Nothing sucks more than being so weak and dehydrated that you cannot muster the strength to get from your collapsed position on the floor onto a bed. Trust me on that. Usually such a predicament is brought about by a poor health choice involving ingesting something that was never meant for the human gullet. That will most probably be followed by debilitating cramps and then explosive diarrea. Finally it will probably end up with you being too weak to go anywhere except the bathroom. Here are a few little tricks you might like to keep in mind to avoid this predicament.
Don’t Brush Your Teeth in Tap Water – This one will get you at some point, simply because it is habit. The thing is that in many places, you probably don’t want to drink the tap water at all (even the locals won’t) without seriously boiling the hell out of it to get the baddies out. If you are not sure about the water, then use bottled water to clean your teeth (and make sure it actually is bottled water and not just tap water in a dirty bottle that some enterprising local sells to dumb tourists).
Don’t Eat Ice – Another trap for young players is getting through the day, proud of the fact that they used only bottled water and ate safe food, only to get a rum and coke at the bar and start munching on the ice. Remember that thing about the tap water? Guess how they make the ice you’re munching on. Get used to ordering your drinks with no ice if you’re unsure about its origins.
Eat Piping Hot Meat – It’s fine to eat meat and even to get it from street vendors. Just make sure you see it cooked in front of you, make sure it’s well done and make sure it gets really damn hot in the cooking process. Most nasties in meat are fine after a good grilling.
Go Vego – If you’re really worried about meat, then don’t eat it. Tell them you’re a vegetarian and you will be a lot safer than us carnivores when you get to your evening meal. As long as everything is washed and cooked you should be pretty safe from getting a stomach bug.
Wash Your Hands – This is a big one. When you’re travelling around, you tend to put your hands a lot of dirty places that you probably avoid back home. This means you probably don’t want to put what is on your hands into your mouth. Pack some handy wipes or some hand cleaner and you should be fine.
Getting sick in the third world is almost an inevitability if you spend enough time there. The points above however, are easy ways to make sure it doesn’t happen too often. In fact, more experienced travellers who fall ill due to the reasons in this article will invariably be more angry at themselves than anything, because these basics are pretty easy to remember and are well known among the third world traveller set.
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