Bottom line:
If we were getting sick, as Hanuman wrote above,


"I'm a Thai and I take precaution over what I eat, especially street food. MYSELF AND MANY OTHERS DO OCCASIONALLY SPEND A NIGHT OR TWO AT THE HOSPITAL from food poisoning and MOST OF THE TIME It was from street food."


"Occasionally" is one too many times for me (OK, maybe two times over 10 years - Food poisoning REALLY messes you up!)

"Many others"? I'd stop eating street food immediately!

"Two nights"? I'm dying here!

Now the part I don't get is, "MOST OF THE TIME IT WAS FROM STREET FOOD."

Question:
Where else is Hanuman occasionally contracting food poisoning?


And still, I truly believe, if Thai people were getting sick from street food, they would have "taken care" of that "situation" quickly.

Yes, Thais don't scream and yell (some exceptions) but they don't take #$%&# either.





We all know the story:
Why, in Bangkok, do you seldom hear car horns honking at each other?

A situation that is absolutely remarkable.

Some here many have heard a different story, but we've asked a lot of drivers and all came up with the same exact answer, "BOXING".

A little "toot" is OK, but if you lay on the horn, the other driver will come over and "Box you".


It goes without saying, street vendors know it's bad for business to get people sick.

Hey there are good and there are bad street food. You're generalizing and you are saying all street food are safe - well you're wrong. Even the Thai FDA crack down on them and they do try to promote and create safe environment for street food vendors like in Singapore. But sadly they only do it when there're major news about food poisoning or death.

How do I or others know when they got it from street food? Usually the symptoms will start in 4 - 6 hours after consumption before other meals are consumed.

I'm really happy that you're promoting Thai street food but just because you haven't been affected by food poisoning here it doesn't mean that it's safe or people should not take precaution.

Oh and I had street food today but from a hawker center and so far so good!

One of the Pizza Hut locations in Paris was closed a week ago due to a major problem with rats as well as a dead mouse actually being cooked into a pizza.

Do you consider Pizza Hut to be a safe place to eat or will this incident preclude any future visits to that establishment?

If rat poops and mouse meat can get into your food at Pizza hut just imagine what can get in your food at an unclean street food vendor!

I'll still eat pizza from pizza hut but I definately will not in Paris when there are so many good restaurants to go to.

Eat what you want to eat - in Thailand and elsewhere. But know what the risks are and choose your risks carefully. You may want to read about food and water precautions so you know what is risky and can make good choices. For instance, I will have ice in my drinks in Bangkok when it is commercially made ice from purified water (the cylindrical ice), I eat salads at restaurants I know, etc. I don't usually eat street food - when I do I choose carefully.

For instance the comment "Since the Bangkok street food is mostly served hot off the grill after being cooked in front of you, bacterial contamination is a low risk." Recognize that bacteria in or on the food will be killed if a high enough temperature is attained and kept for a long enough time. But even hot off the grill, if the food is touched by hands or utensils that are contaminated, you may still get sick. The comment above by tarquin about plates and utensils is well taken.

you can lead a horse to water.....

lol, HT, but it is tap water or purified water?

Hanuman, you are absolutely, 100 percent correct! Your scolding is proper, well received and probably overdue.



To everyone, my overzealous attempt to promote (push) a style (our style) of travel on people could be putting someone at risk - not that anyone would eat street food just ‘cause we say.

It’s obvious that people have their own style of travel, tastes in food, and favorite activities and not that I’m qualified, but, yes, I am guilty of writing words hoping to convince people to “do it different”.

Our travel style is in no way unique or even correct (you could say it’s a waste of time). We often miss the important sites in county only to spend a lazy time in a restaurant or park bench blabbing away the afternoon eating and drinking.

One could say if there is no food or drink inside, nor will you see us.

Only when we return home and glance at the guide book we never used, do we ruminate on locations that might have good to see.

But, many travel in a similar fashion, we just don’t see them, they are invisible, lost in the country side or down a narrow city street.

Anthony Bourdain is an example of such a traveler. His episodes rarely show the “highlights” of any location they visit, instead, he just goes there, eats, drinks and talks to people – outtakes of the show have him moaning and groaning about contrive shooting locations – OK, their all contrived, but you know what I mean.

Given a choice, people will do what makes them comfortable and happy, but, think about it, whether it’s a soft reminder from Rick Steves with his “Back Doors” analogy to Anthony Bourdain’s unseemly addiction to the mundane, many if not all the travel shows encourage people to do what the locals do, to seek out places that are not specifically designed around tourism or at least specifically designed around their home lifestyle.

And all of 'em eat street food. :)

Well, I have to admit that I have eaten unclean crap everywhere in the world and can now claim to be immune to just about everything.

Yes, I have been puking want-to-die sick from food eaten in:

Karachi, Pakistan
Biloxi, Mississippi

I have been nothing-left-to-drain-out-the-bottom sick in:

Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Chambord, France
Marrakesh, Morocco

Frankly, I do not see a pattern here, and I certainly do not see it anywhere in Southeast Asia where I have eaten everything, including tea made from water dipped out of a stream in Cambodia.

Damn that Morocco, two TIMES!

Kerouac,
The constant in the pattern you fail to see is you. You are the one taking chances everywhere you go so it's only a matter if time before it catches up to you. But that's ok by me,no problem here,you just wouldn't catch me taking that chance again.we have a saying here in the US......been there done that already...

Aloha!

People who take absolutely no "chances" seem to get sick just as often, if not more often, because they have built up no immunity.

Americans are known to suffer from food poisoning much more than Europeans because they have "sanitized" their kitchens excessively. How else can one explain that the incidence of food poisoning in the U.S. is ten times that of France, where food handling is much more relaxed?

As I said......been there done that.....

So your travel days have ended. Kraft mac & cheese until the end of days.

And I am not a more seasoned or in the know traveler for doing so.

I love mac and cheese

And where do you come up with the health stats? 10x the amount of Americans.....really?
That would be interesting

"People who take absolutely no "chances" seem to get sick just as often, if not more often, because they have built up no immunity."

Kerouac, it's a myth that getting food poisoning gives one immunity against another case - even with the same organism. So your repeated cases of food poisoning have not made you immune. And your "data" about food poisoning is dubious at best. I looked at the "data" and it would never pass a peer review.

I have no objection to your eating street food or to your getting food poisoning if that is what you want to do. I am more cautious about what I eat, perhaps because I know more about the medical issues.

There are things we have control over and things we do not. We do not have control over the sanitation of the peple and places that handle our food. We do have control over the choices we make.

The idea that some people take "no" chances is false. There are things we can do do decrease our risk; there is nothing we can do to eliminate our risks. I advocate that people take conscious, considered risks rather than ignoring risks.

"health stats"
This link posted above by kerouac
http://www.cureresearch.com/f/food_p...ts-country.htm



Playing around here, but, the stuff I’d like to see in a Fodor’s profile would read like this:

Upscale hotel as important as location
Beach suntan
Bars drink
Tour bus
Meet boys (aka get laid)
Meet girls (ditto)
Show off photos when I return home

You know? The specific “true” intent why people travel to a location.


I say this, because in the African forums, you might read more about the quality of food at the upscale lodges than the safaris.

No surprise there, stuffing eight people into an open air “jeep” and moving about the bush checking out the wildlife is much less surprising than paying $400 per person, per day and getting a crappy meal.

Now having said that, I think some would write:

Cultural experience** - **but to a limit.

And that’s ok.

And that’s ok, RIGHT!?