posted by Prime Sarmiento
creative commons image by Daveynin
Note: This updated version on solo female travelers and health is part four of the six-part series on How To Travel Alone As A Woman. The first part discusses travel safety tips for solo female travelers, the second is about how to travel on a budget while the third part lists down tips on how you can earn money while traveling.

One of the main concerns while traveling on your own is how to stay fit and healthy. I should know – I've been ill several times while traveling solo. Just forcing myself to get up to see the doctor was pure hell (moreso if there's no room service as I can't even ask the reception to buy me some meds). Then there's the fact that getting sick – even if it’s something as minor as fever and colds – will ruin all your travel plans.
But as they say, prevention is better than cure.  So every time I travel, I make sure to take precautions so that I won’t get sick – or at least alleviate my illness – while on the road, on my own.
 
1. Healthy travel starts before you travel
 
Here's a confession: while I love to see new places and meet new people, I find moving from point A to point B quite exhausting. All the more when it's a long haul flight (in those narrow economy seats) or one of those cheap red eye flights. Let's not even talk about train or bus trips which bore me to death and makes me anxious (how will I find a clean toilet, where will I shower, where will I eat, my god I think I'm arriving late, is that even safe?). Anxiety coupled with lack of sleep, heaby backpacks, dehydration, leg cramps – they are enough to make me sick for days.
 
Keeping a healthy lifestyle, however, has strengthened my resistance and allowed me to survive the discomforts of travel. I'm pesco vegetarian, I go to the gym at least twice a week, I avoided alcohol and clubbing, I meditate in the mornings, and lately, after consulting a Chinese medicine doctor, I'm incorporating more rhythym in my life (that's a subject of another blog post).

Keen on starting a healthy lifestyle now? You might want to sign up for this lovely 21 day Radiant Goddess e-course*  brought to you by the lovely Goddess Leonie Dawson*. It covers everything from diet (it's biased towards raw food and the course includes a recipe book. I'm not into that. But it might resonate with you) to body and mind movement ( I love doing Goddess Sone's eight minute Nia yoga every morning) and just staying positive.  I have downloaded the whole Radiant Goddess e-course *in my netbook so I can always watch or listen to it wherever I am.
 
2. Do your research
 
You need to know where you’re really going so that you can adequately prepare. You must check the climate (is it too hot, too cold?);  know if certain diseases are prevalent in the area (would you contract malaria if you go there?); and if you need to get vaccinated asap.
 
If you’re taking prescription medicine, make sure that what you’re using is legally allowed in the country you’re visiting. There’s so much information in travel guidebooks and the Internet that research is quite easy to do. You can ask your friends/colleagues who’ve been to the place you’re visiting for some pointers.
 
If possible, ask your travel agent to book you in a hotel which is not only clean and safe, but also near to a reputable hospital/clinic and pharmacy.
You must also research on local hygiene practices. For instance, most Filipina travellers – like my sister and I – always bring tabo (bathroom dipper) wherever we go as part of our feminine hygiene practices. This is because tabo is not available in most places that we visited and we’re not really comfortable using toilet paper.
 
3. Pack your first aid kit
 
Your first aid kit must not only contain all the prescription medicine and supplements that you’re taking but must also include medications that will relieve minor illnesses.
These include loperamide for diarrhea,paracetamol for fever, medicine for motion sickness, antihistamine for allergies, antacid for stomach acidity; painkiller that can relieve menstrual cramps, feminine napkins /tampons, cough suppressants and antifungal and antibacterial ointments or creams.
 
Don’t forget the thermometer, cotton balls and gauze, alcohol-based sanitizer and hand wipes, scissors and a list that will remind you on what medicine goes with what illness.
Depending where you’re going, it’s best to bring an insect repellant and high altitude preventive medication (highly recommended for mountaineers and trekkers), sunscreen (for the beach babe), and water purification tablets (for those who like to rough it out in places where drinking water is of dubious quality).
 
A small notebook containing the number and address of clinics/ hospitals near your hostel and a list of what medicine can also be included in your kit.
If you’re into natural healing, I recommend that you bring some herbal teas and essential oils and packets of psyllium husk (perfect for those suffering from constipation). Tea bags are convenient, but if you prefer loose leaf, make sure you bring a strainer/or a French press. I bring peppermint (for hyperacidity, also aids digestion), lagundi (for cough, fever) and chamomile (which acts as a mild sedative). A bottle of tea tre oil is also a must have – good for banishing those zits and putting few drops in a cup of water will produce an instant disinfectant.  And while I'm one of those lucky people which mosquitoes seem to avoid, I never travel without my citronella oil (besides I like the smell) to ward off mosquitoes as I'm hugely afraid of getting dengue (or malaria).
 
I’m also quite strategic in packing my first aid kit. I put it in my carry on bag, because there’s always possibility that the luggage will either get lost enroute to my destination.
 
4.Bring your yoga mat
 
Or your running shoes or even that coin belt (for all ye bellydancers). Whatever. Bring any equipment that will allow you to do your prefered exercise while traveling.
I always have my running shoes to encourage me to walk anywhere. Apart from the Radiant Goddess e-course*, I also downloaded videos of Shiva Nata and bellydancing so I can exercise in the morning, everyday, wherever I am, even for just five minutes a day.
 
Weeks before I travel, I go online to research for a shala near my hotel so I can squeeze in at least one two-hour yoga session while traveling. This is important to me as I love to eat and gain weight easily. So constantly moving will at least keep me from gaining another 50 pounds.
 
5. Practice safe sex
 
I don't travel just to have sex. In fact, I've been subject to a lot of indecent proposals (one guy even followed me in a train station, handed me his business card where he wrote his hotel and room number and asked me to visit him that night, duhhhhh!!!) that I often avoid places where there are well, a lot of men.
Having said that, I know that in some cases, sex just happens. No judgement on that. But being on the throes of lust is not an excuse for stupidity.
So please bring and USE condoms to avoid unwanted pregnancy and getting sexually transmitted disease. If you’re on a pill, don’t stop using it. If you prefer the natural method, don’t forget to monitor your menstrual cycle.
 
I also advise that you scope out that potential lover. If you feel that he’s a rapist/serial killer/thief/blackmailer/or basically a very very bad person, then please, please, please, use your brain and leave that hot guy that you met in a bar. One night of passion is sooo not worth all the trouble.
 
6. Be careful of what you eat and drink
 
Before even ordering anything in any restaurant, check out first if it’s clean. Get referrals if you must. If you’re staying in a hostel which has a kitchen, be sure to wash all the ingredients that you bought. If you eat meat, be sure that they’re well done. Drinking water from the tap is not always safe (especially in most parts of Asia), so it’s better if you just buy bottled water.
Also, be careful of drinking alcohol in a bar, especially if you’re alone. Don’t ever leave your glass unattended. If you want to booze all night, be sure to drink only with people you trust. Drinking is fun. Being raped or mugged is not.
 
7. Meditate
This is perhaps the best way to calm my mind, relaxes me and allows me to cope with all the frustrations that will eventually come up while traveling (language barriers, inefficiency, sexual harassment etc.).

If you've been following this blog for a while, you will know that I'm a huge fan of guided meditation kits by Goddess Leonie Dawson.*  I downloaded her meditation kits in my Ipod, and I either listen to the five minute Holy Dinger Uber Deep Meditation * for a quick way to center myself or resort to the 25-minute Chakra Healing Meditation* to cope with molre complicated issues. And oh yeah, I always have problem sleeping when I'm in a new place (we call it “namamahay” in Filipino) so I listen to the Divine Dreaming kit*.
If you're a devout Filipina Catholic like my lil sis, you might want to say the rosary instead or pray the novena. (Me, I prefer to divine on y Goddess cards and connect with Isis via Blue Lotus Healing meditation). Whatever. Connecting to a higher power is the perfect way to sooth the mind body and soul.

8. Buy travel insurance
 
Because you’ll never know what will happen and it’s not that expensive. After all, you travel because you want to enjoy yourself and experience new things and not to go deeply into debt paying for medication for a major illness that you acquired while travelling.
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So how do you keep fit and fab while traveling? Share your tips here or post some of your lovely tips in The Gypsygals Facebook Page.

 

 
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