Twelve Trivial Travel Tips
September 7, 2007
In no particular order of importance, here are twelve random travel tips for you to consider:
Don’t leave a tip in New Zealand – it’s often taken as an insult if you do.
Take your own toilet tissue with you to foreign bathrooms, where it can be otherwise scarce, expensive, or too coarse for your comfort. It never hurts to grab a few extra paper napkins from Starbucks or McDonalds to keep in your back pocket.
Haggling is often the rule outside the US. Never pay “asking” price without trying for a reduction.
The Dewey Decimal System is not used in libraries world-wide, so anticipate much browsing time in some countries.
In Italy, bars are required by law to give free water to whomever asks.
An International driver’s licence is often recognized when your local license is not, so it’s a wise move to get one.
The emergency phone number in the US and Canada is 9-1-1. Across the European Union and for all GSM phones, the emergency number is 1-1-2. This also applies in Britain and Ireland, as well as their own 9-9-9. Some Caribbean islands also use 9-9-9. The Australian number is 0-0-0. In parts of East Asia, the number is 1-1-9. The number in New Zealand is 1-1-1, but if you dial 9-1-1, it will be forwarded to the 1-1-1 exchange.
Do you have an allergy or medical condition to consider at international eateries? Visit allergycards.com to create and print free Allergy Warning cards to present to waiters.
Trade is as easy as spending cash in many countries. Your sunglasses, shoes, T-shirt, aspirin, CDs, deck of Atlantic City souvenier playing cards, and basically anything that could be wanted, needed, or resold can be used as money.
Open a PayPal account and leave some money in it before traveling. In case of emergency, you can withdraw funds in local currency or pay bills directly.
Be prepared to convert more than just your power source. You may need audio or video conversion, car battery to AC, or telephone adaptors. Try a site like travelconverters.com for helpful suggestions.
Take along a box of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate). Sprinkle on sheets to keep cooler and dryer, in shoes and clothes to deodorize, as well as under your arms. It relieves minor itching from insect bites, poison ivy and bacterial infection, and kills small insects. Baking soda is an effective antacid, fabric softener, tooth paste, drain de-greaser, and dish stain remover. It can also purify contact lenses, prevent flatuencce, and extinguish fires.
About the Author: A big fan of baking soda, I live in Vancouver, BC, where I create websites, write songs and stories, and produce videos for a living.
I endorse the baking soda remedy for anti itching. Three or four desert spoons in a bath tub of water and soak it off.
If you are in the tropics and suffer from prickly heat a cheap and effective alternative to over the counter remedies is green coconut milk. Wash it on and let the milk dry on the prickly heat infection and leave it 24 hours then wash off. Ideally you would fill a bath with it and soak in it but when on the road getting 200 green coconuts into the hostel/hotel would be an interesting challenge. This remedy was used very effectively in the Pacific War when bedridden allied soldiers would quickly come down with prickly heat infections.