How to Shit Around the World: The Art of Staying Clean and Healthy While Traveling

On second thought, I think the title fits! I read my library's copy. As the librarian was scanning it, he paused and did a double-take. "Yes," I said, slightly embarrassed. I'm halfway through the book and I'm sure it's still going to earn those five stars. It is soooooo funnnnny... It's packed with sensible advice and I like sensible. It moved me so much that I bought, for the first time in my life, Tincture of Iodine (CVS doesn't carry Iodine tablets), Vitamin C, teabags, etc. Although I'm not trekking to Kathmandu, I'm still going to visit an unknown quantity (Ukraine). I was toying with the idea of visiting Chernobyl but I'll reserve that for the next trip. *

Looking for a book on squat toilets, getting the runs, and getting the runs while using a rough squat toilet? Not the best mealtime read, but good preparation for what the road throws at you. There's a wealth of info on eating right, drinking right, the risks of seafood, and keeping the little ones healthy. The differentiating factor for this book though is it doesn't stop there. Where else can you get a whole chapter on toilet paper and the lack thereof, bathing in a stream, or what to do when it's that time of the month and you're on a mountain ascent? Throughout the book there are short snippets from doctors, from aid workers, and from others with life experience combating nasty bugs and diseases. If you're a parent wanting to make sure your about-to-leave child knows how to keep healthy, or you're the type who likes to be ready for anything, this is a valuable book. Anyone about to go off on a long-term volunteer assignment in a rural environment should make room for it in the pack.

This is a very interesting book written by a physician. The advice is sound and many of the anecdotes are laugh out loud. My favorite was the one about the ziggurat of colonic filth

Dr. Wilson-Howarth, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, has a finely tuned sense of humor & courtesy of our Victorian ancestors, our language is thick with euphemisms for this most basic of deeds.Don't dismiss her timely & important information just because she's funny, she has a lot to teach us. You will learn how to:-- avoid minor & major intestinal disruptions & diseases, as well as symptoms & cures.-- eat, drink & be safe in a foreign place.-- tame your bodily functions on those long rides.-- travel with children & keep them well.-- make environmentally & hygienically sound deposits-- cope without toilet paper.-- identify the critters who thrive in dark & moist areas.Then set about discovering the amazing variety of foreign toilets... & so much more!A seriously informative & amusing book with a host of helpful hints from well-traveled world trekkers.

I just wish someone had given me this book before my last trip to India where I caught jardia. I like to think that this book may have helped. I had to bribe a bus driver to stop the bus in open country near Jaipur, but couldn't perform under the bemused gaze of about 50 Indian travellers. When I got back on the bus my bowels exploded when the bus hit the next pot-hole in the road and I soiled myself. If that was not enough, half an hour later I vomitted on an elderly woman sitting next to me who had until that point been polite enough not to mention the horrendous smell. I'll remember to pack this book next time I travel in the hope of avoiding a repeat of this ghastly experience.