It’s inevitable that changes in diet and climate from travelling around our planet will result in the occasional bout of Delhi belly.¹ We’ve been very fortunate (and pretty careful) thus far, but when it happens, here’s how we deal with it..

Just as you’ll find dock leaves growing nearby to stinging nettles, we’ve found that there’s always a local cure nearby whenever we catch the Bengali bowels, and it is the simplest, plainest local biscuits you can find.

Magic biscuits, this variety is native to Bangladesh and can be easily identified as each biscuit is embossed with the word ‘Bengal‘

You know the kind I mean, if we were at home in the UK it would be the Rich Tea biscuit or the Nice biscuit – high temperature baked, no extra fancy ingredients, fillings or frostings, just plain, simple, crispy biscuits.

In the few countries we’ve needed them, they’ve been very easy to find and after a couple of packets, they’ve set us right in a day or so². After first discovering their powerful healing properties while suffering the Shanghai sh*ts in Hampi, southern India, we’ve referred to them ever since as magic biscuits.

¹ Diarrhoea.
² Note that it’s always a good idea to keep your fluid levels up regardless, but the dryness of the biscuits means we tend to drink more liquids such as water or tea than we’d normally do. Rehydration sachets are also a very good idea, nay, required if you find yourself squatting frequently to relieve the Saskatchewan squits. That’s the last of them. I promise.