I was hospitalised with Bali Belly 🇮🇩 Here's how I avoid it now!

I've been to Bali a lot and for years every single trip would end the same way. At some point I would get violently ill. I am talking cannot leave the bathroom kind of sick and one time it got so bad I had to go to hospital. So when I came back from Bali on my most recent trip and I didn't get sick at all, honestly I was shocked. For the first time ever I figured out how to avoid Bali belly. So in this video I'm going to walk you through exactly what I changed, the mistakes I stopped making, what products actually helped and what you should do if you end up getting sick in Bali. Because trust me if you can avoid spending your Bali trip in the bathroom on the floor glued to the toilet or worse hooked up to an IV drip in a hospital you'll want to do it. Let's get into it. So first what actually is Bali belly? Because people throw that term around constantly. Basically Bali belly is traveler's diarrhea and it's caused typically by contaminated food, contaminated water or poor food handling. The most common culprits are bacteria and you may be being really careful while you're in Bali but like a doctor at the hospital told me it can be as simple as touching something, touching your phone, putting your phone to your head and the bacteria has been picked up and is now on your face and entering your system. Alarming. Now because Bali is hot, humid and tropical, bacteria can spread very easily especially because there are so many tourists there. Now it's not always obvious. It could be salad washed in tap water, cross-contamination in kitchens, sometimes it could even just be something you touch and the symptoms can go way beyond just a slightly upset stomach, trust me. We're talking severe stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, dehydration and complete exhaustion. Yeah the gang's all there. I mean some estimates even say that up to half of travelers to Bali experience it in some form or another. I remember my best friend and her husband were going and I warned them you are going to get Bali belly you have to be careful and they were like no we'll be fine. They text me a few days into their trip and were like yeah we're stuck to the bathroom floor we've got Bali belly please help us and honestly for years I've been in the same position but not anymore. The hospital story. So how did I end up in a Balinese hospital and what is that even like? Let me tell you. I was staying in Ubud maybe two years ago when this happened. I have no idea what I ate that caused it and like the doctor at the hospital told me it could have simply just been something that I touched but what happened was I was moving from Ubud to Canggu and that morning I started to experience some digestational discomfort. I was in the car on the way from Ubud to Canggu and asked the driver to stop at a Somehow I made it to my amazing resort in Canggu just in time but guys things escalated quickly. It went from stomach cramps and frequent toilet visits in the morning to non-stop glued to the toilet and throwing up all at the same time later that afternoon. It was not great. I think I threw up all that night and all the next day and finally that following afternoon I realized I needed some help. This wasn't just going to stop with some Imodium and some water. Now my hotel was amazing and they helped me contact a call-out doctor service. They came to the hotel, they talked to me about what I was experiencing, they hooked me up to an IV drip and they gave me some medication to treat the nausea, the vomiting, the diarrhea and everything else that I was experiencing. That helped temporarily but by evening the next night I was right back in the same position. I was throwing up, I couldn't keep anything down, I was not able to hydrate properly. I remember at one point I was in the fetal position on the floor of the shower just frozen. I tried to hang in there and I figured everything would just clear up on its own and I would be okay. It just wouldn't stop. By that point it had been many many days. I knew I was severely dehydrated and I just remember thinking I need help. At this point I contacted my travel insurer and asked them for advice about where I should go, which hospital was the best one and what was covered by my policy. They directed me to a hospital and my amazing hotel had a driver there who took me really early in the morning and we literally had to stop a couple of times on route so I could throw myself out of the car into the gutter on my hands and knees and throw up. It was so disgusting and it's so embarrassing and I know I'm laughing about it now but it was also truly terrifying. I was on the phone to my parents, my mom and my dad and I was like crying and I was like I need help. I'm so weak and dehydrated and I'm exhausted from not sleeping and I'm going to this Balinese hospital by myself and I don't speak the language and I don't know what to do. And when I got there, the emergency department of the hospital, it was a rough time. The toilet was like the toilet out of train spotting. It was not the kind of hospital you might be used to seeing in somewhere like Australia like I'm I'm used to seeing but either way I was just grateful to be there. Now once I went out of the emergency department and got admitted to the actual like international wing of the hospital, things improved significantly. The treatment was amazing. I had to pay a deposit up front and then they were able to start the treatment and honestly within 24 hours I was feeling so much better already. I think all up it took me about a couple of weeks to fully get over it and for my system to get back to normal and be able to eat normal food again and feel like myself again. And we're going to talk in a minute about travel insurance and other essential things I think you need because if I didn't have these things I would have been so screwed because you know what's genuinely terrifying? Being seriously ill in another country, barely functioning, your brain isn't working, you can't stop throwing up, you're exhausted and you're trying to navigate a medical system you don't understand all by yourself in a country you don't speak the language in. And at this hospital English was not widely spoken. Now honestly one thing I was incredibly grateful for during all of this was my eSIM. My phone basically became my lifeline. I was able to contact my travel insurer, message back and forth with them, figure out which hospital I needed to get to, contact my family and eventually even get my dad to come over to Bali to help me because I was in such a bad state. When I got to the hospital English was not widely spoken so I was able to use the Translate app to communicate with them. I was able to book hotels for when I got discharged, move my travel plans around and move money around in order to be able to pay my hospital bills. Like I genuinely do not know what I would have done if I didn't have reliable data. That's why I always travel with an eSIM and Saili is the perfect fit. What I love is that it's just ridiculously easy. You download the app, buy the plan, install the eSIM and you are good to go. No lining up at airport kiosks to buy a SIM card, no ridiculous roaming charges, no dealing with random people trying to sell you sketchy SIMs and they've got affordable plans in over 200 destinations including global and regional plans if you are traveling through multiple countries. Honestly even if nothing goes wrong, which I really hope it doesn't, being connected when you travel is absolutely essential now. So if you're traveling soon I genuinely recommend checking out You can use the QR code on screen right now or the link in the video description below and my unique code travelforphoebe for a special discount. What I did differently this time. Okay so on my most recent trip to Bali I approached things completely differently. Instead of treating Bali belly like just randomly bad luck, I treated it like a system and honestly I think that changed everything. Now about two weeks before I went to Bali I started taking probiotics daily and then when I was there I used my spray hand sanitizer like an animal. I took three bottles of these to Bali and I used all three over a two-week period. Every time I touched money, every time I touched a straw, a drink, every time I've been on a grab, every time I touch my debit card, every time I touched a hotel, it didn't matter what I was constantly using this and I love the spray one particularly. This saved me. I think I looked very embarrassing because other people weren't doing it but I didn't get Bali belly so you know what I'm not embarrassed. I was also crazy about these little pocket packs of wet wipes that are antibacterial. I would take this out and I would wipe down my knife and my fork, I would wipe down the table and my phone because I had that doctor's voice in my head that you can touch, touch, touch and you're sick. So I was wiping down my phone and spraying it with the hand sanitizer constantly. Is this overkill? Maybe. Overkilling the bacteria that's trying to kill you. I didn't get Bali belly and I swear this is the secret. Now the other thing you have to be super careful of is water. Trying to say that to Australian there. Water. Water. In Bali you cannot use the tap water. That means you cannot brush your teeth with it, you definitely cannot drink it and you need to be super mindful of when you come into contact with it. So even for me when I'm using the restroom afterwards, this. Just a big healthy dose of this. I'm not using the tap water to even wash my hands. I'm buying big bottles of water, I'm only drinking from those, I'm only using those to brush my teeth and even when I'm in the shower and I'm washing my hair or I'm washing my face, I am constantly spitting. I know maybe that's gross but I don't want a single drop of that water anywhere near me. Now I know a lot of people are going to ask the question about ice. It is my understanding that the ice system in Bali is heavily regulated. So when I'm going to restaurants and cafes, I am ordering drinks that have ice in them and like I said to you, I've gotten sick in the past. I didn't get sick this trip and whether or not I ordered ice didn't factor into my success of not getting Bali belly. Obviously I'm not pulling up at like a roadside spot where somebody's just making ice from the tap water. I'm always eating at really modern, nice, new-ish restaurants and I've not had a problem. Now when it comes to food, you want to be really careful here too. I prioritize freshly cooked food over raw food. It doesn't mean I don't dabble in the occasional ceviche you guys but I only do it at really fancy restaurants. If I want to try authentic local food, I'm going to more high-end restaurants to do that and I'm looking for places that have a really high turnover. I'm also avoiding things like salads. You don't make friends with salad. You don't make friends with salad. I completely avoid any kind of buffet except the free breakfast buffet at the hotel and even then a million squirts of this. Now all of this might sound really intense and dramatic but I was so sick when I was in that hospital. I genuinely thought at one point I was gonna die and I just don't care now. I would rather be dramatic and over the top about it and I would rather take every single precaution possible and not get sick than ever have to go through that again because it was awful. And one thing I think people genuinely overlook when it comes to avoiding barley belly is exhaustion. When you are run down, dehydrated, drinking a lot of alcohol, not sleeping, all those kinds of things, your system is more vulnerable. So this trip I was really focused on staying hydrated constantly, prioritizing sleep, I don't drink alcohol and just slowing down a bit and again boosting my system with those probiotics before I went and I think all of that contributed to my success. What to do if you get barley belly? So let's just say you did all of the precautions that Phoebe told you to do. You took them all and you still got barley belly. What are you going to do? First, panic. No, don't panic. A lot of cases are unpleasant but manageable. Now one thing I do whenever I travel anywhere in the world is I have like a little bag packed full of essential medications and in this case for a trip to Bali I would recommend electrolytes, buscopan, imodium, some charcoal related tablets, ibuprofen, paracetamol, that kind of stuff. That way if the barley belly strikes you and your partner, let's say it's like early in the morning, it's late at night and neither of you can leave the hotel safely to go and get the medication you need to stop what's happening to you, you already have it on hand. So if the barley belly strikes at like two in the morning you don't have to wait for the pharmacy to open, you can already start tackling it. If you're really concerned about it you might want to go and see your doctor or talk to your pharmacist and just ask for a stash, a fat stash of drugs to clog your business up. If that's working for you and your body is okay and you're starting to come back online, you need to eat a bland diet. You can't have extreme diarrhea and then be pumping in some super spicy nasi goreng because you're just going to go straight back to super diarrhea. You want to eat really bland foods, think plain rice, plain toast, bananas, that kind of stuff. You want to avoid alcohol, coffee, spicy foods, anything crazy like that. And then you just want to rest, get in that bed, put on the Netflix, get that air con nice and cold, hydrate and take it easy. Okay let's say that hasn't worked and you're at the next level and you're like well I need some help but I don't want to go to a hospital. There are call out doctor services, I will have the information, the contact details in the video description below for you. This is a service that I used. They come out to your hotel, your resort, they will check you out, they will give you medication on the spot, they will give you IV drugs, medicines if you need them and they will hook you up to IV fluids as well because trust me you're going to need to be hydrated. Now I think the cost for that service was somewhere around the five or six hundred Australian dollar mark for me from memory and honestly I was at the point where I was like I will pay you anything you want just stop this from happening to me. Okay now let's say you've gone through that first thing, the Imodium didn't work, you've gone through the second thing, the call out doctor didn't work and you're where I was in the bad place and you need to get to a hospital. You gotta go to a hospital. When you're really sick like that it can be really hard to make that decision because you don't want to be dramatic, maybe you are like a little bit mindful of the money side of it, you know do I really want to be that tourist with the barley belly at a hospital? You just have to go because dehydration is really dangerous and it's better to just go get the help you need and get yourself back on track than to suffer and be in an even more dangerous situation. Now what I did was contact my travel insurer, they told me which hospital to go to and I went straight there. Yes I felt embarrassed especially when I was wearing an adult diaper at one point. Oh my god but you guys it was worth it, it was worth it because I got so much better so much faster. Travel insurance, you absolutely need travel insurance. I don't care if you're traveling to Bali or anywhere else in the world, travel insurance is absolutely essential. It's one of those things that if you have it and you don't need it, cool. But if you have it and you find yourself in a position where you need it, you're going to be so thankful that you did and honestly having travel insurance just took the stress away from me. I could roll up to this hospital and be like I don't care what it costs, just get me well. Get me well, please administer help. Now in the video that I made, the vlog I made about going to the hospital and everything that happened, I told you guys I was insured by Safety Wing. Now I've seen a lot of influencers promoting Safety Wing and I'm not sure they've ever actually made a claim with them. I've made claims with them on two occasions now I think and I will be very honest with you, I find their claims process to be very tiresome. It's lengthy, the communication is difficult, they make mistakes, things get delayed and it took me a long time to get my money back both times I've claimed. But I did get the money back eventually. I still use Safety Wing to this day because I have no other choice. I'm a digital nomad, they offer digital nomad insurance. I can't take out annual policies or individual policies for each trip, it just doesn't work for the way I live my life. Safety Wing is my only option, that's why I continue to use them. But if I was a regular person just going to Bali on a holiday for a couple of weeks, I would get an individual policy and I would do that with either Covermore or Travel Insurance Direct. I have used and claimed with both of them and I found their claims process to be awesome, particularly Travel Insurance Direct. I called them when I was in a hospital in Thailand and was like hey I'm here, they paid the bill up front on the spot. I never even had to go through the process of paying and getting the money back. So that would be my number one pick. If like me you're a digital nomad or you need a policy like I do, go with Safety Wing. Just understand that you will get the money back. It's going to take a while and it's going to be difficult, but you will get it back. Getting Bali Beli is a truly harrowing experience. If you're there with your partner, the person you're in a relationship with, your situation, your fling, it can be a real bonding experience. Once you've been through that, you can go through anything. If you experience it as a solo traveler, it'll make you real tough. You might cry, there might be times where you question what you're doing with your life, you'll wonder if you're going to survive it, maybe you'll even jot down a will in the notes app of your phone, but it'll make you tough, real tough. Honestly, this was the first Bali trip I came home from feeling healthy. No stomach issues, no antibiotics and no weeks of recovery afterwards. And after years of continuously getting sick there, it felt like a miracle. So if you are heading to Bali soon, I really hope that this video has helped you in advance and you don't have to learn the hard and disgusting way like I did, because Bali is incredible. And trust me, you want your memories from your trip to be beautiful sunsets, incredible food, amazing relaxation, and just a gorgeous connection with the locals. Not 48 hours spent glued to a toilet or hooked up to an IV in a hospital. Now, if you found this video helpful, be sure to give it a like. It helps me more than you may think. And if you have experienced Bali Valley, would you please share your story in the comments below? Because I've very vulnerable here and put my story out on the internet forever. It's disgusting and embarrassing. And if you could even that up for me, I would really appreciate it. And if you have any other survival tips that I haven't included here, please pop them in the comments below for other people. If you know a great travel insurer and you've claimed with them and you recommend them, or you have somebody that you think people should avoid getting insured by, make sure you pop that in the comments below as well. And if you are planning a trip to Bali, you guys, I have so many great Bali blogs and guides here on the YouTube channel and also on my website, travelforphoebe.com. Make sure you check those out and get loads of inspiration for all the amazing things you're going to see, do, and eat in Bali. And with that, that brings this week's ultra disturbing episode to a close. I hope you've enjoyed it. Now, if you don't already, be sure to subscribe right now so you never miss a single episode and say hello in the comments below. I hope you have a great weekend and I will see you next week with a brand new episode. Love ya.