What To Do When You Get Sick While Traveling in Asia

At this point, I have a backlog of posts to write about my adventures in Pattaya and Ko Larn.  But at the moment, I’m laid up in my familiar guesthouse in Bangkok, recovering from what appears to be some form of viral gastroenteritis, which I managed to contract whilst in Pattaya (curse you, raw papaya salad!).  Whatever it is I have, it’s manifested as diarrhea and an on-and-off fever.  Fortunately, the fever is gone by now, but I’m still not shitting solid.  On the other hand, I’ve felt quite a bit better the last two days and have been able to eat pretty well–whereas the first couple of days that I was sick, I could barely manage a few bites of toast.

Please don’t be alarmed: this kind of thing is fairly normal when you’re traveling in developing nations, especially in Asia.  I got sick like this at least twice while I was in India, and those times were much worse than this.  At least this time I went to a doctor right away.  Less fortunately, I may have been misdiagnosed and shot up unnecessarily with antibiotics (I’m attempting to compensate by eating yogurt).  Oh well, c’est la vie… I had a lot of fun my first two weeks in Thailand, and this is the flipside… traveling in places like this, you get higher highs and lower lows.  I find myself nostalgic for those first two weeks as if they were the Garden of Eden before the Fall.  But I also know I’ll likely be fine in a day or two, and then I’ll be able to move on: catch up with my writing, pack up, and move on to the next place.  I don’t know where that next place will be, as of yet; I want to go up north to Chiang Mai, but might end up heading south to Phuket first on an epic Thai road trip.  We’ll see.

For now, I want to offer a few words of advice to my fellow travelers.  After all, between my experiences in India and now this, I’m somewhat of an expert on this subject.  So here are my four rules (actually five, if you count Rule Zero) for what to do when you get sick in Asia.

Rule Zero is prevention.  You’ve heard it a million times: get your immunizations, take your meds, supplements, herbs, and what have you.  Drink enough water and wash your hands all the time.  Don’t drink bad water or eat bad food.  Do all you can to stay healthy.  All of this is sound advice.  But the truth is, when you’re in traveling  in Asia, that even if you do everything possible to stay healthy, there’s still a good chance you’ll get sick.  And when you do, you need to know how to take care of yourself on the road.  With that said, on to my four rules:

1.  Don’t panic. Even if you think you’re going to die, you probably won’t.  In fact, if you can find a sense of humor about what you’re going through, it will be a lot better for everyone.  Also, when you think about it, the fact that you’re hallucinating and shitting all over the place is kind of funny.

2.  Get medical attention as soon as possible. Get the best care you can: find the best doctor around, even if you have to go to a hospital instead of a clinic.  Make sure your doctor conducts appropriate tests to find out exactly what you have before they prescribe you any medication.  Some doctors in Asia make most of their money from the pharmacies, and they’ll shoot you up with whatever they’ve got without conducting any tests.  This is a bad thing.  For example, if you go to the doctor complaining of diarrhea, you might very well get an injection of antibiotics when what you really have is not a bacterial infection, but a virus.  This is probably what happened to me a few days ago.  What the doctor should have done is taken a stool sample first to determine the cause of my illness.

3.  Find somewhere comfortable to rest up and get well. Even if you have to pay a little extra money for a guesthouse or hotel with clean bathrooms, fans, A/C or heat, and clean, healthy food, it’s well worth the money.  When I was sick in Darjeeling (in February 2005), I would have killed for a room with a heater and a hot shower.  You don’t want to take cold showers when you’ve got a fever and it’s snowing outside.

4.  Don’t go home early unless you absolutely have to. You’ll be disappointed later.  Being ill will make you homesick like nothing else, but unless you get some kind of life-threatening disease, take my word for it and stick it out.  Rest up until you feel better, remember your original reasons for taking the trip you’re on, and then plot a course for your next destination.