? eats & drinks in Bangkok
 

We're planning our first trip to Bangkok in Nov. and I'm confused about the warnings not to eat salad or have drinks with ice.
Is this true even at the better hotels & restaurants? Like the Oriental, Penn, Bed Supper Club, Tongue Thai, Baiyoke Sky Tower?
Sure would miss having Thai coffee or a cocktail while we are in town.
Please advise.
Thanks,
Grandma Carol

Ice at good hotels and better restaurants are made with purified water and is safe. If in doubt, ask. Most places will give you an honest answer. As for salads, my guess is that at places like the Oriental and the Pen, it's probably safe but I have heard stories of people getting really sick (my cousin's wife for example who ate a salad at the Oriental and spent the flight home the next day in the plane's toilet. This was quite a few years ago however but it still gives me pause). Any drink where water is boiled, like coffee and tea is safe. The reataurants you mention get a lot of toursits and I would think they use purified ice. It would not be good for business if people got sick from their drinks! I would always ask just to be sure.

grandma carol; give up a cocktail? are you mad, woman! :-). go to the bamboo bar in the oriental hotel for happy hour. great two for one drinks, delicious snacks, and great easy listening piano music.

I've been living in Bangkok for 7 months now and I drink everything at the lowliest canteen to the top end restaurants with ice. Same with eating salads. I have not had food poisoning once.

I believe the ice is now regulated by the govt and delivered out to all establishments. In my opinion you should be fine with the ice. The salad is another matter as can't be sure if it's been washed in purified water or not. But like I said, have not been sick yet!

we will stick to no salads, no ice (see below), no table water, nothing that is not cooked and no street food...

for the last two years we have eased this a bit.,...we will now drink the table water in 5 star hotels but not most other places and probably never in a free standing restaurant...

our feeling is that we are on vacation and do not want to give up one minute of our time to the bathroom for hours...or worse...a long lasting bug in your system...

we sta next to a woman from the thai water authority several years ago on a plane to chiang mai and took the occasion to ask her about the water...she claimed that the water is fine, its just the pipes that are contaminated....it makes some sense...

take a look around while on the streets of bkk and see the dishwashing going on...not all that great right???

I've been traveling to Bangkok for some 20 years and have never gotten sick there. I do have ice in drinks, as long as it is the commercially made ice (has a hole in the middle) which is made from purified water. That's about the only kind of ice available in Bangkok. I eat salads and sliced fruits in 5 star hotels, but rarely anyplace else. I also don't eat street food (but then, I don't eat street food or fast food in the US, either).

kathie---my issue with the ice is "how do you know what water was used", even in the commercial ice makers....its thailand remember...

you will find drinks very expensive comparitively in thailand...

Most of the hotels and apt complexes where I've stayed provide you with two bottles of water per day. But you are never far away from a 7-11 where you can buy more chilled bottled water. We don't do the tap or table water at all. Only bottled. When in a restaurant, we might ask for Pelegrino or other "brand" name also. I don't typically use ice. My "drink" would be a glass of red wine so I don't need ice. Along the alley (soi) to Patumwan House (apt hotel) there is an ice company. Interesting.... maybe that's why I only do bottled water...
Carol

I've had ice at the Pen and Oriental and a few other places and it's fine. I'm normally very careful having gotten pretty ill in Thailand, Egypt and Turkey, but the ice is safe. It's made from purified water. We do keep away from salads however even though they are probable washed in flltered water. I just can't get the story of my cousin's wife out of my head.

I've had ice at the Oriental, Penn and at Bed Supper Club and have had no problem. However, I avoid ice everywhere else. I also tend to avoid salads just about everywhere although I have had it at the same above mentioned places with no problem.

Do those who avoid salads avoid the lime marinated/spicy Thai style salads as well (like green papaya salads?)? Am I fooling myself to think the lime kills some of the "bugs"? I hate to miss those salads, but then I do get sick pretty easily when I travel.

We tend to avoid all salads that are not cooked. I may reconsider on the next trip however, but only at the Pen or Oriental or similar. I would asked what the salad greens are washed in. If they say the water has been filtered, then it's probably okay. I have no idea if lime juice kills bacteria or bugs. I remember years ago, on our first trip to BKK, we were staying at the Amari Watergate Hotel, which had just opened and was quite nice, I ordered gazpacho at the hotel and then realized that it is made with all uncooked vegetables so I wouldn't eat it. The waiter and chef were so upset and the chef came out to tell me it was perfectly safe. I felt terrible, as though I was really insulting him but I refused to budge.

A little aside here: I know that logically this should not have anything to do with not getting sick from bacteria in the water, but both my husband and I have found that ever since we got Hep A shots, we haven't gotten sick in any foreign countries, whereas before the shots, we were always getting sick. I was under the impression that the Hep A vaccination only prevents Hep A. Go figure.

My sense is that those people that go there and eat street food, salads, etc and don't get sick are :
1) Just plain lucky or
2) Have some resistance to the bacteria

Bottom line- do you want to chance it and risk ruining your vacation?

BillT, I know you're right, it's just depressing that I won't get to try many of my favorite Thai dishes on my first trip there!

laurieco, I wish that Hep A shot worked on me! I get sick everytime I go to India (and I never eat salads or touch the water there) in spite of the shots. I don't blame you for not eating the gazpacho you ordered!

Will have to have my share of salad before we leave, I guess!

its the lettuce and similar that we are leery about...how was it washed, etc...
we do on occasion eat the papaya salad and the like..

at le delat indochine they print on their menu that all greens (and they use plenty of them in their service) are home grown and washed in purified water---interesting...so even a fine restaurant has acknowledged this problem

Thanks for all the input.
We will be careful when we order ice drinks.
Would everyone agree that maybe the papaya salad would be safe? After all, it's a fruit that needs to be pealed.

I would agree that the papaya salad would be safe, as would the pomelo salad. I felt totally safe eating those a the Pen and also at the Jim Thompson house.

laurieco
ok, you've peeked my interest. What happened to your cousin's wife?

I've never gotten ill in BKK, and I eat just about everything (including the spicy seafood salads with lime!), though I don't drink the water, even using bottled water for my teethbrushing.

I did get the trots for a couple days in Saigon after enthusiastically biting into an asian pear from the fruit basket in our room -- though it also could have been all the coconuts I drank in the first two days . . .

My first day in BKK, I accidentally wet my toothbrush with the hotel tap water and stuck it in my mouth before I realized what I had done. Three days later, I was sick.

After I got home, it took a month to clear everything up - I had a bacteria and a parasite! Needless to say, when I go back next summer, I will try to be careful. I am planning on taking a perscription antibiotic with me, though. I just can't resist some of the food!

Some cases of suspected food poisoning may not be that. It could be the change in diet especially for those who are not used to hot and spicy food. Some of us could simply have more sensitive stomach than others.

I agree that a lot of it is simply the change in diet and also people's individual sensitivity. Some people can eat anything while traveling and never get sick, while others need to be much more careful. Everyone should just do what feels comfortable.

Keep in mind that people coming from developing countries (both locals and expats who have lived there a long time) often get stomach problems when they come to the States or Europe. Just depends on what your stomach is accustomed to in many cases.

Of course it's important to always eat at clean places and, for me, the key word is busy and popular places. I wouldn't eat anywhere that was empty where the food might not be fresh.

I agree with BillT that it's also just luck.

I've been traveling in Asia for something like 10 years and never been sick from local restaurants, street food, or salads. The only time I got sick was at a buffet at a 5 star restaurant in Siem Reap that had a fancy apsara dance show and gorgeous looking buffet. I was terribly sick for a few hours and then it went away. The only time my fiance has been sick (and he loves eating at local restaurants even more than I do), was at a top fancy restaurant in Hanoi, Brothers Cafe, and again it was a buffet. So for us, I can say buffets can be dangerous because you just don't know how long the food has been sitting out, no matter how upscale the place may be.

In Luang Prabang, I ate many "Luang Prabang Salads" and they were all so delicious. I never thought "I'm eating a salad and should be worried." I had them at nice clean looking restaurants. Maybe I'm so laid back now, I never worry about much, but I think mainly my stomach is not so sensitive because of all the traveling. I think people who usually don't eat this sort of thing while traveling, would probably get sick.

When in doubt, better not to risk it, I would say.

I think papaya salad would be safe for most all people, unless you are sensitive to the spices.

we stear away from all buffets except breakfast and then we eat mostly the eggs custom cooked and other things that have been cooked...the heat alone is dangereous imo...

hawaiiantraveler, my cousin and his wife were in Thailand for several weeks on a job (both photographers) and in BKK were staying at the Oriental. The wife was dying for some salad after several weeks of depravation and decided to indulge at the hotel. My cousin told her "don't do it" but she did. They were flying home the next day and she was sick as a dog and spent the entire flight in the toilet, and realized my cousin was right. Other than the salad, they ate the same stuff so it had to be the salad that made her sick since my cousin was fine. Granted, this was in 1985 but everytime I think about having a salad in SEA, I think of this and not have it.

Times have changed in the last 20 years. I also stayed at the Oriental in 1985 and would never have had the salad or ice. However, about 10 years ago they got a water filtration system which is used for all their ice, kitchen stuff etc. However, what your story does ishow is you shouldn't assume, you should ask. And not just if something is safe but what they wash the lettuce with etc.

it must have been the yellow water in the shower....hahaha