mad nomad – Travelling around the world on a motorcycle!: Riders

Riders

Rider’s preparation

The goal of a recreational trip is to offer as much pleasure as possible. So, we must be secured as much as possible. That’s not a trip of relaxation. On the contrary, it’s an adventure trip. Some regions in our route are dangerous and they require special attention.

Traveler’s preparation includes the detailed planning of the trip and determination of as much needs and dangers as possible. My previous experience and the experience of other travelers who were recently or they are now at those regions help a lot. Hopefully, the communication with other travelers who use primarily a motorcycle to travel around the world is now easy through internet. The forum at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com is amazingly helpful and I was using it every day for the preparation. Also, there are some books that such travelers wrote and they are helpful too.

Through internet everyone can get up to date information about security issues at each region, about dangerous diseases, he can be informed about the existence and the situation of roads, about paperwork, crossing the borders, weather conditions, places to see, hotels, garages, doctors and a lot of other information. That information is valid and objective because it comes from tens of knowing people.

I consider it very important for a traveler to know the basics about the culture in the societies he visits. This way he will know how to behave and how to respect these people. Then, he will face the appropriate behaviour from the locals there.

The traveler’s guides I am using are those by Lonely Planet. They are infinitely better than every other traveler’s guide in terms of the validity and the amount of given information. They are written for independent travelers, so the given information is exactly what we need. Also, they include basic phrases and words at each language of those regions, which are required to communicate with local people.

Mechanical knowledge about the motorcycle and medical knowledge for the rider are extremely helpful. Hopefully, I was dreaming a trip like that from my childhood. So, when I was studying at the university, synchronously I was volunteering in a garage. I was seeing and learning a lot about mechanical issues and later, when I was working keenly on my own vehicles, I practised what I learned.

I got some medical knowledge through books and internet. I was informed about the diseases at those regions, about the precautions I needed to take and their treatment. Also, I took a first-aid course to learn on practice what I had read.

In those regions there are a bit dangerous hygiene conditions. Except the precautions during the trip, a lot of vaccinations and tablets are required. The dangerous diseases at those regions are :

Disease	Symptoms	Transmission	Protection	Effectiveness	Treatment
Hepatitis A (possibly fatal)	Yellow color to the skin and the eyes, nausea, lethargy, fever, dark urine, abdominal pain	Food, water	Until 2017	Almost complete	Rest
Hepatitis B	Yellow color to the skin and the eyes, cancer or cirrhosis of liver	Sex, body fluids	Until 2017	Not complete
Hepatitis Ε	Yellow color to the skin and the eyes, nausea, lethargy	Food, water	Not Available	-
Tick-borne Encephalitis (rare, possibly fatal)	Similar to influenza, rarely fever, paralysis	Ticks, unpasteurized milk	-	Not complete	Tick removal, hospital
Malaria (possibly fatal)	Fever, chill, sweating and possibly headache or malaise or diarrhea or cough or muscular pain or vomit (appears after 3 days to 3 weeks)	Insects	Mefloquine or Doxycycline	gives more time to seek appropriate medical help	Hospital, even after self-treatment
Rabies (fatal)	Headache, fever, malaise, aesthetics changes around the bite, and possibly illusion or aerophobia or hydrophobia or delirium or cramps	Mammals	Until 2018	gives more time to seek appropriate medical help	Hospital immediately
Typhoid Fever	High and slow progressive fever, headache and possibly hack or stomachic pain or pink rash at stomach	Food, water	Until 2016	70%	Antibiotics
Yellow Fever (possibly fatal)	Usually asymptomatic, fever, muscular pain, headache, chill, anorexia, nausea, oligocardia	Insects	Until 2023	Almost complete
Meningitis (A, C, Y, W135) (possibly fatal)	Sleepiness, delirium, nervous crisis, fever, vomits, headache, malaise and possibly rashes or sore throat or light sensitivity	Human contact	For ever	Not complete
Cholera (rare, possibly fatal)	Diarrhea, vomits	Food, water, not human contact	Until 2009	Not complete	Big amounts of water with salt and sugar
Dengue Fever	High fever, serious headache, muscular pain and possibly rash or diarrhea	Insects	Not Available	-	Rest, paracetamol
Tetanus	Crackling teeth, muscular cramps, extension of wound	Waste	Until 2016	Almost complete	Hospital immediately
Diphtheria (possibly fatal)	High fever, very sore throat and sometimes a membrane forms across the throat requiring tracheotomy to prevent suffocation	Close respiratory contact	Until 2016	Almost complete
Poliomyelitis	Asymptomatic, possibly temporary fever and rarely permanent muscular pain or paralysis	Food, water	For ever	Not complete
Filariasis (rare)	Asymptomatic and possibly diastole and dysfunction of lymphatic vessels	Insects	Not Available	-	Diethylcarbamazine (DEC)
Leishmaniasis (possibly fatal)	Slowly progressive lump or wound at the skin, non swollen red ring at the point of bite, high fever, anemia, loss of weight	Insects, dogs	Not Available	-
Leptospirosis (rare, possibly fatal)	Fever, yellow color to the skin and the eyes, hepatitis and renal problem	Excreta of rodents and specifically of rats	Not Available	-	Doxycycline
Schistosomiasis (Bilharziasis)	Asymptomatic, possibly ephemeral fever, rashes, rarely blood in faeces or urine	Snails in fresh water	Not Available	-	Hospital
Trypanosomiasis (fatal)	Headache, fever, coma	Tsetse flies	Not Available	-	Hospital
Chikungunya	Fever, pain at joints and muscles, headache and possibly skin rash	Insects	Not Available	-
Tuberculosis (rare)	Asymptomatic, possibly fever, cough, loss of weight, sweating at night, fatigue	Human contact, milky products	Not Available	-	Antibiotic (rifampicin,isoniazid)
Measles	High fever, rash, sore throat and nose, cough, muscular pain, red eyes	Cough, sneezing	For ever	Complete	Rest, paracetamol
Rubella	Swollen adens, low fever, rashes at face, chest and limbs, dry skin	Cough, sneezing	For ever	Complete	paracetamol
Mumps	Swollen parotid, pain at the back of down jaw when chewing, fever, headache, sore throat and possibly inflammation at testicles	Saliva	For ever	Complete	paracetamol
Pertussis	Cough, sneezing, sore nose, vomits	Cough, sneezing	For ever	Complete	Antibiotic
Varicella	Fever, malaise, headache, red pimples	Human contact	For ever	Complete
Plague (rare)	Fever, chill, headache, malaise	Rodents, mammals	Not Available	-	Doxycycline (7 days)

We did not use any medicine for malaria prophylaxis, despite we had Lariam (Mefloquine) with us. The only time that both of us got a light form of malaria, in Senegal, we used Coartem (40 mg Artemether + 240 mg Lumefantrine) for treatment. We didn’t have any side-effect at all either due to the vaccinations or due to the pills.

This is my own opinion, which I formed after my personal research. Please, do not count on that information because it may be invalid. I am not responsible about problems that may occur if you apply those advices. Consult the appropriate doctors and make your own research.