A 'flying doctor' who spends a lot of his time on planes and in hotel rooms has revealed his top tips for staying safe on your travels.
Ben MacFarlane works to bring ill or injured holidaymakers back home after a crisis and his experiences have taught him a lot of lessons about keeping happy and healthy overseas.
The doctor shared the reasons he always carries a black shoelace on his travels and how to stay on the right side of fight attendants as he revealed his secrets, writing for the Daily Mail .
When you board a plane, Ben says the two things you need to ditch are fizzy drinks and chewing gum, with both adding to getting excessive gas in the air.
The drinks will add extra oxygen to your system and chewing gum also makes us swallow more air. If you suffer with painful ears during the take-off or landing, try wiggling your jaw or fake yawning instead.
If you fancy another drink on a plane, the doc advises waiting until an hour after your meal trays have been cleared away.
That hour is used by flight staff to eat their own meals, so if you interrupt them for another G&T, you're going to be in their bad books.
Pickpockets can often be rife in tourist destinations, so tying the two zips of your backpack together with a discreet shoelace makes it a lot harder for you to be targetted.
It will also stop your over-stuffed bags falling open in crowded areas.
Ben says the airline staff he knows will always unplug the phone as soon as check into a hotel room to avoid any late-night wrong number calls and suggests always checking the person in the room before you hasn't set an unwanted alarm to go off either.
He also never sleeps naked, as dozing off in shorts and a T-shirt rids him of the anxiety of a late-night fire alarm or a stranger bursting in after being accidentally checked into the same room.
Check the bedside alarm clock against your phone, watch or the news to ensure it's set to the correct time, as finding out it's actually two hours later than you thought can be disastrous if you've got a plane to catch.
And finally, you know the little wallet the hotel hand you the room key in? Leave it behind when you head out, as it tells potential thieves where you're staying, which room you're in and that you're not there.
Source: Read Full Article