Travel Safely: Food and Drinks.

These are habits and practices I have developed over the years as I wander the world as a senior with interesting blood.

I am a wanderer, not a doctor. Some of my ideas may not be suitable for you; select those which suit you and ignore those which don't. 

Water

Your body is used to your local water and your local bugs. I rarely stay in a country long enough to let my body acclimatise to its different bugs so I do not drink the local water. That does not just apply in the third world. I did not get Delhi Belly in India or Montezuma's Curse in Mexico but I did suffer from it in Cairo, Hong Kong, Peru and Texas.

I keep it simple. I buy bottled water with an unbroken seal. That has been available everywhere I have been in fifty countries and has never let me down. Some people use water filters. I do not. That is partly because they can be awkward to carry and use, but mainly because I can never be sure they are removing all the local bugs. Only if bottled water is not available in a remote area would I take a filter.

For fresh drinking water I only let bottled water pass my lips; that includes brushing my teeth and keeping my mouth shut in the shower.

Alcohol

I enjoy trying local beers and wines as I travel but I take care not to get drunk. It isn't worth the risk to me; not just to my health but also for security. It is too easy to become a sucker or a victim when judgement is impaired by alcohol. 

As long as I observe that precaution I have never had health problems from drinking local brews or vintages; in fact beer is usually a good choice in tropical climates instead of the local water. I occasionally find local wines which would better serve as paint stripper but more often they are quite good.

I avoid ice in my mixed drinks or soft drinks unless I can be certain it is made from clean water.

As a lateral issue, before you open the water bottles in your hotel room double check whether they are complimentary. If there is a charge you will nearly always find a shop nearby selling water for a fraction of the hotel price.

Tea and coffee.

I do not avoid tea and coffee brewed from the local water. I presume the water has been boiled long enough to kill any bugs. So far that policy has worked for me.

Vegetables and Meats

I avoid fresh washed salad vegetables when travelling in places with questionable water. The water the vegetables are washed in may be more dangerous than the dirt washed off. I stick to well-cooked vegetables unless I washed the salad thoroughly myself with bottled water. On the rare occasions I decide to break that rule I try a small experimental portion at dinner and don't repeat it until I find my internal plumbing is in good working order the following morning.

When choosing cooked foods I always make sure soups and stews are well cooked and my meats are always well done. I like medium rare at home, but do not risk it when I'm overseas.

I often eat in the restaurants chosen by the locals rather than those intended for tourists but I use some common sense when doing so, looking at the general hygiene and cleanliness of the place before I order. I accept different standards in the third world.  Only once have I regretted a local choice. 

In every one of the four cases of traveller's curse I suffered I was able to identify the cause. Each time it was from carelessness with foods, usually salads or fruit. My rule for fruit these days is to only eat fruit I peeled myself.

When Mistakes Occur

I carry prescription Norfloxacin with me. It is a strong medication with possible side effects and should only be used if prescribed by your doctor. For me it is a magic pill when the traveller's curse appears. One pill is usually enough. On one occasion (Nasca, Peru) I took two but I would never exceed that dose. Discuss that with your doctor before your travels. 

Cheers, Alan

Health and Safety While Travelling

This is an index page for several posts on health, security and associated subjects.

• Travel Safely: Food and Drinks.
• Travelling on a Diet 
• Avoiding Mosquito Vector Diseases: Zika, Malaria, Dengue, Yellow fever, West Nile, Ross River and others.

Cheers, Alan

Rhodes, Greece

 

Travel Dates 6th-12th July 2013

I deliberately planned the final section of my European trip to be in the Greek Islands. I visited Greece in 2003, seeing the Peloponnese and Athens, but I had always wanted to see their major islands and regretted missing them on that trip. I also thought Rhodes and Crete would be good places to wind down and relax after Iberia and Morocco. I had no planned itinerary for them, apart from relaxing, soaking in the atmosphere and visiting the old towns and some ancient sites. 

I had lost a couple of hours with the baggage problems in the terminal. Later planes had arrived and the queue for cabs was long when I reached it. I discovered that there was a set fare of €22 for the 15km trip to Rhodes Town. Because of the crowd I was not surprised when a driver called for someone to fill the front seat when he already had passengers in the back. When I was a cab driver in Melbourne we were allowed to do the same. But in Melbourne the arrangement was that each hirer paid ¾ of the meter fare as they reached their destination. Not in Rhodes. Each hirer pays full fare. Well, at least I got there before midnight. Later I found I could have taken the bus, but when I arrived I had no idea where the bus stopped or its route. The cabs were reasonably inexpensive once I reached Rhodes Town, but rarely around when I wanted one.

I had only booked the first two nights at the City Center Hotel, not knowing what the standard would be like. When I decided to extend the booking I found they were booked out for two of the remaining four nights of my stay. I booked their available nights and ended up at two other hotels for the remainder. I didn't mind as it gave me a different perspective of the town near the western beaches for those other nights, but City Center was definitely the best experience of the three. Originally I intended to do some overnight trips by ferry to other islands, but I quickly realised I had arrived at the peak of the season and those hotels would also be full so I decided not to risk it.

Rhodes was nothing like I expected. In my pre-trip reading I read about its rich history and the many ancient civilisations which left their mark on the island. In my mind's eye I suppose I was expecting a place like Mycenae or Argos, which were almost deserted when I visited Greece in 2003.

I should have spent a little more time reading about modern Rhodes.

Rhodes Town was full. The town is “tourist central” full of hotels, restaurants, cafes, bars and nightspots. 

That had the advantage of lots of choices for meals, although many of the tourist restaurants had identical menus in ten different languages, including all the Scandinavian languages.

I looked for the smaller cafes and tried to avoid most of the tourist traps. It was a pretty forlorn quest in Rhodes Town. If I ever return I will go to one of the smaller towns or villages.

The food was mostly very good. I mainly ate soups or gyros for lunches and fish or mussels for dinners. 

The town was jam-packed with tourists. Not tourists to see the ancient sites but visitors from colder mid-July climes, mainly the UK and Scandinavia, to bask all day in the sun on the island's beaches and drink and party most of the night.

The European custom of paid spaces on beaches for Li-los and deckchairs with umbrellas in military-style formations is a strange one to an Aussie accustomed to free beaches where you find a spot to toss your towel where you can.

Unfortunately for many of the sunbathers the westerly wind became quite fierce for my final four days on Rhodes. Possibly the eastern beaches were OK, but only hardy souls occupied the deck chairs when that wind was blowing.

Although there were a few seniors in the crowds the vast majority of visitors appeared to be in their late teens or early twenties. In the evenings they tended to form groups of four or five of the same gender then go hunting for their opposite numbers in packs. 

 

I enjoyed watching the fun from the upper floor balconies of restaurants. There were David Attenborough moments watching the mating selection habits of Northern Europeans in a warm climate. 

I spent much of my time wandering on the local buses or walking around the old town. The buses were a bit confusing. They stopped for the locals between sign-posted stops, but not for me when I wanted to get out at the same place. I never found a map of the routes, so I tended to get on one going in the direction I wanted then get off as soon as it headed in a different direction. As a result I sometimes walked a lot further than I intended.

 

 

 

I spent a couple of days visiting the Old Town and the Acropolis; the report on those will follow this.

On my final afternoon I took the bus to the airport; much less expensive than the cab. Despite being the 'Airport' bus it is actually a local transit bus; the airport being just one of its stops. About half the passengers were heading for the airport with luggage. The bus was full after the second stop with no place to stack luggage so we all squeezed it in where we could. Gradually, as the bus dropped local passengers en-route it became more comfortable. Check in was a bit odd. After checking in the clerk labelled my checked bag, then returned it to me to be taken to the security x-ray point. I was pleased but slightly surprised to see it arrive on the carousel later in Crete.

One of the odd points I noticed while waiting for my flight was the high number of package-tour planes on the tarmac. They out-numbered the commercial airlines by at least two to one.

Cheers, Alan

Madrid 2013

Travel Date 25th June 2013.  

Click on any picture to see a larger version.

The night train from Lisbon to Madrid was a better experience, mainly because I slept well this time. The four-berth cabin was identical to the Irun – Lisbon Trenhotel. As we started later (9:20 pm) the berths were already laid out for sleeping. I had luckily scored a lower berth again. With my experience from the earlier journey I set up my bag and some cushions as an extension of the berth and was much more comfortable. We all slept in our clothes, mostly on top of the bedclothes, although late in the journey I pulled the sheet on top when the temperature dropped. Happily there were no snorers or evil odours. 

The only difficulty in the morning was a Japanese tour group who were obviously under instructions to stand outside the “hotel” door with all their suitcases at a set time each morning. That may work in a hotel but it makes navigating the corridors of a train to the restaurant car and back a difficult obstacle course. Long before arrival they very patiently, very politely, and very effectively blocked the passages for the final couple of hours of the trip. The short progress for two carriages to the dining car became 'so sorry', gently push, 'so sorry', gently push. In some cases they simply looked at me, so I physically picked up their suitcases and carefully placed them back inside their compartment to make space in the passage. Nobody got upset, but some seemed surprised. A Portuguese couple behind me was quite happy to let me clear the way. 

We arrived at Chamartin Station. 

After working out how to buy a ticket to connect to Atocha station, I emerged to trek up the hill to the Tryp Atocha Madrid Hotel, which I had won in the Priceline bidding lucky-dip. I was looking forward to a 4* experience after the train. The hotel was a little disappointing but acceptable, especially as they let me check in early. In Australian or US terms it would be 3*.

We visited Madrid on our first World Trip. I had seen all the usual tourist sites then. This time the night in Madrid was a just a transit stop en-route to Cordoba. I had no particular plans; my intention was to take it easy, walking and soaking up the atmosphere for a pleasant relaxed day. 

After a shower and relaxing for a couple of hours I headed for the area we stayed in back in 2003 when Lorraine and I first visited Madrid. 

The Puerta del Sol and nearby plazas were still much the same but there was a noticeable absence of Gypsy beggars. Possibly the local authorities have cracked down on that. Excellent. I still recall being approached by a toddler back then, refusing to give money, then feeling distraught when I saw his mother beating him for returning from the street café without cash.

I must admit to wondering how a corpulent Spiderman makes a living. Not quite my mental image of a super-hero.

Sadly, tourism appears to have changed the tapas culture in most bars, with extra cash required for the tapas. Eventually I was pleased to find a couple which still worked to the old rules and had a very satisfactory lunch of two nice vino tintos with associated tapas repeated in two bars. Both hosts were excellent company for a conversation on a lazy afternoon. Good food, good wine and good company. What more could I ask? Life can be good.

Dinner eventually was also tapas; although a little more elaborate the meal of delicious pork at this restaurant was very inexpensive.

 

I wandered much of Madrid's old centre, revisiting for nostalgia, and had a very pleasant afternoon and evening before returning to the hotel, ready to depart for Cordoba tomorrow.

 

Cheers, Alan

Lisbon: Food and Fado

Fado performers were mainly mature age with excellent voices.

Travel Date 20th-24th June 2013.

Click on any picture to see a larger version.

As I love fish and fresh salads I ate well in Lisbon. I have learned the hard way to carefully avoid washed vegetables such as lettuce when I travel but I decided to take a chance on my first day in Lisbon when the side salad at lunch looked so good. I waited nervously until the following morning. When the feared traveller's curse failed to appear, I happily included side salads for the rest of my stay in Lisbon.  I returned to my usual caution later in Spain and Morocco.

I wasn't sure if sardines were available all year 'round or if there was a season for them in Portugal. When I started visiting restaurants I thought I must have arrived in the middle of the season. In a way I had, as you will see in a moment. Every restaurant or taberna I ate in had them on the menu. These are not the little sardines we see in cans in Australia. These are BIG sardines. They are very similar to, but bigger than, the West Australian Pilchards I use for bait sometimes at home.

 

Some care is needed to eat them, picking the flesh from the bones as you go, but they are worth the effort. I ate them at three or four meals in my short stay in Lisbon. They were usually cooked over hot coals; always delicious.

This was my next door neighbour who also liked the hot coals cooking method but didn't want to smoke out her apartment. She wasn't the only one who cooked her sardines in the street.

Eventually I discovered I had happened by serendipitous chance to be in the Alfama for the Feast of San Antonio. I usually research the local festivals but I had not heard of this one. No wonder sardines were everywhere. Every vacant space became decorated on the weekend with bunting and filled with trestle tables and barbecues. 

As well as sardines there was a wide variety of other dishes at these very inexpensive impromptu restaurants - various sausages, other meats, salads and desserts - and drinks. Super Bock beer was cheaply available as was home-made Sangria. I tried one, but it was far too sweet for my taste and my blood glucose levels. Apart from the occasional beer at lunch I stuck to the excellent Portuguese dry red wines unadulterated by sugars and fruits.

Despite not understanding a word of the lyrics, I found I thoroughly enjoyed taking my time over the evening meal accompanied by Fado singers and musicians. The Fado tradition is very old, first documented in the 1820s and 1830s but with narrative history far older. The songs are mainly laments, a form of blues I am told, but I just liked the music and the singers. This lady was probably the youngest I heard; most were quite mature. Now that I'm 67 I rarely use the word old...

Fado accompaniment was free in the restaurants. I was ready to follow local customs but I never saw any of the performers tipped, which surprised me. I thought about tipping despite that, but did not wish to offend. I hope that failure did not offend as well.

All of the Fado restaurants I chose for the evenings were within 200 metres of my door. I could stumble uphill as late as I liked without worrying about cabs or trams. Yet another reason why I liked my flat in the Rua da Regueira.

Unfortunately my movies of Fado are terrible visually, but I hope the brief sound bites give some idea of the atmosphere. I was still learning how to take movies in low light at the time; well, that's my excuse anyway...listen, don't look.

 

Down-town restaurants at night.

I often eat soups for lunch. Every restaurant and taberna had an excellent vegetable soup available at lunchtime. On my final day I discovered, only twenty metres away around the corner, a 'lunch-only' restaurant with a limited set menu of cheap tasty lunches. It was just a door on the outside; no signs at all. I discovered it by following my nose. Good finds like that always happen on the last day.

Apart from sardines my other favourite in Lisbon was Dourada, Gilt-head Bream. 

A downtown street restaurant and performers.

I cannot recall the full details of this lunch, except that the section beside the salad was delicious. I was never served a meal I did not like in Lisbon.

Cheers, Alan