie

I have a pocket stitched inside my trousers where my tummy is for my emergency stash of money! Tricky to fish money out in public, but very secure and well hidden.

guerik

Other people possibly have, but I'll jump in too. I WAS ROBBED. Can't say it more clearly than that. And it happened on my second trip, about 4 months in, so I don't think I had the newbie look going.
It was on a public overnight bus and I had some money and traveller's cheques stolen from a money belt inside a purse/handbag inside a daypack. So they really were looking for it - it wasn't anywhere obvious and I had a small coin purse in my pocket which I'd been using for that leg of the journey, noone would have seen me put it in there.
Fortunately, it wasn't that much cash - I think about $100 maximum but almost definitely less, and the TCs were easily replaced next time I was in a major city.

The points to remember (which I knew beforehand anyway, but it's worth remembering to actually DO it, not just know it) are:

• Take a few different currency options - cash is the most convenient but ATM card/TCs/credit card are relatively easy to replace and the amount you lose is limited.
• Keep the different options in different places - if you're using cash, keep the TCs in your money belt and a credit card stashed somewhere in your pack/suitcase.
• If you're using TCs make sure you keep track of the numbers and which ones you've used - if they are stolen you'll need this info.
• If you've got large amounts of cash put them in the moneybelt. A lot of the time in India a relatively small (to us) amount comes in 100 notes so it looks like even more money than it is. It's a pain wearing the bulky money belt but the pain of working to make up the cash is worse :P

Nick-H

Yep... I think trains, buses, stations, etc are the real danger places.

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