Drinking water

hfot2

What does one do for safe drinking water?
What other options for safe liquid are there?

radz

When you travel India better buy mineral water for drinking.

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Dennis-M

Mineral water is available almost everywhere , and cheap , I did not find water in the train though , In the absence of water you could try Chai or coca(pepsi)-cola are both are good ways do fend off heat , and ways to get some quick energie.

Warning!: Chai Is often accompanied by Interesting conversations , I have not managed to quickly grab a chai tea in India.

Cheers

Dennis

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edwardseco

Beer is rather good..

hobbes

Only buy water from authorized sellers in India - fakes abound. Do not buy water unless it has a tamper proof plastic seal on it. In general in expensive hotels water is safe. Tea is a great cheap option - actually road side tea is generally quite safe as it is made in w way where it is kept boiling in a pan and the process of continuously boiling it kills the germs.

ikimasho

hello!!

a lot of the backpackery places will have a shop that sells pressure boiled water and re-fills your bottles.....

it is worth it to search these out....it is cheaper and lets be honest - INDIA could do with a lot fewer plastic bottles!

i also bought (for 45 rupees) a small heating coil for boiling water. this was one of the best things i bought on my trip. i always had boiled water to drink and could make cups of tea and soup in my room....loved it!

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timmy

I'm taking an element as Ikimasho describes back with me this time, along with my coffee plunger and a kilo of coffee (hey I'm there for three months this time!). I just hope the element doesn't cause the plunger's glass to shatter. I'll use it to boil drinking water as well; previously I've relied on bottled water.

Karaokemonk

I'd bring lots of coffee to India. Most of the coffee I bought in India was ground REALLY fine and didn't work well in my plunger. But maybe I just didn't know where to go.

timmy

I'm taking a one kilo block with me. And maybe some coffee as well

gipsi47

Boiling your water is definately the way to go. You can buy the element heaters all over in india with the right plugs and at a 1/4 of the price.There is way too much plastic there already.
Re the coffee and plunger system. India grows great varieties of coffee beans. The best is PEABERRY. Strong and nutty. Every small town or city has their own special tea and coffee shops that specialise in grinding the beans to your liking fine or not so fine etc, you can buy it it any quantity from 100 gr to a kilo depending on what you want to carry. The peaberry coffee is even better than starbucks and it is really cheap compared to Europe and North America. In the coffee shops or kitchen stores, they also sell a nifty plunger type system made of stainless steel that makes one hell of a cup of coffee or even esspresso type shots. They are the same size as a small plunger system and unbreakable. Ask around for them and get one if you love coffee. We spend 6 months at a time in India and would not be without one.We got ours at our local coffee supplier along with a great lesson on correct usage for south indian style coffee making.

Good Luck

sky888

Tap water can be drinkable (in bigger cities) for most locals, but if this is the first time you try to take it, you better be careful

for myself, the first time I tried to drink a full bottle of tap water (looks clear!) ended up with me having fever for 2 days (also becuase the whether is too cold)... but after that I continued to take tap water and there is not problem at all

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timmy

gipsi - thanks for the advice. I might leave my glass plunger behind in that case and hunt down a coffee shop when I arrive in Mumbai.

As for drinking water... I have always stuck to bottled water - although having said that I love a lassi, which invariably contains ice of unknown origin. I've had my share of Delhi belly, but I came down with my worst bout the day after I drank the water served up by a local restaurant in Varanasi. It was the only time I'd drunk it, as after two weeks I thought well, hey, they drink it and don't get sick. Getting sick may have been coincidental timing, but it was enough for me to vow "never again".

So basically, I guess it takes time to build up your natural immunity against the local lurgies, so my advice is -- especially on a short trip -- don't take unneccessary risks like drinking straight tap water, as you'll likely end up spending half your time on (or over) the toilet.

vistet

Hear , hear !

Pressure boiled water is , litterally , overkill even at the higher altitudes : even at Everest Base Camp water is deemed safe after reaching boiling point.

You can also find plunger coffemakers in Lexan nowadays which cost about the same as the glass type.

Bonita

hi there...wELL, even after years in INDIA, just for my peace of mind, i usually stick to bottled mineral water, and even alot of my Delhi freinds indluge in this too...It is available almost everywhere in INDIA these days, and this is what i suggest drinking, for the most part..of course u can boil your water for the so-called amount of time, and sometimes i do this when i am reasonably settled, but who has that luxury all the time.....Generally speaking, i stick to buying one of the reputable bottled waters...NOTE**, there have been stories of some water-scams, so do check both the seal and the look of the bottle..U do not want a rEcycled bottle OR A top that is not closed properly, obviously....OKAY, SO There are many brands of mineral water on the market, seems like anothr every day AS IT IS Big bizness, and some common names athat i am comfortable with are BISLERI, HIMALAYA, NESTLE and my favorite AQUAFINA..DO not know exactly what minerals are claimed to be in these waters, but those are probably four of the most reputable companies and have been indulging for years withour a problem...These days, even when riding a train there will be a guy running through the compartment selling cold drinks/ mineral water, etc, etc, and certainley at the big station stops in between, at the kiosks, there will be so-called chilled mineral water..another popular option to mineral water is soda water, sold in cans, and a very popular/thirst quenching drink in INDIA is sweet lime water, water or bubbly water with fresh lime juice, and served either salty or sweet..it is called nimbu pani..nimbu means lime and pani is water..it is my all-time favorite on a hot day,....

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vistet

Mmmm... lime
(good with iodine-treated water as well, add after the iodine has taken effect.)