PPE

In Army-speak - this is personal protective equipment.  Since we're going to be in a foreign country, I think this definition should be expanded to include anything that protects our critical assets - our passports and important documents.

It was already recommended to us that we scan in all "important" pieces of paper and then make multiple copies on thumb drives to leave with people in the states just in case.  So far, I've included all of our birth certificates, our life insurance policies, the titles for our cars, and other things that might at some point be important.  But we're hand carrying papers with us as well.  We've been told that these can be stored at the embassy if we need someplace secure to leave them.  We also have a small lockable fireproof box that we're planning on taking (I think) so that we can lock up little items at home.

Waist Wallet

Neck Pouch

While we're traveling, obviously the concern is keeping our passports, tickets, and money safe.  It's not really recommended that you leave your passports in a hotel safe, or even in a safe at the front desk.  We've picked up a couple nifty items that I'm hoping will work really well to that end.  First is the Pacsafe Cashsafe Travel Belt Wallet.  I'm sure the website does a much better job of describing this, but but the belt is hollow - on the inside, against your pants, the belt has a zipper that allows you to open it up and insert folded paper money.  The buckle on the belt is plastic, so I'm hoping it holds up, but it got fairly good reviews, and we feel it's definitely important to have a cash reserve somewhere while we're traveling.  Second, we got a Pacsafe Coversafe 75 Neck Pouch to allow us to keep our passports/money/tickets close when we need to.  I used something similar to this when I traveled in Europe as a teenager, and found it to be pretty useful.  This one is not fully waterproofed (or rather sweatproofed), so other users in humid climates recommended putting your items in ziplock baggies before putting them into the pouch.  I can easily fit 2 passports in my case, but I'm not sure I could put all 4.  It would definitely be much more noticeable and would not really lie flat under clothing.  We also picked up the Pacsafe Waist Wallet in the 25 and 100 sizes - the 25 really only fits cash.  The 100 will fit passports, tickets, cash, etc.  I don't think we really meant to get the 25, but since it's here, we'll use it.  Last, I purchased the purse I'd blogged about earlier - the Pacsafe Citysafe 200.  This purse has lots of great safety features including a slashproof strap and slashproof fabric.  The shoulder strap unhooks allowing you to loop it around a table base or some other immobile object and then locks into place.  The zipper to the main compartment can also be "snapped" in place so it is more difficult for someone to merely reach over and take something out of your purse.

And no, Pacsafe is not paying me for this free advertisement :)  We're just hoping their stuff works!