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.