Keeping calm in injury time

No, this post is not about how to manage and play well in the last few minutes of a football (soccer) game 😛

I am going to talk about how to deal with (physical) injuries while you’re travelling in a foreign land. I started thinking about this after a recent knee injury while playing football. Although I haven’t been too unlucky while travelling, I have suffered from occassional twisted ankles, finders-caught-in-the-door, scratches and bruises, and the likes. Dealing with an injury in the right way is especially important if you are travelling solo and don’t have anyone to fall back on (no pun intended). So, here are some tips based on a recent experience while on a trip to Barcelona..

[Disclaimers:
1. I am not a trained paremedic or a first aider (yet) – I am going to do a first aid course in a couple of months.

2. I am going to focus on physical injuries here. For other type of medical situations, I am probably not the best to advise, so please do consult your doctor before going on a trip. There are also a lot of  resources on the internet to go through. A quick google search led me to this fairly useful looking link.]

 

Here are my tips and thoughts:

1. Keep Calm – This is probably the most cliched advice, yet equally the most important advice as well. If you suffer an injury, do not panic! Consciously pause for a minute and relax – taking a few deep breaths will help in keeping calm.

When I suffered a twisted ankle while roaming around alone in Tarragona in Spain, I knew it was another occurence of a recurring injury my left ankle has been suffering from, and was nothing new. I immediately sat down on the nearest footpath, took a few sips of water and tried to clear my mind of all thoughts.

2. Assess the situation, extent of injury – How bad does it feel? One of the things I have learnt about ankle and knee injuries – if it doesn’t feel too bad, it’s probably not too bad. If it’s something awful like a ligament tear, it’ll hurt like hell. Also, another point to note: If it doesn’t hurt when the injured part is idle and not being stretched, things aren’t too bad. If it was a ligament injury, it’d hurt even if you were not moving at all. The above advice of ‘if it doesn’t feel too bad, it’s probably not too bad’ doesn’t apply to head injuries, so be careful!

It was not a new injury, it did feel painful, but not something I had not felt before. So, I knew it wasn’t too bad. I had also grazed my arm a bit trying to break my fall, but the scratches were only superfluous. A quick wash would be fine.

3. Assess the situation around – What’s there in your surroundings? Are you in a location with lots of people around? Do the people around speak the language that you do? Or you’re in the middle of nowhere?  Do you have a phone with which you could call for help?

If there are people around, don’t be afraid to call out for help. Ignore the language barrier, don’t feel shy – anyone in any culture would recognise pain. Almost everywhere, locals would be more than willing to help. Even if they don’t have medicines (say, someone from a restaurant or a house ran over to help you), ask for water. Drinking water helps alleviate the pain (I don’t know why!) and helps you relax as well. Also, request the person helping you to call for medical assistance if the situation looks bad.

If there’s noone around, first check if it’s safe to sit down and do first aid to yourself at that place. For example, if you are in the middle of a forest, it might be a better idea to go to some clear ground or high ground, as the situation demands. Similarly, make sure you are not in the middle of a road. Next, make sure you know what resources are available to you – this can be a phone, to a bottle of water, to first aid medicines to even a piece of cloth (can be used as a tourniquet to stop blood flow).

With my ankle twist, although noone was around, I saw a restaurant in the distance. After a few minutes of rest, I hobbled over there, and took a table and asked for water. As my ankle wasn’t feeling too painful, I also ordered some food and had lunch to give some time for the pain to reduce and natural body healing to happen. Also, the lunch acted as a good distraction.

4. Cold or hot treatment? –  This a popular question. The answer that I know and follow is: ONLY cold treatment for first 24 hours (it can be an icepack – if that’s not available, go for frozen peas). Any hot treatment in first 24 hours can make matters worse. Applying ice helps keep the swelling down, a consquence you wouldn’t realise immediately, but is very important.

I ordered a bottle of icecold bottle along with lunch, and help that to soothe my ankle. It was a bit embarassing, but very effective.

5. Don’t be afraid to use external help – Even if you are travelling solo, try getting in touch with your friends and family – both to inform them, and seek their advice. In difficul times, it often happens that we can’t think straight, and someone sitting far away might have better access to advice and suggestions. Also, don’t panic, but don’t be afraid to cut your trip short. Although it would seem like a bummer to let the rest of the trip go waste, it is important to listen to what your body (and your doctor!) are saying and to make sure that the injury doesn’t worsen.

In my case, I didn’t tell anyone that I had an ankle injury so as not to worry them. In that situation, it was alright, but it’s not always the best course to follow. Please don’t follow my example there!

Oh, by the way, I did manage to safely hobble away from my ankle injury that day in Tarragona, and went on to enjoy the rest of the town, visit a Roman collosseum and even managed to visit another another nearby town of Sitges. By the end of the day, I was feeling much better, I took an Ibuprofen (painkiller and anti-inflammatory) and made sure that I wore my ankle strap (I keep this while travelling, as I know the ankle might act up any moment) for the rest of the trip.

Safe travelling! And if you do get injured, keep calm and make sure you listen to your instincts!

How I chose my latest travel destination : Simple logic!

This June, I went on what I (used to?) call ‘the trip of a lifetime’ – a trip to the dreamy deserted land of Ladakh. Ladakh is a part of the state of Jammu & Kashmir, the northernmost state of India.

What this entailed was a flight to Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir. And then a road-trip from Srinagar to Leh, the capital of Ladakh, via National Highway NH-1D. The road went through beautiful green hills and valleys, 13000 feet high passes and weird sandstone landscape, war memorials and Buddhist monasteries.. but in the context of this post, what is more important is – I passed through the northernmost point of India reachable by a public road. Look at the map below (map courtesy Wikipedia):

Well, it was an amazing trip, and I’ll most likely be harping about it for months to come..
You might question – how is all this relevant to choosing a travel destination? It’s quiet simple. I travelled to the northernmost point of India (atleast one I could reach). What’s next?

Obviously – The southernmost point of India! Kanyakumari!

So I went to Kanyakumari – at he the confluence of the three mighty seas – the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea – the southernmost point of mainland India.

I don’t know how people define a ‘traveler’ or why anyone likes to travel? But for me, it’s pretty simple. I just love to see new places, it’s the journey, it’s the thrill to reach a new destination that gives me the motivation to travel. The choice of going to Kanyakumari – for some it might defy logic, but it makes perfect sense to me. Doesn’t it? 🙂

After all, now I can claim with pride – I have traveled from tip to tip of India! 😀

It seems not every Japanese knows about Naruto

I had just sat down to read a few pages from a travel book (The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux) to be followed by a short nap, when I head some voices outside. This was right after enjoying a breakfast of omelet and tea at the Shri Ganesha Cafe, my accommodation for a couple of days at Gokarna.

I hadn’t heard a lot about Gokarna, and definitely not about the Shri Ganesh Cafe. And my stay here was as much a surprise to me, as it was to my friends and family. I had decided to come alone down to the beaches. One of my friends had asked me for a reason. Well, I had no reason. Did I have to need a reason to take a few days leave from office because the atmosphere around had become too suffocating, and a break from everyone around felt good? Ofcourse not! 😉 Hehehe.

So, I had come down to Gokarna – a seemingly-heavenly place, half a day bus journey from Bangalore – alone. After a little research, I came to know that it has 4 very popular beaches, of which Kudle beach was popular among those staying in the town, who mainly came to Gokarna to visit the Shiva temple. I was staying at the Om Beach, more popular for the hordes of foreign tourists (a lot of them hippies – or at least that’s what used to be a few years ago), and where the bus driver stopped the bus (a couple of kilometres before reaching the main town of Gokarna) and requested all the foreign tourists to alight, since that’s where he assumed they all go! Even though it was a costly Rs 100 auto ride to the Om Beach, which I offered to share with a few of them – none of them agreed. It seems, its difficult for them to trust Indians. Especially Indians who act very friendly. What a shame, since the auto-driver eventually took them to the beach for Rs 170 since they didn’t know how to bargain.

The only place of accommodation I had heaard of, at the Om Beach, was the Namaste cafe, which turned out to be full. So, I started walking along the beach, checking one restaurant cafe (these have small huts for rooms) after another and they all turned out to be full, until I reached Shri Ganesh cafe. Where the owner replied to my question with.. “Sir, pehle chaay to lijiye” (translated as: ‘Sir, please have some tea first’). I knew I had reached the right place.

That’s how we reach the point, when after a sumptuous breakfast (with a full view of the sea and the fresh morning breeze), I was lying down for a short nap (Oh yeah, the reading part didn’t last long as I felt very sleepy very fast 🙂 ) when I heard some activity outside. Activity – a change I didn’t mind in such a quiet and serene place. I focussed a little bit, and heard a very sweet voice call out – “Ooohaaaaayyyyooooooo“. Ahhh, so my next door neighbour was Japanese! Interesting!!

Curious, I quickly finished the page I was reading, and went outside but saw no one around. I went towards the restaurant – which could be described more like an open-air cafe – and saw that a group of foreigners were sitting, discussing something animatedly, and laughing. I said “Hi” to everyone and just sat with them. Guess what? They were discussing the football world cup happening this year. And immediately I was welcomed to the discussion. I introduced myself as ‘Abhijit’, which was met with “Eh?“,”Uhhh.. A.. what?” and “Sorry, could you repeat that” (this last bit was in a very very English accent – I made a point to remember that). So, I reintroduced myself as ‘Abhi’ to which everyone replied with “Hi Abbey!“. Ummm, I could live with that. The topic moved to South Africa, safety and their travel adventures there,with Ryan relating his story about how he was in South Africa for just a day – and in just a day, he got mugged. Thankfully, they didn’t take away his sneakers, which according to him, were very nice. Haha! I knew I was going to have a lot of fun in Gokarna.

A little while later, the Japanese chick said she had to make a phone call, and asked me if I could help her out. I said ‘Sure’ and we started walking back towards the huts. She said, in a very un-Japanese accent (or what I would expect to be Japanese – since I haven’t really heard one), “Hi Abbey, I am Sakura.” And the following conversation ensued:

Abbey: Wow!
Sakura: Why wow??
Abbey: Hehe, well, I read a lot of Japanese comics, in English, ofcourse. And the first thing I am reminded of, when I think of Japanese, is a comic character called Naruto. And in that comic, he likes a girl called Sakura.
Sakura:  Haha, I have never heard of it.
Abbey: Oh, you’ve not?
Sakura: Nope. I’ve been in London all my life.

She tried dialing a number from my phone, but the lines were busy, or something like that. Damn Vodafone!

As she was handing me back my phone, she asked me.. “Oh, but, how did you know I am Japanese??”.
I replied.. “Arigato” and smiled.


**************
p.s. Thanks to all the friends I made in Gokarna for making my visit such a great experience! 🙂

DC :D

Someone told me.. you should blog while traveling – that would be real travel-blogging.

So, here I am – in Washington DC – at Hostelling International – reached just a couple of hours back.

As it was pretty late when I reached the hostel, I immediately set out for food, walked a few blocks – reached a super-lively place! Guess what, Verizon center. Take another guess, just a little while back, a Wizards match was going on. Not only that, Wizards beat Nuggets (who are second in the Western Conference and beat Cavaliers yesterday)! 107-97! No wonder the crowds outside were super-charged (and almost surprised!)

After facing defeat at the UltraBar (damn the shoes that I forgot to bring), I headed on towards the Chinatown with its majestic chinese arch. American Chinese food (which is probably Chinese Chinese food) is pretty different from Indian Chinese.

By the way, this is what my fortune cookie had to say: You are busy but you are happy. So true! Adios!

p.s. I saw the Washington Monument and the US Capitol building from the train! 🙂

Second solo trip : Ahoy?

As I get ready to go for my second solo trip, which is a longer (4 days this time) but slightly more prepared as well (I have the bus tickets – no accommodation booked or activity planned), I am wondering: Is solo-travel the ‘true’ form of traveling? Why is there such a big fuss about a person not being a traveler/wanderer/nomad if he hasn’t traveled alone? (Note: I don’t mind traveling alone!)

There is a certain charm to traveling alone – you definitely talk to a lot more local people, other travelers, strangers, you learn a lot about the place, its heritage, interesting titbits, trivia – the ‘personality’ of the place. Though you might miss your friends or family, atleast you’ll get time to miss them.

Anyway, since nobody really gives a damn about what I philosophize (neither do I – its a waste of time), let me introduce you to the place I’ll be traveling to:

Gokarna


In my knowledge, this short description should suffice: Its a place of pilgrimage, equally famous for its lovely beaches and hippie crowds. The most common activity here is to laze around on the beach, drinking beer (or other forms of alcohol one might prefer). A relatively lesser common activity is actually moving around the beach, trekking to the slightly less accessible beaches. I shall be taking with me >=2 number of books with me for company. Staying in a shack on the beach is going to be a fun experience. 

You can know more about Gokarna here.
Ofcourse, I’ll be writing about it as soon as I get back! 🙂

p.s. MaGoCa rocks! (Please don’t fret about it if you can’t figure out what MaGoCa is)