Sandy and all, Actually, paddling as a solo woman in rural Southern China was easy. Outside of some urban violence in the usual big cities, China has virtually NO crime. I had NO concern about paddling up to a little village and leaving my fully loaded kayak, passport, etc there for a long day as I hiked and explored. I slept perfectly soundly outside of villages. Not even children would approach ne. It is a perfectly safe place, as far as I have ever heard. Southern Japan is almost as safe. Fiji and Tonga, outside of the cities, seem perfectly safe. The West Indies seem NOT so safe. Doug and I (certainly I would not paddle solo there!) were uneasy many times on beaches at night. At 10pm, long after we bedded down, men smoking giant ganga (cigars of marajuana) would come and sit with us, often asking about our posessions. Little except petty extortion ("Pay me $500 or the bad guys will steal your kayak tonight while you sleep." "Here is some money - 25 cents - will that keep us safe?" "Sure!" as he runs off with our quarter. Doing my safety research in advance helps. Too, being flexible and changing my plans with changing social conditions (just as with changing environmental conditions) helps.Ask sailors, commercial captains and other non-locals, in addition to trying to get "local knowledge." When a commercial sailor offered me passage to some of the Philipine islands and assured me that I would be safe because he hired a 24 hr/day machine gun man stationed on his bow, I politely declined his offer. Cheers, Joanne -- Southwind Kayak Center, Inc. 17855 Sky Park Circle #A, Irvine, CA 92614 U.S.A. 949-261-0200 or 800-SOUTHWIND (800-768-8494) info_at_southwindkayaks.com doug_at_southwindkayaks.com joanne_at_southwindkayaks.com http://www.southwindkayaks.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Sep 05 1999 - 14:31:33 PDT
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