Our Top Ten Favorite Ways to Get a Stomachache in East Asia

This is just for fun. The other day as KB was recovering from a stomach ache caused by item # 10, we began making a mental list of all the ways we or other people we know have gotten a stomach ache. It got kind of long so we decided to write it down. Below is what we came up with.

There are countless methods for achieving a stomachache in East Asia, but the following list contains our personal favorites. LB has experienced one of these; KB has dealt with a few others. All the rest happened to other people we know.

1. Drink the water and get a friendly little sickness called Giardia. Brushing your teeth, showering with your mouth open, using wet dishes, cups or utensils, and/or sticking anything in your mouth with your wet hands falls into this category. This one usually happens to visitors who either forget or think it just won't happen to them.
2. Not washing your hands after touching anything outside of your home then touching anything that goes into your mouth and get Giardia – It is everywhere. This happens to everyone who has a habit of not washing their hands like their mamma taught them.
3. Not washing fresh food in bleach water to kill the parasites and get Giardia or pretty much anything else. We only used salt water in the beginning and after a couple little "episodes" we began using bleach water. The trick is to the use purified water to clean off the bleach water, not the local water like one of our friends did.
4. Eat the street food during the summer…this one is for those who either like to live on the edge or did not realize that developing countries don’t have food handling safety laws like refrigerating meat and other raw foods. Once again this is usually carried out by visitors; us locals call the streets with outside vendors "Hepatitis" street.
5. Swimming in the local water. This just makes my stomach turn thinking about it.
6. Eating spicy food knowing your stomach cannot handle spicy food. KB did this more than once, but in his defense each time he only ate it because someone else ordered it for us and felt obligated. We have to leave dinner early every time that happens.
7. Walk into almost any public rest room, particularly the hospital bathroom while pregnant and the smell will make your stomach ache. It was the one and only time LB was relieved to smell cigarette smoke.
8. A virus, they happen.
9. Food Poisoning. How was KB to know that the noodles of all things had been sitting out too long at the restaurant? They must have been days old.
10. Eat raw pig ear and raw pig intestine. Once again poor KB had to eat it since someone else ordered it for him. Strangely the scorpions, salted silkworms, and several days-old sun-dried fish settled fine.