Soles of a Nomad

A landslide blocks the road. Flies swarm a mountain village. A museum curator hands me a thousand-year-old jar and tells me to pretend to drink milk from it. These are just a few moments from our nine-day journey along the Pamir Highway, one of the world’s most remote and unforgettable road trips across the mountains of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Sulfur burps. Endless diarrhea. The sinking realization that this is not, in fact, “just something you ate.” After getting giardia three times on the road (Wyoming, India, and most recently Central Asia), I finally learned how to recognize it, treat it properly, and stop suffering longer than necessary. This post combines an embarrassing travel story with practical, field-tested advice for identifying and treating giardia while traveling.