[nlh]

I find reading articles like this exhausting. I've got to imagine being a criminal/sketchball while on the road in whatever country you're in is equally exhausting.

Is it not just possible to travel abroad, carry proper documentation, a bit of cash, and enjoy yourself? Does every situation really require constant vigilance to knowing when to run or not, how to make eye-contact, when to make excuses, etc.?

Perhaps I'm superbly naive. And perhaps I've just not seen enough of the world, but I've gotten along just fine without having to resort to cloak-and-dagger behavior everywhere I go. Sure, checkpoints happen in some places. If you're pulled over, you should have a legit passport and a few dollars if you're asked to pay. But only if you're asked.

I feel like some people ask for trouble wherever they go. McAfee seems like one of those people.

Am I nuts?

[adinb]

I had a similar situation in Rome, Italy of all places...was shaken down by a subway officer for having 'invalid stamps' on our subway passes (they were obviously completely valid).

If we just paid a fine of xx euros directly to him, everything would be just fine...otherwise, he'd need to take us to the station, delay us (we were military and in the country for a NATO conference) to the point we'd miss our meeting.

Being in the mil and all, I was rather steamed, but my wife's cooler head prevailed. Obviously I now understand a little more about the 'system', even in civilized euro countries.

I have no doubts to the accuracy of most of this article.

edit: we did speak some Italian, fluent Spanish, German & a bit of Russian. Didn't matter one bit. Did make the mistake of actually producing documents & complaining/not smiling & joking. Probably would have been fined less if we did.

[jacquesm]

You did that wrong.

The trick is when you go out for a day to keep your wallet empty of cash, simply have your cards in there but no money.

I've travelled just about anywhere like this and the 'sorry man, no cash' works fine every time (I have some in my back pocket but I'm not going to tell a guy like this about that).

I also instantly lose any ability to speak a word of the local language and my English, so they're going to have to explain everything to me in Dutch (fat chance of getting more than 2 words across, within minutes they'll be reduced to sign language and scribbling pictures on pieces of paper). This takes a long long time. It usually does not take more than 5 minutes of this before they'll move on to the next target, their time is valuable.

When they get off shift they will have to pay their boss his part of the take, if you are hurting their figures by taking more time than average and it looks like you won't be paying or can't pay they'll shift their attention to someone more profitable.

To date this trick has been used and verified to work in: Romania, Poland, Italy, Colombia & Panama. What those countries have in common is a police force that earns relatively little money and very little oversight.

Small time corruption eradication starts with you, the tourist. If you're going to be a fat sitting duck and you pay up too easily when you've done nothing wrong then you carry a part responsibility for keeping things that way.

The Romanian police was actually really funny, they started off with 1500 Euros in fines (my crime actually was better described as 'driving with a foreign license plate'), quickly dropped to about 100 Euros and then when they found out that I didn't have any money centered on impounding the car. When I readily agreed to that they sent me on my way...

I positively hate corrupt police. Don't pay them.

[willyt]

Pretending to be Dutch is not such a good idea. Almost all dutch people speak very good English. In fact I've noticed that some Dutch people will get a bit offended if you ask if they can speak English because they all can. So if the officer knows anything about the Dutch they will know you are taking the piss.

On an unrelated note. I dont know about other countries, but in the UK I believe it's a criminal offence to bribe a foreign official, so UK citizens might want to bear this in mind when posting about thier experiences on the internet, other countries may have similar laws.

[jacquesm]

There is not much to pretend, I am Dutch... it also says so in my passport & driving license. And my English, as you can see is absolutely terrible.

[willyt]

Hah! Your english is so good I assumed you are a native speaker, it never crossed my mind that you are Dutch; I can't even tell if your last sentence is sarcastic or advanced level self deprecation :-)

[Evbn]

Has a Briton ever been punished for paying a blackmail in a foreign country? Seems unlikely.

[willyt]

I don't know, and I doubt anyone has ever been arrested for bribing a police office over a speeding ticket. But I think a few people have at least been investigated for paying bribes to gain contracts for things like oil rights and arms deals. So, be careful boasting about your arms deals on HN :-)

[_b8r0]

To be fair these tend to be large multinational companies that have their investigations closed by the then prime minister.

That's a lot of oil being used to lubricate the wheels of justice.

[raverbashing]

You managed to get out of it nicely

Coming from a country where these things are common (probably midway in the "corruption scale" between Central America and Italy) I'd say I have to agree

Still the best defense seems to be "don't look like a tourist".

[jacquesm]

> Still the best defense seems to be "don't look like a tourist".

Yes, absolutely. What also helps is to have a physique that doesn't stand out (hair, eye-colour, height).

When on foot with my gear stashed I can manage that just fine (no camera, not obviously sightseeing) but it gets a lot harder when you drive your own car abroad or when you've just arrived somewhere.

[BasDirks]

Italy is in some respects not a "civilised euro country"; corruption is widespread even among lower-tier bureaucracy. Certain jobs in public service are desirable for the lack of work involved. Sources: corruption indices and a three month working-holiday in Abruzzo. I love Italy (and specifically Abruzzo) until I die, but some of its government/police structures are rotten to the core.

[wooster]

Ditto, except it was Napoli and they shut down all the ticket machines on one end of the line, turned all the turnstiles green to let people through, then shook down everyone with a backpack on at the other end. A learning experience.

[wolf550e]

How does this work in the presence of recording equipment in people's pockets? Was he even a real subway officer?

[daniel-cussen]

Badly. What are you going to do, take him to the Hague? Let's remember, this happened in Italy. Not sparkly clean, really.

[mc32]

I think his advice is mostly for non-tourist areas. If you remain in the areas heavily traveled by tourists and remain in these tourist areas, I don't think you'll come across these issues. I'm sure ex-pats, depending on strata, would encounter these situations, given they need to go places to conduct whatever business they conduct (i.e. they likely do not remain indefinitely in the tourist areas)

One might only come into these situations if you veer off well known tourist areas. If you take local transport (non-tour buses) then you might be subject to the same shakedowns as locals. So, if you act like a tourist and walk like a tourist, then most likely the biggest problem would be picked pockets.

Take Mexico, for example. My understanding is that so long as you stay in the tourist areas --say Cabo, Cancun ,etc., you'll, for the most part, be fine. Go outside the tourist safe areas and you're taking a bit of a risk. The size of the risk would depend on many factors, but it certainly increases. Mexico earn a sizable fraction of GDP from tourism, they'll do all the can to insulate tourists from the violence.

[jre]

I felt the same and I've lived, worked and travelled in Colombia for 4 months. I never had to bribe anybody and didn't have any problem with the police or criminals. I enjoyed every single minute of it.

The only thing I did differently than in Europe was I would talk to locals before going for a walk in a random neighborhood at night and use taxis (which are so cheap anyway) instead of walking at night.

[ZoFreX]

Honestly apart from a couple of times where the police were being extra aggressive, we found it fun. We just got used to it and it became a bit of a game - "this time, let's pretend none of us speak any language except German!"

[wilfra]

This advice is for people carrying drugs, guns, 'sex slaves' etc. It shouldn't be read as applicable to anybody traveling in Central America. Though I think one key takeaway is that its not wise to go driving around on desolate roads in places you don't know well.