Travelling With a Goldfish: Hermes Checks Into a Hotel

Yes, we brought a goldfish on holiday. Hermes is a nearly three-year-old with a flamboyant orange tail and a dramatic sense of self. We were heading to a pet-friendly hotel near Khao Yai for the weekend, and my husband insisted Hermes could not stay home alone. I agreed, mostly because I did not want to explain to the neighbours that the fish had starved.

The hotel accepted pets, which is a sentence I never expected to write about a fish. We were given a room with a balcony. I then packed a sealed bag of water, an extra cup of water from his own tank, and a small container with a lid. Packing that bag took longer than packing for myself.

Honest tips: don't travel with a fish in a hot car, keep the trip short, and bring water from the tank so the change is less dramatic. Hermes spent the weekend in a clean plastic tub on the bedside table, looking vaguely offended by the air conditioning.

He's back home now, settled in his usual corner, and seems to think he was the star of the trip. Honestly, he was.