You Can’t Take it With You / What is in My Kit

August 23, 2012 / 5 Comments

My latest story in The New York Times Travel section straddles the line; is it about travel or about health? Travel is exciting. Health? Not so much.

I’m bored by conversations about sickness and maladies, but even the heartiest traveler will sooner or later encounter a problem requiring some kind of medical treatment. The good news is that it doesn’t have to mean consulting with someone in a white lab coat or being subjected to a stethoscope. There is a whole menu of foods and spices that can do double duty treating travel-related medical issues.

Last year, Debbie Marshall, editor of silvertraveladvisor.com, a website for travelers over 50, posted a list of home remedies contributed by a UK pharmacist named Dave Harcombe. Readers were enthusiastic about his suggestions which included eating pineapple for a sore throat and using a slice of onion on itchy bug bites. Debbie told me she felt she’d done a public service sharing these tips with travelers.

“It is well worth knowing some of the healing properties of common foods when traveling,” she said, since conventional medicines can be hard to acquire in certain countries. “Pharmaceutical labels may be written in an unfamiliar language, quantities can be ambiguous and quite often nature has a remedy that will bridge the gap until more conventional aid can be found.”

My own experience with this dates back to a trip I took to Mauritania in 2002 when I was part of an expedition to locate the remains of a BOAC airliner that crashed in the Sahara in 1952.  The day I arrived in the country, I developed a wicked case of poison ivy around my wrists from a careless stint in the garden the week before my departure. To conquer the itching, I was advised to immerse my wrists in water as hot as I could stand and darned if it didn’t work.

I’d have been a little more reluctant to try the potential medical marvels I saw at the night market in Beijing, medicinals that included centipedes, sheeps’ penises and water beetles. The Times list of non-insect-based remedies, which you can read here, is pretty tame in comparison.

 

Buy it or don’t buy it. Selling sheep penis on a skewer in Beijing food market

Since I travel so much I have a pretty good system for packing and nothing goes on a trip with me if it doesn’t carry its own weight in usefulness. With this in mind, I thought I’d share my must-haves for on-the-road emergencies. Please note, I’m using the term “emergency” loosely because the word can be highly subjective.

First of all, call me crazy but I have three toiletry kits, small, medium and large. The first two are for when I travel alone. The smallest I take if I am not checking my bag and for short trips. The medium-sized one will go into a checked suitcase and for stays of a week or longer.  My jumbo-sized kit is for when I travel with my family.

All are always stocked and ready to go and on my return, they don’t get put back into the closet until I’ve replenished what’s been used. I can’t tell you how much time I save by not having to rethink the whole toiletry thing each time I travel.

Now, here is a peek into the contents of my smallest kit, with a little explanation of why I’ve packed what’s in there.

First of all, morning = coffee. It’s that simple. Rarely do I find I can’t get it, but traveling with my two pouches of instant coffee, cream included provides peace of mind. My travel tube of Crystal Light is also going to come in handy someday.

Coffee in Lisbon is memorable.

I’m not too vain, but it’s amazing how applying a little makeup at night can make me feel fancy, so there’s mascara, eye shadow and lipstick in there.  If I’m asked to do television interviews when I’m on the road, as I was this January in Spain, I’m ready. Clear nail polish can be used to extend the life of nail color and helps prevent broken nails as well. There are a thousand alternate uses for nail polish. Ditto for Q-tips.

I love my toothbrush with its suction cup feet because I can stand it up when brushing my teeth at a public sink and don’t have to worry about picking up strange germs on the bristles. BTW, I always travel with a toothbrush, paste and floss in my purse. I never want to be stranded without the ability to have a clean mouth.

As for pills, I have a small container of ibuprofen, antihistamines, aspirin and my absolute never-leave-home-without-it migraine medication, Zomig. THANK YOU, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. For any other medical needs, I’ll refer to my own story in Times Travel.

If you are wondering about the nail brush, Kleenex and slippers, these address my idiosyncrasies. I like clean nails, soft tissues and hate, Hate, HATE cold feet. These may not be priorities for you, that’s fine. The lesson is that if you take time before you go to consider what you must have, it goes a long way to ensuring you’ll be comfortable at your destination, no matter how remote it may be. I always say a great trip begins in the head, that holds true for packing as well.

How about you, what’s in your kit?

Categories: Go How Know How, Music, Food, Art and Culture, Travel Products


5 responses to “You Can’t Take it With You / What is in My Kit”

  1. Great post.

    My must-haves vary depending on the destination and the length of the trip. For example, I just finished packing for Europe and the first thing I packed was my sweatpants. I normally change into them a few minutes before I board te plane. They make the 12+-hour flight comfy.

  2. Adam says:

    A agree that a fist aid kit is very important when you travel and it is something that many people forget to take with them. I think that a small sewing kit is also needed for those unexpected rips and tears that you encounter when you travel.

  3. Sam Webster says:

    You do very well Christine to travel with your kids. I still haven’t been brave enough to do it. I’ve switched my morning coffee for a Berocca though and seem to be handling quite well (that was a difficult habit to break let me tell you!). 🙂

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