Danny's Weblog

Things to bring: Money and related items

1. As I said before under "clothes" you should probably bring a moneybelt or some similar way to hide money, passport etc.

2. However, in general you should not need to *display* your moneybelt at every transaction! Thus you need some sort of system, which is comfortable for your circumstances, for deciding what items to keep in the moneybelt and what items to keep in your wallet (etc). You should probably wear the moneybelt for a couple of weeks *in your home country* to figure that out.

3. A useful item to have ready is a cheap purse about the size of your wallet which you can put all items that you normally keep in your wallet but *are not necessary in the current country*. You should have it ready on the plane so you can easily transfer items *before* arriving at the pay toilet, taxi, etc. (Such items are usually small enough to get lost if you try to put them in a larger bag.) When you come *back* to Thailand, having all those items (like your Thai SIMcard) in one place is handy too.

4. Normally you can easily use your credit/ATM card in Thailand, but currently in Cambodia you can only draw cash at a bank, and basically only travel agencies and a few pricey restaurants and hotels can accept your credit card.

5. Although Thai ATMs allow you to draw cash, they typically allow no other features. A few will give your credit balance.

6. If you are getting all your cash via ATMs, you will be absolutely snookered if you lose the card. It may be advisable to carry two cards *linked to separate accounts* (so you can call up and cancel the missing card), and of course in separate places. If you are very organized you may wish to set up temporary accounts before you leave your home country, so that your losses are definitely limited. It may be difficult or impossible to use 800 numbers from abroad, so investigate your bank's *non*-800 numbers before leaving.

7. In Cambodia you will be required to show your passport in order to draw cash on your ATM card. However, on one occasion, I had forgotten that I had handed over my passport to get a visa stamp a day or two before, and on that occasion the bank accepted my driver's license (with picture ID).

8. In general, you will find yourself using the passport a lot (it is a legal requirement for a foreigner to carry one at all times in Thailand and Cambodia, and although I have heard of no serious problems for people not carrying their passport Thailand especially has been tightening up a lot recently). You may therefore absent-mindedly leave it behind, and I can think of no cases in Thailand or Cambodia where people have carefully kept a valuable item (more valuable than an umbrella) ready for my return. My suggestion re the passport is that you buy a passport cover of some kind – mine is a cheap plastic cover with a neck strap – which you should leave on the counter while the minion is dealing with the actual passport, and serves as a mute reminder that you need to get the actual passport back.

9. You will probably find yourself carrying multiple currencies in your moneybelt. I suggest you make up some sort of folder for each currency. I have not found suitable folders commercially, but you can make them from side-loading envelopes (not the normal top-loading ones). I use folders made from plastic A4-size file folders. The plastic serves the purpose of protecting the bills from humidity (although presumably they also prevent my groin from being ventilated). Folders also prevent damage to the bills from being repeatedly reinserted in the moneybelt; this can definitely be an issue in Cambodia, where frayed and torn bills may well be rejected. A disadvantage of plastic is that the bills easily fall out of the folders.

10. It's hard to defend the contents of your moneybelt etc when you are sleeping or otherwise not present to defend them, but one thing you *can* do is keep track of the current contents. You should maintain a log of the quantity of each currency in each location along with the date and time. It's also wise to note each ATM transaction in the same log – even if you get a receipt, it may be illegible, or you may need to add notes like "he seemed to be running the card twice but assured me he wasn't". Clearly this log needs to be in a different place from the moneybelt/wallet.

11. Many sources advise making a copy of your passport. I suggest using a color-copy machine, and trying to choose the print size so as to make the copies fit neatly inside some sort of handy folder. Also, in the case of any difficulties the Thai or Cambodian police will be *especially* interested in the visa stamps etc that were added when you arrived, so make *more* copies of the passport pages showing the *current* info after you arrive in the target country. Other documents you may want to include with the passport copy are front and back copies of your credit cards, essential contact info (eg next of kin), and itinerary info (in case you lose your tickets). If you are leaving your home country for a lengthy period you may also need to carry a certificate that your taxes have been paid, which you will certainly not have easily available on your return unless you keep it here.

Things to bring: drugs and toiletries

I think the standard advice in the guidebooks is that Thailand has everything you need, whereas Cambodia cannot be relied on for anything.

I would add several additional warnings.

1. Although most over-the-counter and prescription drugs are available in Thailand, counterfeiting is rife, especially for recent high-cost drugs for which Thai manufacturers have not yet started manufacturing a generic equivalent (Thai law enforcement ignores counterfeiting unless the namebrand is a Thai product). If I had a serious health problem which was being held at bay by some wonder drug, I would bring an ample stock with me.

2. Although satisfactory products are available in Thailand for most purposes, you very likely will have to accept generic or offbrand versions of most of the drugstore products you regularly use. This may well mean you change over several products at once, which may make it impossible to figure out which one is now causing a problem.

3. Even when a satisfactory product appears to be available in Cambodia, it is usually (in my limited experience) well beyond its sell-by date, and in any case is sure to have been stored without cooling of any kind. (My paranoid guess is that Cambodia buys all its drugstore products cheap from Thailand when they expire.)

4. Reference materials you may be used to having may not be available. Drugs may not have a list of side effects or interactions. In Cambodia I bought ointment with instructions in Thai and Korean: neither Cambodian nor English!

5. One may be used to some assistance from the pharmacist in choosing the product, but language issues etc may cause major problems. Eg in Cambodia I was looking for a lice powder to dust the hotel bed, and after much nodding and smiling found I had been given antihistamine ointment.

6. You may well find satisfactory products only in a very large or small size. It's much better to gauge your needs for the length of trip while you're at home and repackage everything in the right size containers. (Which are also not easy to find here.)

Things to bring: Map of Bangkok

It's certainly not difficult to find a map of Bangkok when you arrive at Bangkok Airport (Don Muang).

However, you should buy one at home well before you fly, for several reasons:

1. Assuming you haven't travelled here before, you need to consider the layout of Bangkok a lot in weighing different options. Ie, you're trying to decide whether to stay overnight and you're wondering if you could see Pantip Plaza the next morning before you need to check out – or a million things. The map in the LP Thailand book is useful but nowhere near as good for planning as a fullsize regular color map.

2. There's a lot of time on most flights to get talking to fellow travellers and consider joining up. Figuring out what's practical for everybody needs a map, so remember to bring it in your carry-on luggage. (And study it before the flight so you can find things faster.)

3. Although maps are available at the airport, you may well be tired and frazzled, and possibly overloaded with luggage, when you arrive. You probably will not feel like searching for a map at that time, but sometimes you *really really* need one if the taxi driver tries to scam you.

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