JC98

A lot of Vietnamese dishes come with raw herbs and vegetable condiments. How do you handle those? Avoid, wash with bottled water, or just go for it?

Elainee

I think it is luck. I had the full traveller's tummy on our first day in Viet Nam. First time in 20+ years of travel except for real food poisoning from the Hyatt in San Francisco when I ended up in the hospital. Really bad till I thought I was dehydrated. Maybe it was the stange chicken I had at Victoria Peak in Hong Kong, or breakfast at the HK Four Seasons. Whatever, do not take immodium too soon. Get it out of you! Then something with sugar and somthing (crackers) with salt. My poor husband calling room service and asking for "saltines" but they had them after many repeations. Only go to the cipro if it lasts more than 18-24 hours. Fyi..they sell Ritz crackers all over Hanoi. So, don't worry about Viet Nam, you can get sick in Hong Kong, San Francisco, or NYC. But I should not have eaten that chicken.

Neil_Oz

In the last 10 years of overseas travelling, including 3 weeks in Vietnam and 3 weeks in China (during which we brushed our teeth in tap water) the only time I've got sick from food was in a small town that shall remain nameless in Montana. Purely in the interests of cultural research I decided to try chicken-fried steak for lunch and I paid the price that night.

"A lot of Vietnamese dishes come with raw herbs and vegetable condiments. How do you handle those? Avoid, wash with bottled water, or just go for it?"

- Well, we just went for it, as did the other 9 people on our tour, and I can't remember anybody getting sick. There can be no guarantees, of course, but what's a visit to Vietnam if you can't launch into the local cuisine with enthusiasm? There are many thousands of Western tourists traipsing around Vietnam at any time and while I don't have figures, my guess is that only a very small precentage have a problem.

brushfire, seafood can be problematic anywhere I think, so I wouldn't be too hard on your aunt. I've certainly been sick after eating prawns here in Australia.

In Hanoi we struck up a conversation with a Vietnamese-American from Nashville. After chatting for a while he asked "Say, do y'all know if it's OK to drink the water here?" When we replied that it wasn't a great idea he thought for a minute. "I guess that explains why I've been feeling a touch queasy these last few days".

Becalm

Jules, regarding raw herbs or even vegatables, for me the issue is have they been washed with tainted water or handled in an unsanitary fashion. Merely washing them with bottled water will not help. Avoid or go for it for me would depend on how good a restaurant it is, although I've gotten food poisioning at a 5 star restaurant when skiing in Megeve, France and a parasite from supposedly sterilized water at The Grand Hotel in Taipei, so you never know.

My MD has recommended that I take a Betaine Hydrochloride tablet (gastric acid) when I eat anything questionable when traveling. This increases the chance of bacteria being killed during digestion but has warned that this should not be thought of as foolproof. I seldom do this however.

For diarrhea, my MD has recommended I carry a homeopathic remedy, Arsenicum Album as a first course of action. This has worked for us well in a instances in France, Turkey and the Caribbean to clear up the problem very quickly. Another first aid remedy to consider bringing along is Nux Vomica for indigestion and vomiting. In fact he treated with both on the skiing trip we were on that I mentioned above.
These may not be the answer in all cases but good as a first aid attempt.

So be careful but usuallly go for it is my suggestion.

Carrabella

Becalm, did you know "arsenicum" is arsenic, and "nux vomica" is strychnine? ("Alba" is just latin for "white&quot. When I first started in pharmacy many years ago, we stocked tinctures of both of these, but they haven't been used at least in orthodox western medicine for many years. We also kept tincture of opium, which was used in those days to stop diarrhoea.

Anyone who takes "Cipro", please note that it can cause problems with heel tendons, so take extra care.

Becalm

Carrabella, thank you for your concern.

Yes I know the nature of these two homeopathic remedies. However, they represent no concern to me. As explained by my Dr. and discovered through my own research, homeopathic remedies are based on extreme dilutions. For instance the most commonly used potency for home use is 30C which is 1:100x30 (100 to the 30th power). There is no more concern for me to use an over the counter homeopathic remedy of this potency than any other over the counter medicine. My family and I have used homeopathics safely and effectively for over 20 years in first aid situations. However,I should have said that anyone unfamilar with homeopathic remedies should do their own due diligence before considering them as with any remedy or medication. Unfortunately, I forget sometimes that while I automatically do this for myself, I should always recommend that others do this rather than taking my or anyone else's recommendations without question.
Thank you again for your concern.

Carrabella

Becalm, I'm glad homeopathy works for you. Thanks for your reply.
I'm really more worried about side effects of the "Cipro", and that people are up to date with their hepatitis A vaccines.

jeanfromboston

We were in Vietnam in December. At first we tried to avoid the raw herbs and vegetables, but they are really an essential part of the food, and by the end of the trip we were even eating tomatoes,although never lettuce. But the vegetables do not seem to be grown in very sanitary conditions. We never ate street food and always used bottled water, but the food was a highlight of the trip, and we did not get sick.

mishkah

I'm on day 6 of a 7 day visit to Hanoi, and the thing I'd say is while it's great to be cautious, you really can't peg whether you're going to be affected.

Me: Ate everything, herbs, greens, at small street restaurants and from the 'ladies who cook' kerbside. Ate offal, raw fruit and salads (though I DID use only bottled water for drinking/brushing): no problems whatsoever.

My travelling companion: Very squeamish about 'cleanliness'. Insisted on eating only Western food, at tourist restaurants and cafes and places recommended in his guidebook: three days of non-stop vomiting and diarrhea, culminating in me having to take him to the International SOS clinic, a three hour saline drip, and intravenous antibiotics for his severe stomach infection.

So while that last bit might've sounded scary..all I mean is that you just can't tell. If you're going to get sick, you are..but you just as likely aren't.

And...the poster above is right, DON'T take the Immodium straight away if the diarrhea hits..as the doctor told us only yesterday, all it does it stop the bowel movement and gives the bacteria a chance to rebuild.

julies

I'm the OP, and I'm back from Vietnam. As soon as we arrived we decided that if we wanted to actually enjoy the food we were going to be eating LOTS of fresh herbs and greens. We ate in street kitchens, private homes and restaurants. We never had ice and we only drank bottled water. We used Purell a lot!

I got diarrhea and my husband didn't. We ate almost exactly the same things all the time with just a couple of exceptions. Those exceptions might have been what did me in. I ate 2 snails one night, and my husband wouldn't touch them, even to be polite as I was being. I think I may possibly have had a couple bad shrimp one night. But, we almost think it is just luck. I may have had someone who was contaminated handle something or I may have gotten something that was washed in contaminated water.

A note of advice though if you are sick while traveling or after. See your doctor immediately! I ended up having what is a reportable disease to our local public health department.

Not to get too personal, but I'd had diarrhea fairly consistently for the last half of our trip. But, I didn't really feel sick, and I used the immodium only when absolutely necessary because I had heard that it's better to let the diarrhea just run its course. The day after we returned I was intermittently running a fever and having chills, plus my joints were kind of achy. To make a long story short I was eventually diagnosed with a camphylobacter infection. This can be resistant to Cipro, the drug we and most travelers are given to take along for emergency use on the road. So, I was given another expensive and heavy duty antibiotic.

I suppose some might carry on about never going to an exotic location again because of getting sick, but that's not my perspective. I had a friend get this a couple years ago right here in the more sanitary US. In the US it most commonly comes from undercooked, infected poultry.

JC98

Isn't eating raw vegetables as bad as drinking unbottled water? The veggies were washed in that of water? I'm surprised to hear you all went for the raw veggies.

crosscheck

Hope you're feeling better, julies.

tatersalad

We too just returned from Viet Nam and Cambodia. With over three weeks of travel we have zero illness to report. We used common sense as to the appearance of the places where we ate, although sometimes the kitchen doesn't look quite a nice as the dinning room. We did use the Purell wipes often on our hands and sometimes on the wooden chop sticks. We didn't eat any street food except for fruit that we could peel. Often at restaurants we were served drinks with ice. We always used bottle water for drinking and teeth brushing, except in Ho Chi Minh we brushed our teeth with tap water at Diamond Plaza where the water is said to be safe to drink.

Viet Nam, to me, seems to have a high standard of hygiene compared to some of the other Asian countries I have visited.

Note: I was amused by the community comb and tooth brush I would often see at public w.c.'s (never used them).

We also ate shell fish which I think does carry a higher risk of illness.