How to Handle ‘Urgent Experiences With Exotic Meals’

Travel Blog  •  Michael Yessis  •  09.25.07 | 9:51 AM ET

imageThat’s one way to describe bowel issues, a common but not easily talked about problem for many travelers. Another way: Over-functioning. And a description for another less urgent but still critical problem: Vacastipation. Sophia Dembling uses all these terms in a recent Wandering Mind column for the Chicago Tribune about troublesome experiences she’s had on the road. Dembling doesn’t offer any foolproof tips for avoiding problems, but she does deliver a few laughs. And in return I, who have more than once found myself far from home—or a bathroom—when faced with an urgent experience, offer my sympathy.

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Photo by code poet, via Flickr (Creative Commons).