Traveling Overseas with Ering - advice?

[MishB]

Date: 8/25/2009 6:31:07 PM
Author: kcoursolle
I have to disagree with many of you and suggest not to take it with you. It''s better for your safety and the safety of the ring to leave it in the safe deposit box at home. Traveling with diamonds brings attention to yourself and can be unsafe, despite the relative safety of the places you are visiting. They will know you are a tourist and now they know you are a tourist with money, best not to call attention to oneself in my personal opinion while traveling.

So no one who lives in Switzerland wears diamonds??

 

[Black Jade]

I own this. It cost me about $40.00 at this website
http://www.jansjewells.com/item.php?item_id=429&category_id=78
and took them about two weeks to make. I have it with the CZ. when I''m travelling, I wear it and also an eternity band from QVC, which also cost about $40.00.
I have something on my finger, it looks great (two different jewellers were convinced that the janeliunas ring had to be real because they couldn''t believe that someone would do that much work creating filigree in sterling silver rather than in WG and platinum) and if I lose it, or my room is robbed or something, I am out $80. Also, people think that CZs are all huge and ostentatious and this ring has about .33 carat. So it looks expensive, but refined. It''s not something that would be a target for robbers. It''s an ideal solution for me.

This jeweller does makes bigger reproductions than the one I have and she also does work in gold and platinum. I have had the ring over a year now and people cannot tell the difference between this and the real antique art deco ring I bought recently in platinum with a transitional diamond. I can--but other can''t, including as I said two jewellers. The one that I bought my real deco ring from said, "I see you like the style, since you are getting another" and when I told the other one that it was not real, he kept looking and looking at it, saying it was amazing work, he was amazed they bothered to do it.

 

[Black Jade]

Yes, our house was burglarized a couple of times when I was young--you never quite get over being nervous afterwards.
We didn''t live in the best neighborhood.
My mother''s wedding ring was stolen, also my father''s signet ring that she gave him as an engagement gift.
My aunt was robbed years later and they took my grandmother''s art deco ring--the one I recently bought a similar replacement for. It was similar, but the not the same.I don''t think two deco rings are exactly alike. My grandmother''s (besides being sentimental) was about 4X as big.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

I like to keep it low key when I''m traveling.

You''ve got enough to deal with. Strange country, strange people, unknown areas. Why add to the mix by having something else to worry about?

But then again, I''ve been robbed and ripped off half-a-dozen or more times.

 

[Camille]

Yep, learned the hard way [been mugged 2x] $40 yearly @ bankers safe is cheap.

 

[D2B]

Hmm, I have had a rethink.

Yep, everyone will know you are a tourist, when we lived in Europe, tourists stood out a mile, simple things like the clothes they wear (style, colour, even cut which are not from national stores), hair, shoes, it all adds up, you do stand out. On top of that the European jewellery sense is less is more, so your beautiful big stone will draw attention, so I wouldnt wear it simply because I wouldnt like the attention. I like to be fairly low key when travelling.

db

 

[Black Jade]

Date: 8/25/2009 8:31:13 PM
Author: Richard Sherwood
I like to keep it low key when I''m traveling.

You''ve got enough to deal with. Strange country, strange people, unknown areas. Why add to the mix by having something else to worry about?

But then again, I''ve been robbed and ripped off half-a-dozen or more times.

Wow, Richard I''m sorry to hear that. Being robbed once is bad enough. It''s not just losing the things--it''s scary and you feel violated even if you weren''t there (burglary). When they make you take stuff off and give it to them, or snatch a handbag or a necklace on the run, that''s even worse.

After being robbed just once you get crazy careful. I always wish people would be careful though, without the awful experience.

I assume Amethyste has gone to Europe by now. I hope she has a great time. That''s quite a ring she has--a once in a lifetime find. I''ve loved it since I first saw it. It''s huge, but simple and elegant anyway, which is unusual, and blingy, but refined. It just looks like a rich lady ring--rich lady as in ''this was passed down in my family; I''m an aristocrat''. I love the yellow color, too. I can understand NEVER wanting to take that off, I really can.

 

[Amethyste]

Date: 8/26/2009 12:50:34 PM
Author: Black Jade

Date: 8/25/2009 8:31:13 PM

Author: Richard Sherwood

I like to keep it low key when I''m traveling.


You''ve got enough to deal with. Strange country, strange people, unknown areas. Why add to the mix by having something else to worry about?


But then again, I''ve been robbed and ripped off half-a-dozen or more times.

Wow, Richard I''m sorry to hear that. Being robbed once is bad enough. It''s not just losing the things--it''s scary and you feel violated even if you weren''t there (burglary). When they make you take stuff off and give it to them, or snatch a handbag or a necklace on the run, that''s even worse.


After being robbed just once you get crazy careful. I always wish people would be careful though, without the awful experience.


I assume Amethyste has gone to Europe by now. I hope she has a great time. That''s quite a ring she has--a once in a lifetime find. I''ve loved it since I first saw it. It''s huge, but simple and elegant anyway, which is unusual, and blingy, but refined. It just looks like a rich lady ring--rich lady as in ''this was passed down in my family; I''m an aristocrat''. I love the yellow color, too. I can understand NEVER wanting to take that off, I really can.

there BlackJade! I am still here and on my last hours before I am flying out Checking the board for a little of relaxation before the hectic brouhaha... You pretty much nailed it when you said "I can understand NEVER wanting to take that off, I really can." That''s pretty much how I feel, I dont want to take it off, when I dont have it on my finger for more than 5 mins, I miss it... I don''t have a safe at home and not one at the bank, so I''ll be taking it with me on my trip. If I am unsure about an area, i''ll leave it at my inlaws, they have a safe there. I am not going to the beach or anything like that, I am going to a family reunion and we''ll be all together doing stuff around hamburg. In switzerland we are going to be in remote areas like Bern and Interlaken, so the most we''ll see are probably going to be lots of cows! I think I''ll be fine on this trip with Lemony, but if I went elsewhere I''d probably wouldnt bring it with me. There is always the option to turn the ring inward if I feel I should.

Thank you so much for the nice words about my ring... I really love it too. Thank you for taking the time to write
Wishing you all a great rest of the week!

 

[LGK]

I've been mugged in "safe" cities in Europe too. Yeah, you don't wear a sign around your neck saying "tourist" but people who rob others for a living are very, very observant, and a 5 ct diamond isn't invisible. Tourists simply have different routines than locals. You're going to be in airports, carrying luggage, doing a lot of activities a local may not. (My DH & I were mugged on our honeymoon in Gare du Nord in Paris, at 3AM when we got off a train- I wasn't carrying anything valuable and all they got was my frigging *journal* and my makeup, which really ticked me off, but if I'd had my ring with, it would have been very, very gone.) I would never, ever travel anywhere with my good jewelry. Or even a fake. I just take it all off and suffer the bare fingers- and yes it is painful! It makes it all the more glorious to get your rings back on though.

The reason I would avoid a fake is that it looks real enough- no mugger's gonna know the difference between a CZ and a diamond on your hand. You could endanger yourself over a $20 ring. I almost got robbed for a couple of sterling rings in Africa, and was pretty lucky the guys just chased us for a while after telling me I was obviously "rich" since I had rings. Now I don't travel with *anything* on my fingers.

(And to developing countries? NEVER. My in-laws were mugged at machete point in Central America.)

Just isn't worth the risk. I feel your pain- I wear my ring 24/7 and *hate* prying it off my finger, but I do it to travel. And usually whine about it to whomever I'm travelling with- my mom's been the lucky one lately

I'd probably get a safety deposit box at the bank to put it in while traveling. Some banks do them free- B of A did for me.

 

[Black Jade]

Date: 8/26/2009 1:55:15 PM
Author: LittleGreyKitten
I''ve been mugged in ''safe'' cities in Europe too. Yeah, you don''t wear a sign around your neck saying ''tourist'' but people who rob others for a living are very, very observant, and a 5 ct diamond isn''t invisible. Tourists simply have different routines than locals. You''re going to be in airports, carrying luggage, doing a lot of activities a local may not. (My DH & I were mugged on our honeymoon in Gare du Nord in Paris, at 3AM when we got off a train- I wasn''t carrying anything valuable and all they got was my frigging *journal* and my makeup, which really ticked me off, but if I''d had my ring with, it would have been very, very gone.) I would never, ever travel anywhere with my good jewelry. Or even a fake. I just take it all off and suffer the bare fingers- and yes it is painful! It makes it all the more glorious to get your rings back on though.

The reason I would avoid a fake is that it looks real enough- no mugger''s gonna know the difference between a CZ and a diamond on your hand. You could endanger yourself over a $20 ring. I almost got robbed for a couple of sterling rings in Africa, and was pretty lucky the guys just chased us for a while after telling me I was obviously ''rich'' since I had rings. Now I don''t travel with *anything* on my fingers.

(And to developing countries? NEVER. My in-laws were mugged at machete point in Central America.)

Just isn''t worth the risk. I feel your pain- I wear my ring 24/7 and *hate* prying it off my finger, but I do it to travel. And usually whine about it to whomever I''m travelling with- my mom''s been the lucky one lately

I''d probably get a safety deposit box at the bank to put it in while traveling. Some banks do them free- B of A did for me.

It''s an evil world out there.
I don''t buy the argument that people rob people because they''re poor or ''disadvantaged''. I come from one of those poor, third world countries and people who have absolutely nothing can be very very generous--sharing the last little bit that they have. They can also be greedy and envious and criminal. The same with rich people. Some are very giving--and some are like Bernie Madoff, who I don''t think was disadvantaged by anybody''s standards. Osama bin Ladin is also from an extremely wealthy family.
I think that there''s more thievery when people think/know they can get away with it. from living in the inner city, I can tell you that police think it''s so hopeless down there that they get a whole different attitude after a while, and don''t come quickly to the scene of a crime, sometimes don''t come at all, often aren''t CALLED at all. So the bad people know they can get away with what they do. I think it''s the same with tourists getting attacked. There''s a good chance that they''ll move on to another city and not really prosecute/give evidence--a very good chance they don''t know the language and can''t explain what happened to them, and then they do things like get lost and wander into the less savory areas of town, or are innocent about the prevailing scams--
Amethyste sounds like she''s going to be around a lot of family, which should be really helpful.
It really sucks getting robbed on the first day of your honeymoon! I''m so sorry that that happened.
I hope that no one is so scared by these bad stories that they don''t want to travel. Some of my best experiences in my life were travelling as a woman alone and living in both europe and Asia when I was in my early twenties. There are so many thing I''m so glad I saw and other things I''m so glad I learned and experienced.
I bought a lot of great jewelry in Asia at that time. Pearls and coral and pieces in 24k gold that I still treasure.
there are websites out there nowadays that look very helpful with telling you about the mores and customs of places you might want to go to, and especially telling you how to dress and behave as a woman in many foreign countries. There are a LOT of places out there where you can''t walk around in the short shorts you might wear at home in the U.S. (where that would actually be a worse thing than wearing a diamond, even a big diamond) but where if you have on, say, a long-sleeved tunic and loose pants and keep on the beaten track, you can have a great time.

 

[drk]

My ring is certainly not as impressive as yours, but I''ve never felt unsafe traveling in places like Germany or Switzerland with it. I have left it hidden at home while on trips to Morocco, South America etc. Places where there''s more poverty than western Europe or North America. In fact, since I live in Toronto, I''d actually say I feel safer wearing my ring overseas than I do at home.
With that being said, DH and I definitely do not look like people with money when we travel. Jeans and a t-shirt. I wear my gold cross, but no other jewelry than my rings. He''s got the fancy camera, but other than that we probably look like aging students who have nothing worth stealing anyhow.
I''d imagine a lot of people would not even believe that your ring is a yellow diamond. Spin it around if you''re in a shadier area of town, but I think you can probably bet you''ll be darn safe.