Peel
or wash all fruit and vegetables, if this isn’t possible just
don’t eat them and only eat salad that has been washed in iodine
water.
The general view
in regards to eating in restaurants is that if the place is busy, looks
clean and the people running it look clean and healthy, then it’s
probably safe.
Some travelers swear
that eating food from the many cheap street stalls or carts are a good
way to keep the stomach cramps at bay. Here, at least you watch the
food being cooked before you eyes and you can check out your chef’s
hygiene habits.
Of
course, these guidelines cannot guarantee that you won’t get ill
and frankly like myself trying to find out what made you ill will not
really be the issue when you can’t stop shitting and feel like
your insides are trying to burst out.
Getting
bad diarrhea, especially if coupled with vomiting can be a horrible
experience. My friend and I were, on one occasion, ill at the same time.
This lead to a few problems, namely who was well enough to go and buy
toilet paper and water?
But most
importantly, we had to share an increasingly smelly room with just one
bathroom. This scared us since it was quite possible that we would have
to rush to the toilet at the same moment.
It became
a running joke that one of us would be left to crouch over a bucket,
not a nice thought especially when the constant need to crap leaves
you feeling weak and wobbly on your feet. I must confess that visions
of falling off the bucket and making a horrific mess would plague my
dreams.
Luckily,
we managed to keep the urges under control enough to achieve a rather
efficient tag team.
In this
situation, it was really important that we drank as much as possible
since diarrhea dehydrates the body and removes minerals. We had to drink
constantly, even if this meant sometimes bringing the water straight
back up.
If you really
can’t hold anything down, then drugs such as Prochlorperazine
or Metaclopramide can be taken for nausea and vomiting. It is also a
good idea to take Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) to replace those much-needed
minerals they can be bought in individual packets and dissolve in drinking
water.
If you can’t
get a hold of some ORS and it’s an emergency, use six teaspoons
of sugar and half a teaspoon of salt in a liter of boiled or bottled
water.
When the
diarrhea continues and makes you utterly miserable, causes great discomfort
and lack of sleep, there are temporary solutions.
Taking drugs
such as Loperamide or Diphenoxylate can ease the problem. They act as
blockers and work by paralysing the gut, but since they do not actually
cure the problem symptoms may reoccur. Taking blockers are useful if
you have to continue your journey or simply need to be up and about
in order to get supplies.
If you are
still getting bad diarrhea after 3-4 days then it could be a sign of
something serious. Diarrhea together with blood or mucus (dysentery)
or profuse watery diarrhea with a fever would require a visit to a doctor
and probably a course of antibiotics. Gut paralysing drugs should not
be taken if suffering from these more serious symptoms.
My friend Karen and I had to undertake a train journey from Jaipur in
Rajasthan cross-country to Varanesi, a holy city on the banks of the
river Ganges in North-East India.
On the morning
of our departure, I was still feeling unwell but we really needed to
move on, so I reluctantly packed up my backpack and we set off.
The train
was delayed and the old dusty station was crammed full of people, boxes
and various animals and food sellers. Just as the train pulled in, I
started to feel my stomach twinge and turn over. Not wanting to spend
the entire 16-hour trip hovering over a squat toilet on a packed train,
I decided to take a gut-paralysing drug. While this meant that I didn’t
crap for the whole journey, taking the drug had consequences.
An hour
into the trip, I started to suffer from excruciating stomach cramps
that practically caused me to pass out. It was pretty terrible, I couldn’t
move from my bunk because of the pain and my vision started to go a
bit blurry. Understandably, Karen was close to hysterics, she didn’t
know what to do with me.
The train
wasn’t due to stop at a major town until Agra about 6 hours away
and if we got out at one of the small villages, there was little chance
that we would be able to find a doctor.
Luckily
after a while, the cramps eased and I was able to drink lots of water.
This in turn caused me to feel nauseous and for a minute I thought I
would have to vomit out the window of a moving train.
Karen was
shouting “No, no it will fly back in and hit me, run to the toilet.”
This I did just in time, the toilet was so disgusting though that the
smell of it caused me to throw up again and again.
I found
there to be many problems with having to use squat toilets. First, there
is the issue of balancing (made even harder on a rickety and swaying
train) then comes the dilemma of how to stop clothes getting soiled
from dragging on the floor and finally how to stop splash back.
In this
particular toilet, it was obvious that no one was attempting to aim
down the hole. The room was literally sloshing with waste and a family
of flies had made themselves right at home. Luckily, I emerged some
time later soil free and returned to our rather cramped bunk.
Karen was
answering the concerned questions of an Indian family who had been sharing
the carriage. They had not witnessed too many pale westerners rolling
around and groaning and they were incredibly kind offering me their
food and water.
After a
few more trips to the dreaded bathroom, I felt a lot better and was
able to snooze through the rest of the journey.
Having experienced such situations means that you always have an opening
conversational point when meeting other travelers. There is certainly
a ritual of discussing toilet habits. This is something that you probably
wouldn’t discuss at home, but it is quite acceptable to ask people
how their bowels have been lately.
Also, on
the plus side, being confined to your room means that you can catch
up on your reading, swap books with fellow travelers or buy them cheap
from the many second hand book sellers.
The best
part of traveling through countries such as India is that when you do
start to feel well again, it brings on a kind of euphoria when you no
longer have to keep an eye out for the closest toilet.
It is life-affirming
getting through a bout of bad diarrhea. It makes you appreciate feeling
healthy and allows you to enjoy the rest of the adventure that little
bit more. Noticing that you have probably lost some weight is also an
added bonus.
Finally
remember the saying if you poo isn’t green or aluminous yellow
then you’re bound to have a good day!
Jo
Withers is an English bird who made her way through hundreds of
toilets during her one-year trip around the world. Rumor has it that
she has yet to learn how to ride a bicycle .
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