We were lucky enough that neither of us experienced any debilitating illnesses during the trip outside of some occasional fatigue and stomach aches. While we can’t be sure exactly why we were so lucky, there were a few basic precautions we took that we feel contributed to our success in the health department:
Happy Birthday to me..
Wash your hands with soap and water. It sounds so simple and even juvenile, but, Chris formerly worked in an after school-day care for kids while in undergrad, and learned that most people don’t wash their hands correctly. To effectively wash your hands, you need to use soap on them for a full 15 seconds. While this doesn’t sound like a long time, when you’re actually doing it, it feels like forever. Amazingly, the trick is to sing the happy birthday song to yourself while you wash your hands. This ensures you will spend the right amount of time and it serves as a little, personal childish joke. Doing this one simple thing with standard soap kills almost 100% of all the germs that make people sick. We probably sang happy birthday to ourselves hundreds of times.
Wash your hands with soap and water. It sounds so simple and even juvenile, but, Chris formerly worked in an after school-day care for kids while in undergrad, and learned that most people don’t wash their hands correctly. To effectively wash your hands, you need to use soap on them for a full 15 seconds. While this doesn’t sound like a long time, when you’re actually doing it, it feels like forever. Amazingly, the trick is to sing the happy birthday song to yourself while you wash your hands. This ensures you will spend the right amount of time and it serves as a little, personal childish joke. Doing this one simple thing with standard soap kills almost 100% of all the germs that make people sick. We probably sang happy birthday to ourselves hundreds of times.
Floss like you've never flossed before
Has anyone ever been to the dentist and been told they are flossing the correct amount? Probably not, but we likely got really close on this trip. We flossed and brushed our teeth at every opportunity we could find. In addition, we brought battery operated UV toothbrush cases to ensure that our toothbrushes were always germ free before use. Dental hygiene is huge when you’re body is not adapted to the world around you. We also made sure to brush our teeth with bottled water to be extra safe.
H2O
Bottled water. Not just the fact that it’s bottled, just drink lots of it. Hydration is huge, when you’re travelling and lots of stuff can take it away from you (air travel, heat, heavy baggage, etc.). If you think you’re drinking enough, you’re not, drink more.
Bottled water. Not just the fact that it’s bottled, just drink lots of it. Hydration is huge, when you’re travelling and lots of stuff can take it away from you (air travel, heat, heavy baggage, etc.). If you think you’re drinking enough, you’re not, drink more.
Pack yourself a pharmacy
Listen to what you’re body is telling you. You’ll likely bring a small pharmacy with you, so you might as well use it. If you’re having trouble sleeping, pop a melatonin; if you stomach feels weak take one of your Imodiums; if you’re starting to feel itchy, grab a Benadryl. Basically at the first sign of anything take action. If you're feeling weak, take the day off and sleep. Again, while we can’t be sure that our proclivity for pre-emptive medication was effective at stopping whatever might have happened, we can assure you that the alternatives could have been disastrous. Remember that the meds you may need on the trip, may not be available in the countries you visit. Kate was having some stomach pains in India and so we ventured to a "chemist" for some meds. Not a great scenario to be in but we were able to get some safe pills (that we googled online) for Kate to take.
Protect Your Skin
Wear your sunscreen and bug repellent everyday, all day. After weeks of touring in Japan, China, and Cambodia, we didn't protect our skin the first day in Thailand and we paid for it. A quick dinner outside at our hotel left both of us with many many bug bites and forgetting the sunscreen our first day on a cloudy Thai beach left us (mostly Kate) with a bad burn for a week. This burn later started to bubble when mixed sweat from the India heat! Re-applying is key. After a monsoon rainstorm in Cambodia, we didn't re-apply our bug repellent and Kate immediately received multiple bug bites. And don't forget to wear a hat! This protects you from bug bites as well as sun spots.
To Party or to Tour?
Cut back on the alcohol. We weren't here to drink, we were here to tour. Alcohol can slow you down and to be honest, most of the countries we went to did not have great alcoholic drinks. Wine and beer didn't get anywhere close to good in Asia and liquor was always very expensive. We're not saying we didn't enjoy a drink over dinner but we definitely didn't make a night of it. It's also not safe to be drunk in a foreign country. Pickpocketers exist all over the world and by staying clear-headed we were able to keep a close eye on our belongings. (A side note to theft: remember that your passport is your most prized possession. At the end of the day, everything else is replaceable but you need your passport to get home.)
Listen to what you’re body is telling you. You’ll likely bring a small pharmacy with you, so you might as well use it. If you’re having trouble sleeping, pop a melatonin; if you stomach feels weak take one of your Imodiums; if you’re starting to feel itchy, grab a Benadryl. Basically at the first sign of anything take action. If you're feeling weak, take the day off and sleep. Again, while we can’t be sure that our proclivity for pre-emptive medication was effective at stopping whatever might have happened, we can assure you that the alternatives could have been disastrous. Remember that the meds you may need on the trip, may not be available in the countries you visit. Kate was having some stomach pains in India and so we ventured to a "chemist" for some meds. Not a great scenario to be in but we were able to get some safe pills (that we googled online) for Kate to take.
Protect Your Skin
Wear your sunscreen and bug repellent everyday, all day. After weeks of touring in Japan, China, and Cambodia, we didn't protect our skin the first day in Thailand and we paid for it. A quick dinner outside at our hotel left both of us with many many bug bites and forgetting the sunscreen our first day on a cloudy Thai beach left us (mostly Kate) with a bad burn for a week. This burn later started to bubble when mixed sweat from the India heat! Re-applying is key. After a monsoon rainstorm in Cambodia, we didn't re-apply our bug repellent and Kate immediately received multiple bug bites. And don't forget to wear a hat! This protects you from bug bites as well as sun spots.
To Party or to Tour?
Cut back on the alcohol. We weren't here to drink, we were here to tour. Alcohol can slow you down and to be honest, most of the countries we went to did not have great alcoholic drinks. Wine and beer didn't get anywhere close to good in Asia and liquor was always very expensive. We're not saying we didn't enjoy a drink over dinner but we definitely didn't make a night of it. It's also not safe to be drunk in a foreign country. Pickpocketers exist all over the world and by staying clear-headed we were able to keep a close eye on our belongings. (A side note to theft: remember that your passport is your most prized possession. At the end of the day, everything else is replaceable but you need your passport to get home.)
At the end of the day, the answer is, of course, that there is nothing you can do to 100% protect yourself from getting sick, but these are really easy things to do that can only help your odds.
(Note: please excuse formatting on this blog. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't fix it. )
(Note: please excuse formatting on this blog. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't fix it. )
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