taking showers in India

cyberhippie

I shower while I sing and I happily rinse my mouth with tap water (don't touch the tap with your mouth) and I can report no problems whatsoever!!
I've said it before and I'll say it again if you're gonna get sick, you're gonna get sick there are so many bacteria ridden variables, that to dwell too long on what COULD make you sick, does little else than spoil your trip as you try to avoid the unavoidable!
You know it's no bad thing to expose yourself to local bacteria on a long trip to India. It helps the immune system cope. Although I can understand someone on a short 2 week trip trying to avoid spending 3-4 days near a toilet or worse.
Anyways that's my experience use your own judgement for what works best for you!!

Happy Travelling

tukat

I would brush my teeth with boiled water, but sometimes would forget what I was doing while showering & scared myself when some water got in my mouth. (Apparently I do shower with my mouth open, never thought about it until India!) But I'm a "hydro" (lol) chondriac anyway, so don't listen to me.

If I ever get to spend longer than 3 weeks (my usual) I'll take cyberhippies advice & expose myself to a little local bacteria, I won't even have to try, I know it will happen! Every trip I get the dreaded travellers D. eventually, must be the shower.

Before my first trip to India, I used to get gas from Indian food, but since that trip I've been fine with it, maybe I aquired a native dal digesting probiotic!

Paagla Dashu

Research shows that 95% men engage in "self-gratification" while in the shower.

The balance 5% sing a SONG. Surprisingly, the world over, regardless of caste, creed, language, culture or religion, these people sing the same SONG!!!

Nick-H

Question: Where in the world would you consider drinking untreated water to be safe, or, perhaps, even sensible? OK: a mountain streem perhaps; but a city tap?

I suppose ultimately we wouldn't even wash in the stuff, so there has to be a risk compromise,which for me is to not knowingly get the stuff in my mouth, whether drinking, or splashing or washing or toothbrushing.

But I do wash in it, and I do touch my mouth, and I do use utensils washed in it, but none of these is going to give me anything like the dose of organisms that a mouthful would. I absent-mindedly took a mouthful the other day,to wash my mouth out after a dusty job. I spat it out and washed my mouth with drinking water. I'm still alive!

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traceyam

I used to brush my teeth in the shower; it's an old drum corps habit. I definitely don't do that in India.

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kiwi_razz

haha Paagla, I won't ask.

readmymind

well, i'm not a guy, so i'd have to say no.

there's just something so free about spitting all over and not having to worry about making a mess. although in india i only used bottled water to brush my teeth. i may be a free spirit in my own shower, but i try to take care in others.

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dzibead

No ill effects yet, anyway ...

timmy

Here in Australia and New Zealand, tap water is perfectly safe to drink, even in the biggest cities. A recent programme on TV got tap water scientifically tested and compared the results to bottled water and they were pretty much identical.

I'm sure there must be some other countries with clean drinkable tap water.

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ajay7

how can you generalize this it started with chennai , though th ewater in most cities is pretty contimated if not with organisms then with silt/sand FREE MINERALS!!!!!
Those of you who can drink and do all other sundry things in local tap water in direrent parts of India truly have the immunity to withstand any kinda water in the world , those who can't are just Weak!! go to India and make some broad based immunity>>>>>>>

monkgonemad

from my experience any water that is not 'clean' placed in my mouth will make me sick. what clean is and how much i can get away with in any given country is an unknown. as a rule i wash my mouth out with potable water.

others may develop immunities, i dont seem to.

ps: if you are on holiday in india - dont put water w/ uncertain origin in your mouth and taht goes for whatever may run into your mouth in shower.

ps: dont waste water - its the 'new oil' insofar as scarcity

phobal

I do! I rinse my mouth after brushing my teeth with a high powered showerhead Try it! You'll feel sooooo clean.

I live 30 minutes from the mountains and 400 km from an icefield where we get our water from, I'm so spoiled that filtered water and London tapwater make me sick. I cannot imagine what Indian tap water would do .

Nick-H

Timmy, I should say that most of Europe has drinkable tap water. UK certainly does. I've always thought the bottled water thing there to be a complete waste of money, if not a bit of a scam.

charaskapujari: I don't know anyone here in Chennai that does drink their tap water without at least filtering then boiling it and the stuff the local authority delivers is only used for washing. You'll see a 25l drum of treated drinking water in most houses here and some even boil that just in case. My tap water is yellow with disolved minerals etc (at least it isn't slimy like some water i've seen here). My neighbours, who have lived here for years, say, "a few drops won't do you any harm, but don't drink it.".

My Chennai-native music teacher came to his own house after two years in London: he and his wife were in hospital the next day, the doctors saying that they had lost their immunity. He said to me, "Now I understand why you have to be so careful". Some of the most careful people here are NRI visitors.

I'm not nearly as careful as I would be as a tourist. I don't have an itinery that's going to be ruined if I do get sick for a few days. I drink water in restaurants that I know instead of buying a bottle, relying on their machine.

So, if you feel that it is just great to be macho with your immune system,well, fine... but, so far as Chennai is concerned it is not to be recommended. Not, that is, if you want to enjoy your visit!

edwardseco

Reminds me of Mezcal and some Thai stuff with a snake in the bottom..

-m2-

never been that big of a deal to me either.