Jeff Blumenfeld shares an excerpt from his book, Travel With Purpose: Inspiring Stories of Everyday People Who Travel the World to Make a Difference … And How You Can Too, how you can stay safe while traveling:
Excerpted from “Travel With Purpose: A Field Guide to Voluntourism” (Rowman & Littlefield 2019), travelwithpurposebook.com
By its very definition, voluntourism often takes you to places far off the grid, far from reliable medical services, and far from the safe sanitation and food handling practices you’ve come to expect in the U.S.
Don’t I know it. During my last trip to Nepal I was a good boy: drank only bottled water, used Purell hand sanitizer by the gallon, and ate only food that was hot, hot, hot – cooked completely through and through. But I let my guard down.
During literally the last hour in Nepal, at the Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport, I convinced myself that the fruit plate in the VIP Executive Lounge could be trusted. Big mistake. In about 20 hours, during the final flight from New York to Denver, digestive distress kicked in, alleviated only once I arrived home and downed some DiaResQ, a natural diarrhea relief aid made with bovine (cow) colostrum. Sounds awful, but it worked. Eating that last snack in Nepal was a rookie move on my part as I realize during my eighth trip to the tiny airplane lavatory. Too much information. Ok, let’s move on.
There are certain measures I employ that have worked well for me and might also be appropriate for you.
• Depending on the destination, 22 to 64% of travelers report some illness – generally they’re mild and self-limited, such as diarrhea, respiratory infections, and skin disorders. But some travelers return to their own countries with preventable life-threatening infections, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.[i] Consult with a medical professional prior to departure, and ensure that your inoculations are current.
Before my first trip to Nepal I became a human pincushion after I decided to get trued up after years of lapsed vaccinations. Your needs may be different, for sure. For me, it took doses of Tdap, Typhoid, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal meningitis, poliovirus and a good old flu shot before I was ready to face the world.
Travel health precautions are available from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),[ii] and World Health Organization (WHO).[iii] Additional information on vaccines in the form of Vaccine Information Statements (VIS), is available for download.[iv]
• Whether traveling with a tour operator, or alone, eat foods that are fully cooked and served hot. Stay away from the salads and tuna fish sandwiches and that tea house cheese plate dotted with house flies that were previously dancing the Alley Cat on some yak dung.
• Drink beverages that have been bottled and sealed, and forget the ice. While you’re at it, squeeze the bottle first to make sure it hasn’t been resealed (remember the scene from the 2009 Academy Awards Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire, where a water bottle is refilled and the cap was super-glued for resale?). Carbonated beverages are much safer than non-carbonated – flat water drinks can be diluted with local tap water.
• Fruits and vegetables are always questionable, unless you wash and peel them personally.
• Don’t let your guard down in the bathroom. That means rinse toothbrushes only in bottled water and no singing in the shower lest tap water gets into your mouth. Practice for a week before you leave home. It is incredibly easy to slip up and find yourself using tap water out of force of habit.
• Hand sanitizer is your best friend. Use it frequently and avoid putting your hands anywhere near your eyes or mouth. Let that hangnail wait for a proper pair of nail clippers.
• Pack some energy bars for sustenance if you arrive late, the restaurants are closed, and Oreos are your only choice in the hotel vending machine. I especially like Bobo’s Oat Bars,[v] which, according to its website, is an artisan hand-baked alternative to the over-cluttered snack bar aisle riddled with over-engineered bars made with unrecognizable ingredients. It’s best to take a hard pass on those snacks.
• Now for something fairly cringey: check for bedbugs. You can thank me later. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advises that bedbugs can be found around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard. They can also be hiding in the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, and in the folds of curtains. These are nasty buggers.
Look for rusty or reddish stains on bed sheets or mattresses caused by bed bugs being crushed, dark spots about the size of a period pencil point, eggs and eggshells, which are tiny (about 1 millimeter or about the size of a period on this page), pale yellow skins that nymphs shed as they grow larger, and live bed bugs themselves.[vi]
• Make a mental note of what to grab in case of earthquake or fire. It happened to me in southern California. I grabbed my laptop, pants, shoes, and wallet; other guests in the lobby were shivering barefoot in their tighty whities. False alarm, but still.
• Before you leave, set up an international package for your smartphone, or buy a local SIM card so that if you have to use your phone in an emergency, the call doesn’t cost dozens of dollars.
• Carry an inventory of the contents of your checked luggage. That way, it will be easier to file a claim afterwards.
• Avoid looking too prosperous; leave the real Rolex home and buy a $20 Timex instead. Keep money in three different places on your body and create a throw-down wallet – something with a few dollars that looks like you’re handing over your real wallet in case of trouble.
• Be situationally aware. Stay alert and forego the use of personal headphones when you’re walking about. Avoid wearing flashy jewelry and designer clothes. Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is a city with a myriad of hazards. There are wild dogs, five lanes of traffic on two-lane streets, a rat’s nest of wires hanging from utility poles, open conduits in the sidewalk, and strange locals approaching you to strike up chatty conversations or seeking money for “baby milk” or similar. It pays to know what’s going on around you.
[i] David O. Freedman, M.D., Lin H. Chen, M.D., and Phyllis E. Kozarsky, M.D., “Medical Considerations before International Travel,” The New England Journal of Medicine, July 21, 2016, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1508815
[ii] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vaccines & Immunizations, accessed May 28, 2018, www.CDC.gov/vaccines
[iii] World Health Organization, “World Health Statistics,” accessed May 28, 2018, http://www.who.int
[iv] Centers for Disease Control, “Vaccine Information Statements (VISs),” accessed May 28, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/index.html
[v] Bobos, accessed May 28, 2018, https://eatbobos.com/
[vi] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “How to Find Bed Bugs”, EPA.com accessed Jan. 17, 2018, https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/how-find-bed-bugs
Jeff Blumenfeld is founder and president of Blumenfeld and Associates PR, LLC, a public relations and adventure marketing agency based in Boulder, Colorado. In 2013 and 2017 he served as communications director for Dooley Intermed International’s “Gift of Sight” Expedition to Nepal – an effort to deliver badly needed quality eye care to 700 impoverished villagers. In 2020 he won the Iceland Exploration Museum Leif Erickson Award for History.
I met Jeff at the 2022 Scuba Show
Staying SAFE while TRAVELING
Lisa Ellen Niver
Jeff Blumenfeld shares an excerpt from his book, Travel With Purpose: Inspiring Stories of Everyday People Who Travel the World to Make a Difference … And How You Can Too, how you can stay safe while traveling:
Stay Safe Out There
Excerpted from “Travel With Purpose: A Field Guide to Voluntourism” (Rowman & Littlefield 2019), travelwithpurposebook.com
By its very definition, voluntourism often takes you to places far off the grid, far from reliable medical services, and far from the safe sanitation and food handling practices you’ve come to expect in the U.S.
Don’t I know it. During my last trip to Nepal I was a good boy: drank only bottled water, used Purell hand sanitizer by the gallon, and ate only food that was hot, hot, hot – cooked completely through and through. But I let my guard down.
During literally the last hour in Nepal, at the Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport, I convinced myself that the fruit plate in the VIP Executive Lounge could be trusted. Big mistake. In about 20 hours, during the final flight from New York to Denver, digestive distress kicked in, alleviated only once I arrived home and downed some DiaResQ, a natural diarrhea relief aid made with bovine (cow) colostrum. Sounds awful, but it worked. Eating that last snack in Nepal was a rookie move on my part as I realize during my eighth trip to the tiny airplane lavatory. Too much information. Ok, let’s move on.
There are certain measures I employ that have worked well for me and might also be appropriate for you.
• Depending on the destination, 22 to 64% of travelers report some illness – generally they’re mild and self-limited, such as diarrhea, respiratory infections, and skin disorders. But some travelers return to their own countries with preventable life-threatening infections, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.[i] Consult with a medical professional prior to departure, and ensure that your inoculations are current.
Before my first trip to Nepal I became a human pincushion after I decided to get trued up after years of lapsed vaccinations. Your needs may be different, for sure. For me, it took doses of Tdap, Typhoid, hepatitis A and B, meningococcal meningitis, poliovirus and a good old flu shot before I was ready to face the world.
Travel health precautions are available from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),[ii] and World Health Organization (WHO).[iii] Additional information on vaccines in the form of Vaccine Information Statements (VIS), is available for download.[iv]
• Whether traveling with a tour operator, or alone, eat foods that are fully cooked and served hot. Stay away from the salads and tuna fish sandwiches and that tea house cheese plate dotted with house flies that were previously dancing the Alley Cat on some yak dung.
• Drink beverages that have been bottled and sealed, and forget the ice. While you’re at it, squeeze the bottle first to make sure it hasn’t been resealed (remember the scene from the 2009 Academy Awards Best Picture, Slumdog Millionaire, where a water bottle is refilled and the cap was super-glued for resale?). Carbonated beverages are much safer than non-carbonated – flat water drinks can be diluted with local tap water.
• Fruits and vegetables are always questionable, unless you wash and peel them personally.
• Don’t let your guard down in the bathroom. That means rinse toothbrushes only in bottled water and no singing in the shower lest tap water gets into your mouth. Practice for a week before you leave home. It is incredibly easy to slip up and find yourself using tap water out of force of habit.
• Hand sanitizer is your best friend. Use it frequently and avoid putting your hands anywhere near your eyes or mouth. Let that hangnail wait for a proper pair of nail clippers.
• Pack some energy bars for sustenance if you arrive late, the restaurants are closed, and Oreos are your only choice in the hotel vending machine. I especially like Bobo’s Oat Bars,[v] which, according to its website, is an artisan hand-baked alternative to the over-cluttered snack bar aisle riddled with over-engineered bars made with unrecognizable ingredients. It’s best to take a hard pass on those snacks.
• Now for something fairly cringey: check for bedbugs. You can thank me later. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advises that bedbugs can be found around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard. They can also be hiding in the seams of chairs and couches, between cushions, and in the folds of curtains. These are nasty buggers.
Look for rusty or reddish stains on bed sheets or mattresses caused by bed bugs being crushed, dark spots about the size of a period pencil point, eggs and eggshells, which are tiny (about 1 millimeter or about the size of a period on this page), pale yellow skins that nymphs shed as they grow larger, and live bed bugs themselves.[vi]
• Make a mental note of what to grab in case of earthquake or fire. It happened to me in southern California. I grabbed my laptop, pants, shoes, and wallet; other guests in the lobby were shivering barefoot in their tighty whities. False alarm, but still.
• Before you leave, set up an international package for your smartphone, or buy a local SIM card so that if you have to use your phone in an emergency, the call doesn’t cost dozens of dollars.
• Carry an inventory of the contents of your checked luggage. That way, it will be easier to file a claim afterwards.
• Avoid looking too prosperous; leave the real Rolex home and buy a $20 Timex instead. Keep money in three different places on your body and create a throw-down wallet – something with a few dollars that looks like you’re handing over your real wallet in case of trouble.
• Be situationally aware. Stay alert and forego the use of personal headphones when you’re walking about. Avoid wearing flashy jewelry and designer clothes. Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is a city with a myriad of hazards. There are wild dogs, five lanes of traffic on two-lane streets, a rat’s nest of wires hanging from utility poles, open conduits in the sidewalk, and strange locals approaching you to strike up chatty conversations or seeking money for “baby milk” or similar. It pays to know what’s going on around you.
BUY TRAVEL WITH PURPOSE
[i] David O. Freedman, M.D., Lin H. Chen, M.D., and Phyllis E. Kozarsky, M.D., “Medical Considerations before International Travel,” The New England Journal of Medicine, July 21, 2016, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMra1508815
[ii] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Vaccines & Immunizations, accessed May 28, 2018, www.CDC.gov/vaccines
[iii] World Health Organization, “World Health Statistics,” accessed May 28, 2018, http://www.who.int
[iv] Centers for Disease Control, “Vaccine Information Statements (VISs),” accessed May 28, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/vis/index.html
[v] Bobos, accessed May 28, 2018, https://eatbobos.com/
[vi] U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “How to Find Bed Bugs”, EPA.com accessed Jan. 17, 2018, https://www.epa.gov/bedbugs/how-find-bed-bugs
ABOUT JEFF BLUMENFELD:
Jeff Blumenfeld is founder and president of Blumenfeld and Associates PR, LLC, a public relations and adventure marketing agency based in Boulder, Colorado. In 2013 and 2017 he served as communications director for Dooley Intermed International’s “Gift of Sight” Expedition to Nepal – an effort to deliver badly needed quality eye care to 700 impoverished villagers. In 2020 he won the Iceland Exploration Museum Leif Erickson Award for History.
I met Jeff at the 2022 Scuba Show
Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.
Editor's Picks
Israel and the Internet Wars – A Professional Social Media Review
The Invisible Student: A Tale of Homelessness at UCLA and USC
What Ever Happened to the LA Times?
Who Are the Jews On Joe Biden’s Cabinet?
You’re Not a Bad Jewish Mom If Your Kid Wants Santa Claus to Come to Your House
No Labels: The Group Fighting for the Political Center
Latest Articles
Rabbis of LA | The Making of a Social Justice Rabbi
L.A. Educators Visit Israel with JNF-USA, Camp Alonim’s ’Wine and Song,’ Shabbat in the Park
When You Come (to dinner) — A poem for Parsha Ki Tavo
A Moment in Time: Showing Up
Erroneous: That Israel has Renewed an Eye for an Eye
A Bisl Torah — Season of Renewal
Mark Ruffalo, Meet Dolly Parton
Instead of the arrogance of cynicism, Parton embodied the innocence of humility. We could all use some of that humility.
Print Issue: Debunking the Lie of the Century | August 28, 2026
An investigative journalist offers a primer to debunk the “genocide” libel against Israel.
Sinai Rabbis Publish Guide to Help Clergy Navigate Unimaginable Loss
For the authors, that legacy embodies the book’s central message: that even in the face of unbearable loss, compassion, presence and community can help transform grief into an enduring act of care.
Before Auschwitz: The Forgotten Nazi Program That Paved the Way for the Holocaust
This is where the Holocaust story begins – not in the gas chambers of Auschwitz, but earlier, with the Nazi regime’s Aktion T4 program, a state-sponsored campaign to murder people with disabilities.
When Renting Beats Buying, Los Angeles Risks Losing Its Jewish Future
For the Jewish community, this threat is particularly severe because Jewish life is built around proximity, continuity and intergenerational relationships.
Rabbis of LA | Justice, Justice Rabbi Simonds Pursues
First of two parts
Birthright Israel Summer Event, New Interim Rabbi, NLP Hike
Notable people and events in the Jewish LA community.
From Balaboosta to CookUnity: Chef Einat Admony Shares Her Food Across the U.S.
Long before shakshuka became a brunch staple and Israeli restaurants multiplied across the city, Admony was introducing New Yorkers to the flavors she had grown up with in Israel.
Nature’s Candy: A Sweet Fig, Date and Nut Cake
Baking this cake brought back the memories of Friday nights and holiday gatherings at my parents’ home.
Table for Five: Ki Tavo
Jewish History
Rosner’s Domain | Has Oct. 7 Made Israelis More Religious?
Several surveys showed that there is substance to the claim that a degree of Jewish “strengthening” is evident in the Israeli public. However, all the studies so far have dealt with adult society.
The Nexus of the Ruffalo Problem
Once the target is Jews rather than Israeli policy, the Nexus Document itself takes over.
Israel Has No Shortage of Biomedical Startups, but Where Are the Global Companies?
This may be Israel’s blind spot. The system is exceptionally good at creating biomedical startups but not equally optimized for turning the strongest of them into enduring global companies.
The Legacy of Everyday Love
We may not remember every conversation or every accomplishment, but we remember how people made us feel. In the end, it is those ordinary acts of kindness that stay with us the longest.
Could Jon Ossoff Become the First Jewish President?
It is possible that a record four Jewish candidates will be on a debate stage, vying to become the Democratic nominee for the 2028 presidential election.
Intermarriage and the Conservative Movement – A Different Approach
While I understand and sympathize with the issues confronting Conservative rabbis and synagogues in the United States concerning intermarriage, allowing Conservative rabbis to officiate at intermarriages will not solve that problem.
Why I Don’t Care About Antisemitism
Maybe we are fighting the wrong battle.
America’s First, Remarkable Flag, a Reminder of Biblical Faith
The Continental Union Flag deserves to be remembered as a window into the political process of independence, as in the time of biblical Israel.
I’m So (Sorta) Sorry
The classic case of a “nonapology” apology is when the allegedly contrite offender says something to the effect of “I’m so sorry that you’re upset.” Note that the speaker doesn’t actually acknowledge doing anything wrong.
What the Return of Yehuda Katz Says About Israel’s Covenant With Its People
Most nations honor their fallen, but Israel does something more. We make a covenant with them.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.