I once took a trip to Shanghai and the bank there 'ate' my atm card. The bank wouldn't give it back to me despite the fact that I immediately told them and that it had my signature on it. I didn't have my passport with me (I had a photocopy but that was no good) which was probably a bit stupid of me but I figured I wouldn't need it (travelling by train, staying with friends). Anyway I had to return to Beijing with no atm card and apply for a new one here. This created a big problem for me because I was leaving straight away for another trip. Someone who used to post on this board and who had met me a couple of times lent me several thousand rmb to tide me over for that trip. I was really appreciative of their trust and generosity and of course paid them back as soon as I came back from my trip.
So I know that if my gut feeling was a person was genuine I would lend them money - because someone doing it for me really saved me that time.
I once had almost no money to travel through Laos as I had USD and TCs stolen before I crossed in from China, and only had a Cirrus/Maestro and Mastercard. This sucked as I was cycling and was really worried if I cycled down I would run out of money.
Would you believe:
A) There is no place to replace Amex TCs ANYWHERE in Laos?!??!?!?! (When this happened, I was further interrogated by that company over the phone, and swore never to use TCs again: it's a myth they're easy to replace!)
B) Places in northern Laos accept visa only
C) There are no ATMs that take debit cards north of Vientiane
However, I had a couple of hundred RMB and got all the way from the border to Vientiane with a few days in Namtha and Vientiane on the way courtesy of some friendly Germans, who'd hired a half-empty 4WD, and even let me throw my bike on!
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<hr>A) There is no place to replace Amex TCs ANYWHERE in Laos?!??!?!?! (When this happened, I was further interrogated by that company over the phone, and swore never to use TCs again: it's a myth they're easy to replace!)<hr></blockquote>
When mine got stolen the AMEX agents told me that I should get out of China and get to Hong Kong, because it would take 4 weeks in CHina . .. and 4 hours in Hong Kong.
Of course, your CASH probably wasn't replaceable at all.
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