For the last few days, I have been fighting a bout of flu, and I thought it was a great time to write about staying healthy while travelling.
When you travel, you are really prone to pretty much same risks as back home. Well, there are some differences, of course, usually in shape of ahigher risk of food poisoning, but generally, staying healthy and accident-free is in your hands. Just like everywhere, you could trip and break your arm, get an infectious disease, eat something nasty or bang your head and get a concussion. All the regular things that do happen in our fast-paced and overpopulated world, can happen wherever you are in it.
With regards to accidents, the biggest difference you will notice between your home country and pretty much every third world place is the driving. It ranges from utterly insane in India or Vietnam, for instance, to moderately deranged like Italy or Russia. And yes, accidents do happen. When taking taxi or a private car, you don’t need me to tell you to fasten seat belts, even if locals don’t do it and smirk at you for being a wimp. Generally, due to bad roads, at least speeds in most of the world aren’t as high as on your autobahn or an interstate highway. Although there are exceptions, of course. Basically, driving and being in a car is probably your single most dangerous environment while traveling. Except, of course, when you are on a motorbike, which is way worse. And you will end up on a motorbike, either as a passenger or a driver, pretty much on any trip to South-East Asia. One glance at a traffic in Ho Chi Minh City or Jakarta should be enough to dissuade anyone from riding it, but very soon, you would realize that you have little choice as that is the main mode of transportation.
In most of the world you will not find too many warning signs or fences near dangerous places such as cliffs, sinkholes, beaches with rip tides and so on. I don’t necessarily see it as a bad thing – sometimes we in the developed countries are kind of babied by authorities petrified of excessive litigation. Most of the world doesn’t have as many lawyers as, say, the US, hence you would see far fewer warnings.
If you do get injured in an accident, the good news is that most doctors and clinics in foreign countries are way cheaper than in the US or Europe. The bad news is that they might still try to take a foreigner to the cleaners, therefore it’s not a bad idea to have a travel insurance. They are not that expensive and might save your butt when you fall backwards on it somewhere overseas. Same if you get sick, which can easily happen, especially in those enchanted tropical destination. The are lots of diseases out there, but fortunately, your chances of getting them are pretty slim if you religiously do 2 things:
- Always keep a hand desinfectant in your hand bag, pocket of day pack and use it before any meal or before you touch your face for any reason.
- Use an insect repellent regularly in places where insects are prevalent. And at night, because a lot of those insects, especially mosquitoes, are less active during the day.
I rarely read all those health warnings about specific countries unless there is an unusual epidemic going on, such as Zika or whatever. That probably still wouldn’t prevent me from visiting a place, but I might take some specific medicine if it’s available. However, I’m not one of those hypochondriacs who carry their medicine cabinet with them on each trip. If you need a medicine, there are pharmacies all over the world where you can buy anything you need, and way cheaper than back home.
If you are going to be away from civilization, for example, on a multi-day jungle trek, make sure your guide has some basic medicines with him. And better yet, take your own medications. Some live by the motto “better safe than sorry”, and I suppose there’s a certain sense in it. The ailment that will most likely affect you in lots of countries, particularly India, is stomach flu, or travelers diarrhea, also known as the Delhi belly, and it will happen to you in India with a 90% probability. But don’t worry, no matter how miserable you feel and how afraid you are that you would die in your hotel bed and nobody will tell your mama, it will likely pass in about 24 hours. Just remember to hydrate, and not with the tap water, for chrissake – never in India! The best source of electrolyte is coconut juice, or anything with sugars in it, even a Sprite. And of course, bottled water. In India, you need to make sure your bottled water is, in fact, factory bottled. Always flip the bottle upside down and squeeze it to make sure the cap is sealed, and once you are done with the bottle, do your fellow travellers a favour and puncture the bottle with anything sharp to prevent repeated use.
Be very careful with the street food; generally speaking, anything fried or boiled is OK, but especially in India, any juice or liquid that involves ice should be avoided as where do you think the ice comes from? Correct, you have no idea. Same applies to curries or spicy food. Spices are a great way to masque bad quality or otherwise funky meat, so do watch out.
Malaria is probably one tropical disease you should be at least aware of before you go to certain countries. This is a nasty disease. It’s unlikely to hit you in cities or high-elevation areas, but if you are taking a trip to the jungle, it is a wise idea to protect yourself from mosquitos fanatically. Creams, nets, sprays – use whatever you prefer, and use liberally. There are plenty of other mosquito-borne ailments, so it’s wise to be protected. There are various anti-malaria medications available, too, but almost all of them involve a course of treatment that needs to start some time before your trip and usually, finish quite some time after, so it’s up to you if you want to get started on that or not. My advice is read up online about pros and cons of such treatments, and if you get too paranoid, perhaps a jungle trek is not for you. By the way, make sure you watch out for snakes when walking in the jungle. A friend of mine got bitten by a venomous snake on a trek in Colombia and nearly died as she had to be transported by mules to the nearby small town’s hospital. She was fortunate the snake was young and did not have as much venom as an adult one. You’ve been warned!