Local Remedies For Healing Illness On Your Travels

I’ve been feeling quite under the weather for a few weeks now, which is why I have not been publishing, commenting or social networking as much as I usually do.

Feeling this way has me thinking about all the home remedies locals have shared with me on my backpacking travels around the world to help cure my ailments. Here are some of them.

A matchstick for your nausea

Travelling from Kampala to Kabale, Uganda, Craig and I found ourselves squashed in the back of an old US postal van with about 15 other people and several bags of mail. This is travel in Africa.

I sat unevenly with half a bum on one seat and the other on the seat next to it, which threw my back out, shooting pain up and down my back for the 7 hour journey.

The roof was really low and the mountainous bends added to my overwhelming feeling of suffocation. I’m not sure if it was just this or I had eaten something bad the night before, but I felt terribly nauseous and shivered with a chill. The lady beside me chatted away in that friendly Ugandan way. She told me her name was Marian.

“That is my mother’s name.”

Aghhh!” She squealed, giving me a huge hug, and then blessing herself. “Praise the Lord.You are my African daughter. I will look after you. I am so happy you have found your African mumma.”

It only felt natural that I then tell her how sick I was feeling, secretly hoping she would whip out some ice cream and jelly like my Aussie mumma would.

“I have just the thing for you my baby. This will make you feel better.”

After scrounging around in her purse for what I knew would come in the form of an ice cream wrapper, she soon pulled out a matchstick.

“Put this in your mouth and chew on it.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yes. Trust me. Put the end in your mouth and hold it between your teeth a little way down on the wood. Don’t touch the head with your teeth or tongue but just let it hang inside your mouth. Your wanting to be sick feeling will soon go.”

I tried my best to protest but she insisted that she was Marian, my African mother, and she knew what she was doing.

So I did it. A strange sulfurous taste rolled around the inside of my mouth and I was glad I wasn’t having one of my roaring dragon days.

After awhile I couldn’t stand having a matchstick in my mouth anymore so I took it out. Besides, I couldn’t chat to mum anymore with it in there. Lo and behold my nausea had vanished never to return again.

Listen to this tale and more crazy adventures in our podcast on Travel through Uganda.

Just let me rip your knee open

We had been hiking the jungles of Sumatra for several weeks and I spent a lot of that time on my arse scraping the crap out of my body.

On this two day hike, our Indonesian explorer guide, Arlen, had taken us through the jungles of Bukkitingi, past tigers, to beautiful Lake Maninyoui where we spent a relaxing week.

One of the sores on my knee began to pus up with infection making it was painful to bend and walk. We were miles from anywhere and had no proper first aid with us. Al, the local boy who ran our guesthouse by the lake, decided that he needed to open up the wound and scrape out the junk.

“It is the only way to fix it. It will only get worse if we don’t”

Armed with shots of whiskey, he and my friends took great delight in taking the scab off my inflamed knee, and then digging deep into the wound to squeeze all the pus out and clean it, leaving me in a sweaty aching mess on the floor. But, hey, the scraping and squeezing worked, and I soon got my knee back to pristine hiking condition.

All you need is some pressure on your points

hands rubbing another hand — Pressure on the points

On that same hiking trip the night before we stayed in a wooden jungle cabin at the crest of the mountain above the lake. The dramas of narrowly missing out on being a tiger’s lunch must have been too much for me, and my head pounded with the stress of a headache. Arlen sat me down and demanded I let him put some pressure on my points.

“Well it depends on what points you want to pressure.”

“Just give me your hand.”

He began to squeeze hard a little below the web that joined my thumb and my index finger.

“Ow. That hurts Arlen”

“The more it hurts the better for your head. Give me back your hand. These are your pressure points that help relieve headaches. Squeeze tightly until it hurts for several minutes on both hands and your headache will soon be gone. “

He then showed me two other places for headache pressure points. Pressing down hard on the forearm just above the elbow joint, and putting a thumb in your collar bone space and your finger opposite on your trapezoid.

Squeeze until it really hurts for a few minutes and hey presto headache gone. I have rarely turned to headache pain relievers since he taught me this local remedy. I start putting pressure on my points and the headache soon disappears.

Go on, find your pressure points now. You’ll know it if you have found the right spot. It feels like a small little knot and it is really tender.

Have some salt in your tea

4 hours on a boat in Indonesia struck down with Bali belly.

Apparently, it was a pleasant journey, but I saw not much else than a squat toilet and the deck of the boat. While my friends sat and feasted on seafood upon arrival, I sat in the chair feeling immensely sorry for myself. The kind waiter inquired as to why I was not eating.

“I can’t keep anything down. I’m very sick in the stomach.”

“Ah. Bally belly. I have just the thing for you. Wait there.”

He brought back a black tea.

“Drink this. It has salt in it so does not taste very good. But, drink it. You will feel much better guarantee.”

Now to rub salt in the wounds, I was drinking salty tea while my friends were drinking beer with their lobster. It was hideous. But, my stomach soon settled down and I no longer had to run to the toilet. By morning, I was completely fixed and tucking into some beers and prawns by the beach.

Not only did these local remedies help fix my ailments they sure did help make me stronger.

More inspiration

We recorded our story in podcast over 5 episodes. Each episode showcases how we made travel our lifestyle despite many challenges, and not matter what life stage we were in.

Episode 3 is where we dive into the dark times spoken about in this post. All episodes are filled with nuggets to help you see how anything is possible. Pull up a chair and your favorite drink and let us help you keep your dreams alive.