Originally Posted by lili
Airports and hotels are safe places and if you're there you are assumed to be a proper citizen with financial means. But sometimes I get out of the regular travel loop and wonder if this is wise.
And what is your safety net? If I were ill, would a shopkeeper call for help if I asked? If I stumbled, had a stroke or somehow got messy would anyone help me or would I be shunned as a street person?
Getting out of the regular travel loop is almost always wise, IMO. Well, depends on how far outside, I mean, don't go to drug dens or take rides from blind people.
I take the same precautions I take at home. I have horrible asthma (ah, the wonders of growing up near a factory...) and have to travel with a plug-in nebulizer. I've had attacks while alone and people have always come to my aid. I find that people are generally good - I recently got lost searching for a lecture hall in Boston and accidentally drove into an area everyone considered "bad". The people there were more helpful than the people who worked at the airline I was travelling into town on.
As long as I know how to say "help" and "thank you" in the local language I feel covered.