Let me explain.

For years, I’ve pared down my travel kit with the obsessiveness of a hoarder, but in reverse. It started when I was traveling the Caribbean and Mexico for two weeks every month. I decided to shave my head. This was partly out of comfort since no hair means less heat retention, but it also meant I could pack less in my toiletries bag (no more shampoo or giant cans of Aquanet!).

I bought solid sunscreen sticks instead of lotions and roll-on insect repellent instead of spray.

I started packing only a sliver of emergency soap on the off-chance that my hotel didn’t have any (rare). But, for the most part, I relied on my hotel’s free bath products. And I got by just fine.

But, I still had to pack liquid toothpaste. Which really put a crimp in the goal of downsizing my liquids. This is important because, frankly, the fewer liquids I carry on, the more room I have in my tiny, TSA-approved Ziploc bag for bottles of bourbon. Amiright?

Then, I found out about The Dirt — a non-liquid “Trace Mineral Tooth Brushing Powder.” So, of course, I disappeared down the rabbit hole to find out what the hell powdered toothpaste was. I read way more reviews and science and the Wikipedia page for “bentonite clay” than any person should need to read in a lifetime.

Then I bought some. This is what I’ve found so far …

The Dirt Tooth Powder Review

The Skinny on The Dirt Powdered Toothpaste

So … what is it? The company describes The Dirt tooth powder as:

The company goes on to say that it’s:

• Easy to use
• 100% Natural Ingredients
• Fluoride-free
• Naturally whitening
• A little goes a long way! Up to 6 months of servings in one large jar.
• Tastes great naturally (no GMO-derived Xylitol)
• No corn, soy or gluten

That’s all stuff my teeth like to hear!

What’s In It?

I opted for the Super Mint flavor which contains only all-natural ingredients including:

The Traveler’s Take

How Do You Use It?

I was skeptical that dipping a damp toothbrush in a jar full of fine powder would result in a sticky, gunky mess. But, it’s surprisingly clean and straightforward to use.

You wet your toothbrush and tap off the excess water. Then, dip the damp bristles into the jar of The Dirt. Finally, tap off the excess powder and brush as normal.

I expected it to feel gritty like trying to dry-brush with sidewalk chalk. But the natural moisture in your mouth is enough to make it feel like you’re brushing with regular, non- powdered toothpaste. It’s not quite as silky smooth as toothpaste, maybe 80% as smooth. The difference is negligible.

How Does It Taste?

In a word: delicious! After my first use, I realized just how chemically most commercial toothpaste tastes. The Super Mint flavor of The Dirt has a smooth, subtle mintiness that doesn’t feel like it’s carpet-bombing my mouth with CRISPMINTYFRESHNESS!!! to get it clean.

By comparison, the Sensodyne I’ve been using for a few years has a slightly astringent mouthfeel. Like it’s working a little too hard to get my teeth and mouth clean.

The Dirt Tooth Powder Dentist Reviews

Like I said, I read way too much about this. I should, right? Since I’m considering abandoning the 100% ADA-approved fluoride-rich brand-name toothpaste I’ve been using for years. I wanted to hear what dentists had to say.

Most of the reviews and interviews with dentists pointed out two main things. First, the primary active ingredient in The Dirt is bentonite clay. It’s a time-tested, all-natural substance. “The real benefit of bentonite clay is that it is abrasive enough to remove the plaque, but not so much so that it will do damage to your enamel,” William Graves, DMD told Self magazine.

To get scientific: silica is a common abrasive used in many brand-name kinds of toothpaste. While tooth enamel is in the middle of the Mohs Hardness Scale at a 5, silica is a 7 (talc hits 1 on the scale, 10 is for diamonds). Clays such as bentonite score around 2 on the hardness scale, making them much less abrasive than silica and unlikely to ever damage tooth enamel. This is, of course, a good thing.

BUT, The Dirt is intentionally free of fluoride. According to the American Dental Association, this is a vital component to help protect your mouth against cavities. It’s been proven to remineralize weak spots in tooth enamel. A spokesperson for the ADA, Dr. Kim Harms, told Yahoo, “The number one big star, the ingredient that can reduce 25 percent of cavities, is fluoride. That’s what you always want to look for in your toothpaste.”

In an interview with Yahoo Beauty, makers of The Dirt countered, “We eschew fluoride in our products, as one of our core beliefs in maintaining good health is to source the nutrition your body needs from whole foods, minerals, and herbs.” They went on to cite European countries like Denmark, Holland, and Sweden tap where water has never been treated with fluoride.

So, fluoride works. Anyone who knows what they’re talking about in the dental world agrees that it works. But, at what cost?

The Dirt Tooth Powder: Before and After

I’ve always taken good care of my teeth: brushing daily, flossing (most of the time), and making sure not to drink too much coffee. Still, the whiteness of my teeth has faded over time. So, I’m not expecting teeth-whitening miracles from using The Dirt. I’m just hoping that it helps.

As for the all-important “before and after” shots … check back in about a month. I’ve only just started using The Dirt, so it’s too early to tell how much of a difference it will or won’t make.

Buy The Dirt Tooth Powder

The Dirt Tooth Powder isn’t cheap. A six-month jar direct from The Dirt website is about $30.

But, if you only want to try it and you’re not ready to commit that much, you can score a small travel size jar of this tooth powder on Amazon for far less.

Bestselling Alternatives

Have You Tried The Dirt Tooth Powder?

What was your experience with it?

If not, would you try an all-natural powdered toothpaste like The Dirt? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Why I Brush My Teeth With ‘Dirt’ When I Travel appeared first on Vagabondish.

We combed CDC Travel and other health resources to gather a list of diseases and the most common travel illnesses, and all the reasons why you want to avoid them.

The Most Common Travel Illnesses

#1: Cholera

Forgive me for feeling that this disease sounded romantic when Gabriel Garcia Marquez included it in the title of his novel Love in the Time of Cholera — it is actually pretty nasty. You might pick it up in many parts of Africa and Asia, but it can occur anywhere with poor sanitation. You don’t want cholera because you’ll end up with diarrhea, vomiting, and fever, and it has the potential to be fatal, too.

Jabs are all well and good but the usefulness of the cholera vaccine is disputed — some experts say its effectiveness is only 50%. Since you pick up the cholera bacteria from contaminated food and water, you should avoid uncooked food and unbottled water.

© Ross_Angus

#2: Tetanus

While tetanus is the kind of disease that could happen to you anywhere, the highest number of reported incidences are in places like India and countries in central Africa. Tetanus is also called lockjaw for a good reason — it affects your nervous system and makes your muscles spasm and seize up.

But the good news about tetanus is that the vaccine is perfect. As long as you have your booster every ten years. Even in the United States, five people still die every year from tetanus, so it’s worth getting the jab even if you’re not planning to travel soon.

#3: Typhoid

Don’t ask me why, but typhoid has always sounded really dark and tragic to me. What I hadn’t realized is that it’s actually caused by the salmonella bacteria, and is transmitted if you consume food or water that’s been contaminated by the feces of an infected person. Nasty. It’s most commonly contracted in India and parts of Asia, Africa, and South America.

Typhoid is a disease that might hit you suddenly, but then develops slowly — you’ll get a fever, and after a week or so you might become delirious. In the vast majority of cases, it isn’t fatal, and the vaccine is also reasonably effective.

© jurvetson

#4: Dengue Fever

Once you know that dengue fever has been nicknamed break-bone fever or bonecrusher disease, you know it’s something you want to avoid. The initial fever is made worse by a headache, muscle and joint pains along with a really unattractive rash.

Dengue fever is most commonly found in tropical areas and parts of Africa. It’s a bit scarier because it also occurs in more developed parts of the tropics, like Singapore or Taiwan. Mosquitoes spread this disease and there’s no commercial vaccine yet, so use a repellent and nets to avoid getting bitten.

#5: Hepatitis

The various incarnations of hepatitis are running there way through the alphabet, but travelers need to worry most about types A and B.

Hepatitis A is found in developing countries including India, Mexico, Latin America and parts of Africa and is a nasty infection of the liver. Symptoms include fever, nausea and jaundice for a week or up to several months, but it’s rarely fatal, and it is usually picked up from contaminated food and water or close contact with infected people.

Hep A’s big, bad brother Hepatitis B is found in similar regions, plus the Middle East and some Pacific Islands, and can lead to a whole heap of liver damage, cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Fortunately, it’s also harder to catch, as it’s usually transmitted only via blood, shared needles and body fluids. You have to plan ahead if you’re traveling to a Hepatitis B risk area because vaccinations must start over six months before you travel. And this one can kill you.

#6: Malaria

This is one of the trickiest diseases (and one of the most common travel illnesses) to deal with while traveling abroad. Most of the medication needs to be taken before, during, and after your trip, and some of it can have unpleasant side effects. These days, malaria is found in at least a hundred countries — the Center for Disease Control has quite a handy risk map to check your destination.

Malaria Control Sign © otisarchives2

You can catch malaria from a mosquito bite, so covering up against these nasties is a must along with taking medication. Symptoms including a fever and something similar to the flu; it’s not usually fatal, but it can be. Scientists are still working on a vaccine against malaria, and that’s something that would be a big benefit to travels if they figured it out successfully.

#7: Yellow Fever

Another mosquito-borne nasty is yellow fever. It’s among the most common travel illnesses, mostly found in the tropical parts of South America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Victims usually end up with jaundice, hence “yellow” fever. But while yellow fever can also kill you, it’s easier to prevent because the vaccination is nearly always effective, and only needs to be administered a couple of weeks before you travel.

#8: HIV / AIDS

While definitely not only a travelers’ disease, HIV is becoming a serious issue for travelers in Africa and South East Asia where it’s become scarily prevalent. Yet a lot of carriers don’t realize they have the virus. As a result, many of these people will remain untreated and consequently, die of AIDS.

Fortunately, reducing your risk of contracting HIV as a traveler is mostly a matter of common sense and taking care. Avoid casual sex, use your own, high-quality condoms if you have sex with someone you meet, don’t share needles or syringes or get a tattoo or piercing. Common sense, right?

#9: Japanese Encephalitis

Those mosquitoes are responsible for all manner of unfriendly diseases and Japanese encephalitis is definitely one to avoid. It affects the central nervous system, causing severe flu-like symptoms, and it can be fatal. The vaccine is quite effective, especially if you get the recommended two doses.

And contrary to the suggestion in its name, Japanese encephalitis isn’t limited to Japan at all — it’s most common in agricultural regions of countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Nepal and Malaysia. Again, cover up against mosquitoes if you’re traveling in these areas.

#10: Meningitis

Meningitis is another common travel illness/disease that’s not exclusively the province of travelers or the third world — it can occur, rarely, in Western countries too. However, the “Meningitis Belt” is an area stretching across Africa from Senegal to Ethiopia where it’s relatively common for large outbreaks of meningococcal meningitis to occur.

Meningitis usually comes from contact with, ahem, nose or throat discharges from someone who’s infected. This time you’ll also start with a fever, but usually progress to vomiting, a stiff neck and a bad purple rash. There are vaccinations available (but not against all kinds), or antibiotics can treat it. If you have suspicion of having meningitis, it’s the sort of thing you want to check out immediately — untreated cases are often fatal.

So, there you have it: the most common travel illnesses. If you get your shots before you travel, and you’re relatively careful on the road, the worst case scenario is usually just a minor version of these nasty diseases. But remember, I’m not a doctor, so check with yours before you head off into the danger zone.

For more info on the most common travel illnesses and foreign diseases, check out:

• CDC Yellow Book 2018: Health Information for International Travel
• CDC’s Travelers’ Health Resource
• The Travel Doctor
• World Health Organization’s International Travel and Health Report

The post These Are the 10 Nastiest Travel Diseases appeared first on Vagabondish.

If you’re heading anywhere with questionable tap water, this is something you need to think about. While I hate scaremongering when it comes to travel, water-related disease and illness (think cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis A) are a very real concern in many parts of the world.

Assuming you’d rather not go the bottled water route (which can get expensive, is extremely wasteful, and is not always available in parts of the world), here are five alternatives to purifying water while traveling.

Best Ways to Purify Water While Traveling

Portable UV Water Purifier

UV water purifiers are hands-down my preferred method to purify water while traveling. I travel with the SteriPen Ultra UV Water Purifier and, after several years, have zero complaints. It’s portable, lightweight, sturdy, and — the best part — it destroys more than 99.9% of viruses, bacteria, and protozoa.

If there’s a downside, it’s that UV water purifiers require batteries. Older SteriPen models relied on proprietary batteries that are difficult to find in more remote regions of the world. Thankfully, newer models like the Ultra are rechargeable via a USB cable that can be connected to any standard, powered USB outlet (like a wall, laptop, or spare battery pack).

How: For this water purifier, you simply push the only button on the unit, then swirl the UV bulb around the water until the timer stops. It doesn’t get much simpler. A smiley face pops onto the OLED screen if you’ve done it correctly, so you can feel a sense of accomplishment.

Survival Straws for Purifying Water While Traveling

A close second to the SteriPen Ultra … Ultra-lightweight survival straws are among the newest and best ways to purify water while traveling.

Among the many brands now available, LifeStraw is still my favorite — it’s less than $20 USD, filters a minimum of 99.9% of bacteria and protozoan pathogens, and lasts for up to 1,000 liters of contaminated water.

How: They function like a wide drinking straw — stick the business end into almost any water source and sip.

Purify Water with Chemicals

Although chemical purification covers a few different means of purifying water, I’m lumping them all into one method for simplification. Water purification tablets have been used by backcountry hikers for years. They’re cheap, portable, and effective. A 100-pack of Aquatabs, for example, is available via Amazon and they won’t leave your water tasting like chemicals.

The same can’t be said for bleach. It’s dirt-cheap, readily available, and extremely effective at killing nasty things in just about any water. But, it also leaves the water tasting, well, bleachy. Thankfully, you only need about two drops per gallon for it to effectively purify your water.

Boiling

If none of the above are available to you, the age-old method of boiling is one of the simplest and most effective ways of purifying water of any unwanted living organisms. This includes parasites, bacteria, and other pathogens.

You might wonder who the hell travels with pots and pans? GSI Outdoors makes great, lightweight, portable camp pots that are perfect for traveling. I pack their Halulite Boiler on every trip so I can make coffee and breakfast oatmeal no matter where I’m staying. (Incidentally, it also doubles as a place to safely store small, possibly fragile, souvenirs when I’m heading home)

How: Place your water in a heat-safe container (metal, ceramic, or glass will do) and boil over a high-heat source for ten minutes.

Distillation via a Solar Still

Distillation is the most effective means of purifying water when you have access to almost zero materials and you’re struggling to improvise. It’s more of a last-ditch, survival-style means of purifying water (if you’re in a life or death situation that would leave even Bear Grylls scratching his head). It’s time-consuming, difficult, and often yields little drinkable water. On the plus side, it purifies questionable water incredibly well.

How: It requires plenty of time, a tarp, digging a hole, a bunch of leaves, and a cut-off shirt like so:

The post Best Ways to Purify Water While Traveling: Filters, Purifiers, and More appeared first on Vagabondish.

I’ve long been a fan of SteriPEN’s compact water purifiers as they promise to kill more than 99.9% of harmful bacteria, viruses, and protozoa that cause water-borne illness. They’re ultra compact, well-designed, and rugged enough to withstand the rigors of long-term travel. Plus, it seems like every two years, they’re reinventing their (already great) products with even more features and portability. Their latest SteriPEN Ultra Water Purifier is by far my favorite such product to date.

The Skinny

In SteriPEN’s own words, the new Ultra promises:

The Traveler’s Take

The first thing I like is the overall design of the Ultra: it’s compact, lightweight, and solidly constructed from a sturdy plastic. It’s practically an afterthought to throw in your pack because it takes up so little room, but I rarely ever leave home without it. The company’s also taken a giant leap forward with the user-friendliness of the device. The new OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) screen relays the device’s info in a much clearer, more concise way.

As the video above indicates, use of the Ultra is dead simple: tap the power button, dip the lighted wand in your water (1L Nalgene bottles are ideal for this), and wait for the smiley face to appear on the OLED screen. Voila! Safe drinking water.

If there was one sticking point with past SteriPEN models, it was their lack of rechargeability. Many previous units relied on proprietary one-time-use batteries that didn’t last long and proved difficult to find in the places where you needed them most (Dominican Republic, I’m looking at you). The Ultra features a standard USB port and is rechargeable via a computer, outlet, or portable solar panel.

As a testament to how awesome the company is and how well they back their products, they even guarantee to replace the lamp bulb on any SteriPEN product that reaches its maximum number of uses (currently 8,000 one-liter treatments).

Pricing + Availability

Available now directly from SteriPEN for $99.95 USD (with free shipping).

The post SteriPEN Ultra UV Water Purifier Promises Safe Drinking Water on the Go appeared first on Vagabondish.

This is the life of a nomad and it’s something we’ve all dealt with. Being sick is part and parcel of this amazing lifestyle we’ve chosen. It’s happened to you before and it will happen again, so don’t be scared … be ready.

View to the Desert © Goats on the Road

There’s No Avoiding It!

Stop wasting your time and energy dreading your next debilitating illness and just get on with it.

No matter how careful you are, how many precautions you take or how you attempt to avoid illness, it’s going to come for you! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but travel and sickness go together like colds and The Price is Right, and there’s nothing you can do about it.

The best thing you can do is to not dwell on it beforehand. Have you ever noticed that the first person to get sick is always the person who doesn’t eat salad, wraps the remotes in their hotel room with plastic, and washes their hands twenty times a day? The more you focus on it, the more likely you are to get sick. Stop wasting your time and energy dreading your next debilitating illness and just get on with it.

You Don’t Want to Miss Out by Being Too Careful

If you were as careful as the WHO told you to be, you’d never eat fruits and vegetables, you wouldn’t get to sample delicious street foods, and you wouldn’t even be able to visit many of the countries in the world because they’re coloured red on the dreaded World Disease Map.

You can take precautions to stay healthy without being overly cautious. Wear mosquito repellant, sleep under a net and wear long sleeves at dawn and dusk to avoid mosquito borne illnesses. Don’t eat meat that has obviously been sitting in the sun all day. Rinse off vegetables or peel them whenever you can.

© Enrique Dans

If you do everything that’s recommended to avoid getting sick, you’ll end up missing out on some of the best parts of travel. If a stranger offers to cook you lunch in their home kitchen, don’t turn down the offer because the hygiene standards might be lower than you’d like. If you see a delicious BBQ on the side of the road, don’t pass it up because the meat is in a cooler rather than a fridge. And if you have the opportunity to sleep under the stars in the jungle, do it! Just put on some mosquito spray.

Everything Is Curable

Words like malaria, chikungunya and dengue fever have an ominous and chilling ring. Many people immediately think of endemics, death and plagues, but they are curable. These types of tropical illnesses are far worse than your average flu or cold, but they can still easily beaten.

Many people have died of malaria, but these are people who didn’t have the money or the means to see a doctor. Most deaths from tropical illnesses come from dehydration. People in small villages without access to fresh water often succumb to fevers and cold sweats, and after days of not drinking liquids, they perish.

This is a sad fact in the world, but it’s true. As a western traveller, you have money to see a doctor, so it’s unlikely that you will die from malaria, chikungunya or dengue. You’ll head to a clinic and they will put you on a saline drip. You’ll drink coconut water, take a whole range of pills, and feel better within a few days or a week. These ailments may have horrifying reputations, but in reality, they’re not much different from any other sickness you’ve had before.

© Goats on the Road

There Are Good Hospitals Everywhere

You may think that just because you’re in a developing nation, there are no proper hospitals, but you would be wrong. Almost every country has decent medical facilities. Even the poorest nations in Africa usually have access to good clinics. Unfortunately, many of the local people can’t afford them, but with your travel insurance you should be able to take your pick.

If you are in a place with no real health care, you can be transported somewhere with good facilities. You can find western doctors in almost every country on Earth, so don’t feel so stranded! You’re almost always close to good medical attention.

You Have Travel Insurance

Or at least, you should! Most travel insurance policies cover you for more than $500,000. Meaning that if you ever reach critical condition, you can be heli-lifted to a top of the line facility. You can visit any nation’s top hospitals and not have to worry about the bill. You can have world-class doctors and nurses waiting on you hand and foot … for free!

(Don’t have travel insurance yet? Click here to find out why so many long-term travellers use World Nomads.)

Beach Camping © Goats on the Road

You Can Handle It

You’re bound to get sick when you’re travelling, and while you can take precautions, there’s no reason to go overboard. Travel is all about stepping out of your comfort zone and having an adventure.

Getting sick is all part of it. You may dread getting a fever, but you’ll find that the longer you travel, the more you’ll start to wear your travel sickness tales like badges of honour. You’ve been there, done that, and you survived. Now it’s time to get back out there and enjoy the road.

The post Why You Should Never Be Scared of Getting Sick Abroad appeared first on Vagabondish.

But then … wham! You’ve picked up the flu, your body aches and your spine feels like its melting into the mattress. That’s when all you’ll want is to be safely ensconced in your comfort zone, in your old apartment with your ratty blanket, a fridge full of familiar food and a friend or family member to fuss over you. It’s horrible being sick on the road, and even worse when you’re travelling alone and on a budget.

Which is why it’s imperative to arm yourself first! Here’s how to take care of yourself as well as possible.

Remixed from original © Rodrigo Basaure

Seek Professional Advice

Evaluate the seriousness of the episode: If you think you’ve got a simple flu, fever or bad stomach, you should be good to travel in a day or two. If it’s possibly food poisoning or malaria or something more serious, make the right moves (while you can) to get yourself the treatment you need.

Make sure someone at home knows where to find you. Leave the phone numbers of your hotel with your family, and tell the concierge at the hotel whom to call in case of emergency.

Find a good doctor and get yourself checked into a hospital if necessary. You don’t want to be lying on your hotel room floor trying to explain to the cleaning lady that you need to be taken to hospital.

Park Yourself for A While

You might be on a super tight schedule and maybe you need to keep moving to stay within a budget. But this isn’t a time for considerations like this. When you’re ill, you’re going to need all your energy for healing and not for hefting backpacks onto your aching back. This is that emergency situation, that rainy day that you accounted for.

Tell your friends and loved ones that you’re going to stay in one place for a while, and then nestle in as deep as you can. This would be a good time to splurge on a hotel or motel room instead of camping. This is when you need heated (or cooled) rooms, a clean, easily accessible toilet, and a bed with a real pillow and mattress. You don’t want to be trying to light a fire from damp wood on a cold night when your head is splitting and your hands trembling from weakness.

© makelessnoise

Arm Yourself

This is a proactive tip, which means: do it before you fall ill. Make sure you have a fully-equipped medical kit, with not just Band-Aids and heat spray, but lozenges, rehydration salts, energy bars and menthol balms or rubs.

If you can, opt to stay in a place with room service, or at least a microwave, so you can heat up soups and tea for yourself.

Take the Essentials

When I have the flu at home, I’m usually perfumed with Vicks, dosed with my favorite cold meds, and hopped up on lemon tea, with a flurry of tissue trailing behind me.

If I’m travelling, I’ll make sure I carry the medicines I’m used to, the supplements and the ‘props’ I like to have that I’m not likely to find easily.

Go Local As Much As Possible

You might miss the chicken soup from your local deli and the mint-chocolate chip ice cream from the grocer next door to your house, but when you’re ill on the road, open your mind to other healing foods. (Yes, I count mint-chocolate chip ice cream as a healing food!).

A tasty chicken soup with lemongrass oil will open your breathing up just as well, and an exotic coconut ice cream will heal you just as fast.

A good trick is to find a wise old man or motherly old lady from amongst the locals, make your most pitiful puppy face and ask for their tips. Home remedies from back home may not work in the new climate and country you’re in, but a local remedy can usually be counted upon.

Just don’t go overboard with the spicy curries and fried cockroaches – you want to heal your stomach, not shock it into submission.

Eat Your Spinach, Popeye

Get your friendly doctor back at home to recommend a good, strong multivitamin to make you invincible. If your immunity is boosted all the way up, you’re less likely to fall prey to viruses picked up from the cute baby you sat next to on a train.

And ladies, they say that a woman’s immunity drops just before menstruation. It’s probably best to be extra careful at that point, whether you believe it or not.

© Sean McGrath

Guard Yourself

Don’t be a hero. If you see someone sniffling or coughing, or you think that wobbling green mystery meat is going to upset your stomach, get yourself out of harm’s way.

I’ve found that by cracking a joke about my own weak immune system, I avoid hurting feelings and get most people to laugh and understand when I tell them that I can’t share cutlery or accept a local delicacy.

Be a Good Patient

If you’re the kind of person to forget taking a dose of medicine after lunch, or if you think you might sleep past the time for your morning round of tablets, set an alarm on your phone. Make sure you finish a course of prescribed antibiotics, even if you feel better half-way through. Take the vitamin supplements that give you strength, even when you’re feeling as strong as usual.

Don’t tell yourself that you know better than the doctor – listen to him and you’ll be back on the road soon.

… But Don’t Trust Blindly

If your instinct tells you the medicines are not working right, if you think the language barrier got in the way of the doctor understanding what your ailment is – it’s okay to question it. Do a little research locally and find another doctor for a second opinion.

I would recommend reading up a little on the internet, but only if you can be practical and tell yourself you aren’t dying of all the diseases with the same symptoms you just typed in. I can’t, and usually spend my sick hours composing a tragic goodbye mail to my loved ones, until I feel better.

The rest of it is up to you. Change into your most comfy clothes, use your softest tee to blow your tender nose, pile the pillows up behind your head, order room service and watch a silly movie on TV. Whatever makes you better.

What do you like to do when you’re ill on the road? Share your tips with us below!

The post I Think I’m Dying! 9 Ways to Handle Being Sick on the Road appeared first on Vagabondish.

In 12 exercises deploying only body weight, a chair and a wall, it fulfills the latest mandates for high-intensity effort, which essentially combines a long run and a visit to the weight room into about seven minutes of steady discomfort ”” all of it based on science.

© The New York Times

The keys here are that it’s “based on science”, highly effective and (perhaps most important for travelers) completely portable. The latter meaning you need only a chair, a wall and yourself. No portable, water-filled dumbbells or trips to the alleged hotel “gym”.

One of the difficult things about the workout however is keeping yourself timed throughout the set. It’s an awful lot of “exercise for 30 seconds, rest for 10, exercise for 30, rest for 10 …” to keep track of. No surprise then that there’s a website and a bevy of mobile apps available to help you do just that.

The one we’re really digging though is The 7 Minute Workout iPhone app. It’s minimally designed with just the right amount of information, including videos for each exercise so you know you’re actually doing them right. What’s more: the voice prompts are spot-on. Hit the start button on your phone and you won’t need to look at it again for the entire seven-minute workout. The friendly, slightly British-sounding woman on the other end will simply guide you through each exercise+rest phase.

Pricing + Availability

Best part: it’s absolutely free and available now via UOVO.

The post Stay Healthy on the Road with The 7 Minute Workout App [iPhone] appeared first on Vagabondish.

Who wants to spend afternoons of your trip feeling groggy and completely out of it, only to be wide awake at four in the morning with nobody to talk to?

There is no end of tips for beating jet lag to be read on the internet, found in travel books or told to you by your mother. But do they really work? It seems to be an entirely individual thing, not to mention different from flight to flight.

But from my way-too-many experiences of jet lag — and what works for a few friends of mine, too — here are my top six hints to help you perhaps not beat jet lag, but at least feel a bit more human when you start your trip.

Sleepy Traveler, Australia © S Baker

Tip #1: No Sleep Until Bedtime

No matter what time you arrive at your destination, don’t go to bed until it’s nighttime there.

If you do nothing else, do this. No matter what time you arrive at your destination, don’t go to bed until it’s nighttime there. This will be a big struggle, and you’ll want to sleep more than you ever have before, but be disciplined, stand up, take a long walk, do whatever it takes so that your body can start adjusting to the new time zone as soon as possible.

At the very least, last until nine in the evening before you hit the sack. Or if you absolutely must take a nap, keep it strictly shorter than an hour. On the other hand, if your body clock doesn’t want to go to bed, make it. Don’t stay up past midnight even if you’re not tired. It’s all about getting used to the new situation as fast as you can.

Tip #2: Don’t Lie Awake for Hours

Your body clock might think that the middle of the night is actually morning and you should wake up. Personally, I think the worst thing you can do when that happens is to lie there for hours trying to get back to sleep.

This happened to me recently after a flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, and I was lucky that my husband had the same problem — so we got up for an hour and played cards until we felt a little tired again, then went back to sleep until morning.

If you do get up, don’t make the room too light, or your body will think it was right about it being daytime already.

Tip #3: Get It Right While You’re Still on the Plane

The experts, whoever they may be, are always saying that you have to drink lots of water on a plane, not too much alcohol, get up and move regularly, and the list goes on. But the experts are saying this with good cause and I’m sure that I suffer less from jet lag when I take care of myself on the flight.

As tempting as it can be to indulge in that free wine on a long flight (and heck, I don’t even have to drive!), I try to stop at a small glass with a meal. One glass helps me sleep, so I figure that’s helping. Otherwise I drink endless amounts of water which has the healthy side effect of me having to get up often to visit the bathroom. Since I started following this routine more closely, my jet lag recovery time has substantially decreased.

© Philip Bitnar

Tip #4: Are You a Night-Flighter or Not?

If you are keen to avoid jet lag, you might have to go back to the planning stages. You also need to know whether or not you’re good at sleeping on planes or not. And then you’ve got two choices: if you can sleep like a baby as you’re hurtling through the air (I can’t), then you can time your flight to include an “overnight” trip (remember, time is all relative here), which means arriving at your destination in the morning.

Travelers like me who are lucky to snooze for a few minutes should go for a “daytime” flight that lands in the late afternoon or evening, at which time you’ll be so exhausted from a prolonged lack of sleep that you’ll be able to fall asleep at the right time.

Tip #5: Don’t Listen to All the Conflicting Advice

Doctors and websites will tell you all kinds of other facts about jet lag that I think are less useful. The fact that you will be less jet lagged if you travel from east to west is not much use unless you have the luxury of planning a round the world trip and choosing the direction makes sense.

There are also dozens of natural or herbal remedies, over the counter medications or magic drinks that could help — if you find one that helps you, go for it, but know that there’s definitely no cure-all.

Sleepy Cat in Greek Monastery © Neal Fowler

Tip #6: Think Positive ”¦ And Just Get on With it

The funny thing is that I always notice jet lag a lot more when I get home than when I head out on a trip. Which surely means that a portion of it is purely psychological. When I’m excited about being in a new city or country and keen to get out and explore the place, being a bit tired doesn’t bother me half as much.

And while I’m not that good at following this advice myself, do the same even if you’re returning home. Stay active, stay positive and don’t dwell on your jet lag — and it’ll probably disappear that much faster.

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If you’re one of the many travelers who have trouble sleeping well on the road, check some of these tips to ensure you’re bright and fresh the next morning for a day of exploring.

Sleeping on the Train, Spain © Viajar24h.com

Tip 1: Keep It Dark

Your body thinks it’s clever, and takes light signals to mean that it’s not time to sleep. If you can, make your hostel or hotel room as dark as possible. A lot of accommodations, especially in cities, will be near flashing neon lights and street lamps, so make good use of your curtains or blinds.

Same goes for those who have the need to get up in the middle of the night. At home, you can probably stumble to the bathroom without turning on a light, but that’s not advisable in a strange place. Take a small flashlight that is bright enough to show the way, but not to make you feel like it’s day time.

One immediate problem here: hostel bathrooms. In my experience, they usually have harsh, bright fluorescent lighting that burns all night. My solution here is to act a bit groggy and keep my eyes half shut. Fellow travelers might look at me strangely, but then again, you don’t usually pass too many people in a hostel corridor at three in the morning.

Tip 2: Bring Your Own Pillow

I used to scoff at people who did this. In fact, I went backpacking in Russia with my mother — ultra-light backpacking, in that we both had only a small daypack for our two-week trip — and couldn’t believe that she decided to stuff her favorite pillow into the precious space of her backpack.

Turns out — of course — my mother knew what she was doing. We stayed in homestay apartments where Russian widows had turned their sofas into beds, which were some of the most uncomfortable contraptions you could come across. But my mother slept well.

If you have a problem sleeping while you travel, try lugging a small but favorite pillow with you. A combination of having the right pillow for your size and the familiarity of an object from home could really improve your night.

After a Long Night, Istanbul © procsilas

Tip 3: Figure Out the Heat and Cold

My number one reason for waking up in the middle of the night in a strange hotel is that the temperature is wrong. If you’ve got the luxury of a room with control of the air-conditioning, experts say that setting it at 70 degrees is optimum for a good night’s sleep.

If you haven’t splurged on a private air-conditioned room, then make sure you dress appropriately. When I’m traveling I rarely wear what you’d traditionally call pajamas to bed. It’s usually a combination of normal day clothes that are layered to suit the climate, and I personally find I nearly always need socks — warm feet can lead to a warm, happy sleep.

Be careful about leaving a window open. I love fresh air, but if you’re new to a country, ask someone else first. Waking up to a swarm of mosquitoes is a sure-fire way to ruin a night’s sleep, for example, and in other places I’ve been shocked by the sudden drop of temperature overnight and have woken up freezing.

Tip 4: Why I Love My Lavender

The mother I’ve already mentioned — she who lugged a pillow across Russia — is a fan of aromatherapy and has an essential oil for every situation. One I’ve had a great deal of success with is lavender oil, and it usually comes in a handy small bottle just right for traveling.

Dabbing a couple of drops of lavender on my pillow has had a double effect — it blocks out the otherwise uninviting smells of some hotel or hostel rooms, and it seems to relax me enough to help me sleep better. This might be purely psychological, but I figure it doesn’t matter, as long as the results are what I want. And there is some expert evidence to suggest that inhaling the scent of lavender can actually help you sleep deeply for longer.

Sleepy Train Station Travelers, Budapest © Ahron de Leeuw

Tip 5: Relax, You’re On Holidays

I’m a worrier. For years, I had a really hard time sleeping the night before an early bus or plane trip. Since this situation occurs quite a lot when you’re traveling, it started to become a real problem — I sometimes got too tired to really enjoy my trip.

There were two solutions for me. First, I made sure I had a fail-safe alarm (or in fact, two, if I had a particularly early connection to catch). I double-checked that the alarm was set last thing before I went to sleep so I could be sure there was no need to worry.

Second, I had to start using that relaxation and meditation training I’d done to help me get a good night’s sleep. Whatever works for you — deep breathing, repeating a mantra, visualization — learn about it and use it. I also make it a pleasant habit to think back over my traveling day and recall the best parts, to lock them a little more deeply into my memory.

Tip 6: If All Else Fails, Take A Nap

The great thing about traveling is that very often, your time is your own. If there’s some reason why you just can’t get a decent night’s sleep, it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like you have to go into the office the next day and make an important presentation.

So if you end up feeling exhausted in the morning, get up and spend the morning doing something interesting, then take a short nap mid-afternoon. I think this kind of nap should be less than an hour long, and definitely not too late in the day. For me, it has to be over by four o’clock, or it’ll lead to more sleeping difficulties that night. After a refreshing hour of shut-eye, head back out into the strange world around you and enjoy it. And then have another attempt at getting a good night’s sleep.

What helps you sleep while traveling abroad and to foreign places? Share your tips in the comments below!

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Experiences With Doctors in Foreign Countries

If you browse the internet before your trip, you’ll easily find a thousand and one recommendations for the kind of health insurance you just have to have. What you’ll have a lot more trouble finding are any ideas about what to expect if you actually have to visit a doctor or a dentist while traveling abroad.

That’s a pity, I think, because when you’re sick or injured, the last thing you want is to be confronted with a raft of cultural curiosities that you’ve never expected. Negotiating new ways of doing things can be fun when you’re happy and healthy, but when all you want to do is get better, you want this to be simple.

If you have a chance, ask friends who’ve spent a long time abroad about their experiences with the medical system in various countries. Even if they haven’t traveled or lived in your destination, your mind will be opened to a few unusual possibilities that could at least lessen the shock value if you’re unfortunate enough to get sick while traveling.

Let me give you a couple of my own examples to help get the acclimatization started.

Dental Drama in Japan

Love getting a root canal filled? Of course not. But it’s still one step above getting an infection in said root canal after just a month or so in Japan. As I was living and working there, I asked my school for a recommendation. They sent me to a dentist who “spoke English”. Yeah, right. Not only did he not know any English after “hello”, he was so nervous about having a foreign patient that he was shaking.

Fun with Dental Dams © Betsssssy

I moved on to a less terrified dentist, but found his only solution was to extract my tooth. I was pretty sure that my dentist back home wouldn’t have recommended this, so I fled the surgery (after getting some better painkilling tablets from him). I finally found another dentist who fixed me up without shaking or extracting.

Tip to take away: You might be the first foreigner a doctor or dentist has to treat, and they could be more freaked out than you. But no matter what happens, try not to consent to treatment you don’t want.

Bonus tip: I also discovered the beauty of powdered medicine in Japan. It’s apparently rare to prescribe actual solid pills or tablets, which was great for me, because I hate swallowing them. The powder doesn’t always taste that great, though.

Gallstones and Alternative Medicine in Slovakia

If you’ve got a major health problem to deal with, you really should consider returning home.

A friend of mine got sent to a (truly) English-speaking doctor in Bratislava to deal with his gallstones. He was expecting minor surgery; he got four bottles full of Chinese tablets to swallow daily for three months. And the insistent doctor wouldn’t do it any other way. (Incidentally, the tablets didn’t help).

Tip to take away: You might not get what you want. That’s the same at home, but even truer abroad. If you’ve got a major health problem to deal with, you really should consider returning home.

Specialists and Special Treatment in Germany

No matter what my problem was, my “house doctor” in Germany would send me to a specialist. Under the German health care system, specialist doctors don’t cost any more than regular general practitioners, so it’s common to get referred along. Off the top of my head, I can think of three regular check-ups that my general doctor at home would usually do, but that I got referred for in Germany.

However, if you’re lucky enough to have a decent amount of medical coverage in a country where the system is pretty socially-minded, like Germany, you might be pleasantly surprised at the services you get. After I slipped a disc in my back, I was prescribed a heap of physiotherapy, and didn’t have to pay anything at all.

Tip to take away: Remember that some countries have medical systems vastly different from yours. Sometimes that means your treatment will be even better; sometimes it means that simple things just take longer.

© tanakawho

Expect the Unexpected

So, to sum up: expect the unexpected. Like all aspects of foreign cultures, medical systems will vary a great deal. A doctor’s surgery or a dentist’s clinic might not even look anywhere near the same. In some you’ll have to take your shoes off; in others, you might not be able to make an appointment, but just sit and wait for hours until it’s your turn.

If you’re unlucky enough to be ill while you’re traveling, try to get help as fast as you can, and then see the positive side. You’re having a typical local experience, and will no doubt have a few stories to tell after you get better. You see — getting sick is not all bad.

Have you had any interesting experiences with doctors, dentists or hospitals while you’ve been traveling? Please share the knowledge with all of us by leaving a comment below.

The post The Essentials of Medical Treatment in a Foreign Country: Expect the Unexpected appeared first on Vagabondish.