Stay Healthy
There is nothing worse than feeling icky when you’re away from home. A few precautions can help you stay healthy for your trip. Here’s my “I’m not a medical professional” advice to stay healthy on your trip to Thailand, or anywhere really!
Get rest.
You’re switching to a completely different time zone really quickly and 
will soon return back to your own. Try to acclimate as quickly as possible. Bring melatonin or magnesium to take before bedtime, usually as soon as you get back to your room. Save the alcohol for a couple nights in as it can mess with your sleep cycle even more (I mean, one drink is fiiiiine). Set an alarm to get up at a decent time, mornings are cooler and quite pleasant, as are evenings as the sun sets. Midday naps are a great idea! Take a break from the heat of the day and refresh a bit in your room. Midday is also a perfect time for that Thai massage you’ve been dreaming about!
Avoid food poisoning.
While most travel guides recommend not eating anything raw (like delicious Som Tum Papaya Salad) or any fruit you don’t peel yourself (my favorite chompoo, pink Thai apple), I think you’ll miss out on a lot of awesome Thai food. I have a super sensitive stomach and don’t have a gall bladder anymore (which helps digest and process fats). My recommendation, tried and true? Take a pink bismuth pill (aka Pepto Bismal) with every meal to mitigate upset stomach. It works. It’s not perfect, but it will help with the adjustment to foreign food. I was appalled at the food standards in Thailand. I saw a butcher delivering meat on his scooter, pig parts flying in the wind! If you’ve worked in the food industry, you will also be shocked that Thai people often cook in the morning, and that’s it! That curry is for the day, y’all, not just breakfast! That being said, I only got food poisoning once in 6 months. Gut wrenching Buddha’s revenge. It sucked. Needless to say, I did not go back to that soup place.
If you do get sick
It will most likely be a stomach issue. You’ll love that bum gun! Medicines like Immodium are easy to get a 7 Eleven or a pharmacy.
Pharmacists are the best English speakers in all of Thailand. You don’t need a prescription for a lot of things, like the pain medicine Ultracet. I was sick with a 102F fever and skipped the doc, went to a pharmacy and they hooked me up with a local version of immodium, antibiotics, AND had a puppy to play with! But don’t expect to get your American prescription filled easily. Weird things are expensive, like melatonin was pricey for 10 pills. Pharmacies will also have more particular skin care like Cetaphil.
I also highly recommend a pre-trip visit to Passport Health. I’ve gone before every major international trip for vaccinations and location advice for staying healthy. Do your research beforehand though, they will try to sell you on every vaccinations possible. I skipped buying their fancy stomach pills and opted for generic Pepto from the dollar store. I only got sick twice in 8 months (food poisoning once and that fever bug) while traveling in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and Hong Kong. That’s pretty good!
Prescriptions
Definitely bring your personal medications in clearly marked bottles or bags. Take the sticky RX label and put in on a plastic snack bag to save some space. Keep the desiccant bag with the pills to keep them from sticking to each other. Write down your emergency contacts and any medical conditions and carry that paper with you at all times – you can write it on the back of the copy of your passport. If you have a medical condition, I suggest using Google translate to print that information out in Thai and English before leaving home. If you end up needing a refill, you will have to go to a hospital, pay for a doctor visit, before getting your medication. A lot of common prescriptions are not available at all.
If you get motion sickness, come prepared! Sitting backwards in a songtaew truck on a winding mountain road can turn the strongest stomachs. Keep your eyes on the moving landscape, and off your phone, to help prevent motion sickness in the first place.
Stay Hydrated
It bears repeating, stay hydrated! You’ll notice there is a lot of salt and sugar in Thai food and drinks, and that’s to help your body reclaim what’s lost with constant sweating. Don’t try to avoid it, your body needs it! And that coconut water, drink it up! Dehydration leads to headaches, tiredness, and general crankiness.
