I am going to travel in South America and south east Asia this winter

I am going to travel in South America and south east Asia this winter.
I plan on eating mostly street food.
How do I kexpect from getting good sick?
Also is the whole"don't drink the water" thing just an outdated meme?

street food is overrated, its not even cheaper than in local restaurants. Take Coal-pills and other stuff for your stomach along with antibiotica, thatll save you - I just came back from a chinatrip and i would have not been able to leave the hotels for over a week if it wasnt for the stomach meds. If you feel adventurous drink tap, but be prepared for the risk of laying flat with a fucked up stomach for a week, than ask yourself if your holiday-time is worth less than bottled water.

If you're coming to Brazil you just avoid salgadinhos in general.
Don't drink water, drink cachaça/caipirinha.

Drink beer with each meal. Alcohol kills stuff. Hit it with lime juice whenever you can, or hot sauce for the vinegar. Hot cooked foods versus rinsed raw things.
Don't eat anywhere in a market or side of the road, that there isn't running water and real bathrooms, or guess how the sanitation is of the workers, their cutting boards, their hands, etc. When food is cheap, you can be sure that you can find a restaurant as good as street food, as another user said.
Don't drink water from faucets/hotel sinks, or in restaurants that isn't bottled unless it specifically states "potable" water. Rinse your toothbrush with bottled water or listerine. Don't open your mouth and eyes in the shower. Skip ice in drinks if you want to take it a step further.

>Also is the whole"don't drink the water" thing just an outdated meme?
Been to Peru a few times and even the locals won't drink the water. Not without boiling it, at least.

Nah that's just an scare from a. Cholera outbreak 30 years ago

You need to poo in the loo

Where in SE Asia?

If you go to urban cities like Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok etc you should be fine eating the street food. Singaporean tap water is safe, but I wouldn't risk drinking tap water from any other SE Asian country. I was on a tour in India in 2012 and some guy literally shat himself on the tour bus because he drank contaminated water.

>not eating coxinha and pão de quijo with caldo de cana
smdh

in brazil they often have filters in their taps

why is the blade flat in the middle?

>Pão de queijo
top tier food
>Coxinha
People who make coxinha usually stuff all catupiry cheese at the bottom instead of uniformly distributing it across all the Coxinha and the end result is that when you get to the bottom you're just eating that disgusting catupiry without any actual chicken. I like well made Coxinhas but most of the time they are disgraceful because of this, ends up gotta eat ones without catupiry to avoid that but then they are dry af.

>Also is the whole"don't drink the water" thing just an outdated meme?

It's not a meme, it's pretty much an apt warning for most foreign countries. It doesn't necessary have anything to do with unhygienic water or anything like that, it's just that the water contains different bacteria than in your native country that your stomach may not be able to handle.

If you come to argieland, avoid street food.
also check "pickupthefork" for nice food in BA.

Mis mejores deseos para usted.

>in brazil they often have filters in their taps
Also this, in Brazil we have filters everywhere. Usually even taps are filtered.

Bring a LifeStraw or Sawyer filter (preferably the latter).

Also bring stuff to remove/mitigate the crud that the above two filters can't catch.

So it is actually a meme?

Notice how it's in a lattice pattern? Notice how the pattern is also irregular in thickness?

Those lines are actually gaps to allow hair in. The gaps open/close at frequent intervals, which is how it cuts the hair.

The water drinking ain't really a meme
As example vietnam if you arrive and start drinking water you have a chance to get the shits due to local mostly kinda harmless bacteria your body just ain't used to them, just take some days to get used to the local water,brushing your teeth with it and such after like 3days you should be able to just consume it.

Why don't you go to foreign countries, drink their tap water, and find out for yourself?

>Drink beer with each meal. Alcohol kills stuff. Hit it with lime juice whenever you can, or hot sauce for the vinegar.
5% ethanol and diluted lime juice/vinegar are going to have a negligible effect.

DO NOT DRINK THE WATER

Also, eat where its busy.

No surface microorganisms can survive deep frying.

don't drink the fucking water, when you see the color of asian water you will know why

not much you can do food-wise to avoid getting sick. I spent four months travelling around SE asia eating street food every day and was fine. the only time I got sick was in a 4 star hotel.

'eat where the locals eat' is kind of true, but they will have a greater resistance to the bugs that cause the shits.

>ust take some days to get used to the local water,brushing your teeth with it and such after like 3days you should be able to just consume it.


I am pretty sure this is not how bacteria works.

There's two seperate factors that often get confused when people travel.

One is honest-to-god food poisoning. There's not much you can do about that.

The other is simply that your body is not used to the type of foods and/or the local bacteria. This can indeed be avoided by letting your body acclimate to the new foods you are eating. The same thing happens when people made major dietary changes, like suddenly adopting (or stopping) a vegetarian/vegan diet. The bacteria in your intestines adapt to the food you eat. Whenever that changes--for diet, for travel, etc--it's possible to have indigestion and related issues.

Yeah the tap water in most Asian countries are not portable water. Even the locals don't drink them without purification.

>not portable water

true. they have heavy water over there so you can't carry it.

Traveled around mexico and never bothered to avoid eating/drinking stuff made with tap water and never had any problems.

The part I dont quite buy is that a new bacteria introduced into your gut is going to flourish or fail mostly due to whether or not it finds favorable conditions there .
The amount you would get by brushing your teeth in tainted water is plenty to start a thriving colony if conditions are right.
Adding more is not going to change much.

South east asia has great seafood street food. Make sure to order crab, lobster and shrimp thats fresh.

In south america, stick to restaurants, street food is like carnival food in the USA, not very good or satisfying.

Drink bottled water. Dont order water from restaurants. Get a coke or a beer when you sit down.

Enjoy yourself

You'll have to just know.

Hotdog street vendors use the same boiling water all day, so a 10 AM hotdog is safe, a 8 PM is guaranteed diarrhea.

Every different food/food vendor may have a chance of giving you the shits and a different proper caution.

Just pick up some pans, something to make a fire, and copycook anything you want, pretty much same price tag and 100% less cooties.

>Hotdog street vendors use the same boiling water all day, so a 10 AM hotdog is safe, a 8 PM is guaranteed diarrhea.


How the heck can hit dog water hurt you?

Almost died in Thailand. I think it was an ice cube. Na be careful with water op

If you are going to Colombia just stick to places where you see several people eating HOT food and you should be fine, avoid cold cuts, your immune system is probably not ready for the foreign bacteria.

Idk where are you going user, but my country (Uruguay) used to have pure water, and you could drink from anywhere, since soy farmers and all that, you can't, and i think that the same happens in all South America. About the food, it's different in every country, i visited other countries and i recommend you to eat in restaurants unless that street found place have really good reputation.

This

What is native flora in your land may be diarrhea in another.

Even in the USA with our fluoridated water, this is an issue.

At least for Chile and Argentina, the more urban the area the safer the tap water.

I am definitely going to Uruguay!
What should I see?

Chilean street food is like playing russian roulette, most of times sould be fine. but then Diharrrea will get you

You Should try the sanguche de potito (Chitterling sandwich or, if you want the literal translation, ass sandwich). a well made one is god tier

Also, the water while might be drinkable, is one of the hardest compared to other countries (Shitton of minerals dunno why, kettles and teapots clog with calcified stuff) so for that reason try is better if you have bottled water.

>eat food that is hot or freshly made
>eat in busy places
>wash your hands before every meal


maybe try and drink bottled water depending on where you are. but those 3 are the big ones.

If you avoid tap water, stay away from ice cubes too.
Yeah, you'll have a few lukewarm coke when they don't have fridge, but it's worth not having the tourista.