I've visited Penang twice, and each time on the first day I had vomiting and diahrrea, this after several months of no health problems in Thailand.

I'm about to make my third trip and would like to avoid whatever it is that's causing it, any ideas what it could be?

My theory is the water is supposed to be safe so they make ice out of tapwater there, so I guess i'll have to avoid ice, please don't tell me I can't have Roti Chanai!

Whats wrong with Carlsberg?

I am travelling since about 30 years in South Thailand and Northern Malaysia.

Everybody there, including all locals, have sometimes vomiting and diarrhea.

This problem can be very troublesome for your vacation, I give you some ideas. I learnt out of my mistakes. -

Your information is not clear enough to pinpoint the reason, but this is what I found out by my own experience and what doctors there told me....

1) Drinking water: if there is something wrong with it, usually you will feel some fever, and soon after diarrhea will start, which is clear like water, but smelling terrible. As water is passing by the stomach quickly, there is generally NO vomiting.

You should always carry with you a bottle of clean water, sealed by a factory and tablets, called IMODIUM (it is cheap and a mixture of iodine and choride, killing bacterias and sold in a folder, 4 tablets) - when you start with diarrhea like that, take 1 tablet, lot of water, then 3 hours later next tablet, after 6 hours the no.3 and 12 hours later the last tablet. Usually it is much much better within one or two hours already and should totally disappear within 12 hours. You must take all 4 tablets, or the problem will return the next day, as some bacterias might survive.

2) Food: If you eat some food (in my case cashnuts from the market, without holding them over the fire) symptoms are like that: some hours later, cannot eat anything, stomach like locked.... cannot even drink, cannot swallow anything. Btw,

SPICY food is not protecting, some bacteria love it!

If you still can drink something, when noticing such feeling, try to take IMODIUM, and then see a doctor quickly.

You will terribly vomit and get a strong diarrhea, but I had no feeling of fewer.

After taking IMODIUM (dissolved it in water, could not swallow it at all) and then calling a doctor, I could swallow some very small tablets, recovery within one day.

3) Food Intolerance: (similar, but not same as allergy) Some people, like me too, have some intolerance against oyster oil and some kind of sea-food. This usually is only the case, if the fish, shells, oyster ....is from warm sea-water. Not observed for tuna, sardines or other fish from cold sea, as there is not this kind of plancton there to be eaten by the fish...

Symptoms:

2 hours....nothing

feeling dizzy, light sensitive...cannot see clear...

then feeling bad, very strong diarrhea and vomiting

after 30 minutes remarkable rapid recovery.....

you can eat everything after one hour as nothing happened.....

This problem is inconvenient, as it can happen in any restaurant with me, and so I usually go only to some few places I know, where there is no contact at all with sea-food. I buy my food at the supermarket, avoiding restaurants....

Even a tiny amount (0.2 mg) might cause vomiting and diarrhea.

So even if you eat no seafood, but the hands or the knife of the cook had contact with sea-food, it might happen.

4) Strong oily-like diarrhea (but no vomiting) - often out of sour food (vinegar) followed by sweet food (sugar, desserts, fruits, ice-cream)..... Causing strong diarrhea, but will be gone within one or two hours. I avoid Chinese restaurants, and I do not eat any sweets directly after the meal, but eat them separately after 2 hours.

Maybe you come back again, and explain more details of your problem.

Diarrhea and vomiting is a big trouble and you should find out the reason if it frequently happens to you. - Especially if the symptoms are always the same...

Food intolerance is difficult to trace... eating the same food at the same restaurant: sometimes it happens, sometimes not....- to find the reason is not always easy. Food intolerance is often related to sea-food.

Johann

I further Johann's suggestion regarding Imodium which should be included in anyone's travel kit regardless of where they roam...plugs you right up so that if you are in transit you can feel secure that you won't <deleted> your pants at the immigration desk if there is a delay.

I was in Penang last year on a visa renewal run and had no problems even with the ice that was sent up by room service (always drink bottled water otherwise). I'm sure that most hotels that cost $50 per night use good water for that purpose. Me and the wife ate at the outdoor places on Jalan Penang (excellent food!) without any bad effect. Except for the street places most eating places exhibited proper hygiene. perhaps you had a bug that was dormant until your arrival?

Stick to bottled water and if in doubt there are burger and pizza places at the top of Jalan Penang in the big shopping center there. If you get sick then sue McDonalds...or better, defecate on the floor by the cash registers...

Admins, please pin this thread. Yohan's post is one of the best I've ever read on Thaivisa. I laughed so hard I almost suffered from Diaherea myself. Brilliant.

You might like to know that immodium and the now no longer available Sangsom was a great aphrodisiac. This was before viagra.

plugs you right up so that if you are in transit you can feel secure that you won't <deleted> your pants at the immigration desk if there is a delay.

what,even if they find 1000 speed pills in your bags??

well...you know, if they found twice the amount of speed pills in your colon Imodium still would have been a good choice...