You haven’t really traveled until you’ve been stranded twelve thousand miles from home with violent diarrhea, stomach cramps and uncontrollable vomiting. Oh, and with nowhere to stay, sit or sleep. I’m talking capital-S stranded.
This was my situation in Bangkok, Thailand several years ago. I was touring Southeast Asia before visiting Nepal for a long trek into the Himalayas.
Intestinal problems are a routine affliction of the budget traveler. That was me, a budget traveler alright; I was squeezing a day’s living out of two U.S. dollars. Nice. But in the process I was taking chances with my food choices.
Street food is cheap. Night markets are cheap. Any cafe in the backpacker ghetto is cheap. These were the places you could find me at mealtimes, scarfing down fried rice with egg, assorted noodle dishes and some items I really didn’t want to know the identity of.
But cheap food can be risky food if you’re not careful. I know the guidebooks all warn against eating ice cream and fruits. But ice cream, really? Come on, it’s too good for a “no thanks”. I was a tough guy. I was going to the Himalayas, dude.
Skip the ice cream. Do yourself a favor.
Nearly delirious, I stumbled into a backpacker hostel, put on my best innocent tourist face, rented a room and collapsed. After a three-day spell of vomiting (and the other thing) I started feeling human again. I cleaned up and hit the streets, steering clear of the grungiest street vendors.
Someone once said, “You never feel better than when you start feeling better after feeling bad.” That is so true. But also, you never feel hungrier than after you’ve been sick for a week and suddenly realize you can finally eat.
My flight to Nepal was only a day away and I wasn’t going to risk missing it because of food poisoning. What to do?
This is an embarrassing admission, but I headed straight for McDonalds. I don’t usually have much good to say about this company: They use maddeningly effective advertisements aimed at young children, and serve mostly high fat, high sodium, highly processed food. But, their food is the exact same food in every McDonalds everywhere in the world. And it won’t make you sick, at least not right before the next flight out.