Tips to Avoid Traveller’s Diarrhoea

Nobody wants to get hit with traveller’s diarrhoea, whether it be their own or somebody else’s. Really, it ain’t a laughing matter.

Fortunately,  there are several steps we can take to avoid doing the most unwelcome step of all:  The Colorado Quickstep.

Right, I’ve run out of diarrhoea gags.

Here are some travel tips to help you stay road-fit and avoid the squits.

Pick your Beverage Carefully

As a rule, the following should generally be safe to drink: Commercially bottled water with an unbroken seal, hot drinks made with vigorously boiled water, wine and beer in their original containers (phew), and canned or bottled fizzy drinks.

Always Check the Seals

Ensure the seal on bottled water is intact. It’s not unheard of for more unscrupulous vendors to refill empty water bottles with tap water.

Wipe Around the Lid
Before you drink or pour from any can or bottle, give the lid a good wipe around. Bottles and cans may have been sat in melting ice and water in a cooler bin – this is quite common practice among beach and roadside vendors.

Drink from Original Containers
Any non-disposable crockery (basically anything that can and probably has been washed) could you more at risk. To be ultra safe, consider them unsanitary and use new, clean straws. Better still, stick to original cans or bottles where possible.

Kill Bacteria
If you are uncertain of your water yet that is all there is, boil vigorously (for at least 5 minutes) to purify it. If obtaining either bottled or boiled water is completely out of the question, use both a filter and iodine tablets on your water source.

Don’t be Cool
Avoid ice unless you are certain of its source. In addition, steer clear of fruit juice and drinks made with tap water (such as cordial and real lemonade) to further reduce the risk of suffering from a dose of the squits.

Bathroom Protocol
Use bottled water to clean your teeth and rinse your brush, and keep your mouth shut when showering!

Consider Every Meal
When we think of food poisoning, we usually think of dodgy meat – but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Steer clear of foods that need to be rinsed or washed in water, such as raw fruits and vegetables with the skin on, and salads. Similarly, consider whether dairy products have been pasturized. Meat-wise, those prone to travel bugs should only eat meat, poultry and fish if they’re certain it’s been well-cooked and is still piping hot. Always cut it open and give it the once-over before consuming.

Stick to Popular Places
Zero in on popular restaurants and busy stalls since they have a higher turnover of food and are less likely to have produce sitting around (and breeding nasties) for lengthy periods. An eatery or stall buzzing with locals should provide a visual vote of confidence.

In Summary
If you can’t boil it, cook it, or peel it then forget it. Committing this simple rule to memory will help you avoid an unnecessary bout of Montezuma’s Revenge.

Why the World is my Bottle Opener

Recently, I wrote an article on Swiss Army Knives and Leatherman tools, and how I felt they were highly overrated. I backed up this boldly irreverent claim with a few examples of how obstacles encountered on the road can be overcome without the trusty tool. All we need is a little creativity and ingenuity.

Of course, not everyone agreed – which is totally understandable – and I thank everyone who took the time to comment and provide their own take and help make the article infinitely more balanced.

Anyway, one scenario in the post briefly touched upon the opening of beer and wine bottles. Although I mentioned a few items that can use to open beer bottles, I failed to illustrate exactly how they are used. So, for those folks wanting to learn a little more about this fundamental road-skill, I’m proud to present the following clips:-

This first one shows how to open a bottle of beer with that dual purpose lighter

How To Open A Beer Bottle With One Move

 

…Wondering how else you can do it? Here are a just a few of the other ways…It’s an inspiration!

Beer Opener

10 Tips for a Better Travel Experience

Hitting the road once will change your life forever. Fact. You will become more adaptable and thinking on your feet will become second nature. Confidence and self belief will blossom as you overcome the trials and tribulations engendered by life on the road, and you will evolve. Interaction with others, from all walks of life, will become a daily event. The people you meet and the situations you encounter, both good and bad, will slowly begin to define you. Some days may be magical, others may be tough - but each day will leave its mark, and the cumulative effect is life changing.

Whether you travel for a month, a year, or ten years, you will be in for an experience like no other. But pause for a moment and ask yourself: - could it be even better?

Here are ten ways to enhance your travel experience.

Go Slow - You’ve quit your job or got time off work, flown half way around the world, and are now desperately eager to see first hand everything you’ve read and dreamed about. It’s human nature to not want to ‘miss out’ on anything. But by racing though too many countries in a given time you may miss out on so much more. Not only will you learn less about the places you’ve longed to visit, but you will tire quickly and become travel weary. One or two nights in each place also spells out buses, trains or boats at least ever other day, and packing/unpacking will almost become a daily event. Tiring? I should coco.
With more time spent in fewer places you will begin to live in your new surroundings. The extra time in each place may encourage you to explore under your own steam as opposed to being shackled to a guidebook and its top ten tick off list. Worries about wasting time will not be an issue, leaving you free to go wandering and increasing the odds uncovering a lesser known delight.

{mosimage}Have Faith – Be a little more trusting. Everyone is not out to steal your money, or cheat you. Traveling with this unhealthy mindset will cause an individual to become detached, cynical, bitter, and an extremely poor ambassador for their country. Don’t be dismissive or rude when approached – after all, it’s nice to be nice.
Ok, occasionally an unsavory cookie may cross your path, but this can be dealt with upon realization; but, on the whole, those who approach you will fall into other categories: people like you and I wanting to make a living (and helping you with a service in the process), and those that are either curious or friendly (or usually both!) So, let the guard down a little and hear people out. Judge situations on their individual merits and sometimes be a Yes Man, you never know where it may lead.

Get Involved – Keep an eye out for opportunities where you can make a difference. We learn so much from those we meet and places we see, but all too often its one way traffic. Be ready to help others and try whenever possible to give something back. Play to your skills and experience, you may have something valuable to offer. Not only can it help others and boost your karma, but also increase opportunities for meeting people and seeing things from a different perspective.

Learn the Lingo – Even just the basics will lay the foundation for a better experience. ‘Pleases’ and ‘thank you’s go a long way, and, even if they are not delivered correctly or understood, they show that you are willing to make the effort and convey a respect toward the people you meet. If nothing else it will raise a smile or two, and that’s always a bonus. Furthermore, if you still need encouragement to obtain a phrase book, a little of the local lingo may get you a better price for transport, accommodation, and the little knick-knacks you simply can’t pass up.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles – Or should that be Chicken buses, Tuk-Tuks, and Becaks? We endeavor to taste all the local delicacies, so why not sample all the local modes of transport, too? Ok, the rail system may be the preferable method of travel for a given country, but find out for yourself why. Furthermore, even if the bus station is in walking distance from your accommodation, throw monetary caution to the wind at least once by splashing out 50 cents for the local equivalent of a Becak (Indonesian Pedal Power) or Moto (Cambodian Motorbike Taxi) to get you there. For those that are still concerned with value for money, I say sit in the front bucket of a Vietnamese Cyclo and get taken across a busy Saigon intersection – for the price of one beer you will have a vision etched in your mind for all eternity. Then, for the hardcore thrill seekers amongst you, invite your Cyclo Jockey to sit in the seat of death while you peddle him across the intersection…

Embrace the Weird and Wonderful - Don’t pass up a chance to try something a little out of the ordinary, be it new food, local customs, children’s games, or anything else. Chew betelnut (torrents of red saliva, anyone?) with little old ladies in Borneo, play Trompo (simple spinning tops) with kids in El Salvador, and cough and choke on samples of savage tobacco from Javanese street vendors. Get into the swing of it and make someone’s day.

Stay Alert – Little can ruin a trip and taint your view of a country and its populous more than being careless with your belongings and learning the hard way. Opportunist theft is a fact of life, but you can reduce the risk by remaining aware of both your surroundings and belongings and not playing into the minority’s hands.

Be a One Bag Wonder – Travel light, travel happy. Cut down on your belongings and life will become so much simpler. Firstly, it makes the mechanics of getting from A to B easier and less stressful. Easier because it’s less weight to be humping around between transport and accommodation and also less size and weight to be swinging around within the confines of a densely populated bus. It becomes less stressful because the smaller your luggage is, the less likely it is that you will be separated from it during journeys– and, judging everybody else by my own pitifully low standards, the less there is of it to forget or lose! In addition, it’s more likely you will be let on an already packed out bus if you have less baggage. This doesn’t ring true in Guatemala however, as you can always fit one more person on the bus, no matter how full it already is. Of course, travelling with more than one bag can have some benefits…

Walk the Path Less Trodden – Now that you have extra time on your hands in each destination, why not explore a little? Getting off the beaten path doesn’t have to mean single handedly paddling a handmade dugout canoe 500 miles through the Amazonian Basin, it could be something as simple as forsaking the guidebook recommends for the day and instead scrounging a map or fliers and going for an aimless wander in a new city. Some of my best discoveries have resulted from doing just this.
Great sources of info include Tourist Information Offices (although, where available, they vary immensely in quality), What’s On guides, local newspapers, handouts, fliers, and, of course, fellow travelers, to name but a few. Spending less time in the well known and ‘popular’ hangouts will also do your budget a big favor, too.

Keep a Journal – Writing reams of pulp isn’t for everyone, but it doesn’t have to be that way. A journal can mean many different things to different people. It could be a full scale daily diary or simply a child’s notebook from the market in which you put labels from local beer bottles (possibly with drunken scribblings below) – the choice is yours. For the geeks among us (me included) there is the option to travel blog, and for the lazy geeks among us (again, me included) it’s even easier to cut and paste excerpts from emails home to friends and family and keep those as your journal.
Whatever form your personal creation may take, the end result is the same. Long after your memory has faded there will be this well thumbed Opus, this testimony of your travels, waiting to take you once more through this wonderful chapter of your life.

Avoiding the Shower Menace: Tips For Travelers, not Inmates

 

Continuing the current dangers of foreign travel theme, I feel compelled to share with you a common yet lesser documented danger.

I recently posted an article about a certain transport dilemma in Bolivia , and swiftly followed up by questioning the accuracy of cautionary ‘CYA’ captions pasted in so many of our guidebooks . In essence, I asked if it’s prudent to blindly follow these warnings to the letter without first conducting our own additional, independent research on so-called danger hotspots.

One would think with so many excessive warnings and cautions, Guidebook authors would have had all bases covered, so to speak, a long time ago. But no, it seems that the travel penmen (and ladies) have been whipped up into such a frenzy conveying the risks of Bilharzia and Bear Attacks that they have tended to overlook another (arguably more prevalent) danger associated with foreign travel. We are talking electrics, or, to be more precise, dodgy electrics.

We would do well to remember that not all countries have the same prohibitively stringent electrical regulations as, for instance, the US or the UK. And, as an ex-electrician and regular traveler, I can vouch for this. To list every form of electrical danger would take a lot more time than I am willing to spend on such a subject, so instead I shall cut straight to the main offender – the budget hot shower.

Hardcore backpackers need not worry, as cold water versions obviously present no immediate dangers other than slimy floors and the odd leech. Flashpackers and luxury travelers may also rest easy as the extra dollars they are willing to fork out could well afford them an adequately funded, safe installation within their guesthouse or hotel. It’s the in-betweenies that more often than not fall foul of this phenomenon. Those that spend the minimum necessary to upgrade from torrents of cold water to trickles of hot water in backpacker flophouses should be very, very afraid. Well, if I were to heed my own advice about sensationalism in the second paragraph, they should at least a little concerned…

Remember that, as with most things, you get what you pay for and in this instance you may well get an additional surprise. When opting to crash in a budget flophouse, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that one may encounter a budget installation or two.

But don’t let this put you off the odd treat altogether. If its hot water that you want in the mornings, then go for it – but do exercise caution.

Rule number 1 is don’t fiddle with any setting on the shower head with the electric on, the water running, and you underneath it. Rule number 2 is don’t fiddle with any setting on the shower head with the electric on, the water running, and you underneath it. In theory it should be safe, but that’s not always the case.

If the shower does become a little more invigorating that you had anticipated, then be sure to (politely) let the proprietor know afterwards. They simply may not be aware of the problem, and may rectify it before someone else gets the same treatment in days to come. Even if managers don’t do anything about it, it’s not because they haven’t been made aware, and you can rest easy knowing that you have done your bit for future guests. Karma.

Alternatively, if after reading this you subsequently get spotted in the shower wearing nothing but rubber gloves and a big, cheesy smile, then all you need do is claim that you are simply safeguarding yourself against yet another danger associated with foreign travel.

Stay clean, stay safe, and have fun. Adios.