One night in Bangkok...

Speaking fast and in her thick Spanish accent, Princess is wagging her finger and warning me sternly, "Cristina, you can get Hepatitis A and Avian Bird Flu from eating the wrong thing here".

"No drinks with ice in them, no salad because it could be washed with bad water".

“No fruit unless you peel it yourself”.

“You can’t eat anything unless it’s been cooked and is served hot”.

My eyes are watering and throat burns from our tuk-tuk ride. I really want a Thai iced-tea, damn it. I don’t let on, but Princess’ warning rings in my head. I’d heard it all before – typhoid, hepatitis… blah blah blah…

I'm not going to be paranoid. Besides, I prayed to Lucky Buddha today:

Buddha, please let me be lucky today and not get typhoid or Avian Bird Flu.
There, my bases are covered...

“Princess, You have to be willing to put aside your quaint, Western notions of sanitation and safety if you are going to travel in the Third World and enjoy yourself. Really, girl. Where’s your sense of adventure?”.

Where there is risk, there is also reward...

"Cristina, I am not immunized, I am NOT eating that stuff!". But now she is fallowing behind me as I sniff and inspect each food stall down grimy road after grimy road.


Every road is grimy in Bangkok. It is a city covered in a layer of soot.

Her voice fades into the background noise of motorbikes, tuk-tuks and taxi’s. I hear vaguely something about getting the shits for a week, blowing out my stomach on the first day of my trip…

I don’t care; I’ve been in Thailand three hours already and haven’t eaten ANYTHING! And I came to Thailand to eat…

Typhoid, hepatitis, bird flu - to hell with it! I'm eating it all!

Tangy ginger crusted fish! Yum!

Sweet and Spicy Clams
Delicious!

Those little chillies will kill off the bacteria, won't they?

Well, I'm blogging about it. So obviously it didn't kill me...