Originally Posted by
Swanhunter
My tips would be:
* Avoid salads
* Avoid street vendors unless you see it cooked right in front of you
* Minimise meat intake. I go 80% vegetarian
* No seafood unless by the sea. There is no network of refrigerated distribution in India making prawns 500 miles from the sea very risky
* Only drink bottled water, and only with the seal intact
* Wash your hands frequently and use anti-bacterial handwash
I'm happy to risk fruit (mango and pineapple especially) and drink a lassi daily which seems to help.
Doing that I've managed 20+ trips (some weeks long) and been ill only a couple of times. Living there is a different deal. Friends and colleagues say that you will - inevitably - get badly sick at some point.
All very good advice but you can just as easily become ill by drinking that bottled water from a dirty glass, which has happened to me in a 5 star hotel.
I have lived and worked in India for the last 12 years but I have been ill more times in the UK during that period, than I have when I have been in India, and some of my trips there have been for months at a time.
I am flying back to BOM tonight and can't wait to get back to some hot weather and decent service, both of which are in very short supply in the UK at the moment
endoman - not sure if this will be your first trip to India but my advice is to go there with a positive outlook, enjoy and take in the experience this wonderful country has to offer and you should love it.