Backpacking with IBS

The travelling lifestyle is pretty damn awesome. You see so many different things, experience different cultures, languages, religions and try out different foods.. But as awesome as it is, some minor issues can occur a fair bit. For example, running out of money, getting sick, getting something stolen, having your baggage lost at the airport. Some of those has happened to me and hopefully not again (touch wood) but this post is about something slightly different. Im going to shed a small light on a topic called IBS.

So what is IBS? Insanely beautiful specimen? Nah, irritable bowel syndrome. (Not so glamourous) 

It's a funny old thing, okay not that funny, it's actually bloody annoying and horrible but there's actually no real known cause for IBS although stress and anxiety has been proven in a lot of cases to play a big part in it. It is also apparently common in anyone who has had a trauma or highly emotional stressful blip in life to develop IBS so maybe loosing my dad plays a part in it but I'm not really sure. It's effects around 10%-15% of people, that's a fair big number, if you think about it. 

There isn't a cure nor an answer for how IBS is caused but stress definately plays a massive part in it for me. 

Ever since I was a little dink I can remember having a tummy ache and bathroom troubles. And then I finally saw a doctor about it a few years ago after a break up that ended up turning my stomache into a big evil mess and then came the possible answer of IBS. 

Thanks to my wonderful mother, I'm pretty sure I've got it from her as she too suffers big time and my symptoms are becoming worse and worse and apparently genetics and a history of IBS in the family can maximise the chances of having the condition (yay). 

Anyway, so IBS has many symptoms such as bloating, severe stomach cramps, heart burn, the runs (cos I can't spell the actual word), constipation, feeling full very quickly, feeling sick (also can't spell the proper word, I'm so special) and in worse cases back aches and headaches/migraines. It's to do mainly with the large intestines I believe that can spasm or something (I'm a little useless) and something about a connection from your brain to your gut. I'm not really a medical wizard as you can tell 😏 

Some people get these symptoms once in a blue moon, others everyone week or few days.  Me? Pretty much every time i put food in my mouth (why am I not skinny yet then). It sucks, like really sucks. I've tried everything from going vegetarian, dairy free, bread free, gluten free, red meat free, acidy foods free. And now im completely alcohol free now too. Not that I've ever really drank, it makes me serious sick, even after one and doctors have said from other medical mishaps that I have a irritable liver/kidneys so it's best just to stay off it completely. (Lucky boyfriend, I'm a cheap date, ha) 

So, travelling with IBS.. You can imagine right? Fucking awful at times. Especially having to know where the closest toilet is just incase, which if you've seen African and Asian toilets, you'll understand that it could be QUITE INTERESTING 😏

I carry around numerous amounts of different meds with me from rennie to herbal calming tablets to others I can't pronounce to save my life. 

The big factor in mine is stress, I am a stress head, it sucks and I've not quite worked out how to deal with it when it gets bad and another thing to add to it is I totally FREAK out if I get sick. I mean, I know nobody likes being unwell but I totally loose my shit (excuse the pun 😏) 

Throwing up scares the hell out of me, I have to have someone there, near enough everytime I'm proper sick I end up panicking so much I pass out. So my mum or my boyfriend have been the lucky ones to try and calm me down and be there if I have blacked out for a minute. 

This all came into play when me and Callum were seriously unwell with the common Thailand food poisoning last week in Pai (blog to come) after having some street food for dinner. You can imagine, what a mess. 

Anyway, so when I feel my symptoms coming on, I panic about it.. And then my stomache cramps more and then it gets ten times worse and it's just a vicious circle. I come across quite out spoken and confident and self assured, but the people who know me best know I'm also a little stress head and worry about absolutely everything. Soz 😏

For example today, we had an incredible day with some Asian elephants, litterally the best day EVER. But before the day had even started (the night before) I had already played the "what if my stomache sets off there, will I miss it, will there be a toilet, what will people think" blah blah blah. So since the night before, up until we met other people on the same elephant tour, my stomache had given me so much pain I couldn't walk or stand or even move. And then I panicked because the bus was coming to pick us up and it all got abit too much until there was other people and there was something to take my mind off it. 

Okay so you get my point now? Vicious circle of IBS. It's a bastard. 

Another example was when we were working on a cattle station in the outback. Every single morning I was there for about 45 minutes id be in such pain I wouldn't be able to move from my stomache upset and cramps. No idea what it was that was setting it off, I thought maybe it was eating beef because I had literally just started eating meat again after going veggie for a couple months before hand. But I reckon stress played the biggest part, because I was always worried about the fact there wasn't a toilet in the bush, just... Bush. 

Which there's another funny story (it's funny now but definately wasn't at the time) but when we were mustering all day and I was feeling so ill I was actually unwell in the bush with my horse tied up just watching me chuck my guts up along with a couple hundred cattle thinking what the hell is this two legged freak doing in my paddock. Not fun. 

Airplanes, trains, coaches.. Any form of transport with IBS acting up is hell. Nights out, meals out, sleeping over a friends house or your boyfriends place, cinema, shopping. Normal things can turn from great to rough in approximately 0.7 seconds. 

I've tried meditation, I had this app on my phone and it was all going great until the lady speaking said "now breathe into your ankles" and after that I was totally done, nope, couldn't handle it.

 I think I need to start doing yoga. 

So things that set my IBS off... 

- stress, anxiety, any type of negative emotion 

- lack of sleep 

- alcohol 

- so far pretty much ALL bloody foods! 

- being in a new place 

- travel sickness (which makes me nervous cos of the whole being sick thing which then brings on my stress to then bring on my IBS, Wooo so much fun) 

Tips for travelling if you also are a lucky devil with IBS.. 

- always carry loo roll (a lot of Asian and African toilets don't have toilet paper, sometimes not even a toilet 👍) 

- rennie, it tastes good and seems to work for even a short period of time if I start feeling a turn coming on 

- always find out where the closest toilet is 

- travel with someone, they can help by taking your mind of things when you feel yourself sliding to the gates of hell (Callum has to tell me stories to calm me down sometimes, once upon a time...) 

- eat plain foods, drink a lot of water (something I have to force down me) 

- always carry those sachets incase you get really ill and can't stop.. Y'know.. Being unwell 😏 

- when you feel it coming on, distract yourself or read about it on google, it makes me feel less alone. 

- lie down on your left hand side (apparently it can settle cramps a little) 

- try to relax, it's normal and I feel silly writing this because I'm THE WORST at staying calm, but it's a common thing and you're not alone. 

- make sure your travel insurance covers IBS 

- find a pharmacy if you get really stuck. 

- enjoy it all as much as you can, it's something you can't cure, so just try and deal with it as best as you can ☺️ 

Oh and I wrote this blog post to distract me from me having a flare up 👍

Laters. 

Touch down in Thailand. Week one.

So we have been in Thailand a week already and here's the things we've been up to.

Bangkok 

We arrived in Bangkok last Sunday after flying from Melbourne into Brunei and then into Bangkok. We arrived around 9pm into the crazy Thai airport. There was still aircon when we arrived in the airport and then we took a step outside to the taxi rank, my god it was hot. Within seconds we were sweaty and the humidity got right down your throat. 

We jumped into a taxi that took us to the hostel we were staying at, by this time for us it was around 1am Australian time so we were pretty shattered but the taxi man (as lovely as it was) insisted on knowing the ins and outs of our trip to Asia and gave us a lesson in speaking Thai. Really nice friendly guy but at this point in time the last thing I wanted to do was learn Thai as I was feeling pretty rough from the 12 odd hours we were flying. 

We got to our hostel called Born Free which was really friendly. Small but quirky. We soon dumped our bags, got into bed and died until the following morning. Due to the time difference I had woken up at around 3am and stayed awake until it was a suitable time to actually get up for the day. We went down Kho San road which is like backpacker/tourist central for Bangkok and found somewhere to grab some breakie which was a spoonful of scrambled egg and a string of bacon. We were pretty hungry not long after that for sure. We ended up walking down to the river to the reclyning Buddha temple called Wat Pho (I think, might be wrong, probably am) where there was (like the name) a bloody huge golden Buddha statue just chilling, laying on it's side surrounded by gold stuff. It was pretty impressive. We walked around the temple grounds for a bit and then ended up back at the hostel for a while to freshen up and probably have a nap (can't quite remember, a week is a long time for me) 

We met up with our friends from PGL Leanne and Jess and went for some food in a street behind Kho San road. A stray dog was right next to our table but we're 99% sure it had rabies. It was like a zombie pooch with a foamy mouth and just growling at nothing, he seemed a lite away with the fairies which was sad. 

We had a walk around kho San road afterwards to look at the market stalls and the food stands of pad Thai which sells on the streets for 30baht which is about 70p ish. Pad Thai is a noodle dish with egg and bean sprouts and chicken or shrimp. Pretty tasty stuff for 70p. 

That day my best friend Lucy had also flown into bangkok from England with a tour and I knew she was around that road somewhere so I kept my eye on anyone that had a big fridge and a bunch of European people drinking and after walking up and down the road as almost loosing hope THERE SHE WAS! I pointing and squealed and then she saw me too and we just ran to eachother and totally embraced eachother in the middle of the crazy nightlife where we had people all around us looking at us (probably the fact we were both in tears and all other eachother) probably thought we were long lost lovers. (Pretty much are) by we hadn't seen eachother in over a yet and that was only for like a day. We danced to shakira and hugged a hell of a lot and took a shit ton of selfies, I felt a little bad I kinda crashed thir tours drinks night and stole Lucy away. I was so happy. It was late and she had to go and we went back to the hostel to bed. 

The next day we met Leanne and Jess again where we went to the other side of town to a snake farm which was ran by the Thai Red Cross where they took the venom out of the snakes to make anti venom. It's was pretty interesting stuff me being a snake lover and all. They did a show where these crazy mofos were like catching king cobras and other deadly snakes with his bare hands and letting them just slithering infront of the crowed. They asked for a volunteer at the end of the show so of course I put my hand up (made sure not kids ha their hands up, I'm not that mean) but I was picked and I they ended up coming up behind me with a MASSIVE Burmese Python which was so awesome. I got to hold it and stuff infront of the crowed and then the guy asked if I liked snakes and what if I had any and it turns out we both have Western Hognoses which was cool. 

After the snake farm we went to this big park where huge monitor lizards would roam around, some eating big catfish they just dragged out of the water, another eating a turtle! It was like walking with dinosaurs, pretty scary but so cool! The next day we had a wander around again, went to some markets and got a tuktuk ride which was South fun whizzing through the city (they drive like bloody lunatics) and then went to a Mai Thai fight night which is Thai boxing. I thought I wouldn't enjoy it but it was hardcore stuff! Especially the girls round, they are terrifying. Would not like the cross their paths when they're hormonal. Grabbed another tuktuk after waiting for a bus for about an hour and then experienced a Bangkok downpour where the rain was incredibly heavy! We said goodbye to Leanne and Jess as they were leaving Asia and headed back to the hostel for our last nights stay. 

Kachanaburi 

We got a bus from Bangkok to kachanaburi which was a 2.5 hour drive north of Bangkok. We stayed at a place called Sugar Cane Guesthouse 2 which was a lovely chilled out spot on the river Kwai where we had our own little room. No aircon this time though, just a fan that only covered half the bed so we had to take turns in sleeping on the "breezy" side. The day we got there we walked around the town over the death railway bridge and had some lunch on a floating restaurant. I stupidly ordered some Chilli paste rice probably oblivious to the world CHILLI and it blew my head off to the point I had tears rolling down my face and the Thai waitresses were all laughing at me. Whoops. Swapped meals with Cal , he can handle that shit. We went to a night market where they had things from baby goats to guns for sale. Interesting to say the least but I found my dinner for 28p! 

The next day we had planned to go to Erawan waterfalls. We managed to find the bus station after a nice man offered us a lift in en empty out of service bus to the station as he saw we were a little lost and directed us to the bus that was going to the waterfalls. The waterfalls were probabably the most beautiful place I have ever seen. It was like something out of a movie. We walked all the way to the top of the 7th waterfall which was the most sweaty trek ever. I was literally dripping everywhere. We got to the top and straight away stripped off and got in the water. There were these fish that would nibble your toes which was so weird! So ticklish.. A lot of people we're squealing. We cooled off and took some selfies and started to walk back down where we stopped off in the more pretty waterfalls to take a swim in. 

We got back to town and eventually back to the guest house after yet another tuktuk to the rescue and we showered and layed under the fan for a while to cool off before having some food at the guest house. The next day we booked a bus back to Bangkok because we had a night bus going from there to Chiang Mai. We got back to Bangkok and went to Maccys to share a meal (tight budget and all) and strolled up and down Kho San to waste some time before the long bus. We ended up taking part in a free food tasting survey for some Thai students which was a little bizzare with herby chicken sauassage and stuff. We got on our night bus which had these really cool reclyning seats so you could get a proper lie down and sleep. 

Chiang Mai 

We arrived in Chiang Mai around 7am after a fairly pleasant bus journey considering it was like 11 hours long but I managed to sleep almost all the way. Unfortunately can't say the same for Callum. We got a little taxi with a couple other English girls that we're staying at our same hostel. We booked this place called The Gate Capsule Hostel where the bunk beds are huge and have this big curtain all around so you feel like you're in your own little box. We turned up and had a nap, showerd and walked around for a bit, grabbed some lunch and then came back to the hostel to research some bits for the rest of the trip. But we actually ended up napping again for a few hours. We got sorted eventually and headed out to find some food and the night markets of Chiang Mai where on the way we made friends with a stray dog that followed us. We found a cute little restaurant and had some nachos and a carbanara after having Thai food all week (apart from the cheeky Maccys). We found the Sunday street markets and wandered around until our feet could hack anymore (mainly my feet as on the first day I bought myself some Birkenstocks and they rub one foot) and came back to the hostel where I am now writing this blog. Only one day in Chiang Mai this time but tomorrow we get a bus to Pai which is think is the "Byron bay of Thailand" kinda place where we have booked our own little cabin for 5 nights. 

Loving life. 

L&C xo