How would you know what sum of money you need to spend your vacations unforgettably? It's been almost ten years since crowds of Russians began to scurry about the world. And during all this time they keep surprising foreign travel agents. The latter stare at Russians in amazement of their brevity. Just think - who will ever dare going to the country after terrorist attacks or during a natural disaster? Sure enough it will be Russians! Tourist agencies even stopped cutting the prices. Why? Crazy Russians will buy it anyway! But there is one more special national feature about Russians - to take cash with them everywhere. We are not talking about Turkish villages where plastic cards and traveler's cheques are, so to say, not welcomed. Our countrymen manage to buy mink fur coats in Rome paying the whole sum by cash! To be fair, we admit that gradually, though slowly, this situation is changing.
There are enough citizens who now prefer a plastic card to a pile of cash. However, there are also a great number of Russians (especially those who have come across "plastic option" just recently) who deal with ATM as if with bank accountant: came to get salary - took all money up to a penny. After all, a lifeless piece of plastic won't warm up your heart as well as a roll of crispy banknotes do, you know. As a rule, that is the very group that travels around the world with a bag of money behind their back. Just think about that miraculous influence that cause "real money" to taxi drivers (they are ready to take you anywhere) or market dealers (they don't have the simplest cash register). It must be cleared out that talking about money we mean "real", convertible currencies like dollars, euros, yens, Swiss franks and so on, but not rubles, however long our authorities talk that every country would be glad to see Russian currency by 2007.
But there is one little thing you need to remember - sometimes even in the most civilized countries money can be stolen. And don't think that you are the smartest man in the world and know how to trick those thieves. Thieves also have a very hard competition that force them everytime to create a new and more sophisticated way of fooling you. So, may be, it's better not to tempt your fate and to change your cash for plastic? You can pay any bill with it: in restaurants, trading centers and hotels. If you still need cash, you can always take it with a help of ATM. There are hundreds of advantages and yet, even using plastic card, you need to stay on the alert in some countries. Remember - the more your vacation is Robinson Cruso-like, the more possibility of fraud is. Quite often aborigines of South East Asia only look that way. According to police experts, these "indigenes" are the best "plastic professionals". And finally we need to say one more thing - the most dangerous enemy of plastic card is ourselves. Police says that the main source of information for thieves is the owner of the money himself. There are several rules you need to follow: 1.If it's hard for you to remember the pin-code, at least, hold it separately from the card; 2.don't ever trust any stranger and never leave your card out of sight; and 3.never enter pin-code in strange devices.
