A brief history of imaginary travel disasters: overthinking my way to Indonesia.

I love travelling. I’m also known to have pre-trip worries. Apparently my brain sees absolutely no contradiction in these two things. The moment I booked our trip to Indonesia, I became enthusiastic, optimistic and convinced I was the sort of person who casually hikes through jungles and climbs volcanoes before breakfast. This is the version of me who clicks “Book Now” or tells the travel agency to cram an extra volcano trek into the itinerary.

The internet is full of people announcing, “Booked Indonesia! So excited!” and for a while, I am one of them.

Then departure day starts approaching and a second version of me quietly appears. This version has questions. Some are sensible. Will I cope with the heat and humidity? Am I fit enough for jungle trekking? How many travel days can one person reasonably survive before becoming tired, sweaty and irrationally annoyed by other people at airports?

Others are perhaps less evidence-based. How many snakes are involved in this journey? Are spiders planning anything? Should I be concerned about volcanic eruptions? Can geckos fall on your face while you’re sleeping? How much time can I reasonably spend researching ferry safety before accepting that at some point you simply have to get on the ferry?

I didn’t want panic to stop me from looking forward to the trip. So before heading to Indonesia, I decided to make a list of everything currently causing mild concern, unnecessary overthinking and occasional pre-trip panic, together with the solutions I have come up with so far. Some are practical. Some are psychological. Several involve DEET.

1. Jungle trekking: am I fit enough?

Worry: Four hours sounds perfectly manageable while sitting on the sofa. Four hours in a humid jungle surrounded by roots, mud and hills may be a slightly different experience. I am not worried about my knees. I am worried about lungs, heat and the approximately twenty extra kilograms I will also be taking on this walk.
Solution: Walk more before I go, keep expectations realistic and make peace with the idea that there is absolutely no prize for being the fastest person in the jungle. I also suspect I need to remind myself that joining a trek does not automatically turn it into a competitive sport. I am allowed to go at my own pace. This feels obvious while writing it and considerably less obvious inside my head.

2. Leeches

Worry: Tiny vampires. I know they are small and, apparently, harmless. I also know I do not particularly want unexpected creatures helping themselves to my blood supply. Especially after seeing photos of my daughter after removing one. Apparently a tiny creature can create a surprisingly dramatic amount of blood and immediately convince your brain that something terrible has happened.
Solution: Long socks, possibly even special leech socks, although those are not exactly a fashion statement. Add DEET and decide that I refuse to let blood loss become the defining story of my Indonesian adventure.

3. Volcano climbs

Worry: The phrase easy hike worries me because travel websites and people in their twenties often seem to use it very casually. I suspect their definition of easy and mine may not always overlap.
Solution: Research elevation gain rather than read reviews, bring proper shoes, consider hiking poles, pack warm layers and remember that reaching the top slightly slower still counts as reaching the top. Actually, not making it all the way to the top still counts as climbing most of a volcano. And really, how many people my age get to casually drop that into a conversation?

4. Spiders

Worry: I have seen enough wildlife documentaries to become convinced that tropical countries contain spiders large enough to require their own postal codes. Finding one of those hanging out in my room would not improve my holiday experience.
Solution: Avoid late-night googling, shake out shoes if necessary and remind myself that spiders are generally much less interested in me than I am in them. Also, if one actually appears in my room, I fully intend to delegate the situation to someone braver.

5. Heat and humidity

Worry: Becoming a permanently damp person or collapsing from heat stroke halfway up a mountain. I am from the Netherlands. We occasionally describe 24 degrees as quite warm. Indonesia and I may need an adjustment period. Although as I’m writing this it’s 40 degrees and the 30 degrees’ temperature in Denpasar sounds blissfully cool.
Solution: Lightweight clothing, staying out of the sun in the afternoon, drinking enough water, bringing electrolytes, slowing down and accepting that seeing less while feeling human is probably better than seeing more while slowly melting. Also, whenever I get worried about this, I remind myself I made it up to level five of Erawan Falls in tropical heat and humidity.

6. Food and stomach issues

Worry: Spending quality time with hotel bathrooms instead of seeing temples, volcanoes and orangutans. I am also discovering there are a surprising number of things you suddenly start questioning before a trip. Can you eat fruit? Is ice okay? Do you brush your teeth with tap water? Am I overthinking this? Probably. Am I still googling it? Also yes.
Solution: Bring a small medication kit, be sensible rather than overly suspicious and avoid treating every interesting-looking food stall as a personal challenge. Stick to bottled water, use that for brushing teeth if necessary, choose fruit that can be peeled and remind myself that millions of people eat in Indonesia every day without incident.
Some of them are even tourists.

7. Falling over and hurting myself

Worry: Not in a dramatic action-film way. More in an “I slightly misjudged a wet rock, root or uneven step and suddenly the rest of the holiday involves limping” kind of way. I am much less worried about wild animals than I am about my own tendency to confidently place a foot somewhere questionable and immediately regret it.
Solution: Proper shoes with grip, taking my time, paying attention instead of trying to admire scenery and walk simultaneously, and possibly hiking poles if I discover they make me feel more mountain-goat-like. Marc tends to bounce ahead while I am still carefully considering where my feet should go, but he also has a habit of reappearing with a steadying hand whenever things become steep, slippery or otherwise questionable.

8. Long travel days

Worry: Singapore → Sumatra → Java → Bali looked perfectly logical while planning. Looking at it now, it also looks ambitious. Want to see for yourself? This is our Indonesia itinerary.
Solution: Add buffer days, avoid overscheduling and accept that occasionally being tired counts as an activity in itself. I am also trying to plan overly enthusiastic physical activities in the morning and reserve afternoons for recovering poolside with a cocktail. I prefer to think of this as careful energy management rather than laziness. If you’d like to read more about itinerary planning, I’ve written a post about planning an itinerary without turning it into an endurance event.

9. Mosquitoes

Worry: Getting eaten alive and returning home as a walking collection of itchy memories. I am also aware that mosquitoes can occasionally bring rather more than itchy bites, which means I have spent some time reading about mosquito-borne illnesses and vaccines instead of doing something relaxing.
Solution: DEET, long sleeves where possible, accommodation with decent mosquito protection and making sure I have looked into recommended vaccines and health advice before travelling. I am considerably more enthusiastic about bringing home memories and photos than mosquito-related complications.

10. Everything I haven’t thought of yet

Worry: This may actually be the biggest one. Not the things I am worrying about, but the things I haven’t even considered. Experience has taught me that travel rarely goes exactly according to plan and, more importantly, that I am apparently capable of creating problems entirely by myself. After travelling to Poland without my passport and experiencing the resulting panic, I now know that “forgetting something important” is no longer a theoretical concern.
Solution: Double-check passports, tickets and bookings before leaving and remind myself that almost every trip I have loved contained moments I never planned for. Sometimes things go wrong, plans change and unexpected things happen. Also, I have successfully survived every previous travel mishap so far, which suggests I may be giving myself slightly too little credit.

Apparently this is just how I travel

Looking at this list, I realise two things. First, I may have spent a slightly alarming amount of time thinking about leeches, mosquitoes and tropical wildlife. Second, I still can’t wait to go. I suspect this is just how I travel. I get excited, I worry, I research things, I create lists, I prepare what I can realistically prepare and I occasionally convince myself I am heading towards impending doom.

Then I go anyway. And usually, somewhere along the way, I end up wondering why I was so worried in the first place. Although I reserve the right to revisit that last sentence if I encounter a spider with its own postal code.

Further Reading

• My Indonesia travel guide for people who like being prepared
• Will I Fit? Will I Cope? The worries of travelling in a non-whippet-shaped body
• The time I discovered that the thing I hadn’t worried about was the thing I should have worried about.