Safari to Kenya Day 1

Between watching the winds that determine volcano ash direction and the politics of a strike, getting to Nairobi, via London, has been a challenge. After a long flight, it felt great to stretch my legs as I walked through Heathrow. As with any large international airport once you exit the plane you have quite a distance to go to exit the airport. As I walked down long corridors, up and down stairs, took a train and weaved through the cues, I wondered how far I'd walked. I sat beside an older woman on the bus to our hotel and she estimated we'd probably walked one mile, perhaps more. She doesn't travel often and was very surprised that we had to walk so far in the airport. I was thinking it wasn't nearly as long as other airports I'd been to.

I didn't ask my seat companion her age. But it got me thinking. How realistic are the expectations of some older, less experienced travelers about the physical aspects of their trips ?Those of us in travel health need to be more aware of how fit our clients for their travel. Originally we had a connecting flight with a two hour layover. Not much time to traverse a large airport especially for slower goers.

After an entertaining meal at a local pub (fish and chips, of course) we leave London for an early flight to Nairobi.

No Ice, Please

Food and water precautions are a frequent topic of conversation in travel clinics. There are so many places in the world where you simply can’t drink the water. And that means no ice, either. So what do you do when you forget to tell someone no ice and you are brought a drink with ice in it? You call the waiter over and ask for one with no ice. He walks away and returns with a glass with your beverage and no ice. But what happened?

Did the waiter remove the ice with his hands? Once the ice was removed, did fill the glass with more of the drink? Maybe, he poured out the drink and filled the same glass with a new drink. Or, maybe he got a new glass with a fresh drink. Problem is, you don’t know. So, what do you do?

If I get a drink with ice, I send it back and say I changed my mind and order a beverage that is carbonated in the bottle or order something that has been boiled, such as hot tea or coffee. You could ask for a bottle of water and ask to open the bottle yourself but you can’t be sure that it has been processed with sanitary water under sanitary conditions or hasn’t been tampered with.

The alcohol in alcoholic beverages will not kill bacteria lurking in ice cubes. But, you could order beer or wine.