March 25th, 2006 | The lowdown by Gordon Candelin

Bag Snatching in Phnom Penh.

Petty crime does not seem to affect tourists to Phnom Penh the way it does in a lot of other capitals, except in one regard: bag snatching.

The scenario is this - you're riding along on the back of a moto taxi with your purse/handbag/backpack over one shoulder. Before you know it, you're being dragged along the asphalt until you have the presence of mind to let go of your bag, which is harder than you think when a split second before you were wondering which bar to visit.

I have known many people this has happened to, and have personally witnessed it on one occasion, and it's truly flabbergasting to behold.

The very simple yet often unheeded solution: wear a bag with a strap that is long enough to go diagonally across your chest. If you have a backpack, make sure it is over both shoulders.

You shouldn't be traveling around with a bag barely big enough to hold a cellphone anyway.

Foreigners don't seem to be targeted more than locals, but it does seem to happen quite a bit around the BKK area (Pasteur, streets 63 and Sihanoukville Blvd) which has a lot of bars popular with tourists and expats.