Travel advice - wisdom is better than travel insurance

Having just posted an article on reasons why travel insurance is a waste of your money, I would like to offer some advice on travel precautions. I have a lot of travel experience and a good understanding of scams, psychology, etc. Most of the countries I have been to are poor, and I have stayed in expensive company-paid hotels and cheap backpackers where have picked up the odd case of fungus. On this basis I suggest the following:
1. Lock your baggage. I know it sounds stupid, but I was so innocent at 19yo on my first business trip. Who sends employees to Colombia for a first business trip. The only advice I got was ‘Be careful to get an official taxi’, and I agree
2. Don’t take solicited offers for ANY service. They are the ambitious ones. If they are not screwing you on price, they will find another way. Eg. Taxi drivers that approach you in the airport, guys in the street, girls in the bars, money changers in the streets
3. Change your money in the poorest country you go to, and find out if forex changers are cheaper at the airport or in the tourist district. Go to shops, not street vendors, they will try to trick you. They offer the cheapest rates because they are cheats and are not licensed. Banks are usually not competitive.
4. Research and plan your trip before you go overseas. Go to forums and ask advice.
5. Take any advice from strangers with a high degree of caution
6. Don’t take your eyes off your possessions. Place items where they will not be forgotten, eg. On your lap, not under your feet, unless your feet are resting on them. If you need to sleep in an airport lounge, fix your luggage so you are sleeping on it, your arms are resting on it.
7. Select your luggage for its security features – plus capacity and extra wheels. I have used my case for 15 years on over 50 trips. It will be sorely missed. Its flexible plastic, 3x2 sets of wheels, combination and key locks. Don’t get a case too big – travel with discipline and less weight.
8. Check the security of your hotel room. Can someone climb in the back window, are the locks solid enough.
9. Dress for the conditions - If you are staying in sleazy accommodation, dress sleazy, or otherwise disguise your valuables. Lock all valuables in a key or combination lock-based case. I have always used cases for the security they provide. They are no slash-points on my case.
10. Something that looks like a great deal requires added precaution. Be particularly wary of fellow citizens who are living overseas. They are not a kindred spirit, they are often bigger crooks than the locals, whether they are selling you land, or otherwise. Be wary.
11. Don’t be lured by some local into a dark alley, up a stair case, or the like, even if the person concerned is an ‘intellectual’ looking person in a suit. More often than not they will be unsophisticated kids trying to sell you on a bar in some dark alley. They are more likely going to demand your wallet at knife point
12. Be wary getting into taxis – particularly when they have an associate, when you are traveling back late at night, when you have drunken a lot. Be wary anyway.
13. Have a sense of your location and directions, so a taxi driver (maybe with a fake ID) cant readily take you to some unknown place. We wary of hand signals or telephone calls. I was out clubbing in Manila when I saw a taxi driver signal to another guy to follow.
14. Don’t go places alone at night unless there are a lot of people around
15. Be wary of people offering you drinks, or slipping something into your drink, particularly the girl you are with. I always carried my drink, and if I put I down whilst playing pool, I would place it away from people
16. Don’t be a pleaser – don’t blindly follow others. Being unpredictable might save your life. And even if you come across a difficult time, they will likely panic. So scream, get aggressive, etc.
17. Be wary – stay in the corner of rooms, stay in spaces, move around, observe people.
18. Know what weird people look like and stay away from them – without looking too weird.
19. Remain in control – don’t drink yourself senselessly in a foreign country. You might find you end up going home with a guy (transsexual) or get yourself into worse trouble. I give this warning even if you are traveling with friends because they might be equally as senseless. Stay with your friends.
20. If you decide to meet a girl, you take a huge risk of disease, and not all diseases carry the same threat. They spread so easily. But if you decide to sleep with prostitutes or anyone so accommodating, DON’T go to their place, or any place they recommend. If you go to your place, hide or lock up your valuables, don’t drink anything where they can slip you a drug.
21. Understand people - This comes with experience, but some tips. Dont accept superficial perceptions. Just because some taxi driver has an official looking licence doesnt mean its real. Just because they create an elaborate story to support themselves doesnt make it real. If someone invites you into their home, dont go unless there is a trail of evidence, even then dont go unless they know it, or you know them well enough. Avoid Christians and slf-proclaimed nobles, they are the worst sinners. Avoid humble souls that put readily concede their weaknesses, they externalise responsibility for their actions, and run if they display any sign of ambition. Until you answer those questions, dont trust them, and even then, there is reason enough for caution. You will find alot of people from poor countries want to connect with you. Unless they are as educated as you, dont engage with them on their terms. Just for the sake of avoiding boredom, do it in a public space, so you can readily get away. Some of them will want to sell you something, maybe they want you to meet their ugly daughter, sometimes its their sister (because they want to sponge off you), sometimes they want you to help them get a visa to your country, and they have exhausted honest means. Sometimes they will want you to find them a job, or a free English lesson. Some will just want you to try their Indian curry. BORING!! Just eat out and avoid the politics, and also the disgust of using their public toilet. I went to a English teachers school with a bunch of this students. They were soooo hot, I could not refuse. But I'm glad I didnt need to crap, the toilet was a concrete floor in the kitchen with just a plastic sheet. What the hell is that? They prepare food there? Fotunately I had eaten. Instead I got food poisoning from a students family restaurant. I think being sick is one of the most dangerous things because you are vulnerable to theft, so you might be sick with no money....thats a bad combination. My advice is get to international hospital care as soon as possible, which requires knowing where it is.

Having said all that and acted with caution, I think its often more dangerous in your own country. Why? Well your defences are down. Westerners have an attitude that causes fights. There are fewer criminals, but they are smarter. Mind you, if you look like a tourist, you may as well be wearing a sign saying ‘stupid and loaded’.