How not to get sick on holiday in Thailand

[Pleng]

Care to name and shame?

Worst offender, both from personal experience and anecdotally in HH, is Burger King..

And how do you know that it was the burger that made you ill?

[HuaHin61]

When I first visited Thailand I would consider it an achievement if I went fourteen days without going down with some form of sickness. This year however, I went eleven weeks without getting ill once, and a trip of similar length last year was equally successful.

So I thought I'd share my personal dos and donts on the gastronomic front:

1) I trust Thai food. Don't assume that all Thai dishes are extremely spicy. There is a huge variation in tastes across the country and a Thai chef expects to receive instruction from his customers as to how spicy they want their food. You are not committing some heinous faux pas against Thai culture if you specify 'no spicy'.

2) I don't trust burgers - and the biggest burger chains are amongst the worst offenders. Thais achieve food hygiene their own way, and it doesn't fit well with western cooking requirements.

3) I do trust street vendors. Their carts may look a bit grimy, but they buy their food fresh from the market every day and then tour the streets until they've sold out. Stuff doesn't have time to go bad.

. . . . .

i totally agree with 2)
me too, got thick after eating at McDonalds in soi61
they seems to have very bad hygienic situation
=> https://huahinforum.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 77#p422677

to prevent stomach problems during holiday:
i start eating 1-2 charcoal tablets during flight to thailand, and keep doing that for some more days.
eating charcoal tablets just before some trouble is coming up.
that helps me a lot and i did not have had trouble during my last holiyday.

[HuaHin61]

Burgers are a surprise to me too. Steak tartare/‘filet Américain’ are firm favourites and much more common than raw chicken. Burgers are generally cooked through and provided they reach over 45°C for a minute or so should be devoid of any bugs that would bother us. Could it be a poorly-washed lettuce leaf or weeks old mayonnaise that’s a more likely culprit? Personally, a BintaBurger is amongst the best I’ve tasted and always cooked with great care.

maybe it was caused by the salad in between the meat ?
i do not really know, but I was really bad after the meal at McD.

[falanglongtime]

I go for a pro bio drink, loads of water and at least one very spicy dish per day. Eat eggs but I’m careful with prawns and also use the busy street vendor rule.

[HHTel]

Regarding McD, I'm sure everyone has seen Jamie Oliver's video showing that their beefburgers are made with 'pink slime'. Scraps taken from the bone, usually processed for dog food, then 'washed' in Ammonia Hydrochloride.

This apparently only happened in the states, where they don't have the same standards. McD changed their policy but a leaked video shows that they may be using it again.

I doubt whether the same process is used in Thailand but who knows?

[Chazz14]

I tend to avoid food vendors at temple fairs because these people have no regular customers as they move to a new location every few days.

The temptation is there for them to skimp on cheaper (not 100% fresh) ingredients...

[taffinexile]

Must admit that although only being a tourist on two to three weeks visit, I can’t remember over the last twelve years suffering from food induced stomach upsets. If anything the system seems better than at home. Although we eat out regularly all the establishments from western to the plastic table Thai places have served us well.

[handdrummer]

Why would anyone eat at a McDonalds? It's not really food. I ate there once in 1970, that was enough.

[caller]

Why would anyone eat at a McDonalds? It's not really food. I ate there once in 1970, that was enough.

LOL! It might have changed a bit since then.

I like their sausage Mcmuffins as an occassional treat for breakfast. The sausage is really savoury, unlike elsewhere, where it's bland and tasteless.

I eat in BK in Bluport from time to time and apart from the price, it's always pretty good. I quite like Burger 31 which also has a place in Bluport, but sometimes, they don't have an English speaker working there, so I can't order what I want, that's when I usually head to BK.

[handdrummer]

Why would anyone eat at a McDonalds? It's not really food. I ate there once in 1970, that was enough.

LOL! It might have changed a bit since then.

I like their sausage Mcmuffins as an occassional treat for breakfast. The sausage is really savoury, unlike elsewhere, where it's bland and tasteless.

I eat in BK in Bluport from time to time and apart from the price, it's always pretty good. I quite like Burger 31 which also has a place in Bluport, but sometimes, they don't have an English speaker working there, so I can't order what I want, that's when I usually head to BK.

This is where the "to each his own" phrase comes in.

[Pleng]

maybe it was caused by the salad in between the meat ?
i do not really know, but I was really bad after the meal at McD.

How long after the meal at McD?

[oakdale160]

Egg McMuffin at McD or Croisantwich at BK, with a coffee--nothing wrong with either for b'fast.

[HuaHin61]

maybe it was caused by the salad in between the meat ?
i do not really know, but I was really bad after the meal at McD.

How long after the meal at McD?

if I remember correctly, the problem started right after the meal, with nausea, malaise,
and finally I vomited everything back and follows with diarrhea one/two days.

[Pleng]

if I remember correctly, the problem started right after the meal, with nausea, malaise,
and finally I vomited everything back and follows with diarrhea one/two days.

If the nausea started right after the mean then it almost certainly wasn't the burger that caused it. It takes time for the body to process and get ill off of bacteria. The most common forms of food poisoning take 24-48 hours to start showing symptoms. Even the least common of the main strains of bacteria that cause food positing still takes about 6 hours.

It is extremely difficult to pinpoint where you picked up food poisoning from, and unfair to go around telling people that you caught it from business x or y. Obviously McDonalds will probably survive this particular slight, but smaller businesses can go under based on such irresponsible accusations.

[HHTel]

Well pointed out Pleng. You beat me to it. The couple of times I've had food poisoning, although mild, took a while to kick in.