Let's be honest, at some point we've always fantasised about what it would be like to be a spy for a day. While I've done some minor subterfuge in my time, nothing that would have ever got me shot or locked up. I don't think.
There was that time I was shirtfronted by the Argentine secret police in Buenos Aires, yelled at by the Malaysian secret service at a political parade or that time I went under cover to a secret car launch for a major newspaper. All kindergarten stuff in the scheme of things.
Everyday spycraft can be useful when travelling though. The most basic of which is just being aware of your surroundings and not taking personal safety for granted. Thirty years ago, I wrote a major assignment on the deadly risks of travel. I even titled it "Passport to Death: What are your chances of coming home in the cargo hold?" Back then, my required reading was Robert Young Pelton.
It was fun to write, and I got a lot of help from DFAT, who shared many tales of travel peril for ordinary folks. Even then, not taking my own advice, I was jumped by a would-be mugger in Girona on my way to the railway station when I was more concerned about my rolling luggage on the cobbled streets and not the dark, pre-dawn alleyways I was walking down.
I also visited the SPYSCAPE Spy Museum in New York City one time when they had numerous interactive activities and tests. There, I realised that I would be very good at some spy stuff and absolutely rubbish at most of it. The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., is another excellent experience, mostly made up of wacky gadgets spies used during the Cold War, as well as stories about famous spies, traitors, and double agents like Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen.
Numerous former spies and covert agents, like John Kiriakou and Andrew Bustamante, have written best-sellers about their past spy lives and also shared many secrets and tactics ordinary folks can use when travelling or even just going about their day.
We asked Andrew Bustamante what a spy would carry with them at all times, either when travelling or just going to the store.
One, we always wear shoes with laces. Whether you're trying to run away or run towards something, laced shoes are far superior to sandals, slip-ons, and anything else
Two, an international credit card, everyday carry.
Three; $100 US cash. At most places in the world, $100 U.S. gets you pretty much anywhere you need to go if you're in a third-world or developing country. $200 U.S. if you're in the United States
The only other thing I would recommend carrying is a laminated short list of the seven most important phone numbers to you. Because if you're incapacitated, that laminated piece of paper is something emergency responders can use, police can use, people can reference. If you're busted out in the face, you can point and people can find the phone number that you need. If your phone dies, if your phone is stolen, people don't steal a piece of laminated paper.
In the meantime, we're waiting in anticipation for Kiriakou's forthcoming title:
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