Sonia and Mark are Australian and Panna is from Singapore.

Sonia's story:

Way back in '87, on the train leaving Agra (Taj Mahal), heading for Delhi. A comparatively modern train, more open plan than the old compartment style trains. I had my big rucksack padlocked on the rack, and my day bag strung around my ankle. My friend was sitting diagonally opposite, there was plenty of room. But at one stop, a lot of people seemed to crowd into the carriage. Opposite me sat a big fat Indian man, with a chubby baby, who immediately gained everyone's attention with it's drooling antics.

The train seemed to slow down a bit going over a bridge, and I remember looking around at all the people standing. I reached down to get my water bottle out of my day bag...it wasn't there! Immediately I realised what had happened, stood up and like any good Western chick, screamed. Musta scared them, because someone pulled the emergency cord and the train stopped. Railway officials flooded through, and the theft was reported to them.

This is when I discovered that this particular route was notorious for theft. The thieves had distracted me with the baby (who had quite disappeared with its trainer), cut the bag straps that were wound around my ankle, and possibly thrown it out at the bridge crossing as the train slowed.

So there I was with all my clothing, but minus my passport, travellers cheques, camera (with all my Taj photos) and music.

Boy was I glad to be insured, but going to police stations and embassies in Delhi was time consuming and just a little unnerving. Funnily enough the police eventually returned my passport, a relief considering the Punjabi uprisings were in full fling and they were checking foreigners on suspicion of being terrorists!

Not an experience to be savoured, but despite the stress of such an incident, I was still very sad when it came time to leave India, it was absolutely all worth while.

Panna's story:

I understand how you feel completely coz my family and I lost our passports when we were in Burma, now known as Myanmar, a few years back.

It was a dreadful experience coz we went to Burma a few months after 9/11 and the police there thought we were terrorists or something though we were not the least bit dressed like that. They needed a lot of convincing from a local Burmese and then that poor chap who reluctantly helped us was questioned no end and the police took down all his details and asked him why he was so interested in helping us.

God it was a painful and scary experience coz we lost our passports, ie three passports, in Mandalay and the Singapore embassy was in Yangon. To get back to Yangon we needed our passports to make bookings and all and so you can imagine the trouble we were in a police state like Burma. We couldn't stay in any hotel coz they required passports and the police refused to write us a report either. It was all so maddening at that time.

After running around all day we got a hotel that allowed us to stay but not without the police intervening again. God was on our side definitely, coz things sorted themselves out with the hotel owner helping us out to get a police report done. He was really good to do this for us.

We even managed to travel by air from Mandalay to Bagan stay there for a few days and then to Yangon. The airport authorities had a field day laughing each time they saw the report of our lost passports.

The worst was when we were leaving Burma for Singapore, armed with the Singapore Embassy documents; the Burmese airport police detained us for over an hour questioning us about all sorts of things and wouldn't let us check in. It was pretty traumatic coz I nearly thought I'd be there forever! And we'd miss our planes.

Boy was that a trip that I'll remember for the rest of my life. So from then on I'm totally paranoid when I travel. I clutch my bag wherever I go and check it furiously many times a day for my passport and stuff. I never leave it aside even for a minute if I can help it.

Mark's story

I was travelling by bus from Mo Chit to Mukdahan (Thailand) in May, a twelve hour journey, and when I got off I was devastated to find that my suitcase was gone. Apparently someone who loaded the bus in Mo Chit took it out of the hold area and gave it to a Thai bloke who told him that it was on the wrong bus. Goodbye $3,500 worth of contents including a pretty expensive camera. I was loaded down with hand luggage and had no option but I should have watched everything until the bus locked up and jumped on at the last minute.

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Thieves are not the only problem encountered by travellers. See my blog July 5 and October 22 for personal examples of scams.