The TRUTH about Eating Street Food & Travel Sickness 🌍

Navigating the bumps of travel, I’ll share my personal experiences with sickness, food poisoning, and the inevitable surprises of international journeys. From dealing with diarrhea to overcoming unexpected challenges, I’ll give a candid look at the realities of travel. Learn how these moments, while tough, are integral to the adventure and growth that come from exploring the world. It’s all about embracing the unpredictability and turning every experience, even the less glamorous ones, into valuable life lessons. Get ready for an honest perspective on what it really means to be a global traveler!

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Let me let you in on a little secret. You’re going to get sick when you travel. In fact, you’re not only going to get sick. You’re going to lose your wallet, get your telephone stolen, and probably miss your flight. One viewer’s comment got me thinking recently. He asked, Do I worry about

Digestive problems when I’m eating street food, when I’m traveling around the world? Yeah, well, I’ve been vomiting, I’ve had diarrhea. Let me tell you the stories. Back in Argentina, maybe about eight years ago, I was traveling around for about one week on the western side of the country near the Andes.

And of course, it’s the home of beef. It’s the home of steak. I was having steak almost every night. One night back in my room, there were some sickness going around our group. And when I got back to my room, my head was spinning and I didn’t feel well. I lay down

On my bed and just chill out there for a few hours. And then finally I got up, went to the bathroom and vomited. The next morning I felt okay and we had a big trip planned up into the Andes that day, up to a peak, up to a pass around about 2500 meters.

And I had to get going on it. And there was a long bus ride and I was sitting at the back of the bus and I continued not to feel well. And I laid myself out on the back of the bus seat. And all of a sudden it came on

And I turned to the guy beside me. They given us some free hats to wear, and I said, Hey, Jose, give me your hat, because all of a sudden I had to throw up and I had nowhere to do it. And I threw up in this hat. And at this time, as

I was throwing up in his hat, the bus driver was stopping the bus for me and everybody was getting off the bus. They saw me throwing up and I to start to make my way up the aisle to get off the bus, threw up one more time before I was able

To get off the bus, threw up another time when I got off the bus and everybody was looking at me like, my God. Yeah. And it was rough. And the rest of the day it was rough. And later on that afternoon as well, I was doing some work up there in the mountains

And I lost my Persol sunglasses. They fell off somewhere and I’m hooked around my shirt. That’s a reason you should never take them off. Always keep them on and a couple of days passed and I felt okay. I felt better. It happened again another time when I was traveling

In the south of China. This time on the island of Hainan, probably around five years ago. And I always make a point, like I share in these videos when you’re traveling, don’t get stuck into the Western places. Don’t get stuck in having dinner every night in your hotel, get out and enjoy

The local ambiance, the street food, see what’s on offer, go to those small places. and I was doing that every night. Even though we had free food on offer in the hotels for the guest. And I remember this one night, another one of these nights I was eating on a little rickety table,

Sitting on a table stool like that one there in the street, just enjoying some food. And I remember I saw a couple of rats go by in this outdoor restaurant, but nothing too unusual. I mean, even here in Bangkok, when you’re sitting around a restaurant and every now and then you might see

A cockroach run by. Didn’t think much about it. I got back to my room that night. I was having to do some work on my computer, trying to concentrate. My head felt funny and all of a sudden it came on. I ran to the bathroom and I couldn’t even lean over the toilet.

I just vomited right into the shower and vomited two or three times and then went to bed, made sure I had enough water hydrated the next day. Okay, just plain white rice and about midday the next day, I felt better. All was okay. One other time I was in Tel Aviv

And we had been there traveling around Israel for about a week. And, well, I go to leave and this booking agency who booked my flight made a mistake. I was due to fly out on April 10th. It was around 730 in the morning. My friend Aaron and I like idiots in Jerusalem.

We had found an Irish bar and we’d been drinking all night and we got to the airport at 5AM. I think I was still drunk, if not severely hung over. Anyway, get up to the check in counter to check in. And she says, Sir, you’re not on this flight. My friend

Aaron had already checked in. I said, What do you mean, I’m not on this flight? She said, No, the flight for May 10th. I said, What? Yeah, today’s April 10th. This for me. So I had to run and go buy another ticket. She said, Well, there’s still a few seats on the flight

And I had to go buy another ticket because I had to get out. I couldn’t stay in Israel for another month, even though I like Israel, but I didn’t want to stay there for another month. So I went and bought a ticket. There are all sorts of things like this vomiting,

Diarrhea that happen when you’re traveling. And another time when I was in India, my first and only time in India, I went up north to Nashik, north of Bombay and also spent some time in Bombay. And on the last night my friend Andy and I found some clubs we were out

Drinking and great time meeting some cool locals. On the way out there was a beggar who’s asking for money. Nothing to unusual when you’re traveling around India. I didn’t think about it. Got all the way home, all the way to the hotel and then realized I didn’t have my phone. Somebody pickpocketed me.

And this was back in the day. That was my first ever smart phone. It was an HTC. It had like a little kick. It looked like a skateboard as my first smartphone. And I lost it in Bombay, in Mumbai. And it was gone. Good memory of a first smartphone and even recently diarrhea.

Hit me again. And it was funny because when I read that comment, the comment came from Bruce. When I read the comment, I kind of laughed about it because I just recovered from some diarrhea. Yeah, it happened to me up in Chiang Mai. Right now I’m in Bangkok, north of here,

Up in Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand. And my last day there, I don’t know what happened. Must have been some bacteria in the food or something somewhere that didn’t sit right or something wasn’t clean. The next day I noticed I wasn’t feeling too bad, but just had

To go to the bathroom a few times during the day, diarrhea and it stuck with me here for about four or five days until finally, just today. In the last couple days, I’m eating street food again. It past I mean, street food again on my back on the spicy food. So you’re going

To get sick. You’re going to lose your wallet, lose your phone. Someone’s going to rip you off along the way. You’re going to miss flights, but you’re going to have a hell of a time doing so. You’re going to have a hell of a time out there traveling, living it up,

Having these experiences. If I worried about these things every time I needed to plan a trip or thought about traveling, I would never leave my house. And in 20 years of traveling around the globe, I just have these two big stories of food poisoning sickness, the one in Argentina

And the one of China to tell you about every 12 to 18 months. Yeah, I get hit with some stomach thing. Diarrhea. I’m on the toilet for 2 to 3 days. I lose a few kilos, which is never a bad thing, but only two or three stories over 20 years.

And so the odds are it’s not that bad. And my advice to you is just get out there and explore. Because the more you get out, the more you explore these places, the more you’re going to learn and learn about your body as well and what you can and can’t eat

And what’s good and what’s bad for you. Places you should avoid, places you should seek out as well when you’re traveling and how to spot the scammers and how to spot the friendly people when you’re in these new environments and these new cities and these new countries, the more you get out there,

The more you explore and the more you push your limits. Look, I didn’t grow up eating spicy food. I didn’t know about a lot of this exotic food. And maybe you’re the same as me. I mean, heck, when I was growing up, lasagna. Well, that was exotic for me.

And I had grilled cheese, and I was eating the packets of Quaker Oats, oatmeal, simple stuff. And it wasn’t until I got out and explored that my whole eyes and system and being opened up to spicy food, to all sorts of dishes around the globe. And it’s not just the food,

But when you’re out there eating these other dishes, you’re opening yourself up to new cultures and it’s a way to also meet new people. The other night here, I came down from the Skytrain, the empty line right over here. I’m at the Phrom Phong station in the EM District,

And I saw this place. It’s always busy around five or 6:00 when the workers are getting off of work and huge line up for some chicken rice, great white rice with steamed or roasted chicken fried chicken on top. And I was in line there talking to this pretty girl. I said, Hey,

Is this place pretty good? It looks pretty famous. And she said, Yeah, it’s really good. I come here a lot, sat down with her and we talked for a little bit, and then when it was time to go, I made sure I paid for her dinner. Nothing much. 120 baht for two plates

And just made a new friend along the way. So getting out there and doing this, you’re exploring. You’re going to meet new people and have new adventures and maybe have some problems along the way. One story I have for you is about eating raw chicken in Tokyo. Yeah, raw chicken, the heart,

The liver and the breast. It was actually pretty darn good. I have a video coming up on the channel about that where you can see how I got into it. I’d probably never do it anywhere else outside of Tokyo. But they’re Tokyo. They know what they’re doing. Chicken sashimi right there

In the Shibuya district. The famous place I wanted to go to was closed since I was there on my phone, looking up another place that was serving chicken sashimi. And I found a place and I got in and ate it. My advice when you’re out there exploring and looking for places,

If you’re a bit unsure on what’s good and what’s not is look for those local places. Yes, but also look for those local places that are busy with locals because you know, if they’re going there, then it’s a trustworthy place and you’re probably not going to get sick. I look at the beautiful

Park out over this way. Big buildings. I just love Bangkok. The other thing, too, is adjust your perception on what is cleanliness. Yes. You want a place that looks like has decent food and safety standards, of course. But you’re going to have to make adjustments if you’re ever going to be able

To travel around the world and explore and try new things. Because your perception on cleanliness is just that you’re perception. So adjust your perception. Look through different lenses when you’re out exploring different parts of the world look, I recovered from the food poisoning. I had there an urgent thing.

I want to go around this way. I recover from the food poisoning in Argentina and in China. I got another telephone and luckily I had my data backed up. I don’t think there was Google Cloud back in the day, but I had it saved some way and I got on another

Flight out of Israel. And I’ve recovered recently from my diarrhea and I’m back to eating the spicy food. Bruce I appreciate your question and I’m not singling you out because you asked a question at a time when I was just recovering from diarrhea and I was thinking to myself about this

And I’ve received these questions from other viewers like you out there before, How do I deal with this? So it was a topic that I wanted to share with the rest of you. How do you deal with this? How do you plan and consider eating when you’re out traveling around and new environments

Out of your safety zone, But be careful along the way and take certain precautions. One thing I recommend is travelers insurance. And yet in these recent years, I’ve started to use traveler’s insurance and one I can recommend. And there are different ones out there. So see what’s best for you.

But is safety wing nomad insurance and they cover you for a particular time. You can decide is super easy. You can buy it all online and also they cover you for short stints when you’re back into your home country as well. I’m going to drop a link in the description down

Below for that so you can check it out and decide for yourself. But get out there and explore those local little markets, the local food stalls, and try the street food. Try a lot of it. Try new things because traveling is all about trying new things, not just seeing new places,

But trying the foods, digging into the local dishes and helping understand your perception. Because with the local foods, you’ll get a better understanding of the local culture as well. And places like this here in Bangkok, the street food scene is insane and it’s perhaps none better than in Chinatown.

So you can check it all out here on this video.