It won’t happen to me

Reading Time: 9 minutes

Well it does and will if you are a frequent traveller. For me it has been minor health issues like nearly passing out at not such a great moment, to being quarantined in China for a week with what authorities thought was a pandemic disease I may have been a carrier of, being mugged twice, and my latest misadventure was treading on a sea urchin, whilst holidaying on a beautiful Greek Island.

Over 1,600 Australians died whilst overseas in the latest DFAT figures of 2016/17. Illness – 446, natural causes – 340, Accidents – 211, suicide – 68, Murder – 49 plus 100’s that have been assaulted amongst other things. So maybe I have been lucky.

The cure for treading on a sea urchin is not to tread on one in the first place. Wear protective slip on rubber shoes. However the following photographs taken on the beautiful Hydra will give you an indication of what you might go through to remove 25 spines from your foot over a 7 week period. Local advice was to soak your foot regularly in ‘good’ quality olive oil. Hmmm! Tried that, plus the local clinic on Hydra plus my GP when I got home. It is called grit your teeth and dig them out. Never again. If I go to a restaurant with sea urchin on the menu, he’s gone.

Possibly the most horrendous time I have had was being quarantined in China with 70 others as a fellow airline passenger had swine flu. It’s an amazing story see …..

Being mugged by three men in Shanghai was not a pleasant experience, which left me quite shaken and losing a fair amount of money. It could have been worse but I was not harmed and my bank minimised the loss. As I have had more than my fair share of dealing with Chinese authorities whilst in quarantine I was not keen on going to the authorities.

My other mugging took place in or just after I left Santiago market (Chile). My daughter was living and working for a local tour operator, a very good one at that. Anyway she warned me not to go to the market as “everyone gets mugged”. I love markets and assured her that her exaggeration cannot possibly by founded. I am not superstitious but an Aunt gave me a St Christopher when I was 10 years of age, to always keep me safe in my travels. However my current St Christopher which is my 4^thand gold was the cause of the problem. A young man stalked me and then grabbed me around my throat from behind in broad daylight and with people around. I managed to take a David Beckham sweeping kick at his ankles which took him and unfortunately me to the ground. Needless to say he managed to get to his feet and run off empty handed. I swore at him as I was dusting myself off, to the sound of my daughter saying “Dad, I told you so”.

A rather urgent but minor operation in Melbourne on a Melanoma got infected whilst at the breath-taking heights of Cuzco, Peru at 3,400 metres. The hotel told me to hop in a cab and ask for “The clinic”, which I did. Two things I learnt was my bill of U$175.00 was not covered on my Gold American Express free insurance, as the excess was U$500.00. And the other thing is that “The clinic” has a hyperbaric chamber for those with extremely bad altitude sickness.

Keeping well whilst travelling is paramount to a great trip but it is not always possible. Apart from the Bali belly, Montezuma revenge, Delhi belly that can take you down rapidly, I have got sick whilst in port, and was only kept conscious but a quick thinking wife who somehow managed to get ice in the main street of Port Vila and put lots of it on the back of my neck. Spent the next two days in our cabin.

I slid down the wall in the overcrowded Swissair business class lounge at Zurich airport. Nobody offered a seat so I was left to sit on the floor until I recovered. Well I didn’t total or even nearly recover. My darling wife once again managed to ‘just’ get me, the young kids, all the hand-luggage on the aircraft and somehow to the hotel in Paris. Oh my God I felt bad.

Finally, I was travelling from Heathrow to Oslo and connecting with a Thai flight to Bangkok. Not only did the weather turn sour but my pre-flight check was vastly different to the other passengers. See “I judge a man by what he eats …”

Do not underestimate the value of a travel agent, the ground operator they use and your well-read travel insurance. If you booked it all on-line booker think how easy or difficult it is to change your booking in hospital, with a tube down your throat and no access to the internet.