If you want to keep your valuables safe, don’t go with Pac Safe. It might look tough, but if it’s strapped to your backpack, a knife can easily cut it off. If you attach it to something more solid, a metal bar or a thick wooden rod can easily snap the cable. It’s only provides moderate protection against theft-of-convenience.

If you want real security, keep your passport and one debit card on your person, next to your skin, in a hidden pocket. You can also get ones that attach to your leg. Bring it with you everywhere. Take it into the shower stall with you, sleep with it on, etc.

Plant money in your socks, in a money belt (the kind that’s a real belt with a hidden zipper), under the soles of your shoes, etc. Go for at least 5 places on your body.

Have a copy of your passport and visa page stored securely in your email so you can still prove your identity and accelerate the process of obtaining new documentation given a loss.

Use a pistol lock and sturdy zipper locks to anchor and seal your bag. This can still be foiled with a knife, but you will definitely know someone messed with your stuff IMMEDIATELY.

Security is an illusion. Shipwreck theory — the only things you can protect are things that would still be on you after a shipwreck. And don’t travel with anything you wouldn’t mind losing.

Just my two cents.

A flat rubber/plastic sink drain cover. NOT the type that fit into the drain but the type that are the size of a saucer and sit on top of the drain. Invaluable for stopping up sinks with any size drain so you can do a bit of hand laundry. Also great for tossing over shower drains in dodgy rooms to keep out plumbing stenches and any critters (roaches, scorpions) that may be thinking about crawling up the pipes and into your room.