Health and Safety

I always get a little obsessive about major airline disasters. And the disappearance of flight MH370 is no exception - particularly being an airline that we have flown with so frequently these last three years - and let me be clear, I think MAS is a good airline.

However, the disappearance (and presumed crash) of this flight also got me thinking about the risks that we willingly and unwillingly take when we travel.

I still obsess over the Air France (another airline I've also flown with many times) Rio-Paris crash in 2009 and had to get a Xanax prescription to get me on the Indonesian airline Lion Air (which has a 2 out of 7 star rating and is banned from the EU).

I know exactly how safe air travel is - I know the odds of crashing on the car journey to or from the airport is many, many times higher - but the terror of being completely helpless at 35,000 feet is truly the stuff of nightmares.

Like I said, this got me thinking about the risks that we take when we travel. And yes, there's the flight(s) but it's usually the other stuff that gets you.

I was in Morocco in 2006 at the Cascade d'Ouzoud when a young European tourist fell to her death from the top of the waterfall. She just leaned in a bit too close for that perfect shot and slipped off the edge - easy enough with no guard rail. That was me 10 minutes earlier.

We were in a remote part of Indonesia last year and needed a taxi to get into the local town - the 'taxi' was a fleet of 4 local teenagers on cheap, Chinese motorcycles.

There's the uncovered 6 foot deep storm drain waiting for you take a tumble into in the dark and the trip where the anti-malarials are making you so ill you say, 'to hell with it, I'd rather get malaria.'  It probably won't kill you, but a bad case of 'Delhi belly' in India will make you wish you were dead.

And most horrifically of all, earlier this year an acquaintance was killed in a violent terrorist attack at a restaurant in Kabul.

Risk is all part of the adventure and wrapping yourself in cotton-wool is no way to live. But being back full-time in the first world, I do have a renewed appreciation for health and safety.

Even if it gets a little bit absurd at times.

Jungle fever

When I first announced to my mother that we were moving to Malaysia she had a panic attack accompanied by visions of her precious daughter residing in a terrorist-infested, cholera-ridden slum. 

It took quite awhile to convince her that Malaysia is perfectly safe (far safer than the US actually) and relatively disease-free. Personal safety is something that I have thought about very little since moving here, but for someone who previously rarely got sick - illness has been a fairly constant companion.

Most sickness is exactly what you think (and expect).  Food poisoning. Street food is generally perfectly safe in Malaysia. Common sense rules apply - if there are rats, unclean surfaces, and no soap then you give it a miss. Obviously.

 But, every now and again you get burned.  When we first arrived here we were both mildly ill about once a week (and we lost a ton of weight) but nearly two years in - I can't immediately recall the last time I had a nasty stomach bug.

Early on we went to India - I was there for nearly a month and survived without a single case of 'Delhi belly' as they call it.  This is probably a world record. So after India I was feeling a bit smug. I thought if I could get through India without getting sick, I could eat literally anything, anywhere.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Cambodia has certainly been the worst to date, to this day I don't know the exact source of poisoning, but I lost 7 pounds in 4 days and at the time - I probably would have been okay with just dying.

Unfortunately though, it's not just about dodging stomach bugs.  Malaria has largely been wiped out in peninsular Malaysia and in other developed pockets throughout the region - but it still abounds in much of Borneo and less developed countries like Myanmar.

Dengue fever is still a very real threat and one that thus far we've successfully avoided.

Food-related illnesses aside, I still do tend to just get sick here more often.  I'm currently coming off a viscous cold that has been lingering for nearly a week.  Locals have all sorts of theories on illness, but the most popular source of sickness seems to be air conditioning.  It's ironic, because this is a nation of people who do everything they can to avoid leaving their indoor hovels and love to crank their air conditioners down to sub-zero temperatures.  But then you get sick and they say, 'too much air conditioning, lah.'

BYOB

Apologies for the gap between updates, but really I've had very little of interest to report.  I've been pulling 10 hour work days sitting in front of a computer, so as a result nothing interesting has been happening to me and I don't really want to look at a computer screen when I get home.

Anyway, as I type Ian is currently tinkering with our plumbing.  I went to wash the dishes yesterday and this is what came out of our tap:

It's been 48 hours and this is still going on.  I suspect this is a result of the heavy, heavy rain we received over the weekend.  It poured. Now one of the very few things Malaysia regularly gets right is sewage and drainage - mostly due to the constant threat of malaria and dengue fever - so when several roads wash out and your plumbing is screwed it probably rained pretty hard.

All I can say is thank goodness it's cheap to eat out and don't be expect to be invited round ours for drinks anytime too soon.

In other news travel plans for a trip to India in June are in full swing.  A very dear friend is getting married, so we're off to Madras for a 5-day South-Indian wedding and then I've got nearly two weeks travelling around with my French-Canadian sidekick who previously survived two weeks in Morocco with me.

Otherwise we are off to Borneo at the end of next week and our anti-malarial regimen beings on Friday.  Orangutans, snorkeling and drinks with tiny umbrellas in them, here I come.