How to not get sick climbing abroad?

My dream climbing destination is Thailand. My husband and I have decided to take the trip January 2018. Since we started planning we have heard a lot of negative stories about people getting sick from the water or bad food and being incapacitated for days. My husband is now backing out of the trip; I don't blame him as he has a very, very sensitive stomach to new foods or ingredients.

I would still love to go on this trip but I can't find enough information that would make me feel confident in our chances of not getting sick. I have also never left the U.S. (except for Canada and the tropical islands) to travel to a country with different water sanitation. All I keep seeing is "don't drink the water or use the ice", but there are people saying they did this and still got deathly ill. If we go, I plan to climb something everyday of the two weeks we are there.

Can you share any tips or information that will make me feel really confident we won't get sick on our trip there?

the tips for a climber are the same for any other international traveler. you can find thousands of food and water safety tips with a quick google. Tips regarding undercooked eggs, poultry, peeled veggies vs washed veggies, malarious areas, etc. a lot of it will sound familiar if you're good at taking care of yourself in your home country. Consider eating street food that you can watch being prepared and use your judgement when selecting a restaurant. If it looks dirty, it may be. If it is popular they probably dont have the opportunity to leave food laying around. If you try to order Western food when you're off the beaten path be ready for anything. Pad Thai is generally a safe bet. Bring a steri pen and a nalgene. Periodically swish some boiling water around your nalgene and in the threads of the mouth and the lid.

As a climber, keep and eye on the knicks and scrapes you'll inevitably get while climbing. they'll be susceptible to infection especially if you're swimming/ DWS-ing. the water around krabi/tonsai can get pretty nasty depending on prevailing currents.

Thailand is about as friendly of an international destination as you'll find. Its easy to get around, change money, pay for things, etc. You may get a traveler's stomach bug but it'll pass. Good luck, have fun.

I was in Thailand nearly 10 years ago. There were plenty of places to get bottled water. And if new food is a concern there are a lot of american restaurants there. Off the top of my head I remember McDonalds and KFC being right next to each other. I'm sure there are even more now. Even in some of the small shops they had traditional food or snacks but then things we're use to here in the US. Globalization is kind of nice when it comes to food. I'd agree it really is one of the most friendly countries I've ever been to with some of the nicest people ever.

I would not go to Thailand with a hypochondriac wuss, even the best restaurants are suspect. You would end up taking care of him instead of climbing and avoiding all the best places. I did always find that bottled water and lots of beer kept me from getting anything too bad but one time I did leave the country and hadn't taken a dump in a week.

As for the fast food suggestion, imagine what US restaurants pay their help(not a living wage) and then imagine what the workers get paid there. Half of the country does not use toilet paper, its too expensive.

The street vendors have the best food but almost no access to bathrooms. One resort we stayed at on some island was using their grey water to water the plants on the property, it smelled like sewage in paradise! I'd imagine they clean the rooms with grey water as well in remote spots. I remember sandy sheets in one place, they must have been washing them in the ocean and drying them on the beach.

In my experiences in Thailand and Laos, the people who were the most concerned about food were the people most likely to get sick. I eat everything and I love to try street food, and I had no issues the two times I've been to Thailand. Obviously only drink water that's safe for drinking, but this water is provided everywhere, just ask.

I will note that I was in Chiang Mai, not Tonsai, and I've heard more stories of gastrointestinal distress down south, but that might just be a numbers game.

Enjoy!

I ate everything when I was climbing in the Krabi/Railay/Tonsai region. I've gotten extremely sick in other countries that required hospital stays from stomach infections from food. I never got sick once in Thailand. I ate the fish from the fish vendors. The Pad Thai and any other street vendor food I could find.

I would recommend sticking to bottled water. Other than that I didn't have a problem at all in Thailand. I'm from Connecticut and I destroyed every curry dish and any food I could get my hands on in Thailand.

Consider taking Pepto Bismal tablets 4 times a day. I heard about this in the last year and the JAMA research published is old, yet it seems most people do not know about it. (Unfortunately I did not know about this the last time I went to a country where it might have helped.)

"Taking two tablets of Pepto-Bismol four times a day before and during international travel can help prevent many cases of diarrhea. Pepto-Bismol should not be taken for more than 3 weeks. Both aspirin and Pepto-Bismol share the active ingredient salicylate, which can be harmful to children. Many medications interfere with salicylate, and people who are allergic to aspirin, pregnant women, and those with ulcers, other bleeding disorders, or gout, should not take Pepto-Bismol without consulting a doctor. Side effects of Pepto-Bismol include ringing in the ears and black stools and tongue."

A couple of the studies if you care:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/382…
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/698…

I have absolutely nothing to add but that sounds like a great trip. Have fun!

Drink bottled water, stay away from salads and make sure that any meat and fish you eat is well cooked. I spent 3 weeks there (a long time ago) with my Thai girlfriend. We traveled extensively and enjoyed plenty of street food.

Please don't use bottled water. Take a steri pen and a nalgene. A hydro flask is good too so the water doesn't get hot. If you hike behind the resorts in railay there are massive piles of trash waiting to be burned. Eat at restaurants and street food places where the proprietors look healthy. Bring a dish so you don't need to take styrofoam in the street.

And if you get sick get your own room so you can have the toilet all to yourself and stay hydrated. You'll climb harder if you lose weight.

Steri pen is shit. Bring a katadyn water filter. Dont waste your time using a steripen and getting sick.

We went to Tonsai two years ago. We were in Thailand for two months. I never got sick, my wife got sick twice. We both took Pepto tabs once a day, both ate anything we wanted. The only thing we did different was that she drank coffee and iced Thai tea. The only thing I drank was beer, filtered water, and hot tea. In the hot tea the water gets boiled, and in coffee it does not. Obviously in the Iced Thai Tea, the Ice was the problem. Getting filtered water is not a problem. You can buy a 7 gallon jug(or something like that), and then use that to refill your water bottles. You should be doing this anyway to cut down on trash, but that's a different topic...

As far as food goes, we never even saw any food that looked suspect.

While we're on the subject of getting sick in Thailand though, you should be aware of "Tonsai Rash". Basically you get mosquito or bed bug bites on your legs, scratch them, then go swimming, and they get horribly infected. One of our friends had to be hospitalized to get IV antibiotics due to this. Let me be clear, THIS IS NOT A REASON TO CANCEL YOUR TRIP. It's completely avoidable, you just need to know a couple things. (1)Use DEET. The fewer mosquito bites the better. (2) DO NOT SWIM ON THE TONSAI SIDE, or Railey East. The sewage drains right into the ocean, and due to the way the peninsula is shaped it does not flush out to sea. You can absolutely swim on Railey WEST, and Phra Nang Beach without issue.

Have fun

The best thing you can do is train your belly for the trip.

Get some thai friends here in the US, ask them to invite you to diner every now an then, just as climbing do not over train, let your body rest from their habits so your body can assimilate third world ingestion. Depending on how dirty you guys are you will feel softer or harder syntoms. but with time your new parasites will be asking for more thai food.

Always remeber a good thai ingestion is only as good as the resting phase.

I was in Thailand last May for a month. I spent a good amount of time in the Krabi area. I had 3 travel companions. This was our anecdotal experience. We avoided ice for the first 2 days in our sofa. Then everyone was doing it so we got on the ice bandwagon. We avoided raw veggies for the first few days and quickly craved a different texture. So we started eating those. Also we ate all street foods. We didn't deliberately dine at sketchy restaurants but we ate at cheap family owned places not just the spendy ";nicer"; looking places. We used a steripen but also bought quite a bit of water because it's cheap and cold water is good. We tried to stock up on cold nalgenes in the fridge though.

Basically we stopped following all ";rules"; we never got sick from Thai food!!! we all got sick once and it was from a French restaurant... a popular one on koh lanta. My friend got sick twice, the second time was from a McDonald's fish filet in Bangkok.

My buddies girlfriend sounds similar up your husband. Even in the US it seems she is always complaining about some stomach malady. She avoided real Thai food her diet consisted mostly of store bought cookies and chips for a month. When she did eat food outside of her comfort zone she got ";sick";..... eat the food it's delicious and honestly one of the things we still talk about. No where else I've been able to eat such variety and quality without worrying about price.

Just because I like talking about food here are some recommendations...

Lots of Indians there, great Indian food.

As far as street food if it's sold out of a alley I wouldn't eat it.... I'm pretty sure some homeless would catch tilapia etc and sell. This was more prevalent in Bangkok.

Food carts are excellent my favorite foods were had on these. A simple soup with your choice of meat/veggies and thin noodles. Seafood they cut up in front of you and put in bag with sauce... OMG the squid was soooo good.

Fried pastry pancake things.

The restaurants in touristy areas are more expensive. If there are a lot of shops and massage places you're in the wrong spot. Find a local place. They may not speak any English but smiling and pointing works wonders and you'll pay around 2 dollars for amazing food.

Have fun! Hope the trip works out!

Pretty sure you can also get some anti-diarrhea pills from your doctor too. Get those, take them if you need it, and enjoy your trip.

People get sick all the time, in every country.. no reason not to travel to a beautiful place. I've traveled to a few countries with less than ideal water situations and drank non-bottled water... no problems. Luck of the draw I guess.

Matt Himmelstein wrote:Drink bottled water, stay away from salads and make sure that any meat and fish you eat is well cooked.

This would be my strategy as well.

The pepto idea has merit, I've done similar with immodium.

I have a (sometimes) sensitive stomach and do occasionally have problems, even within the US (have never traveled internationally). Some common sense as described in this thread goes a long way. You can get just as sick eating at any given place in the US as you can anywhere else. Diners are a great place to start exercising your immune system. :p

Bottled water is not beneath me and I'm very conscious of my footprint. When on vacation once or twice a year such things can, and in this case, should be forgiven. If it's a foolproof way to ensure someone's not pissing from their ass, then for christmas sake drink bottled water while on the trip.

Steripens work but they only work as well as their operator allows. Usually people don't use them right which is how they're ineffective. I personally don't bother, when I need a filter I bring one. As tyler said, it's not worth using the pen only to get sick. Filters are relatively fool proof if the filter is new/fresh.

Check with the CDC and make sure you have all the appropriate shots. Your doctor might be able to help with this as well.

wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel

Stayed in Tonsai in 2004 for a couple weeks with my now-wife. We were told that after power failures, food spoils, but is still used and sold, and then everyone gets sick. We had one power failure while we were there, towards the end of our stay. Despite being informed and trying to be cautious, within 2 days both my wife and I went down with a terrible 3 day food poisoning bout, far beyond any food poisoning episode I have had in Mexico or here in the states. Then again, the sickness came on during the boat ride, taxi cab, then plane flight from Krabi to Bangkok which might have exacerbated everything. Worst flight of my life, I never left the bathroom it was so bad. That said, I would do it all again and hope for better luck.

Tylerpratt wrote:Steri pen is shit. Bring a katadyn water filter. Dont waste your time using a steripen and getting sick.

I was concerned with the pen that it might not do the job because water gets on the mouth and lid of Nalgene bottles and might not be completely sanitized. I was looking at the Lifestraw water bottle. I currently drink A LOT of water, around a gallon a day. Obviously should cut back before I go as it will be problematic. I will check your suggestion out, thanks!

K. Le Douche wrote: Basically you get mosquito or bed bug bites on your legs, scratch them, then go swimming, and they get horribly infected. One of our friends had to be hospitalized to get IV antibiotics due to this. Let me be clear, THIS IS NOT A REASON TO CANCEL YOUR TRIP. It's completely avoidable, you just need to know a couple things. (1)Use DEET. The fewer mosquito bites the better. (2) DO NOT SWIM ON THE TONSAI SIDE, or Railey East. The sewage drains right into the ocean, and due to the way the peninsula is shaped it does not flush out to sea. You can absolutely swim on Railey WEST, and Phra Nang Beach without issue. Have fun

Oh man, thanks for the information about where not to swim. I had no idea about this! I appreciate the tips!

This is all really fantastic and helpful advice for a super novice traveler such as myself. I plan to make a list of to do and not to do items based on your advice. Thanks everyone!