4 ms·

The easiest rule of thumb while traveling is that if you're the one who is approached(or, if there is a situation that is engineered to have you approach someon

The easiest rule of thumb while traveling is that if you're the one who is approached(or, if there is a situation that is engineered to have you approach someone), you're what's for dinner.

zamnos 4y ago
So what do you do to eat while traveling, since cafes and grocery stores have you approaching a server or cashier to get food? How do you get around town? Until we have self driving cars, Taxis/Uber require approaching a person (via an app that's very much engineered to have you approach the driver). Do you just sit at the airport (because the hotel experience is engineered to have your approach the reception desk where there's a person) until it's time to leave? I guess you can avoid a person at newer hotels and some Airbnb's, but what a weird way to travel!
- wahern 4y ago
  For airports specifically, look for an official taxi stand with an attendant. I flew into Santiago about 15 years ago to spend a month in Chile and didn't think twice about being scammed. Everything I read said that Chile and (modulo city life) Santiago had and still has relatively low prevalence of crime and corruption, by any standard. While I'm always wary of pick pockets and other random street crime, some places you tend not to worry about organized or systematic criminal rackets wrt mundane activities. So I just jumped into a cab at the airport without looking for a taxi stand. Recently I came across a forum where people were discussing a supposedly well-known and long-time scam at the Santiago airport involving taxis picking people up and extorting money. So perhaps I dodged a bullet (or an adventure) at the Santiago airport. Of course, there's no guarantee an attendant wouldn't be in on the scam, but the goal here is reasonable risk minimization, otherwise your only real option is to hunker down in some Japanese or Swiss suburb.

The easiest rule of thumb while traveling is that if you're the one who is approached(or, if there is a situation that is engineered to have you approach someone), you're what's for dinner.

zamnos 4y ago

So what do you do to eat while traveling, since cafes and grocery stores have you approaching a server or cashier to get food? How do you get around town? Until we have self driving cars, Taxis/Uber require approaching a person (via an app that's very much engineered to have you approach the driver). Do you just sit at the airport (because the hotel experience is engineered to have your approach the reception desk where there's a person) until it's time to leave? I guess you can avoid a person at newer hotels and some Airbnb's, but what a weird way to travel!

wahern 4y ago
For airports specifically, look for an official taxi stand with an attendant. I flew into Santiago about 15 years ago to spend a month in Chile and didn't think twice about being scammed. Everything I read said that Chile and (modulo city life) Santiago had and still has relatively low prevalence of crime and corruption, by any standard. While I'm always wary of pick pockets and other random street crime, some places you tend not to worry about organized or systematic criminal rackets wrt mundane activities. So I just jumped into a cab at the airport without looking for a taxi stand. Recently I came across a forum where people were discussing a supposedly well-known and long-time scam at the Santiago airport involving taxis picking people up and extorting money. So perhaps I dodged a bullet (or an adventure) at the Santiago airport. Of course, there's no guarantee an attendant wouldn't be in on the scam, but the goal here is reasonable risk minimization, otherwise your only real option is to hunker down in some Japanese or Swiss suburb.