What are the dangers faced by travellers?

There are countless dangers faced by travellers but I suspect that you haven’t yet considered the following three points. They are not up there with getting stuck in very close proximity to a bathroom for a week because you couldn’t resist the street food or waking up after a night on the lash with a tattoo on your bum, but they are very real dangers nevertheless.
Actually the list could be endless but here are 3 of the dangers faced by travellers.

#3.  Meeting people

A full contact list can be a bonus. A busy Facebook friends’ list is a reminder of happy travels and shared memories but unless you have a great memory, do keep notes.
After travelling around a continent it may be hard to differentiate which Juan is which several months after you have parted company.
This is no problem until you want to contact one Juan to meet up for a beer and then you have to hide your surprise when a different Juan arrives and you spend the evening frantically making small talk.

#2.  Travellers lose things.

They either lose themselves metaphorically speaking or geographically, or they lose physical items.

I seem to lose underwear. After rinsing items through in the shower I have a tendency to leave my knickers draped over shower heads and taps in hostels.
If you follow my blog you will also know that I am often getting lost. I spend hours retracing my steps, sitting in little cafes and studying maps or wandering around museums after taking a wrong bus or a wrong turning.
But in my mind, getting lost is a good thing. You can discover hidden gems and make new friends, and you can lose yourself – just make sure that you get out of town before you turn into that rambling hippy on the beach who took the wrong turning twenty two years ago.

wristbands - a danger of travelling

wristbands – a danger of travelling

#1.  The hidden danger of travelling – the wrist band

Many travellers adorn themselves with colourful bands around their wrists. These scrappy pieces of woven cord and fabric tell a story, plotting ones journey and prompting memories of friends met.
But these cloth bands can be lethal.
The stray ends dangle in food, drinks and on plates, collecting microbes and passing on germs. The situation is not quite as dire as you might expect because on the upside, everytime you take a shower they do become clean again.
The biggest hazard is fire. Stirring supper over a gas flame, the careless or hungover traveller can quite easily find flames licking up their bands, although after time, this propensity to burn appears to diminish, probably in direct correlation with the amount of dirt that they become coated in.

To sum up

There are many dangers faced by travellers but sometimes it is the small ones that can cause a melt down and a panic rather than the larger dramas which crop up.

If you want to travel, don’t let anything put you off – get out there and give it a go.

If you want to read about a REAL danger – such as the time that I faced a potential robber who was armed with a knife, Click here

 

 

 

 

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