R E C E N T L Y Tampax nightmares By Susan Hack It's hard to find a good tampon in Yemen (07/22/98) Homemade heaven in Italy By David Downie Wild boar stew and other delights in Italy (07/21/98) Couped up in Cambodia By Rosemary Berkeley Remembering the right place at the wrong time (07/17/98) Mondo Weirdo Nude beaches of the week Favorite nude beaches around the world (07/17/98) Tour en Irlande By David Moore Tour de France: Pomp and pedaling in Ireland (07/16/98) Browse the Wanderlust Road Warrior archives		S A F E T Y _ S T R A T E G I E S Business travel expert Joe Brancatelli tells how to guard your laptop -- and your life -- on the road. BY DAWN MacKEEN | "Life on the road stinks," fumed Joe Brancatelli in one of his recent rants for Biztravel.com, where he writes a twice-weekly column. It's a funny statement coming from a guy who has made a business out of being on the road. A former editor of Frequent Flyer magazine and reporter for the Wall Street Journal, 45-year-old Brancatelli has been on the business travel beat for 17 years -- long enough that flying constantly around the world doesn't excite him anymore. "Business travel is not this all-day party that people back at the desk think," he said bluntly in a phone interview from Honolulu, on a day when his morning started at 4:30 with a phone call from one of those people back at the desk, working in Eastern Standard Time. "The perfect example is you trying to reach me: I had your call, the PR woman's call and an e-mail from her. There was no way that I could deny that I knew you were trying to get in touch with me." The days of disappearing into a foreign city while "away on business" are over, he lamented wistfully. This new age of technology is putting a damper on business travel, Brancatelli said, citing himself as a prime example. On most trips, Brancatelli packs one suitcase for himself and one for all his technology -- a computer, an external modem, a power pack, two batteries, a spare telephone cord, an extension cord and a power converter -- just so he can do his work and access his three e-mail addresses while on the road. He also checks his voice mail constantly and has a fax-to-e-mail address. But being wired while traveling, Brancatelli said, has also fostered a whole new problem: laptop theft. Not being concerned enough about the technology they carry is just one of many mistakes business travelers make while on the road, Brancatelli told Salon. Speaking with his heavy Brooklyn accent and tell-it-like-it-is candor, Brancatelli addressed what warriors can do to make life on the road a little less hazardous. Business travelers are completely wired these days; they carry laptops, they carry PalmPilots, they carry phones. Does this create safety issues for them on the road? I remember a year ago, sitting next to a woman who was flying back to Mexico City for the second time in a week because she had her laptop stolen right off her table in Mexico City -- at the Four Seasons -- and she had to go back to Detroit to get another one. Laptops are light and expensive, perfect for thieves. Business travelers make the mistake of carrying their laptop in a bag that is clearly a laptop bag, which resembles nothing else. It's like advertising, "Hey, I got $2,000 worth of technology that you can try to swipe off me!" What kind of precautions do you take? I carry my laptop in what would otherwise be a regular piece of luggage. If you're a thief, you're not going to steal somebody's hand luggage -- you don't know what's in it -- but you know what's inside a laptop bag. There's another thing that just struck me. I've been in this hotel for three days and my laptop has been on the desk for the whole time. Now, I would never leave my wallet on my desk. This morning when I ran down to get breakfast, I hid my wallet in a bag -- but my $3,000 laptop has been sitting on the desk here for three days. Anybody could steal it. Think about it. Who comes in a room when you're not there? The cleaning crew who make minimum wage, the person restocking the minibar, the person returning your laundry. If you leave during the day, three or four or five people can have a shot at you right at the hotel. I'm pretty sure that laptop theft is something that's going to come into the radar because most people are not hiding them. What are the most common mistakes business travelers make in regard to safety? People go on the road and believe they're cloaked in this mantel of security. They suspend disbelief. They do not even take the simple precautions they take in their hometown. The biggest security issue facing business travelers is not the exotic stuff like, "Wow, you might be snatched off the streets" -- it's more like, "Hey, stupid, don't walk in that neighborhood at 2 in the morning or you might get mugged." The second biggest problem business travelers have is they don't have enough information about the place they're going. They don't know, for example, which streets are dangerous and which ones aren't. When people go on vacation, they tend to buy guidebooks and read up on a location. Do you think that the business traveler just walks into a city, not knowing what it's like, and that works to his disadvantage? Business travelers do some homework -- they tend to know the best restaurant in town or what's hot -- but they don't do the right kind of homework. Business travelers also think they're not vulnerable because they blend in; they tend to look like the business community in that town. So they're not obvious targets, except then they go wandering into places that nobody in that town would ever go. They also flash too loud, "Hey, I'm at this hotel," and that's just as good as giving up your room number. Is there any way to be safer while on the road? First, get the right mind-set. You must understand that you are not exempt from the local conditions. In fact, the road is more dangerous because you are the stranger -- you are, by definition, the person with less knowledge of local conditions and local problems. Even the smartest business traveler is at a disadvantage on the road because they are on unfamiliar territory, they don't know the rules. Secondly, you must accept that you could be a target on the road. The thing is, it's easier than ever to find out information about the place you're traveling to. For example, if you want to know what's going on in San Francisco today, you can get the Chronicle on the Web. You can get three weeks of newspapers and find out whether there's a serial murderer out there or if there's a whole bunch of robberies on Stockton Street. You should also know all about your hotel. You should use your hotel as the safety zone because you're in a controlled environment. And if you stay at a better hotel, you can do more work at your hotel. You can entertain or hold meetings, and there's also a degree of safety there because you're at least known. N E X T+P A G E | Places to think twice about traveling to