Travel Discussion

Food poisoning in Vietnam

Posted By: Akiko
Date: December 17, 2007

I traveled to Vietnam with my friends. We stayed only 4 days. It seemed like the time was too short but as a result this was a really good choice. During this trip, we spent our time mostly shopping and eating. In Vietnam, there are big markets for shopping where you can purchase many things like food, clothes, accessories, etc. We all bought many bags, at least ten bags for each for us. Each bag was only about one to two dollars. The most fun while shopping was trying to get a discount. You could negotiate pretty much anything. You were able to communicate with the people working at the shops. Vietnamese people are very friendly and kind. We really enjoyed talking with them.

In Vietnam, you can get many different foods from the street vendors. We tried to watch what and where we ate and drank. Usually we picked a clean restaurant with a nice atmosphere. It was a little bit more expensive if you compared with the street vendors or local restaurants, but we thought we would not need to worry about food poisoning in the nicer restaurants. While shopping one day, we got really hungry and thirsty. We decided to eat lunch at a local restaurant.

A few days after I returned home, I got really sick. I asked my friends who traveled with me if they were experiencing any problems and all of them got sick at about the same time. It was food poisoning. We don’t know what we ate or drank to make us sick, maybe some raw vegetables, or water, or something. It was fortunate we only stayed in Vietnam four days or we would have been sick during the trip. I suggest, if you go to Vietnam, you should watch what and where you eat or drink. Although we experienced this problem, we had a great time in Vietnam and would like to go there again.