Travelling To Exotic Places

[Huey Vincent]

Hey,

I was just wondering about travel, especially to places like let's say Peru, Vietnam, Africa and all that. My girlfriend's can't eat the gluten and anyone here knows if we'll be able to someday travel to those places? Like is it actually possible to live without being sure that the things she's eating is completely gluten-free in places like those?

Did anyone travel to those places?

[Mango04]

I haven't traveled to those places, but I would. It's hard to be gluten-free in the US becasue we rely so much on processed food.

I can't imagine a place where it would be impossible to find things like fruit, veggies, rice and meat. You can always get international dining cards to communicate with the local people about food if you need to. I'd imagine that it would be doable.

[gfp]

Peru, Vietnam, Africa and all that.

Haven't been to Peru but I have been to Venezuela and Columbia.

It all depends what you eat when you are there.

If you buy and cook your own food then no problems but eating in local places is risky.

Vietnam: Well they seem to have kept the French pencant for croissants and pastries. I haven't been back since diagnosis but I would say language is your biggest hurdle. The same can be said for laos and myanmar unless you stop in international hotels.

Africa is .. well large and diverse.

North Africa is heavily reliant on cous-cous and bread. Bread comes with everything ... indeed in Libya its a legal requirement any resto should supply bread and water for 20 pestari (a few cents depending on exchange) indeed when I lived there is was a common joke to send a newly arrived expat to the bakery with a dinar and ask for bread. The resulting bread would fill an average car.

Sub-saharan Africa is similarly mixed ... places like Kenya will tend to be more international and places like Nigeria simply a huge mess. There are at least two worlds in every African country depending on class but Nigeria is special. You have 9 official languages and most of the peoples hate everyone else. Culturally everyone is part of a tribe first, a race second and Nigerian last. In the North they still stone women for witchcraft and in the south everyone is continually trying to screw anyone who isn't in their tribe (and that includes you). I can think of no reason to go to Nigeria other than being paid a huge danger bonus.

You can't complain about being made ill by food when people are literally dying and rotting in the streets.

However go next door to Cameroon or Benin and they people are much more hospitable .. even though they are the same "peoples" that would kill you to steal a watch in Nigeria. The problem with Nigeria is Nigeria... not specifically any individual peoples.

Angola... not bad if you can manage not to get involved in the civil war although this periodically sums up most of Africa.

Congo is .. well pretty much a great tropical paradise and Zambia is nice of you stay where you should be!