D-D-D-Diarrhea

Nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach, diarrhea

Over the last few months I have received numerous facebook messages, emails and texts, from people enquiring if I had gotten diarrhea or food poisoning while travelling South East Asia. Obviously, I am a very open individual, otherwise a blog wouldn't be be very feasible, yet blogging about diarrhea takes things to a new level. Nevertheless, it has taken a lot of time to answer private messages so now it's time to go public....

My travels began in China, and since then I have travelled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and currently I am in Thailand.

During my travels, I have eaten every type of street food possible from bloody chicken, to questionable meats, to strange meat buns. This is one of the most beautiful things about travelling - trying the local food and really experiencing how the locals eat. Therefore, my various travel mates and I have always attempted to eat local dishes which usually means eating cheap. While in China I made a conscious decision to begin brushing my teeth with tap water. Although many travellers consistently use bottled water to brush their teeth, if you are going to have iced coffees and eat fresh vegetables (washed in water), you might as well put your toothbrush under the tap. The majority of travellers brush their teeth with local tap water and are fine so it's not something I would trouble your mind with. So far, I have been extremely lucky and haven't had any major episodes of diarrhea, food poisoning or nausea from food. Of course, I have had nausea from buses, trains and planes but not from the food here in Asia. My stomach is more sensitive to motion than it is to bugs. There have been three days when my poop hasn't been as solid as it should be, but I believe that it was most likely due to many days of two many beers with the Irish, versus bad food.

Unfortunately my luck ran out while in Thailand and food poisoning came knocking on my door. While in Chaing Mai, my girl friend and I went on a two day trek in the mountains with all meals provided. The meals were fantastic and were nothing different from what I have previously been eating in SE Asia. However, upon returning back to Chiang Mai, the majority of the people on the trek came down with a nasty case of food poisoning which sent us praying to the porcelain gods for 12 hours or more. At first, I thought it was the dinner we had just eaten but when the food passed and our stomachs emptied but the vomiting continued I knew something major was up. I will save you the gross details but lets just say we needed two bathrooms that night. So, we sucked it up, drank as much water as possible, and allowed our bodies to pass out the bug. One of the unique things about SE Asia is that almost anything you can imagine is available at the local pharmacy. Thus, if nausea, heartburn, indigestion, upset stomach or diarrhea hits you, there will always be an available remedy. 

Food rules while travelling - 

1. Get your vacations prior to leaving your home country. 

2. Bring gravol & diarrhea pills.

3. Wash your hands as much as possible or use hand sanitiser. 

4. Make sure whenever you eat meat get it cooked well! 

5. Eat all the local food you can and don't stress about getting sick. If it happens, it happens but don't limit your travel experience out of fear of illness. The experience of sharing and tasting local food with friends, from around the world, will be memories your heart and taste buds will cherish forever.

"One of the delights of life is eating with friends, second to that is talking about eating. And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends" - Laurie Colwin.