The H Pie Journey

The End of My H Pie Journey (God Willing) and Next Trip

Well, as per my last post I did not go to Vietnam. I was treated for the H pylori infection right before my scheduled flight which makes it 3 years since contracting it, AKA having my gut lining being decimated - quite an experience let me tell ya.. after the treatment it was about 6 months of intolerable symptoms; body starting to shake, bouts of not being able to breath, zero energy, extreme fatigue, extreme anxiety, brain fog - basically couldn't eat anything. I'm sure I'm missing a few, to sum it up I was not able to function for about a year. It's been 2 years and 2 months since the end of he treatment. The last symptom that are certainly improving but not fully healed is the food intolerances. I can eat a lot more now but still can't eat various foods (high acidity, high fat content mainly) also some weird ones. Eggs, beef and beer are the ones that when I can eat, I will venture out on another trip! Wait what ? You're telling me that you were deathly ill for 5 years as a result of eating food overseas which resulted in you being completely fucked in everyway possible and now that you're starting to be better you'll be packing a bag agggainnn and venturing out to more countries?? Oh yeaaa baby, you better believe it. 5 years of no travel has certainty gave me time to miss adventures and LIVING MY LIFE.   It's not to say I haven't learned a few things about food / where to eat. Lets go through a few new Shane Travel Rules  

1. DON'T eat street food 

I realize that people live to experience the cuisine of the culture in which they travel and it's an important part of the endeavor. I respect that. What I don't respect is shite'ing my arnest off and feeling like I'm gonna die, everyday for... years! So with that being said I will compromise with -  yes travel and when travelling spend more money on food at upper scale places to highly lessen the chance of contracting a debilitating bacterial infection which renders you incapable of feeling normal (to say the least) for 5+ years. 

As an addition to this point I will give you an example: In Ottawa I was walking home from voting in the provincial election and saw a place called "Falafels", looked it up, saw it was rated really well so I decided to try the ole gut out on some falafels. I go in, it’s really busy (which to me, means the food has a higher likelyhood of being fresh) ordered 6 falafels with nothing on it. The guys working up a storm behind the counter, gloved up, very nice, in his 20's and not so proficient in English. (Just to paint the picture). So I'm there watching this operation as he's preparing multiple meals for various orders. Everything is to my liking, I'm watching like a hawk the cleanliness and sanitary practices being displayed. And then... another guy walks in and goes behind the counter. This guy is mid 30's, sloppy, unkept and for the purposes of painting an accurate picture he was a bigger gentlemen .. and had a massive unibrow, which is totally fine .. but paint accurate, ya know. All these things are okay, even combined, even for food prep but.. his hands are staring me in the face. His ungloved disgusting arnest hands. which for all intents and purposes could have been down his pants relieving an itch moments ago. They looked greased up, maybe they were dinged in his cornbag.. certainly appeared that way. Any who I'm watching that big bastard mush his thumb into falafel to squish it into a warp sandwich.. so after seeing this I decided it was time to save my own food before it became contaminated with janal juice. "Hey, what's up bud, hi.. yea so, my food is 6 falafels with nothing else. Could you not touch my food because you're not wearing any gloves please". Response - "Oh hai, oh yeass yeas he will do, he will do" points to the younger guy with the gloves. "Thanks man". He was really nice but dirty and unsanitary. Never know what's on that guys hands.. and I'm not taking any chances. Picture of the place below. The falafel was incredible btw. 

2.  Workout routine

This has drastically changed for travel but we'll get into that explanation when I do a big trip next.

Those are the 2 big ones although I only went into depth about one, however it is the biggest one! Now on to the idea of where. Well at this point in time I'm thinking Jan / Feb 2026 Puerto Rico, Colombia and there's been talk of Nicaragua. 4 weeks seems like a solid amount of time. 10 days in Puerto Boii and the remaining time in South America. Its excited because I'm on the verge of feeling 100% but I don't know how long these lagging food intolerances will take - hopefully just one more year.. a year and I'd be a happy camper. It's been such a re'dong-culous ride I'm itching to get back to normal life. 

I'm going to Vancouver in mid May - gonna be staying with Koliacavo for 12 days, within that time we'll go surfing in Tofino and maybe Vegas! Who knows brotha who knows, okay prob not Vegas but Tofeeen boi for sure. See Chan the man too. I might write something about that trip - update on how I'm feeling and what could be next. 

Shaner

Vietnam (1.5 months before departure)

Bonjourno!

Or should I say "ngày tốt! Which means "good day" in Vietnamese. It has been almost three years since I've been in Asia, which is astonishing to say the least. All that's happened in the world and then me moving across the country has kept me away from that beautiful continent. Well, I am enthused to say that it's time for my triumphant return!

I have always wanted to explore and experience Vietnam. Today is the day! Well, not quite today but you get the idea... On January 17th, 2023, I will set out through the clouds and begin a new journey to a country with immense history and culture. Oddly, I can't quite put my finger on why I've been saving the Vietnam trip. I've been to Thailand (three times), Cambodia (twice), Loas, Singapore, Malaysia, China and finally Myanmar thus far. It's time to pack some cream sodas and set forth. I'll be on the trip for 6 weeks. It's been a long time since I have travelled for that long in duration but I'm ready. Maybe not so much for the 30 hour commute 😨. I bought a $100 doll hair travel memory foam pillow, suppose to be the best in the worldd. I'll let ya know. 

Actually, I have been dealing with some pretty intense stomach issues for the last 2 years and it's gotten pretty bad.  I'm just waiting on some test results to come in to identify what the issue is. Get this... the specialist I went to see said she thinks I picked up a parasite in Myanmar when I got food poisoning! Apparently, it's possible for this parasite to live in my digestive system for years - which if she is correct, it has been. I had to shite in a tube and mail it out for testing - I pressed for her estimate on what specifically the parasite could be. Her best guess was that its Giardia. So, we'll have to wait and see what the heck it is, hopefully it'll get figured out (results are said to take 4-6 weeks) and I can go on this trip with my health meter back up to 100 doll hairs, wait.. no, 100 percent!

This trip is gonna be a wing boi, no reservations (other than the flight and first nights' accommodation) 6 weeks of utterly flying by the seat of my pants. There's two people whom it appears I will meet up with for a short duration of time separately. A few days to a week each i assume so that'll be good. 

SOOOOOOOOOOO, what are my expectations, thoughts, preconceived notions of the trip? This trip was definitely not a slam dunk until about a month ago. Initially I was dead set on going to South America and the surrounding area. I wanted to go to Chile, Puerto Rico and Peru. It's really interesting actually.. I was so tunnel visioned in on exploring a new continent and surfing in Chile but I wasn't really thrilled when imagining myself over there. Leading up to booking the flights and getting ideas I was looking at pics, trying to figure out a plan of attack. I was just deflated about the idea of going to that area - not really excited.. I talked a little bit about it with someone, Kimbo Slice, and randomly found myself suddenly looking at Vietnam. A few ideas here, a few light nudges by Slice Boi there and suddenly I was seriously contemplating Nam. The next day I found a flight and being the spontaneous nut sack that I am - I just booked it. Upwards of $1500 for a round trip flight to Hanoi. Suddenly I was jacked up and re-living the previous feelings when I had before booked Asia flights. I got the mojo back! I'm back baby! Well, the parasite worms are still coursing through my intestines laying eggs and jyking me over... but I was back otherwise! Passion man... live your life and make decisions based on your passions and that gut (with no worms in it) feeling. I mean you gotta be somewhat responsible but in my opinion, you def have to shut that rollercoaster safety bar, throw your hands up in the air and go for a ride here and there. I say stuff like this during every trip... time goes by so quick; I would be personally remiss if I didn't let my adventurous side take control every once and a while. Life man... one day your eight years old getting an 120-pound school bag slammed on your head because you slid on ice into the grade 4 line up in the school yard purposely knocking people over and the next you're a 34-year-old man with a career and pension... what the hell happened?! 

Oh right, expectations. I'll have to get back into blogging shape. I predict that I will ... I'm at a bit of a loss. Other than great food and meeting cool people I know it's a beautiful country with crazy history. I guess that's that I expect if that counts? I expect an unreal time contingent on getting my stomach fixed. Gonna go no drinking leading up to the trip. Haven't had anything since Nov 6th, gonna workout, eat like a champ-eeen and be responsible financially until Jan 17th - at that point I'll go ape in a reasonable fashion. 30 hour commute - from Vancouver it was like 20ish hours - from Ottawa itssssss a tad more lengthy. I'm not in Kansas anymore!

2023-01-06

Happy New Year! I wrote that above piece in late November. Since then I have received the test results back from that stool test. I contracted H. Pylori while travelling in Asia.. a bacterial infection that lives in your stomach and lower intestines. This infection will never go away on its own. It needs treatment to be eradicated and is the leading cause of stomach cancer in the world.. the symptoms I experienced from it: Extreme fatigue like EXTREME fatigue, my troubling dealings with asthma so wasn't able to breathe LOL two puffers every day 2 to 4 times a day each for over a year...., joint issues, brain fog, inflamed stomach, food intolerances (Gluten oats, eggs), anxiety which is caused by an over use of the adrenal gland because its trying to attack the infection which in turn you feel like you're in a fight or flight situation constantly.. all of these things I can attest too and were debilitating. I finished a two week antibiotic cycle a few days ago which had me taking 20 pills a day with a ton of very unpleasant side effects. Lets just say its been an interesting few years (3) and then few weeks.. I feel like a new person with a new body. It's truly indescribable. I don't want to delve too deep into how much figuring this out and fixing it has changed every aspect of my life. Lets just say its one of the few most significant things I have every experienced. I would say it is the single most transformative experience I have ever encountered but that would be a lie because the powerfulness and love I've experienced in my relationship with the Lord will always take precedence and is the most important thing to me, ever. I'll finish this topic up by saying thanks be to God. I am forever grateful. You are everything. I know that will sound really intense and potentially weird to some people with out a doubt, but it's how I whole heartedly feel. 

Nam boi in 12 days now.. it's gonna be a celebration of my health! Not a lot to say at this point except its time for me to pack up my one carry on duffle bag, strap it to my back and just enjoy the liberating feeling of having little to no plans for 6 weeks. Go where I want to go and decide on the fly. When my fight arrives I'll have only booked a few nights accommodation and a Ha long Bay 2 night cruise. The boat has a hot tub and I'll be in a room with 3 other rando's. Haven't done that in a while but the price was right at $350 CAD all in with food, drinks extra. I drank three times in the past 2.5 months and took 4 months in the summer off from drinking. It'll be nice to sip some rum in the hot tub sit back and give thanks to the Good Lord :). 

I really hope that travel pillow arrives on time!

Enjoy the start to the new year and God Bless!