Accidental Traveller

The road to travel nirvana is often paved with misadventures, writes BELLA POLLEN, but they bring their own particular rewards.

- Bella Pollen

Once upon a time I was an eat-anything, sleep-anywhere, plumbing-optional kind of traveller. A good traveller. Or so I thought, but the mishaps soon racked up.

First I caught parasites on the Mexican-US border while I was researching a novel. The initial bout of sickness was a garden-variety Montezuma’s revenge. But, uncharacteristically, recovery was slow. Then a doctor diagnosed giardia – that nasty water-borne bug. Flagyl, he assured me, was the strong man of antibiotics. A single round would be easily enough for a knockout.

After four doses and months of illness I sought out a nutritionist, a homeopath and finally a Chinese herbalist, whose shaman-like potions gradually calmed the turmoil.