Backpacking South East Asia-just Returned!

[mysecretcurse]

Hello everyone, this week I finally returned from South East Asia back to California! It's good to be home.

I learned a lot on my big adventure, had some scary close calls (food-wise, and otherwise!)

So I wanted to come here and share everything I can so those who have a passion for travel, like I do, won't have to let celiac hold them back.

First of all, I have to say, even though I have worked hard at being gluten free here in the United States, it seemed as soon as I got back, I started having a breakout on my face (gluten causes this). I don't even know what I could have eaten! So after traveling in other countries I feel really sad about being here, it seems this place is toxic in general compared to other places. I don't have a clue what could have glutened me but I feel unhealthy being back here. I don't know if it's something in the air, or what..

My skin was pretty much completely healed when I was in Asia.

Anyways, I'll just go country by country and try and give my notes.

THAILAND:

I was extremely cautious when I first got there but after awhile learned I didn't have to be. It seems in Thailand everything is not gluten coated the way it is in the USA. I had an extremely hard time communicating my needs though, even WITH the gluten free restaurant cards which I had printed out in Thai. I showed them many times at many restaurants and was still brought meals containing bread, so I eventually stopped using them. My recommendation is to not bother bringing these cards to Asia. It seemed that even when people read them they still didn't fully understand, and they didn't seem to get that I couldn't have soy sauce, no matter how much I tried explaining it. So what I found was better was to just avoid anything which could possibly contain bread pasta or soy sauce.

I avoided the curries for the first month, but eventually I got the guts to try one, after asking millions of people who were eating them "Does that taste like it has soy sauce in it?" haha . I tried the red and green curries and found they were safe! And very good. I ate them usually for one meal a day after that.

I also ate tons of hamburgers minus the bun. It was fun trying to explain "No bread!" to the Thai's. LOL they sooo didn't get it. They would smile, nod and say "NO BREAD!" and then bring me a hamburger with the bun lol. But the good thing was once I stayed at a guesthouse or town for more than a day, I could go to the same place and they would remember me. The Thai's are great, they would see me coming, give me a big smile and say "Hamburger no bread!" lol

I ate a lot of french fries as well, but be careful! I was mildly glutened a couple times from this. Same as America, sometimes they fry the breaded fish sticks and things in the same oil.

A few places had steaks, chicken or beef, and I found the steaks had relatively little seasoning and I wasn't irritated by them. MOST meat, if not breaded, is okay.

I avoided the ketchup for the first month because of vinegar issues, but tried it about halfway through and it seemed okay, I think they use rice vinegar.

They have a good brand of yogurt over there, I don't know what its called because it's Thai, but its the yogurt they have almost everywhere, it comes in a blue and white cup and its DELICIOUS and safe.

I had some fruit shakes in Thailand and the ones I had seemed to be okay. In Thailand.

The Pad Thai uses rice noodles but unfortunately I found that most places make it with soy sauce. So it's a bummer, but pad thai, stir fries, and most other asian dishes are a no go because of soy.

LAOS:

First of all I must say, Laos is an AMAZING country! If you go to Asia, don't miss it! It's beautiful and the people are wonderful.

Be careful about the fruit shakes in Laos. FOr whatever reason, I was fine with them in Thailand but my first day In Vientiane, (capital of Laos), I had a fruit shake from a stall on the street and was severely glutened, so bad I had to retire to my room for the day. They make the fruit shakes differently everywhere so you are really taking your chances with this. After this glutening, I watched them make it different places and noticed in Laos they tend to use a powdered mix and some weird syrup sweetener mixed in with the fruit and ice. I think one of these two things was the source of the gluten. So yeah, Id avoid the fruit shakes, as yummy as they can be, unless you know the people in the kitchen and can communicate what's in them.

The main food in Laos is STICKY RICE! Which is awesome and gluten free as can be! Most meals are stick rice and some sort of meat. Check out the lap, its basically ground beef mixed with herbs like mint and some spices, and from my experience, I was able to eat it without any problems. They make everything from scratch in Laos especially in the smaller cities like Vang Veing at the local restaurants, so usually if it looks gluten free, it is. Also check out the sticky rice sweet desserts, they are a plate of sticky rice dressed with a sweet coconut milk sauce, and covered with fruit! Very tasty and gluten free, I lived off this stuff while I was in Vang Vieng.

There is also plenty of the western food minus the bread like hamburgers and what not, just be careful to make sure they understand NO BREAD like everywhere else.

CAMBODIA:

OKay.. I should advise everyone, I did NOT like Cambodia, and I don't recommend anyone going there alone, especially women. I was very upset a lot of the time I was there. For whatever reason, its nothing like other parts of South East Asia. I was warned before going that Cambodia is like "the wild west" of Asia, but I didn't listen. I should have. I thought my life was over while I was there. I hired a moto driver (like taxi's but you just sit on the back of their motorbike, its the most common way to get around there) to take me to the museums and stuff in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city) and he kidnapped me and attempted to assault me. It was terrifying and I truly thought that would be the end of my life, and by the grace of God I was able to get myself out of the situation. Thinking back on it now is like remembering a bad dream, so yeah, I don't recommend Cambodia but I will go ahead and share my notes in case anyone wants to go there.

Besides being a scary place, Cambodia was also the worst for avoiding gluten.

For one thing, be very careful about reading labels.

I have always known that M&M's here in America are gluten free, so whenever I needed a snack over there I tended to grab them up as they are one of the only familiar american candies I saw. Well, I had a close call my first time buying them in Cambodia. Cambodia M&M's come from a different manufactering place than ours, and right before I was going to dig into a bag my intuition, for whatever reason told me to flip the package over and read the label and THANK GOD I did. There were 2 different wheat sources listed in the ingrediants!!!!! So obviously they are made differently. God.. so close! So yeah, stay away from them in Cambodia, and read ALL ingrediants, if they are in english, even with familiar things you think are gluten free.

In Cambodia, everything is fried rice. They don't have much of the sticky rice like in Laos. And unfortunately, as I learned my first day in the country, fried rice over there is not gluten free. I tried some, because it looked white, and like it didn't have soy sauce, but I was severely ill after eating it. So yes, it's full of gluten and you have to request steamed rice.

In Cambodia, I found the best thing to do was to try and find more expensive western style restaurants and find someone you can communicate with. Be very careful about the food over there. I was there about 2 weeks before getting severe amoebic dysentary, Im not sure if it came from the food or the water, but BE CAREFUL.

This is not something you want to get, trust me. I thought I might die, and I almost had to be flown home early to go to the hospital, it was really, really bad. And the sucky thing was I was all alone and had no one to help me. I couldn't leave my hotel room for a few days and even though I've been home and its been like 3 weeks now Im still not back to normal, even with meds! SO yeah.. damn just be careful if you go there.

Other than what I already mentioned, its the same as the other two countries. Get hamburger without the bread or plain rice. Stay away from fruit shakes. Stay away from anything stir fried or with any sort of sauce. Curries seem to be okay, but after getting so ill, I wouldn't recommend them because I don't know what they use for the water in the soup...

In Siem Reap, there is a really, really good cafe near the main strip (across from the old market) called Central Cafe. They have a mexican tostada on a corn tortilla there, thats gluten free and delicious! I ate there often.

If you are going to go to Cambodia, Siem Reap is the only place I recommend. The amazing Angkor Wat temples are there, and its the only place I could walk around on my own without being harassed by guys in the street.

As far as airlines, fly China Airlines. They serve 2-3 meals during the flight plus whatever drinks you want at no additional cost, they were WONDERFUL about making sure my meals were gluten free, and the service was outstanding, IMO. If I was ever going to Asia again, I wouldn't fly with anyone else.

At the airports while waiting for my flights I stuck to sushi places or ice cream for snacks, but I can't recommend anything, in fact I think something from one of the airport restaurants glutened me on the way home.

That's all I can think of for now! And I have to say, scary experiences aside, going backpacking solo was one of the greatest things I have ever done with my life! I met tons of interesting people, had an amazing romance with a cute Israeli boy, challenged myself in ways I never thought possible, and saw things more beautiful than I ever could have imagined and will remember the experience for the rest of my life. I was so scared at one point that Id never be able to live because of my illness but now I choose to always live fully, and never let illness hold me back and you all should too!

We have celiac but it doesn't define us! Being strong people does, so get out there, live boldly and be strong!

xo

[Sweetfudge]

Wow, this sounds like it was quite an experience. I'm so excited for you that you were able to go on this trip. Other than a couple of (really really) bad experiences, it sounds like it was incredible! I would love to visit Asia someday, and I'm glad to hear a firsthand experience on gluten free manuvering I'm happy to know you came out safe (and hopefully stronger). You totally stirred up the travel bug inside me! And the craving for something yummy and coconutty! Thanks so much for sharing your experience. Hope you're feeling better.

[mysecretcurse]

Thanks! Yes, it was an adventure for sure, although coming back.. I dunno, sorta left me feeling comedown and hungry for more! I am planning on finding work somewhere later this year and doing some hardcore saving, and then a friend and I are planning to head down to central and south america next summer hopefully! It's supposed to be wild and dangerous down there so I'm expecting another big adventure. We'll see. And yes, I recommend everyone visit south east asia at least once.

If you go, definitely don't miss Laos, and also don't miss the southern islands in the gulf of thailand. I went to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, both were two of the most beautiful places Ive ever seen. I stayed in a cliffside cabin overlooking the sea (which is gorgeous clear aqua blue water) for less than 15 bucks a night! It had the most unbelievable view of the sunset. Wow.. just wow. I will never forget that. I would sit out there at night with the full moon over the water and the stars, and it would be so quiet besides the bugs humming in the trees and the occasional fishing boat chugging by. It didn't even seem real!

[mysecretcurse]

PS- this isn't my picture, it's just a random pic I found on google but this is what Koh Tao is like:

http://www.travelconnecxion.com/images/tao.webp

Just a lil taste of the beauty of Thailand.

[Jestgar]

Sounds wonderful (ya know, except for the nearly dying and having to fly home part )

Feel free to add stories!! I love travel and can't do it this year. I'll need to share yours.

[Sweetfudge]

Wow that really is beautiful! I can't wait to go now

[mysecretcurse]

Yay!

[munchkinette]

I also had an easy time with food in South East Asia. The only time I got glutened was at a tourist restaurant. The actual Thai places were awesome! My skin was great and I looked really skinny the whole time. I'm not sure what the mystery ingredients are in the US.

I agree about Phnom Penh. The most scared I've ever been traveling was on the back of the mototaxi, when mine separated a bit from my brother's. HOWEVER I would totally return to Angkor/ Siem Reap as a solo female traveler. It's so westernized and full of tourists that I never felt scared.

[Marion O]

Hello everyone, this week I finally returned from South East Asia back to California! It's good to be home.

I learned a lot on my big adventure, had some scary close calls (food-wise, and otherwise!)

So I wanted to come here and share everything I can so those who have a passion for travel, like I do, won't have to let celiac hold them back.

First of all, I have to say, even though I have worked hard at being gluten free here in the United States, it seemed as soon as I got back, I started having a breakout on my face (gluten causes this). I don't even know what I could have eaten! So after traveling in other countries I feel really sad about being here, it seems this place is toxic in general compared to other places. I don't have a clue what could have glutened me but I feel unhealthy being back here. I don't know if it's something in the air, or what..

My skin was pretty much completely healed when I was in Asia.

Anyways, I'll just go country by country and try and give my notes.

THAILAND:

I was extremely cautious when I first got there but after awhile learned I didn't have to be. It seems in Thailand everything is not gluten coated the way it is in the USA. I had an extremely hard time communicating my needs though, even WITH the gluten free restaurant cards which I had printed out in Thai. I showed them many times at many restaurants and was still brought meals containing bread, so I eventually stopped using them. My recommendation is to not bother bringing these cards to Asia. It seemed that even when people read them they still didn't fully understand, and they didn't seem to get that I couldn't have soy sauce, no matter how much I tried explaining it. So what I found was better was to just avoid anything which could possibly contain bread pasta or soy sauce.

I avoided the curries for the first month, but eventually I got the guts to try one, after asking millions of people who were eating them "Does that taste like it has soy sauce in it?" haha . I tried the red and green curries and found they were safe! And very good. I ate them usually for one meal a day after that.

I also ate tons of hamburgers minus the bun. It was fun trying to explain "No bread!" to the Thai's. LOL they sooo didn't get it. They would smile, nod and say "NO BREAD!" and then bring me a hamburger with the bun lol. But the good thing was once I stayed at a guesthouse or town for more than a day, I could go to the same place and they would remember me. The Thai's are great, they would see me coming, give me a big smile and say "Hamburger no bread!" lol

I ate a lot of french fries as well, but be careful! I was mildly glutened a couple times from this. Same as America, sometimes they fry the breaded fish sticks and things in the same oil.

A few places had steaks, chicken or beef, and I found the steaks had relatively little seasoning and I wasn't irritated by them. MOST meat, if not breaded, is okay.

I avoided the ketchup for the first month because of vinegar issues, but tried it about halfway through and it seemed okay, I think they use rice vinegar.

They have a good brand of yogurt over there, I don't know what its called because it's Thai, but its the yogurt they have almost everywhere, it comes in a blue and white cup and its DELICIOUS and safe.

I had some fruit shakes in Thailand and the ones I had seemed to be okay. In Thailand.

The Pad Thai uses rice noodles but unfortunately I found that most places make it with soy sauce. So it's a bummer, but pad thai, stir fries, and most other asian dishes are a no go because of soy.

LAOS:

First of all I must say, Laos is an AMAZING country! If you go to Asia, don't miss it! It's beautiful and the people are wonderful.

Be careful about the fruit shakes in Laos. FOr whatever reason, I was fine with them in Thailand but my first day In Vientiane, (capital of Laos), I had a fruit shake from a stall on the street and was severely glutened, so bad I had to retire to my room for the day. They make the fruit shakes differently everywhere so you are really taking your chances with this. After this glutening, I watched them make it different places and noticed in Laos they tend to use a powdered mix and some weird syrup sweetener mixed in with the fruit and ice. I think one of these two things was the source of the gluten. So yeah, Id avoid the fruit shakes, as yummy as they can be, unless you know the people in the kitchen and can communicate what's in them.

The main food in Laos is STICKY RICE! Which is awesome and gluten free as can be! Most meals are stick rice and some sort of meat. Check out the lap, its basically ground beef mixed with herbs like mint and some spices, and from my experience, I was able to eat it without any problems. They make everything from scratch in Laos especially in the smaller cities like Vang Veing at the local restaurants, so usually if it looks gluten free, it is. Also check out the sticky rice sweet desserts, they are a plate of sticky rice dressed with a sweet coconut milk sauce, and covered with fruit! Very tasty and gluten free, I lived off this stuff while I was in Vang Vieng.

There is also plenty of the western food minus the bread like hamburgers and what not, just be careful to make sure they understand NO BREAD like everywhere else.

CAMBODIA:

OKay.. I should advise everyone, I did NOT like Cambodia, and I don't recommend anyone going there alone, especially women. I was very upset a lot of the time I was there. For whatever reason, its nothing like other parts of South East Asia. I was warned before going that Cambodia is like "the wild west" of Asia, but I didn't listen. I should have. I thought my life was over while I was there. I hired a moto driver (like taxi's but you just sit on the back of their motorbike, its the most common way to get around there) to take me to the museums and stuff in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city) and he kidnapped me and attempted to assault me. It was terrifying and I truly thought that would be the end of my life, and by the grace of God I was able to get myself out of the situation. Thinking back on it now is like remembering a bad dream, so yeah, I don't recommend Cambodia but I will go ahead and share my notes in case anyone wants to go there.

Besides being a scary place, Cambodia was also the worst for avoiding gluten.

For one thing, be very careful about reading labels.

I have always known that M&M's here in America are gluten free, so whenever I needed a snack over there I tended to grab them up as they are one of the only familiar american candies I saw. Well, I had a close call my first time buying them in Cambodia. Cambodia M&M's come from a different manufactering place than ours, and right before I was going to dig into a bag my intuition, for whatever reason told me to flip the package over and read the label and THANK GOD I did. There were 2 different wheat sources listed in the ingrediants!!!!! So obviously they are made differently. God.. so close! So yeah, stay away from them in Cambodia, and read ALL ingrediants, if they are in english, even with familiar things you think are gluten free.

In Cambodia, everything is fried rice. They don't have much of the sticky rice like in Laos. And unfortunately, as I learned my first day in the country, fried rice over there is not gluten free. I tried some, because it looked white, and like it didn't have soy sauce, but I was severely ill after eating it. So yes, it's full of gluten and you have to request steamed rice.

In Cambodia, I found the best thing to do was to try and find more expensive western style restaurants and find someone you can communicate with. Be very careful about the food over there. I was there about 2 weeks before getting severe amoebic dysentary, Im not sure if it came from the food or the water, but BE CAREFUL.

This is not something you want to get, trust me. I thought I might die, and I almost had to be flown home early to go to the hospital, it was really, really bad. And the sucky thing was I was all alone and had no one to help me. I couldn't leave my hotel room for a few days and even though I've been home and its been like 3 weeks now Im still not back to normal, even with meds! SO yeah.. damn just be careful if you go there.

Other than what I already mentioned, its the same as the other two countries. Get hamburger without the bread or plain rice. Stay away from fruit shakes. Stay away from anything stir fried or with any sort of sauce. Curries seem to be okay, but after getting so ill, I wouldn't recommend them because I don't know what they use for the water in the soup...

In Siem Reap, there is a really, really good cafe near the main strip (across from the old market) called Central Cafe. They have a mexican tostada on a corn tortilla there, thats gluten free and delicious! I ate there often.

If you are going to go to Cambodia, Siem Reap is the only place I recommend. The amazing Angkor Wat temples are there, and its the only place I could walk around on my own without being harassed by guys in the street.

As far as airlines, fly China Airlines. They serve 2-3 meals during the flight plus whatever drinks you want at no additional cost, they were WONDERFUL about making sure my meals were gluten free, and the service was outstanding, IMO. If I was ever going to Asia again, I wouldn't fly with anyone else.

At the airports while waiting for my flights I stuck to sushi places or ice cream for snacks, but I can't recommend anything, in fact I think something from one of the airport restaurants glutened me on the way home.

That's all I can think of for now! And I have to say, scary experiences aside, going backpacking solo was one of the greatest things I have ever done with my life! I met tons of interesting people, had an amazing romance with a cute Israeli boy, challenged myself in ways I never thought possible, and saw things more beautiful than I ever could have imagined and will remember the experience for the rest of my life. I was so scared at one point that Id never be able to live because of my illness but now I choose to always live fully, and never let illness hold me back and you all should too!

We have celiac but it doesn't define us! Being strong people does, so get out there, live boldly and be strong!

xo

[Marion O]

Hello everyone, this week I finally returned from South East Asia back to California! It's good to be home.

I learned a lot on my big adventure, had some scary close calls (food-wise, and otherwise!)

So I wanted to come here and share everything I can so those who have a passion for travel, like I do, won't have to let celiac hold them back.

First of all, I have to say, even though I have worked hard at being gluten free here in the United States, it seemed as soon as I got back, I started having a breakout on my face (gluten causes this). I don't even know what I could have eaten! So after traveling in other countries I feel really sad about being here, it seems this place is toxic in general compared to other places. I don't have a clue what could have glutened me but I feel unhealthy being back here. I don't know if it's something in the air, or what..

My skin was pretty much completely healed when I was in Asia.

Anyways, I'll just go country by country and try and give my notes.

THAILAND:

I was extremely cautious when I first got there but after awhile learned I didn't have to be. It seems in Thailand everything is not gluten coated the way it is in the USA. I had an extremely hard time communicating my needs though, even WITH the gluten free restaurant cards which I had printed out in Thai. I showed them many times at many restaurants and was still brought meals containing bread, so I eventually stopped using them. My recommendation is to not bother bringing these cards to Asia. It seemed that even when people read them they still didn't fully understand, and they didn't seem to get that I couldn't have soy sauce, no matter how much I tried explaining it. So what I found was better was to just avoid anything which could possibly contain bread pasta or soy sauce.

I avoided the curries for the first month, but eventually I got the guts to try one, after asking millions of people who were eating them "Does that taste like it has soy sauce in it?" haha . I tried the red and green curries and found they were safe! And very good. I ate them usually for one meal a day after that.

I also ate tons of hamburgers minus the bun. It was fun trying to explain "No bread!" to the Thai's. LOL they sooo didn't get it. They would smile, nod and say "NO BREAD!" and then bring me a hamburger with the bun lol. But the good thing was once I stayed at a guesthouse or town for more than a day, I could go to the same place and they would remember me. The Thai's are great, they would see me coming, give me a big smile and say "Hamburger no bread!" lol

I ate a lot of french fries as well, but be careful! I was mildly glutened a couple times from this. Same as America, sometimes they fry the breaded fish sticks and things in the same oil.

A few places had steaks, chicken or beef, and I found the steaks had relatively little seasoning and I wasn't irritated by them. MOST meat, if not breaded, is okay.

I avoided the ketchup for the first month because of vinegar issues, but tried it about halfway through and it seemed okay, I think they use rice vinegar.

They have a good brand of yogurt over there, I don't know what its called because it's Thai, but its the yogurt they have almost everywhere, it comes in a blue and white cup and its DELICIOUS and safe.

I had some fruit shakes in Thailand and the ones I had seemed to be okay. In Thailand.

The Pad Thai uses rice noodles but unfortunately I found that most places make it with soy sauce. So it's a bummer, but pad thai, stir fries, and most other asian dishes are a no go because of soy.

LAOS:

First of all I must say, Laos is an AMAZING country! If you go to Asia, don't miss it! It's beautiful and the people are wonderful.

Be careful about the fruit shakes in Laos. FOr whatever reason, I was fine with them in Thailand but my first day In Vientiane, (capital of Laos), I had a fruit shake from a stall on the street and was severely glutened, so bad I had to retire to my room for the day. They make the fruit shakes differently everywhere so you are really taking your chances with this. After this glutening, I watched them make it different places and noticed in Laos they tend to use a powdered mix and some weird syrup sweetener mixed in with the fruit and ice. I think one of these two things was the source of the gluten. So yeah, Id avoid the fruit shakes, as yummy as they can be, unless you know the people in the kitchen and can communicate what's in them.

The main food in Laos is STICKY RICE! Which is awesome and gluten free as can be! Most meals are stick rice and some sort of meat. Check out the lap, its basically ground beef mixed with herbs like mint and some spices, and from my experience, I was able to eat it without any problems. They make everything from scratch in Laos especially in the smaller cities like Vang Veing at the local restaurants, so usually if it looks gluten free, it is. Also check out the sticky rice sweet desserts, they are a plate of sticky rice dressed with a sweet coconut milk sauce, and covered with fruit! Very tasty and gluten free, I lived off this stuff while I was in Vang Vieng.

There is also plenty of the western food minus the bread like hamburgers and what not, just be careful to make sure they understand NO BREAD like everywhere else.

CAMBODIA:

OKay.. I should advise everyone, I did NOT like Cambodia, and I don't recommend anyone going there alone, especially women. I was very upset a lot of the time I was there. For whatever reason, its nothing like other parts of South East Asia. I was warned before going that Cambodia is like "the wild west" of Asia, but I didn't listen. I should have. I thought my life was over while I was there. I hired a moto driver (like taxi's but you just sit on the back of their motorbike, its the most common way to get around there) to take me to the museums and stuff in Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital city) and he kidnapped me and attempted to assault me. It was terrifying and I truly thought that would be the end of my life, and by the grace of God I was able to get myself out of the situation. Thinking back on it now is like remembering a bad dream, so yeah, I don't recommend Cambodia but I will go ahead and share my notes in case anyone wants to go there.

Besides being a scary place, Cambodia was also the worst for avoiding gluten.

For one thing, be very careful about reading labels.

I have always known that M&M's here in America are gluten free, so whenever I needed a snack over there I tended to grab them up as they are one of the only familiar american candies I saw. Well, I had a close call my first time buying them in Cambodia. Cambodia M&M's come from a different manufactering place than ours, and right before I was going to dig into a bag my intuition, for whatever reason told me to flip the package over and read the label and THANK GOD I did. There were 2 different wheat sources listed in the ingrediants!!!!! So obviously they are made differently. God.. so close! So yeah, stay away from them in Cambodia, and read ALL ingrediants, if they are in english, even with familiar things you think are gluten free.

In Cambodia, everything is fried rice. They don't have much of the sticky rice like in Laos. And unfortunately, as I learned my first day in the country, fried rice over there is not gluten free. I tried some, because it looked white, and like it didn't have soy sauce, but I was severely ill after eating it. So yes, it's full of gluten and you have to request steamed rice.

In Cambodia, I found the best thing to do was to try and find more expensive western style restaurants and find someone you can communicate with. Be very careful about the food over there. I was there about 2 weeks before getting severe amoebic dysentary, Im not sure if it came from the food or the water, but BE CAREFUL.

This is not something you want to get, trust me. I thought I might die, and I almost had to be flown home early to go to the hospital, it was really, really bad. And the sucky thing was I was all alone and had no one to help me. I couldn't leave my hotel room for a few days and even though I've been home and its been like 3 weeks now Im still not back to normal, even with meds! SO yeah.. damn just be careful if you go there.

Other than what I already mentioned, its the same as the other two countries. Get hamburger without the bread or plain rice. Stay away from fruit shakes. Stay away from anything stir fried or with any sort of sauce. Curries seem to be okay, but after getting so ill, I wouldn't recommend them because I don't know what they use for the water in the soup...

In Siem Reap, there is a really, really good cafe near the main strip (across from the old market) called Central Cafe. They have a mexican tostada on a corn tortilla there, thats gluten free and delicious! I ate there often.

If you are going to go to Cambodia, Siem Reap is the only place I recommend. The amazing Angkor Wat temples are there, and its the only place I could walk around on my own without being harassed by guys in the street.

As far as airlines, fly China Airlines. They serve 2-3 meals during the flight plus whatever drinks you want at no additional cost, they were WONDERFUL about making sure my meals were gluten free, and the service was outstanding, IMO. If I was ever going to Asia again, I wouldn't fly with anyone else.

At the airports while waiting for my flights I stuck to sushi places or ice cream for snacks, but I can't recommend anything, in fact I think something from one of the airport restaurants glutened me on the way home.

That's all I can think of for now! And I have to say, scary experiences aside, going backpacking solo was one of the greatest things I have ever done with my life! I met tons of interesting people, had an amazing romance with a cute Israeli boy, challenged myself in ways I never thought possible, and saw things more beautiful than I ever could have imagined and will remember the experience for the rest of my life. I was so scared at one point that Id never be able to live because of my illness but now I choose to always live fully, and never let illness hold me back and you all should too!

We have celiac but it doesn't define us! Being strong people does, so get out there, live boldly and be strong!

xo

Hello from a new, English, celiac.com member - living in Wales. What an amazing trip you had! Glad you survived and hope the amoebic dysentry is completely cleared up now. My interest in your experience regards Laos. Where I lived in the mid-70s, for 2 years, several decades before I was diagnosed or had symptoms ( that I was aware of). So I ate everything. Now I'm returning, for a 3 week holiday, and I'm a coeliac ( or even a celiac).

I speak basic Lao but don't have the necessary vocabulary for celiac disease: I didn't talk about wheat and rye and barley then. (And I'm pretty sure only wheat will be a problem - I don't imagine that, even 35 years on, rye or barley is part of the Lao diet. Or oats.) Do you know what sort of vinegar Lao cooks use? I imagine it's rice. Did you learn any useful vocab?

I know about soy sauce and wheat noodles. I will also beware those delicious fruit drinks that I used to enjoy so much - thanks v much for the warning. Did you find out if the MSG used in Laos is mixed with wheat flour? Or did you simply avoid Chinese food?

My non-coeliac friend and I plan to go to Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang (and a few other places en route ). I was wondering if you had any specific gluten-free recommendations about hotels/guesthouses, cafes/ restaurants to go to.

Thanks again for your v interesting posting and I'm really pleased for you that you went to S-E Asia and (in spite of the dreadful things in Cambodia) that you had so many positive experiences .

[amber]

Very interesting trip report. Out of all the Asian countries I would expect Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia to be the easiest in terms of gluten free dining. I know that here we go to Thai restaurants a lot and basically all the curries are gluten free as they don't tend to use soy sauce.

You should have visited Australia while you were in that neck of the woods. Plenty of gluten free food availability and really good awareness in many places. I am seeing more and more restaurants and cafes with gluten-free marked on the menus here so you wouldn't have much trouble though it is definately more expensive that the prices you would have been paying in Asia.

[Cookie--Monster]

Thanks! Yes, it was an adventure for sure, although coming back.. I dunno, sorta left me feeling comedown and hungry for more! I am planning on finding work somewhere later this year and doing some hardcore saving, and then a friend and I are planning to head down to central and south america next summer hopefully! It's supposed to be wild and dangerous down there so I'm expecting another big adventure. We'll see. And yes, I recommend everyone visit south east asia at least once.

If you go, definitely don't miss Laos, and also don't miss the southern islands in the gulf of thailand. I went to Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, both were two of the most beautiful places Ive ever seen. I stayed in a cliffside cabin overlooking the sea (which is gorgeous clear aqua blue water) for less than 15 bucks a night! It had the most unbelievable view of the sunset. Wow.. just wow. I will never forget that. I would sit out there at night with the full moon over the water and the stars, and it would be so quiet besides the bugs humming in the trees and the occasional fishing boat chugging by. It didn't even seem real!

I have always wanted to travel and until this post thought that it would only be westernised countries available to me. Just wanted to say thank you so much for posting your travels in South East Asia on here as it has given me the confidence to go... not only as a coeliac but also as a solo female traveller. My flights are all booked for the 1st April!

Fly into Bangkok where I will DEFININTELY then be heading to Laos. Also aiming to go to malaysia, vietnam and bali. The rest i guess I'll sort when Im there!

Thanks again

charlotte

[anabananakins]

Wonderful post, thanks for sharing! I hope you are recovering well and that was very scary what happened, glad you were ok.

btw, next time you are travelling that way, pretty much all the asian airlines are fantastic (actually don't usually hear such good things about China airlines so that was good to hear).