One of the first things I do when I touch down is to find snacks to keep on me as hypoglycemia food (which is a good chance to try local snacks). I will preferably be on a continuous glucose monitoring sensor as my schedule on holiday is quite different from my day to day activities and it’s good to monitor sugars while doing different activities on holiday.

I also try to have fixed meals throughout the trip, however carb counting does get difficult when I am not having all my food at one time, for example at night markets when I am getting food from different stalls. There was also the issue of not having any sitting down space to inject my insulin at, in a pinch I just used my bag as a makeshift table to put my things on. Having T1DM makes me exercise caution with my food intake as I have to consider my carbohydrate budget for the day.

I bring along a doctor’s memo stating my condition and that I am travelling with insulin. I also bring along 1 extra pen of each insulin I am on and leave them in the hotel room in the daytime as backup.