Health and safety forum

I can check at our pharmacy here concerning insulin availability if you want. I live in rural Thailand.

Hi Donman,

I realise this is an old post but in case you are still planning or anybody else finds this I thought I'd post some info.

I also have type 1 diabetes and recently (well, over a year ago now but it feels recent!) spent 4 months in SE Asia. I was in Indonesia mainly, but also Laos.

First off - get health insurance that includes helicoptering you out. You will need to get to Thailand from Laos or Cambodia if you get into serious trouble.

Secondly, contrary to normal packing advise, always carry more than you need with regards to your insulin and whatever sweets / glucose you normally use to treat your lows. While you can normally find juice and sweets at shops during the day, you need to be prepared for worst case of having a few lows during a night where nothing is open. Glucose powder is probably the easiest to carry in large quantities, although whenever I tried to buy it in Thailand I failed to properly communicate what I wanted!

That brings me to the next point, try to learn a few key phrases that you won't find in a guide book. E.g "i have diabetes", "i need sugar", etc. Writing them down is handy, but bear in mind not everybody is literate.

Think about getting a medic alert - https://www.medicalert.co.nz/content/about-medicalert/medicalert-worldwide.aspx . Nobody I met knew what it was, but I didn't meet any doctors so it can't hurt!

I travelled with 6 months supply of insulin in a cooling pack. https://frioinsulincoolingcase.com/eshop/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=58
Absolutely brilliant, just soak in water and it'll be cool for days. I had to take the insulin cartridges out the packaging to fit them all in. When travelling on buses and trains keep it in your day pack. Packed into your main pack under a bus will probably overheat the insulin.

I never bought insulin from the pharmacies but I imagine you can. I bough checking strips and they worked fine. The insulin you buy will be the same as the locals use so it's not dodgy like buying speed over the counter or anything like that! Check the website for the company that produces your insulin. They will likely have reps all over the world.

On a general note, I found my insulin use dropping by almost a third due to the heat and exercise. Obv consult your doctor about changing your regime etc.

This probably all seems rather cautious and stressful, but most of the time you wont be thinking of it. A few days to get into the routine, with extra checking and getting your new habits formed, and you can forget about it and enjoy your trip!

Hope you have a good time, if I've missed anything I'll add it later. Let me know if you have any questions.

On second thought / recollection 6 months was too much to fit. I found it easy to carry a small cooler bag around and buy ice from town to town. Will be tricky if you get to places with limited electricity but more convenience stores or bars will have ice you can buy.

Day to day eating was fine once I was used to it. Most of what I was eating was carb based, i.e. noodles soups or stuff with rice, so it was fairly easy to adjust insulin levels. I always gave after eating rather than before because you never know what your going to get, or if your sick how much your going to eat until after the meal.

Things that did have to be watched carefully was thai food (they love putting extra sugar in everything it seems, including bread). And also high fat meals like coconut based curries. I'd recently seen a nutritionist before I left so I had a pretty good knowledge around what foods were likely to do what to my control.

Out of interest when around you leaving for your trip?

Lantus for basil and Humalog for bolus.

I'm actually going to be going back in February as well. Landing in Singapore on Feb 6th and have 4 months to make it up through to Cambodia and then Laos. Who knows might bump into you when your over there!