Safety first, deploy decoy wallet

Chapter 4 gives the travel writer two pieces of pre-travel advice on safety while traveling. Christopher Elliott of The National Geographic adds to this advice by offering the writer tips to solve every crisis during travel. Elliot offers this bit:

Regardless of your locale, always watch your things when in a new place. Carry a throwaway wallet or decoy purse containing daily cash and old photos but nothing that would make you hesitate to hand it over in a holdup. Keep a credit card and cash in an inside pocket. 1. Hand over the fake wallet. 2. Notify the police.

Do not hesitate to hand over anything in a hold up, no material object is worth risking your life.


Skip the journey and appear at the destination

Chapter 3 discusses the concept of the journey as a key part of the story . However,
according to Christopher Elliott, an author at frommers.com, the excitement of
the journey and the corresponding stories are becoming tales of horror and terrible
experiences rather than hero journey tales.

Among the horrors of traveling Elliott describes run-ins with TSA while travelling by air
and annoying crewmembers on cruises constantly bombarding travelers with extras that
also cost extra. Elliot offers this message to those responsible for the journey:

“Yeah, we want to travel cheap. Truth be told, we’d pay nothing for our vacations if we could. That’s no excuse for turning the journey, which was once the best part of the travel experience, into torture.”