In Hong Kong, it does not seem in the slightest hostile. Decades ago, I learned that one of the best ways to hide is in plain sight. The chances of somebody stopping somebody pulling a little suitcase along is near zero. In Hampstead where I spent summer, there were constantly lone women pulling little wheely cases along. In fact, there were so many that I remarked on the phenomenon to our daughter who lives there. Perhaps they were all gold couriers, or more likely drug carriers, or most likely ladies heading to accommodation while traveling reasonably light and indeed a niece came to stay with me doing exactly that.
But in downtown Los Angeles, at the Greyhound terminal, about midday, a few months after the Rodney King riots, for the first time in my life I decided the hostile ambience was too dangerous for my street travel by city bus, hanging around bus stops and asking locals directions, so I walked back inside and caught a $15 minibus. All I was carrying were used undies and a passport, but nevertheless, the probability of being attacked seemed high. Even as I wandered about for a short time, I felt like prey, with tough looking guys seeming to want to be the first to pounce as though it was going to be a race to be the first to get such an obvious easy piece of prey. Indeed I was unarmed.
In Tokyo, in 1990 with our 12 year old at 2am [we were late from a flight into Narita] wandering the streets looking for accommodation, I felt totally unthreatened and in fact people tried to give us money, which we politely declined as shortage of funds was not our problem, but directions were. Various people were drunk but cheerful and friendly.
A count of the gold in TJ's case before the photo was withdrawn showed me what looked like 1000 x 1 ounce coins which would be about $2 million in value. That's not a huge risk really. But of course if it had a flag on the bag it would be unwise.
Mqurice |
