Welcome home!
Personally I swear by my hard case suitcase. I've had it for 5 years now and my stuff is so much safer for it (compared to pre hard case travelling days). Still no need to trow luggage around like that!
I swear by suitcase locks, and keeping valuables in hand luggage. Welcome back to the country btw!
I'm backpacking and a knackered old rucksack doesn't ever seem to get pilfered from - the assumption seems o be that all it contains is dirty laundry.
A lot of airports (most of them, in fact) in Asia will wrap security tape around all the clasps on checked-in luggage so it's immediately apparent if it's been opened in any way.
And don't padlock your suitcases if you're flying into/out of the US. A friend was warned about this and locked his anyway (about 3 years ago). This apparently screams "bomb" and the locks were cut off and his case very messily gone through by security, some of his stuff damaged.
Paranoid feckers.
Commenting by HaloScan
