This photo is a crime! (yeah, right). Security checkpoint at Nairobi airport.
My sister had the most terrifying experience in Nairobi a few weeks ago.
“As you know,” she said to her jet-setting family members, “flying out of Nairobi there’s a security checkpoint where all passengers have to get out of the cars in the middle of a five-lane road and walk through a security inspection. Meanwhile, the drivers of the cars go through their own check. It’s a confusing mess and takes time to identify your car and driver after you have been cleared.”
That alone freaks me out. I usually refuse to be separated from my luggage, though sometimes during international travel there is simply no choice.
“After we passed through security and were waiting for our car, I started to video the chaos. I should have known better…
“With some difficulty, we finally identified our Uber and got in the car, relieved to be reunited with our stuff. Suddenly, a military police officer with some big-ass machine gun stopped the car and demanded to know why I was videoing the security checkpoint.
“I explained that I had never seen a process like this before and I found it interesting. He replied that it’s a crime to film there and that he is going to charge me with a crime and I will have to go to court on Monday!
“I apologized and said I would delete all photos. He said no—I committed a crime by using a camera at a security checkpoint. He said he is charging me with the crime and I will have to go to court and I will miss my flight.
A still from my sister’s illicit video at the Nairobi airport security checkpoint.
“In the meantime, our driver is whispering to Drew [our nephew] in the front seat that the officer wants 500 shillings ($5) but he was now demanding US $50 to me through the back window. At this point we’d have given him anything. We were even ready to give him our phone! We were also so worried we’d miss our 11 p.m. flight!
“We were literally shaking. I saw my future working in a labor camp in Kenya for the next 12 years!
“We continued to apologize, saying it was a mistake. The officer continued to insist that he had to charge me regardless; he would not let us delete any pictures and we would miss our flight and will have to go to court Monday.
“Of course it was all about the bribe, but when you’re in the moment, in the middle of the situation with a jerk, in a foreign country, you never know how far he’ll take it.
“I asked if I could pay the ‘fine’ now and skip the ‘court’ date so that I could make my plane. He made me delete the video then, and $60.00 later (I wasn’t about to ask him for change!) it was done. But at that moment, I would have paid much more!!!!
“The Uber driver then got out of the car and shook hands with the officer. I’m sure money was exchanged.
“The Nairobi airport security officer put his face in our window again, smiled, and told me to let my friends know what a wonderful time I had in Nairobi!
“And I still had the video, which would stay in my deleted file for a month!”
A wonderful time in Nairobi, duly and publicly reported here!
I wrote about this ages ago, way back in Hotel Oddity #6, but back then the idiotic installation was in the Miami Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel. I thought it was a unique display of incompetence, a one-off, a singular example of the Peter Principle, combined with management negligence. And look! Here it is again!
Millennium Biltmore security lapse in Los Angeles hotel
This time at the historic Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles, the art deco beauty whose lobby is a show set and whose rooms are pretty ordinary. Our room wasn’t ordinary though. At least I hope not. Could all the rooms have “security” like this?
Need I point out the upside-down installation of the chain receptacle? It doesn’t matter if the door has other security measures, a deadbolt for example, because a guest may choose to use the chain and not the deadbolt, believing himself secure. (No comments on the insufficiency of that particular guest…)
The Millennium Biltmore security lapse does not take away from the beauty and drama of its downstairs lobby and rooms. It’s definitely worth a visit. But management? Would you please fix this?
They know who you are. They know what you buy, where you live, where you work, where you go in between. They know your most intimate secrets, not because you told anyone; they simply put the clues together and joined seemingly unrelated tidbits. Your shopping history, your online searches, words used in your email, the cell phone towers your phone used, even how fast or slowly you type. Combined, it all points to you. You leave data dribbles like greasy fingerprints to be dusted, collected, identified, and assembled.
By now we’re all used to being tracked and spied upon. We pretty much accept it, most of us. We know our web-browsers act as spies and report our every move. Our credit cards and loyalty cards provide a treasure trove to someone (but who?), and our cell phones even more. We’re spied upon even with the cameras and microphones built into our own computers and cell phones. What can we do but shrug our shoulders and give up?
We’re vigilant about not clicking on spammers’ links, we’ve learned to look for “https” URLs when we make online payments, even to recognize spoof emails. But enough is enough, right? We have to live life! Today’s technology is as vital as food and water and we have to use it. Who can spend time worrying about all this info-gathering, especially since it’s invisible, and does not present an inconvenience. Forget it. That’s life. Move on…
Or…?
Trade-offs
We constantly and willingly give up our data for something in return. And it seems like a fair exchange: handing over data is painless; the benefit is all ours! We get free stuff, convenience, points, discounts, rewards, elite status, the privilege of using a “free” app… [Warning: rant coming…
WhatsApp is my pet peeve. Many, many of my friends and colleagues, even those in the security business, use it. And what’s the first thing the app does after you download it? “WhatsApp would like to access your contacts.” “OK,” you say and—whoops!—there they go, all your contacts, including my info if I’m in your address book (and I’m not even a user!), against my will, handed over so WhatsApp and facebook can “share information with third-party providers,” in other words, so they can sell my personal info. Thanks, friends. Yet, prominently, ironically, WhatsApp proclaims on its site “Privacy and Security is in our DNA.” Okay, its messages are encrypted, but what’s private or secure (or honest) about sucking up all the contacts of a naive user? True, WhatsApp is not the only app that commits this surreptitious theft of information. Uber is another. But, I digress. …Whew. Okay, end of tirade.]
Where was I? Trade-offs. Security is a trade-off which costs us in convenience, simplicity, expense, dignity, time, and much more. Wouldn’t it be swell if we didn’t need passwords, locks, or TSA? But we do need these, obviously. Luckily, the average person can deal with the minimum required amount of security.
Privacy is another matter though. We can shut our curtains but… do you have tape over your webcam? Put your birthday on facebook? Unknowingly hand over all your contacts’ info to What’sApp or some other software company? Use a credit card, loyalty card, agree to “our terms and conditions”? Yeah, privacy is pretty hopeless nowadays. If you browse the internet or use a cell phone, you’re being tracked. Not only tracked, but micro-tracked. Data about you is collected at every turn, codified, traded, bought, sold, and used to build a scarily detailed dossier—which is also bought and sold. It’s your data shadow; it sticks to you and grows as the minutes pass, like the setting sun’s lengthening silhouette attached to your feet.
To avoid being tracked, to stay under the radar and off the grid, to be invisible, is a huge trade-off. A Sisyphean task. Kevin Mitnick lays it out in his book, The Art of Invisibility, step by step. And he should know, having evaded the FBI for two and a half years before he was arrested and imprisoned for five years. Remember “Free Kevin”? I highly recommend Kevin’s entertaining and page-turner previous book, Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker.
Entertaining, The Art of Invisibility is not. Page-turner…uh-uh. But it is fascinating, and after a good primer on the basics, goes into technical detail that might be more interesting than useful for many of us ordinary people. For every scary spy technique revealed, Mitnick tells us how to avoid that particular trap. They’re not easy to thwart—short of living in a cave secluded and self-sufficient, it’s a lot of work. As in, huge trade-off. And Mitnick tells us repeatedly: we will make a mistake. We will trip ourselves up. That’s how hackers and leakers are discovered. They make some tiny mistake that allows them to be traced and their identities revealed. But most of us don’t really want or need invisibility. We just want to avoid the obvious pitfalls and take, at least, the easy precautions.
Mitnick tells us there’s much we can do easily, and tests we can run to see just how vulnerable we are online. We should do as much as our tolerance allows, up to our own personal trade-off limit. You lock your car, right? Do you use a LoJack? You lock your home. Do you have a security system? Do you use it? Do you have iron bars on your windows? We’ll each go to a certain level, then hit our quitting point.
Simple, important steps include turning off location-sharing, blocking pop-up windows, deleting cookies, killing super-cookies, using end-to-end encrypted messaging, and many, many more.
But to truly reach online invisibility, Mitnick addresses three large categories: hide your real IP address; shield your hardware and software; and defend your anonymity. The hoops one must clamber through for each of these are many and challenging.
You can hide but you’ll still be seen
Offline is another matter. How many times per day is your photo captured by surveillance video or someone’s ordinary camera? What might they do with it? Are people flying drones over your house? Retailers can now capture the identity of your cell phone when you enter their store, and look up all kinds of details about you. So can law enforcement, in large crowds of protestors, for example.
Facial recognition software is in use in some places, namely churches, to log your attendance, and not necessarily with your knowledge or permission. (Fix: wearing special, light-emitting glasses.)
You’re tracked in multiple ways and recognized using almost every form of transportation (bus, train, subway, taxi, your own car). Uber maintains your ride history; and that’s nothing compared to what Tesla knows about its car owners. And get this: if you take a subway train, the accelerometer log on your own cell phone can be matched to the subway line you took and exactly where you boarded and debarked. Is that creepy, or what? (Fix: drop out of life entirely?)
Have a voice activated TV? It’s listening for your command; what else does it hear, and where does the speech it records go for recognition? Use Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, or one of those voice-recognizing gizmos? They’re always on and listening; how secure are they, and who’s eavesdropping? Where does the recording go for artificial intelligence interpretation and how long is it stored?
What do you have connected to your home network? Lighting, doorbell, thermostat, baby monitor, pool control, security system, door lock, webcam, refrigerator? The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is most troublesome, because most of these peripherals you control with your phone or tablet are not built for security and are not patched or updated. A hacker can use these convenient connected systems to gain access to your entire home network. (Fix: live in a cave?)
“To master the art of invisibility, you have to prevent yourself from doing private things in public.”
Need to conduct personal business while at work? If you want it to be private, don’t use company computers, printers, or company issued cell phones. Use your own, personal device, and use your own personal cellular data network, not the company wifi. Actually, don’t use any other wifi, devices, or printers, including the library’s or the copy shop’s. They all save logs and PDFs of documents you print that you can’t delete. Your data crumbs are dribbled everywhere by default; actively preventing the leakage is not easy.
(A top secret foreign military unit recently hired Bob and me for training. But because of the insecurity of communications, and because Bob and I, mere civilians, did not have access to a “cone of silence,” the group flew us overseas without even telling us about our assignment. That’s military-grade security.)
I got a special kick out of the beginning of Chapter Fourteen. Mitnick describes a harrowing incident in which he was detained for hours by customs agents upon flying into Atlanta from Bogatá. Bob and I had also flown into Atlanta at the same time, and were to speak at the same security conference, the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS). We were waiting for Mitnick at the airport… and waiting, and waiting. We finally left without him, and learned late that night what had happened to him, which you’ll have to read the book to find out. He was cool but shaken, if one can be both of those at once, and angry because he was unable to prepare properly for the panel he’d be moderating in the morning.
Mitnick lays out the pitfalls and tricks of returning to the U.S. from abroad, and how to keep your data out of the hands of curious Customs and Immigration officials. He explains in great detail how to use a Tor browser, a VPN, and Bitcoin to set up anonymous browsing; oh, and first turn off your home network, use a separate computer (which you purchased anonymously with cash), change your MAC address, use a personal hotspot on a burner phone (purchased anonymously), stay on the move, and remember not to check Facebook or your personal email. I skipped some steps, but you get the idea.
Know the difference between the Surface Web, the Deep Web, and the Dark Web? Mitnick explains all that, and why a law-abiding citizen might have a legitimate need to browse anonymously. If you really want to do it, all the steps are detailed. It’s a lot of work. And, as Mitnick emphasizes, a nanosecond of lapse will blow it all completely.
One thing Mitnick does not address in The Art of Invisibility is healthcare. I wonder how he would get medical treatment if he were trying for invisibility today? How did he do it when he was on the lam in the 90s (though things were much different way back then)?
A pickpocket uses a newspaper to hide his steal. Any external storage is vulnerable, be it a pocket, purse, or fannypack.
The question we’re most asked is… where should I carry my valuables? What’s the safest place to carry money?
And the ambiguous answer is… it depends on who you are and where you’re going.
First analyze yourself. Are you a worrier? Overconfident? Carefree? Forgetful? Only you can choose the level of security for you. Will you be trekking in the highlands of Peru? Walking with elephants in East Africa? Or going to museums and the opera in London? What’s the tone of your trip, elegant? grungy? in between? What’s the weather? Summer clothes, especially women’s, have fewer pockets and far less security. No one is likely to get into the pockets of your jeans if you have a heavy coat over them.
Safest place to carry money
We say keep your wallet in your tightest pocket, but in many situations that isn’t enough. A wallet in a visible pocket is an invitation. Awareness helps. But maybe you don’t need to carry a wallet. Slim down your necessities, if you can.
Excellent products are readily available for the safekeeping of your stuff. Under-shirt pouches are pretty good, but they can usually be detected and demanded in a mugging. For all but the most dangerous streets, they’re a good option. Better yet is the type of pouch that hangs inside the pants, attached to your belt by a loop. These come in a full range of materials, from nylon to cotton to leather. We love these.
The nimble fingers of a pickpocket can easily open a fanny pack while hidden from the victim’s view. Even a twisted wire will thwart the thief.
Another kind of pouch fastens around your waist and is worn beneath your clothes. These come in infinite styles, sizes, and varieties and are excellent for men and women. It’s a little more difficult to get to your money or credit card when you need it, but what’s a little effort? Sometimes these are referred to as moneybelts, but they’re not. A moneybelt is a regular leather belt worn outside trousers; it has a zippered compartment on the inside. You can fold in a few large bills or travelers checks, but it won’t hold much.
Secure your fanny pack zippers with paperclips, or anything to slow a thief.
What about the ubiquitous fanny pack, aka waist pouch, aka bumbag? Well, it’s good and it’s bad. On one hand, all your goodies are right in front, on your body, in sight. On the other hand, the fanny pack shouts out “here’s my stuff!” For the most part, Bob and I recommend them for security, if you don’t mind the fashion statement they make. We have never seen, and rarely heard of their straps being cut. However: in many locales pickpockets are extremely adept at opening fanny packs and stealing their contents quick as lightning, while you’re wearing it. I recommend a simple preventative: fasten the zipper with a safety pin or with a paperclip and rubber band. Anything to frustrate wandering fingers. For the fanatic, fanny packs can be found that incorporate numerous safety features, including steel cable through the strap, a concealed buckle, a hidden key clip, and built-in zipper locks.
Several companies make clothes for travelers with zippered, Velcroed, and hidden pockets. I haven’t seen a look that I like much, but these are an option if you care for the somewhat dowdy styles on offer.
Clever Travel Companion’s black tankStashitware men’s pocket undies.
Lastly, there’s a growing variety of pickpocket-proof underwear. The Clever Travel Companion makes a nice collection of briefs for men and women and zip-pocket tank tops. Stashitware makes several styles of underpants for men and women that have a huge central pocket I find most comfortable and useful. (And you have to love a company with the balls to use “shit” in its name.)
No solution is perfect. None is invincible. But if you carry only what you need, and secure those things wisely, you’ll avoid anxiety and better enjoy your travels. So dress down, stow your stuff, raise your antennas, swallow three spoonfuls of skepticism, and have a great journey.
Wait—I’m not saying that all baggage handlers are thieves—of course not. But when you put low-paid workers alone with the belongings of the privileged (those who can afford to fly), things are gonna go missing—sometimes.
We’ve all read the frequent reports of luggage theft at airports: by TSA, by airport baggage handlers, by airline employees, by outsiders entering baggage claim areas. When our luggage is out of our personal control it’s at risk. When we check it, when we send it through TSA checkpoints, when we put it in the overhead storage bins on planes, the risk of theft is there in some degree. There’s little we can do about it—but not nothing.
6 luggage security rules
I travel a lot* so I will use myself as a model from which you can modify to suit your style and habit. I travel with three bags: a large one which I check; a roll-on which I expect to take on the plane with me, and a shoulder bag which is always with me, no matter what.
1. The more valuable the item, the smaller the bag it travels in. Cash, jewelry, laptop, smartphone, passports, and keys go into my shoulder bag. I don’t leave this bag anywhere or entrust it to anyone. I alone am responsible for its safety and security.
2. Other valuable and necessary items go into the roll-on. The airlines have trained us: do not put valuables into your checked luggage. Their responsibility is limited. Checked bags do not always show up when and where they should, so the minimal things I must have in order to do my job (and enjoy my trip) go into the roll-on, along with valuables too bulky, heavy or secondary for my shoulder bag. Examples: paperwork, camera, backup hard drive, appropriate work clothes and shoes, computer power cord and plug adapters, and the minimal items necessary for a hotel overnight.
3. Be prepared to hand over your roll-on. Every once in a while I have to part with the roll-on, for example on a small plane where it must be checked or given up at the jetway. Therefore, I also keep a lightweight folded nylon tote in my roll-on. That way I can remove and hand carry some items I may want or need; my computer power cord, hard drive, papers I’m working with. I also carry a small supply of plastic cable locks in case I want to secure the roll-on’s zippers. Not that locking zippers is foolproof, but it’s a deterrent. Better than nothing.
On the left: Bob’s rig. A strip of white tape is just a spare piece, used to secure checked bags. On the right: Bambi’s set-up. Not aluminum, but still like new after five years of hard use.
4. Roll-on with security OR convenience. My roll-on is full of outside pockets for convenience, and big enough to fold in a suit or dress on a hanger. Bob’s is a lockable aluminum hardshell—very secure but sacrificing convenience. See He Packs, She Packs. I appreciate the convenience of my bag much more often than I miss the security of one like Bob’s. However, one single theft from my roll-on would probably turn that preference upside-down. Security and convenience are always a trade-off.
5. Choose your checked luggage with security in mind. At least think about the security of your checked bag. On its route through the airport, through security screening, onto luggage cars, as it’s loaded onto the plane and packed into the cargo hold, as it changes planes, and finally reverses these steps, it will be handled by dozens of employees. Most of these people are trustworthy; much of this time your bag will be in view of many workers, supervisors, and surveillance cameras. But sometimes your bag will be handled by a rotten egg—perhaps in a dark space without witnesses.
If that rotten egg—that thief—has a free moment to poach from a bag, which bag will it be? Firstly, it will be a bag that happens to be near him (or her) at the opportune moment—happenstance. Secondly, it will be the easiest to get into. Zip, plunge in the hand, grapple, grab, stash, and on to the next bag. Fast-fishing-treasure-hunt.
So, how does your bag fasten? Latches? Zipper? TSA locks? Luggage belt? Cable ties? Plastic wrap? As with pickpocketing, longer access time means more security (and less convenience—there’s that compromise again). I’m concerned enough to affix duct tape to the entire seam of my hard sided case—always. It’s ugly, for sure. But it doesn’t take long to put on and seems to be a good deterrent. So far, so good.
We’ve all seen those videos showing how to open a zipper with a ballpoint pen (here’s one, below). How often is that method used by luggage thieves? I don’t know… but I’ve seen enough exploded bags on the carousel to be afraid of zippers anyway, at least without an added bag strap or luggage belt. Addressing both those zipper threats, Delsey makes luggage with a supposedly secure zipper that has two rows of teeth. I haven’t tried it.
Sure you want to trust luggage with zippers?Delsey makes luggage with a double zipper.
Locking the zipper tabs together with a padlock or ziptie may be of some help, but it’s nothing for a determined thief to twist off a zipper tab. (Or to plunge a blade right through the canvas. But we can’t be that paranoid.) Put the lock or ties through the zipper loops, if they exist, instead of through the pull-tabs.
As my readers know, Bob and I prefer hard-sided luggage. We use aluminum bags. They’re heavy and expensive but, as I’ve said, we travel a lot. Honestly, they’re not for everyone. We do recommend hard-sided luggage though; if not aluminum, one of the new polycarbonate materials.
The airport baggage handlers exposed in this week’s ring did not require secret spaces or privacy. Apparently, they were opening and searching bags at large sorting platforms, presumably in full view of other workers. This concerns me, but is nothing new. When TSA security officer Pythias Brown was arrested a few years ago for stealing from passengers’ luggage, he described the airports’ culture of theft. “It was very convenient to steal,” he said, “It became so easy, I got complacent.”
The airport baggage handlers exposed in this week’s ring are not alone. Individuals and groups continue to pilfer at LAX and other airports. The world will always have thieves. Luggage security is nonexistent. Therefore:
6. Pack as if your bag will be rifled. Conventional Wisdom tells us to leave at home whatever we can’t bear to lose. I don’t know if Conventional Wisdom has ever lived a life. For the most part, this is impractical advice. Many situations call for travel with precious and/or valuable things, and sometimes we have to check those things and hope for the best.
There’s an argument for using the best luggage available, despite it being pricey and conspicuous. There’s an argument for using unremarkable low-end luggage, even if it means replacing the bags frequently. In terms of luggage security, both theories have their merits. Do luggage thieves prefer to plunder Louis Vuitton and Tumi bags? Do they loot whatever bag presents an opportunity at the right moment, regardless of brand and condition? Since I believe both situations exist, I prefer to make mine just a little harder to open, crossing my fingers that the thieves will loot a more accessible suitcase.
*Bob Arno and I have been on the road around the world approximately 250 days per year for the past twenty years without respite.
A lightning bolt of fear shoots down your spine when, returning late to your hotel room, you see the door is not fully closed. You know you closed it—and checked it.
Pushing the door a little you see that, not only is the door open a crack, but its bolt is thrown so that it can’t close.
This is what happened to my sisters at the Hotel Mercure in a Stockholm suburb. Luckily, it wasn’t the same day that they accidentally left their smartphone on the bed. (The phone was still there when they returned late that day.)
After the physical attributes of a hotel room, housekeeping holds our security in its hands. We can perform our hotel room security check and follow good security practices, but the maids can make our efforts moot.
A traditional hotel security threat has come from social-engineering burglars who enter rooms while maids are cleaning them and pretend to be the room’s occupant. To behave appropriately in these confrontations, hotel housekeeping staff must rely on their training, perhaps balanced by their own judgment and discretion. And anyway, rules are one thing; compliance is another.
Human error is a separate factor. How many times has that housekeeper finished a room, unbolted the door, closed up, and ticked it off her clipboard? Or, oops! Out of shampoo—she’ll just fetch it in a moment…
Mercure hotel management did not seem overly concerned by the security lapse. In compensation, my sisters were offered “a small dessert” at the lobby restaurant. The attitude, apparently, was that if they weren’t claiming a loss of property, well, no harm done!
I usually forsake maid service, leaving the “do not disturb” sign on the door. If you like your room tidied up (and even if you don’t), this is yet another argument for locking up your valuables, either in the safe or in your largest luggage.
It happens. For the most part, it’s rare. At the risk of tempting fate, I’ll admit that we’ve never been victims of hotel theft, though we practically live in hotels (200-250 nights per year for the past 20 years.)
Of course we take some precautions and listen to our own advice, particularly based on our version of the hotel room security check. But travel makes us weary and sometimes we become lax. Laziness is part of reality.
Though I believe in locking valuables into the room safe or alternatively, into my largest hard-sided suitcase, there’s always the security-versus-convenience trade-off to be considered, not to mention the gut-instinct and informed-decision. In other words, a lot of variables. I might start out vigilant, then slack off. In my book, I said:
Electronic access points on the underside of a keycard lock.
I also consider the relaxation factor. If you stay in a hotel for several days, a week, perhaps more, you get comfortable. Maybe you get to know the staff. Maybe you let down your guard. If I were a hotel employee bent on stealing from a guest, I’d wait until the guest’s last day in hopes she might not miss the item. Then she’d leave. Are thieves that analytical? I don’t know. But I like to make a policy and stick with it.
Logical, but idealistic. I can’t say that I always follow my own rules. I get complacent. I get tired of the drill. Constant travel is draining.
A looming threat is door-hacking. For a few bucks, anyone can build a small electronic gizmo that will open keycard locks made by Onity, which are currently installed on millions of hotel room doors around the world. The electronic lock-pick, revealed in July 2012 by hacker Matthew Jakubowski, opens our belongings to yet another potential risk. Perhaps our safety, too.
Fixing or replacing door lock hardware will be expensive, so some hotels have resorted to simply plugging the tiny access port—with a removable plug. Hotel security chiefs tell me that most hotels will do nothing until they get a rash of theft reports. Now, the thefts have begun.
So much personal information on display at quaint, old-fashioned hotels like the one we recently stayed at in Bali. Which rooms are occupied? What are the names of the guests in each room? When did they arrive? When will they check out? Who are they traveling with? Have they paid yet?
A modern hotel wouldn’t give out any of this information. A modern hotel won’t even speak your room number out loud. A modern hotel won’t give a caller a guest’s room number. A modern hotel certainly wouldn’t advertise which rooms are occupied by single women! (Rooms 69, 72, 74, 209, 217 for starters.)
You’re only given one key per room at this hotel, and the key is on a wooden fob the size of a doorknob, meant to inspire you to leave the key at the front desk when you go out. Not wishing to advertise our comings and goings, I detach the key, leave the wooden chunk in the room, put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, and keep the key with me.
I’m not sure if the safety deposit box numbers correspond to the room numbers, but I think they do. If so, it’s easy to see who hasn’t bothered to use one.
The hotel is charming, despite and partly because of its old-fashionedness, and despite being called Swastika. (I refuse to allow the Nazis to own this ancient Sanskrit word for the symbol of well-being.)
For various reasons, my luggage is hard to steal from. I take hundreds of flights every year, and so far, thank goodness, nothing has gone missing permanently. It’s no secret that there’s a problem with some airline and TSA employees stealing from luggage. It occurred to me that those thieves might sabotage the tags on luggage they’ve stolen from, in order to make the bag “disappear,” rather than to be traced to their handling of it.
The ship’s focused sound blaster, safely in the port of Dubai
Never thought I’d be on a ship trying to outrun Somali pirates. Bob and I recently sailed across the Arabian sea in pirate-infested waters. Don’t worry, the captain said. We’ll do the most dangerous part at night. And we’ll darken the ship. Yeah, that made me relax.
High-powered water cannonRazor wire across the sternThe decks off limits
It’s risky, but we’re prepared. It will be a race, the captain said, and we have speed! Also, our ship sits high above the water—that’s another advantage.
All the successful defenses against pirates have caused them to expand their territory. With so many drug-smuggling and human trafficking boats out there, it’s hard to determine which are pirates. The trick is to look for a ladder in the boats. But pirates tend to cover up their ladders. And how can you look for ladders at night?
As additional, film-worthy defenses, we had high-powered water hoses all rigged up, and sound cannons. Razor wire was coiled across the aft decks. We had 24-hour lookout teams and sharpshooters with their own coffee stations, and a commander from the Royal British Navy on board. We were tracked by multiple agencies.
Some ships travel through the Gulf of Aden in convoys but not us. No. Because we had speed, we’d dash through alone, in the dark. Some ships hang huge bundles of timber from the sides of the ship and cut the ropes if pirates try to board. We didn’t dangle timber bundles. We blacked-out our windows.
