Where to get food poisoning
Last week, it was the perfect meal. This week, the opposite.
It’s a fact of the traveller’s life that you’re going to get sick while you’re on the road. Take all the precautions you want, but it’s almost impossible to send strange foreign foodstuffs down your oesophagus without the odd stomach rumble.
Those rumbles can range from the mildly discomforting to the agonising, confine-you-to-your-room, make-you-swear-you’ll-never-visit-street-vendors-again pains that can eat up a good chunk of your trip, and become the only stories you wind up telling everyone when you get home.
It’s also an annoying irony that these episodes usually occur in the places with the most frightening toilet facilities.
You can get sick from the food anywhere. And there’s often nothing wrong with what you’re eating in the places you do get sick – it’s just your body reacting to something it’s never encountered before (like vegetables).
However, some countries are more likely to do you damage than others. I’m not saying you shouldn’t visit them. Just, you know, take imodium.
Peru
There’s some great food in Peru – ceviche is like God’s gift to tongues. But uncooked fish isn’t always the best thing for travellers, and there’s some other stuff there that can make you violently ill. And it’s not what you’d expect. I ate a guinea pig and was fine. I ate a hamburger and spent four days lying in a hotel room sweating like Renton’s cold turkey scene in Trainspotting.
Vietnam
The first sign is the butcher on the side of the road with his wares laid out in bamboo baskets. Refrigeration’s not big here. Then there are all the weird and wonderful things that are just eaten as a matter of course. Washed down with home-brewed street beer. If that doesn’t do it to you, you’ve got a stronger stomach than me.
Uganda
It may not be typical, but the sickest I’ve ever been was in Uganda, and I assume it was something I ate, so that’s what I associate the place with. For the record, the toilet blocks of a Kampala campsite aren’t the best place in the world to spend your much-anticipated holiday.
Nepal
I’ve never actually been to Nepal, but I’m yet to meet anyone who hasn’t come back from there without a horror story. My friends Russ and Rox had an unfortunate case of dual food poisoning in Kathmandu, and found that nothing brings a couple closer together than having to stand outside the bathroom waiting for your partner to finish vomiting so you can go in and have your turn.
Italy
Not food poisoning, as such. I just ate so much I felt sick. Every night.
Bangladesh
I love street food, and never had a bad experience in India, so when I visited Bangladesh, I was keen for some more of that action. That is, until the girl I was staying with put me off slightly. “See the open drains running next to them on the street,” she said, pointing near the vendors’ carts. “Where do you think they get their cooking water from? Don’t. Eat. The street food.” Plus, giardia is rife.
China
You can travel relatively safely in China. You can order food you recognise, or just spend your time solely at that bastion of communist ideals, KFC. Or, you can take a chance, and give everything a shot. Most of it will be delicious. But I defy anyone to plow through an entire Sichuan meal without it doing some atomic damage to their insides.
Thailand
There’s a problem with Thai food: it all tastes so good. Meaning, you want to try everything. Every bizarre morsel you find in street stalls and markets and restaurants looks like it has to be eaten. The end result will be a few hours riding the porcelain, but it’s usually worth it.
From: http://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archives/2010/05/where_to_get_food_poisoning.html
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