Alright this might become a long post. Hope this is the right sub for this. I've been backpacking for about 5 months now but this is by far the worst experience I encountered so far.
I'm backpacking in Southeast Asia right now and am at the moment in Luang Prabang, Laos. A couple of days ago, the air quality was a bit better so I decided to go for a long run. I went to the restaurant to eat a big bowl of noodles and then went for the run right after. 15 kilometers in, I felt very bad: the food had given me a bad food poisoning and right there it was kicking in. I was at Nahm Dong park, which is in the middle of nowhere, at the furthest point possible from my hostel. There was a toilet there where I suddenly had the worst diarrhea ever and where I've been throwing up insane amounts of food and liquid. This kept going on for a long time, my stomach felt like an bottomless well. Also every sip of water came back out immediately.
There was a taxi driver there, who was planning to go to Luang Prabang. He asked if he could take me with him. As running back was out of the question, I was very happy about that. BUT. He wanted 150.000 kip for it. And I had only 120.000 left. He refused to take me with him because I was 1 dollar short. Even though it was so obvious I would've never made it back. I told him I could get money at the hostel but he did not accept. So he shoved me on to the street and told me I had to walk back. At that point I felt so bad that I was even barely able to walk. The hydration was so bad from all the throwing up and I wasn't able to keep a single sip of water down.
I was stumbling through the road and in the next 10 minutes, about 20 different locals passed me in scooters and cars. They saw me suffering (it was very obvious) but none of them stopped. I felt my body slowly shutting down and knew that shock was creeping in and time was crucial. Finally, there was another tourist on a scooter that stopped and asked me if I was alright. The guy was on way to the park. After throwing up some more, he gave me a ride back to this park and gave me some money for the taxi.
On the way back we did some more vomit stops and once back in luang Prabang, the taxi driver dropped me off about 800 meter from my hostel. There was a scooter only bridge and he didn't want to make a detour to get to the hostel. So I got out of the car and at that point I was so extremely dehydrated that my hands and feet were all white and tingling and I was very cold. I was extremely close to shock at this point. And from what I've learned from my first aid training, once you go in shock there's no way to survive if you don't get medical help. I was very aware of that at that moment, but I wasn't even capable of using my phone anymore to call an ambulance or whatever.
I was barely able to walk and the whole world was spinning around me. Physically and mentally I was a complete wreck. Full on survival mode. I bought a cola at the store from my last bit of cash in the hope it would settle my stomach and to get some fluids in. The store employee didn't even bat an eye to my state. Outside the store, I lied down on the pavement because I felt like I wasn't able to stand anymore. It was super busy in the street with traffic and pedestrians, but literally nobody helped me or even looked at me, even though it was so clear that I was nearly dying there. Yay bystander effect I guess.
I finally decided to give it another go. Try and stand up and cross the busy street, which was very risky as I knew I couldn't trust my senses anymore. Thankfully all went fine, crossed the street, threw up some more (bye cola) and finally stumbled on to the hostel. Longest 800 meters of my life. Here I fell asleep instantly (which was probably dangerous), and after I woke up some other hostel guests arrived and they helped me out big time. They called a taxi to go to the hospital, collected my stuff from the room and gave me money to cover most of it as I was out of cash. I got their numbers and they were willing to help me with whatever I needed. In the hospital I got a drip and some medicine and thankfully recovered quickly.
If this scooter driver didn't help me, I would've probably collapsed there and might've even died. Which seems very likely as everybody else proved they don't give a shit. This amazing guy probably saved my live here.
Crazy to think that from all the dangerous, adrenaline-fueled stuff I do in my life, it's a bowl of noodles that almost gets me lol.
Tl;dr: went for a run, got stranded a long way from home because of food poisoning. Taxi driver thought 1 dollar was worth more than my life and hundreds of people witnessed me almost dying and nobody cared.
Edit: for those few caring messages: thank you so much! And for the rest: wow all that negativity. Yes the hospital staff told me it was food poisoning and that my state was indeed very serious. They told me I needed help asap and that's what I thankfully got there. I was nowhere exaggerating about how bad I was. And yet, here the internet is trying to bash you even further. Downvoting no matter what I say, just for the sake of it.
Yes I'm aware now that most probably didn't help because they thought I was drunk, and I'm okay with that. But people here telling me I'm entitled for expecting people to help when you're in such a crucial state? This just seems like basic norms and values to me. Moral responsibility, which is the base for so many religions for a reason. No, they're not obligated. But it would be the right, human thing to do. Y'all are making me lose hope in humanity even more. Almost all of the solo travelers I in real life met in the last 5 months of traveling were amazing people and I expected the same here. Too bad the internet manages to disappoint me again.