Round The World Tickets
Traveler’s diarrhea: Sorry, but we just have to discuss this a bit
If you travel from one big and modern city to another, and especially if you stay in Europe or North America, chances are you’ll never have to worry about diarrhea. But on a round the world adventure it’s very likely you’ll be spending quite a bit of time in rural areas and in less developed countries, as they say. If you are on the road long enough, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll get at least one case of diarrhea, and it’s not really a huge deal if you are prepared.
How one gets diarrhea while traveling
There are plenty of different ways, but the most common seems to be by eating local foods that contain some microorganisms that the local population is totally used to, but your system is not. This is different from food poisoning, of course, and that truly is something to be feared, or at least you want to take steps to avoid it. Diarrhea is just having a “loose stool” and nearly anyone who has an adventurous palette can fall victim to it once in a while.
Be prepared
Fortunately, drugs that help you through this are cheap, even in the United States. Before you leave on your RTW trip make sure you pack a small pill-pack or container of Imodium or whatever it’s called in your area. There are actual antibiotics you can take that might be even more effective, but those are more of a hassle, and these usually do the trick. If you buy them outside the United States they’ll probably be even cheaper, and they are easy to get pretty much everywhere in the world. You won’t need a prescription, and nearly every big city has one or more late night pharmacies where you can buy these things over the counter, but just buy some before you need them. Even if you are lucky enough never to need them, you might me someone else’s savior when you overhear them asking the hostel people where the pharmacy is located.
Then don’t worry too much after that
Aside from the normal warnings about food poisoning, which is another subject altogether, you really shouldn’t try to be overly cautious when trying food on the road. Food prepared at carts on the street is almost always cheap, authentic, and very safe, as long as you go to a place that’s fairly busy. Some people stick only to sit-down restaurants and hotel restaurants because they are “worried about getting sick” but as long as you’ve got some pills you would be foolish to be overly cautious.
Once that feeling hits, and you have to find a toilet ASAP, you can take a pill and within 2 hours or so you’ll be able to behave normally. You’ll want to drink as much water as you can as well, so hopefully you aren’t just about to travel. You certainly don’t want to be getting on a long bus journey when you are feeling this way, but if you are prepared the chances of that happening are pretty slim, so do yourself a favor and try all the weird stuff that appeals to you and forget about playing it so safe.
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« Anti-Americanism while traveling the world | Home | Booking flights while on the road has gotten much easier, but there are some exceptions »
