Travelling with good hygiene practices is good personal practice; being clean and neat also enhances our enjoyment during travel. In addition, our fellow travellers and also locals will take more kindly to travellers who are clean and healthy. Nonetheless, it can be difficult to maintain our usual hygiene standards when travelling so here’s some tips for you.

1. Wash your hands

As we use our hands for multiple purposes, washing our hands could be the single most important thing that can stop us from getting sick and spreading germs. Always wash after using the toilet, before eating or after touching animals. Remind children as they tend to forget about such basic hygiene practices.

 

However, if you are travelling in cold places, frequent hand-washing can cause chapped hands due to the removal of natural oils and lipids from the hands by soap in addition to the cold dry air.  If your hands are clean, consider sanitizing with alcohol sanitizer instead of washing.  Use moisturising cream after handwash event to ensure that your hands are not dry.  When drying your hands, do not rub your hands with the cloth. Instead just pat dry. 

2. Water and food

In locations with poor sanitation, water and food can be potentially contaminated and have unpleasant consequences for us.

 

For water,

- try to obtain bottled water if possible

- in the event of bottled water not available, ask for boiling water (warm water can be mixed with other water)

 

For ice,

- try to avoid ice if possible

- if have, get ice from reputable sources such as hotels

 

For food,

- unless you have an iron stomach or truly adventurous, avoid street food in unhygienic places

- some places are known for their street food with decent level of hygiene (eg. Taipei and Bangkok) so do your research before deciding which places to try street food

3. Face masks

Face masks are useful for many purposes.  In the event that you find yourself with people who are not feeling well, face masks can be used to protect yourself from getting infected.

 

In some places, face masks are common to block out pollution (e.g. Ha Noi and Beijing).  If you are the sort who can get easily affected by polluted air, bringing a face mask along will be useful.

 

Finally, face masks are usually useful as a form of warmer in cold places. Having said this, do remember to protect your necks with neck scarfs in cold places. Prolonged exposure of the neck to cold winds can cause sore throats.

4. Clothes

How often should you change your clothing when travelling?

 

Due to limited luggage space, it is common for travellers to ration clothing use when travelling.  The frequency in which we should change our clothes is really dependent on the climate and our activities.

 

In hot and humid places where we perspire a lot, it is reasonable to expect a change of clothing at least once a day.  In such situations, we probably have to send our clothes for laundry if we decide not to bring enough for a change of clothing a day.

 

In cold dry places, then there might not be a need to change your clothing daily. For myself, what I do is to clean the most inner clothing (ie a singlet and the underwear) daily. The outer clothes I tend to wear for a few days (unless I dirtied them).

5. Miscellaneous things to carry with us

There are some stuff that we can bring with us that can help us maintain hygiene when travelling.  Items such as toilet rolls, tissue paper, wet wipes, alcohol swipes and medication are small and easy to pack.  Do consider bringing some of these items with you.

6. Seeing a doctor overseas

Despite our best efforts, we sometimes end up having to seek medical help when travelling.  In such situations, it is important not to rush to the nearest clinic or hospitals (despite not feeling well).  It is important to do a bit of quick research before seeing the doctor.

 

In the past, we will be dependent on the locals, maybe asking the tour guide or the hotel staff. Nowadays, we have access to the internet as another source of information.

 

If you are the diligent sort who like to conduct research before travelling, you can conduct research online on the healthcare situation in your destination. One place to go is https://www.iamat.org/

 

 

Last but not least, do seriously consider purchasing travel insurance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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