The Travel Rumours and Urban Legend By Patrick Chong At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Urban Myths are popularly held beliefs that persist because they are widely talked about, rather than because they are fact. The travel industry has its own myths, so it’s worth exploring a few to learn which rumours might lead us to need some cheap travel insurance cover, and which are just misconceptions.

Deadly Ceiling Fans

In Korea, there is a widely held belief that falling asleep in a room with a ceiling fan on is mortally dangerous. The theory goes that unless you open a window, you will die. Although it is a popularly held theory among Koreans, they give only vague explanations including hypothermia, electrocution, Carbon Dioxide poisoning and suffocation. The latter is not too far removed from concerns raised in the Victorian era when the first railway tunnels were being built. Engineers assumed that the rise in air pressure when driving a train into a tunnel would squeeze the breath from the passengers on board. Until the Koreans can dispel or explain their mysterious fan danger to visitors, it might be worth getting some cheap travel insurance before you stay a night in a hot Korean hotel.

Germs on a Plane

Might it be worth getting your travel insurance medical cover just to protect you from what is circulated through the air con? Virologists say no. Apparently the air flow on a plane is not only localised to a few rows, but also filtered as it is dispersed. There’s a greater risk of picking up a bug at the boarding gate. But we all know that after a few hours on a plane, the air starts to take on a certain staleness, so it is understandable that this myth will hang around for a while.

Damaging your film with the X-Ray

Since the advent of the digital camera this concern may be in decline, but for those who still use rolls of film, they are right to worry. It turns out that the radiation exposure from multiple runs on the security conveyer can wipe the images from film. The checked luggage is exposed to even higher levels of radiation, so this is not an option. The answer is to ask for a hand inspection of your films at the gate, because no travel insurance can restore your memories to your photo albums.

You Can’t Put Your Laptop through the Scanner

Similar to the camera film concern, this myth suggests that an X-ray will scramble your hard drive. The reason why this is not the case is that computers operate with electromagnetic energy, and are not sensitive to light like films are. However, this means that the metal detectors at the airport can do some hefty damage and will cause you to reach for your travel insurance documents.

Just to be clear so there are no mistakes:

Don’t put your film through the X-Ray
Don’t take your laptop near the metal detector

As for whether or not unisex toilets are common in Scandinavia, that’s a rumour for someone else to tackle.

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