The TMI Travel Meme

(Inspired by last week's post...)

What's the most dangerous thing you've ever done while traveling? (Official tourist activities don't count; we're talkin' stuff you still haven't told your mom you did.)

Here's the one that stands out: We were staying in a friend's camper in Tairua, New Zealand, a community on an inlet formed by two peninsulas. The camper was on the northern peninsula. Our day trip was to the southern peninsula. We took a ferry to get from one to the other. On our way back, we barely missed our ferry, and had an hour to wait for the next one. Unless we swam the narrow channel between the points. Which Dave wisely opted out of and I unwisely attempted. As a sucking ebb-tide was emptying the inlet. It was the first time I really felt the power water can have, and the last time I ignored Dave's sound advice completely. I made it across, but it still gives me heebs.

What's the longest amount of time you've gone without essential medical care while traveling? Why the wait, and for what condition?

OK, so I traveled through Germany and Czech in 2002 with an abscess under one arm, and was too chicken to deal with it, but since it took care of itself (don't ask), I'll tell you about enabling Dave not to seek medical attention. We were backpacking Tongariro National Park in New Zealand. We'd just spent a week hiking and hutting on Mt Ruapehu and decided to cross-hike the saddle between Mts Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. Getting to the first hut (base of Ngauruhoe) sucked because the park had had a lot of rain, and the trail had been carved deep by run-off. So we hiked along its upper ledge. Long story short, Dave slipped and hit the ledge with his ribs, the weight of a full backpack behind the fall. We're pretty sure he cracked at least one rib. But since we'd always heard you can't do anything for a cracked rib, we didn't go to a doctor. He felt the pain for weeks. Travel fail. EPIC wife fail.

What's the most embarrassing exchange you've had with a foreign pharmacist, doctor, nurse, or host?

Dave got hit by a nasty stomach bug in Paris. As he sat moaning in the sun outside the Louvre, I hiked to a nearby pharmacy, my derelict high school French racing through my head. When I got there...

Pharmacist: Je peut vous aider? [Can I help you?]

Me (clutching my stomach): Mon mari est malade. [My husband is ill. (so far so good)]

Pharmacist: (questioning look)

Me (with hand motions): Il vomite. [He's vomiting. (wrong conjugation)]

Pharmacist: Il a la nausée? [He has... (sounds like "nose")]

Me (clueless look): Ecrivez, s'il vous plaît. [Write, please. (abrupt)]

Pharmacist: (writes "la nausée")

Me: Ah. Nausea. Yeah, that would've been less gross.


What was the worst smell you've encountered while traveling? Bonus points if it was you!

A tie. In Hong Kong, shops have big kettles on the sidewalk, in which they boil eggs and tripe, together, in mystery juice. It's...arresting. And right up there with the woman on the Australian train who wouldn't take her son/grandson to the loo to throw up, so the whole car smelled like bologna. Funky, mate.

What's the one piece of travel advice you always follow with, "Don't ask me how I know"?

Ladies, even if you're spending all day kayaking and snorkeling and laying about on beaches, DO NOT wear your swimsuit as your only undergarment for four days in a row. JUST DON'T.

How about you guys? Any gems you want to share?

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