Got sick in China

[Oiler1]

I am finally over my stomach problems but I do take precautions. After reading the post, it seems everyone is has different immune systems. Well, I always error on the side of caution abd have plenty of bottled water with me.

Watson's distilled water seems popular.

I haven't go sick from drinking tea in restaurants I think. I also like the bubble tea.

It's with street vendors and restaurants one has to be most careful as you can't control things.

Don

[David5o]

Don,

I wouldn't under any circumstance drink ''Distilled Water'' it's great for batteries, but NOT for the human body. Are you sure you don't mean Straight Mineral Water??  

David....

[rockycoon]

I am curious, are any of the ladies or people in China healthy?  Are any of you healthy?  Seems like everyone is sick with one
maliday or another.  You all need a cast Iron gut like mine...:icon_cheesygrin:
Seems like everyone is sick or dieing or wishes they were dieing...haha

The reason you get sick is the food.  You eat dog meat, and they wash the veggies off in the street where everyone pisses.  And
you wonder why your sick.  I'll bet if you eat in a 4 or 5 star hotel you won't get sick.  And as to those little brown pills?  I have a
bunch of them on the ranch I sell real cheap --- called rabbit "smart pills" have to shovel them up all the time, be glad to send you
a wheelbarrow or two of them....:icon_cheesygrin:

Another idea is "DONT DRINK THE WATER" or you get montizuma's revenge.  Immodium is the best and quickest for this.  If you think
the food is bad in China, you ought to see what the women serve up around here...mystery meat and all.

We send you all to China to have a good time.  You all come back in intensive care.  Do I dare go to China? I'm thinking of getting
a fat Wisconson milk maid that is healthy and can lift 200 pounds....:icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin::icon_cheesygrin:

Lets all go get our shots, and get healthy.  If your going to China, go to mexico first and eat goat burrito's and lots of hot pepper's.
drink some tequila and when you get to China the food won't bother you and you won't feel any pain....:icon_cheesygrin:

If you like the Chinese look with the slant eyes, drink a bottle of tequila and everyone will look Chinese including you....haha
(by the way Metzcal works too, except it has a worm at the bottom and is strong medication for anything - even snakebite)

[Willy The Londoner]

I do not drink the water but I have used if for cleaning my teeth and toothbrush for the past 10 months.  Maybe I have a cast iron constitution I don't know.   But it was really put to the test when in Nigeria and Ghana and buying snacks off wayside street vendors.  

What is a wayside snack there?  It is usually a slice or two of a giant black snail that is cooked and served in newspaper or any other old paper they find!!!!  Ok when still hot but let it get cold and UGH!!!!!:-/

Willy

[Lee357]

during my last visit I took my water filter bottle and used it just like I have with every trip I have taken to china. I usually eat anything I see them cook so I can see that it has reached a sufficient temperature to kill most of the bugs. I have gotten sick in China from eating the food but usually I get sick because I did not wash my hands enough and rubbed my eyes because of the pollution in the air. I have never drank the water or used it without first running it through my purification bottle first. This approach has worked for me for visits. Not sure how I am going to filter water now that I am going to be living there. Maybe I am going to have to buy an apartment so I can find the main water line to it and install a commercial water filtration system in it.

[rockycoon]

I read somewhere that water filtration does not work as well as it should.  I'll have to look into this on the net.  I think they said
it's good for sand and things like that, but the virus and bad little critters get through the 10 micron filters and you still get sick.

Willy, after eating large snails, and living, I would say yes, you have a cast iron gut and can eat anything.  Your one of the few
and lucky.  It must be the eggs....:icon_cheesygrin:

A little tip I've learned from living in the mountians and hauling my own water from a well, take a teaspoon of bleach and add it to an open container of water and let sit
for a few days or one day, and you will have killed everything off in it.  When I put water in my water tank (1200 gal) I put in a half gallon of bleach, as it sits it cleanses the
water and the bleach taste goes away in one day.  Kind of like swimming pool water (clean swimming pool water - no people) ....you can get used to it in a week and
not have any problems. Better than those pills, which are clorine anyway, no clorine taste.

[Martin]

Biggie....the Changsha meat on a stick is awesome!  And spicy!  With all the spice, I don't think there is a chance you can get sick...the spices kill everything off.

[rockycoon]

Martin, wonder what you'd look like with an Elvis wig on...haha

[ttwjr32]

Rocky,

he would look like elvis in the later stages right before his last concert
sorry could not resist that one

back to the corner lol

[Oiler1]

Don,

I wouldn't under any circumstance drink ''Distilled Water'' it's great for batteries, but NOT for the human body. Are you sure you don't mean Straight Mineral Water??  

David....

It's called Watson's water in a green labelled bottle. I saw a woman feed it to her baby the other day!

[David5o]

Oiler 1,

Like you i thought distilled water to be good for you, ...until i got talking to a water Engineer/scientist, who promptly told me this is not so, because it is void of all minerals and other bits and bobs that the body needs. He went as far as telling me that drink too much of it and your muscles will start dieing off,  as he put it, ...it's almost like a poison to a living body....

rockycoon,

Some filters are pretty good, but it's getting the right type of water filter. whatever medium you use, it's always advisable to have a finish/polishing filter after the main filter, using something like activated carbon.

General....

Some here give me a chuckle, they think because they haven't picked anything up until now, there going to immune to these bugs. I was basically under the same impression myself when i first went to China. I didn't get caught by anything for well over a year, ...believe me when you do cop it you will wish you hadn't!! So it can happen to YOU at ''anytime''!!

I eventually copped it on at least 3 other occasions too over the 8 years or so i was living there, and that was with taking precautions!!! I can honestly say on the later times i went down, it was definitely nothing to do within my own living conditions or lack of personal hygiene. Two were further water bourne bug infections an one was from a food bug, so go figure where they were picked up!!  

NO-ONE is immune to water bourne bugs, ...if they get a hold in your system you WILL go down like a sack of potato's and you won't be getting up for around 3 days with medication, and maybe longer. Some of these bugs are real nasties, and can be a lot more serious and even fatal under the right conditions....

Now if anyone was to see ''Any'' of the City municipal water tanks, or for that matter the water towers, and see what's in them and living in them.... i can assure you, you won't be letting any of that water anywhere near your mouth, let alone brushing your teeth with it!! ...haha!!
One of the reasons some of the upper class hotels in the bigger cities have there own water treatment facilities, in that all the water within the hotel is treated water, apart from toilet/WC flush facilities...

Anyway totally up to the individual, if or not your going to take precautions against getting sick!!!

David.......

[ttwjr32]

David,

your right even with taking precautions your still liable to get
something eventually especially living here and believe me when
you do it is the worst. i had it for 5 days last year and i have
taken precautions so it must have come from eating out and i
do not eat from street vendors or those small unclean noodle
joints. Everthing we buy to eat at home Sisi runs thru the washing
machine  well not literally but she cleans everything so well it
amazes me what she does and how she stores everything. no such
thing as a pan of vegetables on the floor or ledges as you see around
china in my house.