Asian Tummy

'Asian Tummy' Reaks Havoc In Nepal

You get up that morning feeling like death. The entire night had been spent kneeling on the cold cement floor, head in the toilet, emptying your insides...

and every hour having to sit on that same toilet. The cycle of sickness and diarrhoea continues, hour after aching hour. Now you have to get in a taxi to reach a minibus impatiently waiting at the other end of town. It isn’t so bad, a cool breeze refreshes sweaty faces… forget the fact you had to be embarrassingly carried down five flights of stairs by your team mates. Too weak to walk, too tired to even dress. You came halfway around the world, yet the hardest part is simply crossing a road. Nepal is a world where cars would seemingly sooner run a person over than let them through. Climb out of the taxi, take one bold step, and your body refuses to cope. Nostrils fill with dust, your swollen tongue sticks to a parched throat. Spots appear before your eyes, the blaring horns and colourful bustle of the street fade quickly as you black out.

In August, the opportunity arose for ten young people to leave their comfort and distribute 15,000 gospel tracts to the secluded stronghold of Hindu Nepal. Most hadn’t even been out of Europe, and arrival in Asia brought a glut of new experiences to assault the senses. Sewage in the streets, monkeys meandering through the endless trail of temples, trinket stalls on every corner. Crazed car drivers without licences, seatbelts or directions. Suffocating humidity, searing heat, and a majestic backdrop. And Dal bhat.

Dal bhat is the most familiar dish in Nepal and is eaten twice daily. It consists of lentils, rice, vegetables, soup - and curry. “Brilliant! A chance to really get to know how the locals live!”. Barely three days from arriving, and the first signs of food poisoning began to show, after which, the team drop like flies. Most managed the six hour bus trip to the middle of nowhere. Three, however, couldn’t make it.

The usual symptoms include vomiting and diarrhoea, both if it is bad. One member had it so seriously they had to be hospitalised and treated for dehydration (pump 3 litres of water and nutrients into you, and then charge an arm and a leg). It was good that she didn’t cross that road - in Lamjung there was no hospital within four hours. So, that age-old question, ‘how did the missionary cross the road?’ Well actually she didn’t, she blacked out having lost so much fluid to Dal baht. ‘Asian Tummy’, ‘Delhi Belly’, ‘Kathmandudu’… call it what you like but most westerners travelling to Asia are likely to catch it at some point.

Is it worth it? Totally.
By Nathan Dudgeon

Click here for the 2009 short-term trip report.