Travel Tips (or tid-bits)

Sitting at the desk again is a far cry from the jungles (urban and outdoor), savannahs and deserts of this world – but as others start to pack up their bags – hopefully the following ‘what not to do/ to do’ is helpful. For some, the below may seem common sense, or no-brainers, but for others that lack the ‘street smart gene’ (like myself) hopefully it will help you avoid some interesting experiences!

1) Don’t pat police horses – They may seem like ‘pretty horses’ and remind you of outdoors and farm life, but the police horses in Central Park New York, are not particularly friendly. Upon offering my hand to acquaint myself before patting horse, said horse bit me. Yes, it nabbed my finger, and snapped it in its mouth. A stream of abuse from its copper owner, and fair chunk of a missing finger later – I can clearly say, don’t pat horses.

2) Be careful when falling asleep on planes – it’s fairly usual to sleep on a long haul flight. But just be careful… sometimes you generate unwanted attention. Flying from Trinidad to Guyana, I was asleep, so of course doing my own thing. I woke however, with a strange patting sensation on my head. My seat neighbour, an elderly non-English speaking woman, had kindly decided to stroke my head…

3) Know your rate in camels – you can’t walk more than 3 paces through most Egyptian sites without offers to be purchased. You shouldn’t settle for much less than 100,000 racing camels… and certainly not a goat.

4) Have a very large medicine kit – Mystery illnesses are rife, and general clumsiness can be the cause of a fair amount of discomfort. Let’s just say… one case of giardia, septicaemia, parasite x 2, not to mention travellers tummy… the ability to self-diagnose and medicate was a must.

5) Learn some local words – okay goes without saying. I just learnt the hard way that ‘buso’ means ‘kiss’ in Arabic. Unfortunately, this lesson was conveyed by a monkey in Marrakesh.

Do you have some travel tips of your own? Share them with us by leaving a comment or posting to our Facebook fan page.

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Thanks for reading – until next time, safe jumping!