It can be challenging to stay healthy while on holiday. You’re likely adjusting to a new time zone and eating strange foods. Stressful flights or insufficient sleep can have an adverse impact on your health. So follow the advice below to enhance your health.
Thailand is hot during the day, all year round, so the No 1 health tip for visits to Thailand is to stay hydrated. Choose water over alcoholic drinks for the first few days (if you can resist the temptation to splurge on the cheap cocktails), or even better drink fresh coconut water. It is absolutely the best beverage to keep you hydrated and has stacks of electrolytes and natural sugars.
Add local tropical fruits to your breakfast menu – Thailand’s lovely mangoes are available at local markets almost year round. Papayas and pineapples are cheap and good for the digestion, and dragon fruits are widely available. There are many other seasonal fruits available such as lychees, rambutans, longans. and salak fruit. All have lots of vitamins and dragon fruit in particular is high in iron content.
Before breakfast do some stretching exercises, and try to swim, walk or bike every day (but not right after eating). Unless tou have a reason to get up early (such as a prebooked tour) don’t set the alarm to ensure a good night’s sleep and stay active as much as you can for the duration of your holiday.
Try to manage to find the time and motivation to exercise because that will help you to enjoy your holiday more. Try running, jogging or walking on the beach if you don’t want to go to a gym. If you are suffering from jet lag, remember that it takes one day for every hour in time difference to fully adjust to a new timezone. Don’t hesitate to take a nap if you feel tired but try to limit naps to 20-30 minutes to avoid countering the timezone adjustment.
Remember that the tropical sun is strong, even on cloudy days, so use a sunblock to control the amount of sun that your skin in exposed – especially during the first few days. There’s nothing worse than ending up back in bed with painful sunburn if you’ve spent to much time on the beach.
Aside from sunburn, the next most common ailment that visitors end up with in Thailand is travellers’ diarrhoea. Fortunately that’s less common in Thailand than many other Asian countries (India especially) but eating salads that haven’t been washed properly or shaved ice desserts that haven’t been prepared hygienically can certainly send you running to the bathroom in no time at all.
Very useful tips, thank you! Sometimes we forget these simple and basic things when we are on vacation.
And don\’t forget to take sun spray to protect your skin.