While I was putting together my packing list, I realized that I didn’t have a travel adapter for Vietnam. I needed to buy to buy a good universal travel adapter anyway, so why not use my trip to Vietnam as an excuse.

During my research on Amazon and EBay I initially found two reputable travel adapters:

1. World Travel Adapter 1
   
2. SKROSS World Travel Adapter 3

World Travel Adapter 1

World Travel Adapter 1

SKROSS World Travel Adapter 3

Then I came across a “Euro Adapter” from an unknown producer on Amazon. The specs looked pretty good and were at least on par with the other two adapters. But here comes the kicker and the reasons why I then purchased this travel adapter:

It can be used in more than 180 countries, weights only 45 gramms, measures an astonishing 95 x 44 x 15 mm and is rated up to 1300 Watts, which is more than the Swiss Travel Adapters can claim for themselves. Unfortunately you can only purchase the Euro Adapter at Amazon.de

Now, don’t get me wrong here. The two Swiss Travel Adapters mentioned before are most certainly very good products and will do what they are designed to do, but when it comes down to cutting down your backpack weight, every ounce counts and I don’t like bulky accessories. But if you do decide to purchase either the World Travel Adapter 1 (Amazon.de) the SKROSS World Travel Adapter 3 (Amazon.com or Amazon.de), they can both be purchased through Amazon – I’ve linked the items for you in the brackets.

Have you had any experiences with travel adapters or have a different opinion? Let’s hear about it in the comments. And don’t forget to bookmark this article if you enjoyed the read!

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No, the title of this post does not have a spelling error . The product I’m writing about in this post is actually called “EarPlanes”. While I was ordering some other stuff for my backpacking trip to Vietnam, I saw these and found the idea very interesting and wanted to try them out, even though I don’t have problems with regulating the pressure in my ears during flights.

So what are these “EarPlanes” and how do they work?

EarPlanes

EarPlanes are basically pressure-regulating earplugs that are inserted into the ear to help reduce discomfort often associated with air travel. They were developed by Cirrus Healthcare Products LLC in conjunction with the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles, and have been tested by US Navy aviators at the Miramar Naval Air Station (remember TOP GUN? ) in San Diego.¹

In simple terms EarPlanes equalize the pressure on either side of the eardrum while flying.

There are some people that recommend keeping the EarPlanes in your ears during the entire flight. Others however, claim that you should insert them into your ear before boarding the plane, waiting half an hour until cruising altitude is reached to take them out and putting them back in half an hour before landing and not removing them until the cabin door has been opened. I will definitely try the second recommendation, as I don’t believe these plugs are very comfortable to wear on an 9.5 + 5 hour flight.

I also find the company philosophy of Cirrus Healthcare Products LLC quite appealing too:

“The mission of the company is to offer products, natural ones whenever possible [emphasis added by me], that relieve health problems in an easy to use affordable and convenient format.”

Company Mission of the Cirrus Healthcare Products LLC

Why use medication or any other hard drugs in order to cope with illments, if natural solutions work just as well or even better? This has always been common sense to me. But in the age of big pharmaceutical companies that make billions of dollars profit, there’s hardly any place for such solutions anymore.

I’ll be sure to update this post as soon as I’ve tried and reviewed them in the field . So far, EarPlanes have received very good customer reviews on Amazon. If you want to purchase them, the are available through Amazon.com here (available as a 1 or 3 pair pack) or Amazon.de here and there are also sizes for children as well. Currently Amazon.de only has a 12-pack size Amazon.com on the other hand has 1 or 3-set packs.

Have you already tried EarPlanes? If so, what are your experiences with them? Did they help? Let’s hear about it in the comments below. And don’t forget to bookmark this article if you enjoyed the read!

1. FAQ: What are EarPlanes? ((http://www.cirrushealthcare.com/faq.aspx#WhatEar

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After checking the health risks that I may encounter in Vietnam, Malaria is one of them, according to the German Department of State (Auswärtiges Amt). By the way, checking for specific risks that you may be exposed to during your travels is something you should always do before you leave home. And do it well in advance so you can take the necessary precautions like getting vaccinated, if you believe vaccinations gives you protection.

Because I’m generally a very critical and cautious person, I did a thorough risk analysis to see what precautions I would want to take. Let’s start with Malaria, shall we?

Let’s see what Mr. and Mrs. Wikipedia have to say about Malaria. How about a nice map to start with?

Frequency and origin of malaria cases in 1996

|||| High Risk

|||| Medium Risk

|||| Low Risk

|||| Very Low Risk

|||| No Risk

Source: Wikipedia on “Malaria” based on the data from CHU Hôpitaux de Rouen. Fréquence et origine des cas de paludisme

OK, according CHU Hôpitaux de Rouen Vietnam is classified as a “Low Risk” malaria region. Next up, let’s see what our folks from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) say. I’m sure they also have a nice chart prepared for us, yes?

Alright, so the CDC classifies Vietnam as an epidemic malaria country, but at the same time states that in most countries the malaria risk is limited to certain areas.

We therefore have two different independent sources of data and above that, from different years (1996 vs 2003). We’ll disregard how the data was collected and for simplicity purposes just assume that both data sources are reliable and were collected in the same fashion. We will further assume that the CDC is a reliable and independent source information (cough ). I know, sometimes you have to stretch your imagination For the people that don’t know what I’m taking about, let’s just say that in the past and very recent history the CDC has been known to have very tight ties to the pharmaceutical industry. So overstating the malaria risk would be in the interest of the CDC.

We therefore need a more detailed breakdown of the malaria regions in Vietnam to make a better decision. Let’s try the following site: http://www.malariahotspots.co.uk/facts-maphotspots.asp

Malaria Hotspots sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline

This website rates malaria in Vietnam “Extremely High”, even though it states that “[...] does not necessarily mean that the entire country is affected, as malaria may be restricted to certain areas or regions.”¹ Personally, I think this website seems to exaggerate the risk of malaria, as it’s based on WHO data and is sponsored by, oh you guessed it, a well-kwown pharmaceutical company named GlaxoSmithKline. It’s nothing we haven’t seen countless times before – the WHO teaming up with pharmaceutical giants. We all know very well what happens when pharmacetical companies pay World Health Organization advisors to tell the public how extremely dangerous diseases, such as the bird or swine flu are, right? Damm, I haven’t gotten my flu shot yet!

Let’s look at one last website – Traveldoctor.info. Traveldoctor.info has a nice Google map incorporated into its website here that gives a detailed breakdown of the malaria regions in Vietnam, even though some of the information on their website is  also based on data from the WHO. Our Traveldoc sums up the malaria risk in Vietnam nicely by saying the following²:

“The risk of malaria in Vietnam is low and is mainly found in the central highlands [...]“

www.traveldoctor.info on this risk of malaria in Vietnam (29.12.2009)

Traveldoctor.info also offers some very good advise here for people considering taking malaria medication during their travel abroad. They recommend the following:

Drugs used for prevention

• Chloroquine
• Lariam
• Malarone
• Doxycycline

Lariam is more effective against Chloroquine resistant malaria than Chloroquine and paludrine. There has been some discussion about side effects from lariam, but two thirds to three quarters of all users apparently have few problems.

Malarone is a new drug combination and can be used for both prophylaxis and treatment. For prophylaxis the dose is 1 tablet daily from the day before entry to 7 days after departure from the malaria risk area. Malarone is primarily an alternative to Lariam and Doxycycline. Malarone is also an alternative to Chloroquine and paludrine for short stays, if you want to avoid taking tablets 4 weeks after departure from the malaria risk area.

Doxycycline is an antibiotic which can be used to prevent malaria resistant to other drugs. There is less experience with Doxycycline than with Lariam and Malarone. The side effects are mostly an allergic rash on areas exposed to sunlight.

Side effects

Comparing Chloroquine and Paludrine and Lariam the risk of mild side effects are about the same, but lariam users have up to four times higher risk of experiencing neuropsychiatric side effects of which difficulty with sleeping is the most common.
Overall 2% to 5% of all users, no matter which drug they use, experience symptoms, which are suspected to be side effects from the drugs and lead to cessation of medication.

Our attitude to malaria prophylaxis

• In general the traveller should be offered the most effective drug taking the destination, mode of travel and length of stay into consideration.
• In areas with very low risk like for instance Thailand, drugs are not recommended for prophylaxis, only traditional methods like repellents and impregnated mosquito nets.
• In area with a high degree of resistance against chloroquine, like tropical Africa and part of South America and South East Asia, we recommend Malarone as first choice for short-term travellers, and Lariam for long term travellers, both withdoxycycline as an alternative.
• Protection should be as good as possible, but it is unacceptable to have the travel spoiled by side effects, if the risk of infection is low.

http://www.traveldoctor.info recommendation on Malaria

I can also highly recommend the Malaria Information System provided by the University of Bonn, Germany. Here you can zoom in on the countries of interest and select and deselect layers that  you’re interested such as regions where prophylaxis is recommend or resistance to medication is known.

At this point I have enough information and have concluded  that I’ll be taking a wide variety of safety precautions towards Malaria and keeping my immune system in tip-top shape, which include:

• Natural Insect Repellent (”Care Plus Natural Anti-Insect Spray”. Can be purchased at Globetrotter.de)
• Chemical-based Insect Repellent based on Icaridin (”Nobite Sensitive”. Doesn’t have the negative side effects of DEET and it’s just as effective as DEET. It ca  also be purchased at Globetrotter.de)
• Mosquito Net (I originally wanted to purchase an impregnated mosquito net, but I thought that was to expensive for two weeks in South-East Asia and the fact, that I’m not going to visit the high-risk areas in Vietnam such as the Mekong-Delta. So that didn’t justify the price for me. But it’s still a good investment if you plan to visit high risk areas for longer periods of time)
• Sleeping Air Conditioned hostels or hotels only
• Wearing long and light-colored sleeve shirts and pants
• Sodium Chlorite / MMS (as my stand-by Malaria protection)
• Propolis (Research shows it offers antiseptic, antibiotic, antibacterial, anti-fungal, and even antiviral properties. Propolis is Nature’s premiere preventive.  It is so powerful in action, it is often called Russian penicillin in acknowledgement of the extensive research the Russians have mounted on this wonder worker from the bees. Propolis demonstrates strong antimicrobial properties against various bacterial and fungal infestations. Even streptococcus bacteria have been shown sensitive to propolis.)³

And as my generic antiseptic:

• Hydrogen Peroxide (H₂O₂ is one of the most powerful oxidizers known – stronger than chlorine, chlorine dioxide, and potassium permanganate)

I’ve also increased my daily intake of freshly pressed vegetable juices to give my immune system the extra horsepower. @Stephan, you know what I’m talking about

Combining these safety precautions, should provide me with more than adequate safety. Personally, I believe I will be more in danger of getting run over in Vietnam, than anything else. And lo and behold the U.S. Department of State agrees with me on this one.

“Traffic in Vietnam is chaotic. Traffic accidents occur frequently and the most common victims are motorbike riders and pedestrians. At least 30 people die each day from transportation-related injuries and many more are injured, often with traumatic head injuries. Traffic accident injuries are the leading cause of death, severe injury, and emergency evacuation of foreigners in Vietnam. Traffic accidents, including those involving a pedestrian and a motorized vehicle, are the single greatest health and safety risk U.S. citizens will face in Vietnam.“⁴ [emphasis added by me].
U.S. Department of State on Traffic Safety and Road Conditions in Vietnam (August 28, 2009)

Mhh…does that mean that if I travel with my German passport, instead of my U.S. passport, I’m less likely to be exposed to this kind of risk? We’ll see, as I’m actually traveling with my German passport this time.

* * *
And before anyone feels tempted and tries to sue me, here’s the standard disclaimer:

Statements contained within this article post or blog have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Any of the aforementioned remedies or substances are not intended to diagnose, treat and cure or prevent disease. And as always, please consult your health care professional before changing any medication or adding supplements of any kind to medications…yadda, yadda, yadda….

Have you had any previous experiences with malaria medication? Or what are your safety precautions that you took? Let’s hear about it in the comments. And don’t forget to bookmark this article if you enjoyed the read!

1. http://www.malariahotspots.co.uk/facts-maphotspots.asp
2. Malaria in Vietnam, http://www.traveldoctor.info/trip/result.1.154.1.html, Retrieved 2009-12-29
3. http://www.draperbee.com/info/propolis.htm, Retrieved 2009-12-29
4. U.S. Department of State on Traffic Safety and Road Conditions in Vietnam, http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1060.html#traffic_safety

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