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