Safe drinks?

cyberhippie

The tea or more correctly, the chai isn't brewed in the traditional sense of letting the tea sit in the boiled water.
The tea sugar water and ultimately the milk are all boiled together to produce the best tea you ever had!

charlotte

Cyberhippie - I do agree with you and I don't take it to the stage of paranoia - ikary has posted things I don't agree with and so I think I should be able to post and say so.
The first time we travelled to India was 1984 and have lived in India for 6 months of each year since then - albeit in Goa but have taken 6 week coach tours all over India - we think we might know something about the rest of the country.
The only main places we have not been is Calcutta and Varansi but we will get there this year.

Anelegantchaos

my, this is becoming like a TT thread .. Chill and give advice , not attack each other.

Apply commonsense, and you should be fine. Like everything in life , nothing can be guaranteed 100%. Kick back,enjoy a Kingfisher (ice cold) and some of the finest cuisine you will ever eat ...

Wishing you a safe journey and a gastronomic experience of a life time ...Happy days

__________________
Enlightenment is permanent because we have not produced it we have merely discovered it

hfot2

Thanks to all for replying to my initial.
I too began to worry that this was sounding like a TT discussion.

I wonder if all the advice comes from folks who travel just to India.
We have practiced "safe drinking and eating" habits in China and SE Asia. Is there anything less safe about India that I should worry about?? The books all seem to talk more about it for India.

Merchant

The only unsafe bit of India is the water. You can get sick from bad cooking oil or salmonella or anything else in your hometown just as easily as you can in India.

Dry your cups and plates before food is placed on them. Drink only bottled water or boiled/filtered (which is what most middle-class Indians drink).

I've had warm milk and corn flakes, and it is a strange experience. Don't forget that a lot of the milk you get was squeezed out of an udder that very morning, and some of the milk in tea and coffee is powdered. It is not, in and of itself, dangerous. Spoiled milk is bad for everyone--and Indian don't want to get sick any more than you do.

I've made six trips to India and have gone from a total food phobe to being far more relaxed. I'll eat in roadside canteens. I don't generally eat in stalls, but I don't do that in New York, either. But I am religious about avoiding water--carry a handkerchief to dry your plates.

The other thing you should do religiously is wash your hands. A study published recently in JAMA showed that washing hands with soap and water (regardless of the condition of the water) reduced the incidence of diarrhea among children in slums in Pakistan by 50%. Diarrhea is a leading cause of death among South Asian children.

If you do get sick in India, it could be from any number of factors. It could be simple indigestion, the result of dehydration, or it could be food poisoning. Don't assume that one bout of gastrointestinal unpleasantness is categorically the result of the samosa you got at the street stall. Just be smart about what and how you eat, know your own tolerances for spicy food, and most importantly stay hydrated. Once you start to dehydrate, your stomach will do strange things, and all that coffee and tea will come back to haunt you--and it won't be because of the milk. Drink more bottled water than you think you need. When you haven't had to pee for 12 hours, you know you have a problem.