What is the chief hazard of India travel ???

The traffic and roads...I've read about it and the killer roads and traffic scare me - I'm don't care about the hecklers - that's just the way things are in India.

"Drivers / hecklers?" (?) or "uncertainly / punctuality"?

I would just say "road and traffic dangers"

only about a fifth of people who are casting a vote , are also adding a comment (

I almost put hecklers but I went with risk of disease. Hecklers are definitely the biggest annoyance but I think risk of disease is a bigger hazard. Even if you stick to the posh areas your food is still being prepared by people who don't live in particularly hygenic circumstances. There are endless stories of people getting sick even though they only ate in fancy hotels.

I've ticked the health factor also as both Caroline and I have both managed to pick up some bugs (one serious) on our last two visits. Perhaps as we get older our immune systems are going down a bit. Touts are a nuisance but not health threatening.

I would like to see more women working in the catering business as I think they would be more careful in the matter of personal hygiene.

Agreed. I didn't see even one. What a wasted trip!

To me, the biggest hazard is an upset tummy, bad loos and no water...all tied up.

its not very hazardous to add a line, is it !!!

come on everyone,,, this is my very first thread...

pls find something bad to say about your india trip and type it here...

Okay, seriously; everyone in our "group" suffered from respiratory problems from the air pollution in the bigger cities.

well sorry everyone for all the various hazards they encountered while in india....

guess one needs to pass some test or the other, or pay a price in some way or the other, before they can discover this sub-continent. all i hope, is that they go back thinking, that despite the hazards, "IT WAS WORTH IT!!"

as for skell... i know.. its a problem for us too... one suggestion... try to explore the cities in early morning if you can, that way you can breathe fresh early morning air and also beat the office time traffic and fumes. also another good time slot is mid-day... say between 11-5 on weekdays...,just before the "homeward bound" office workers start restoring ...insanity, to our city roads again.

i was reading the archieves.... could monkeys be one of the main hazards in india? i noticed that there were basically 2 types of monkeys... one with black faces and the other with red butts

Hi BT, nice thread, but many of us haven't been to India, yet. But when I finally make it, I'm sure I'll find something bad about it to share

Beware of the monkey in the tree above you. I swear the one that peed on us was laughing as we ran away screaming!

just got back two weeks ago from my first encounter. I voted for pollution and fumes as I just couldn't get over the lack of available oxygen when riding around in the tuktuk! The hygiene and filth I can overcome, but without a canister of oxygen at my side the fumes are overwhelming. You are right Bengal about choosing your times to explore in the cities. Ranakpur was a breath of fresh air, literally, after other places. I also really hated the fact that the touts caused me to become a bit hostile, non-speaking, to some Indians that truly wanted to just speak some english. I ended up having a 5 hour discussion with a young guy in Delhi that was wanting to better his english in order to get an outsourcing job..what a hoot. Overall, none of it, the fumes, filth, touts overbearing Pushkarians or whatever will dissuade me from my next trip to India!

"Overall, none of it, the fumes, filth, touts overbearing Pushkarians or whatever will dissuade me from my next trip to India!" >> india seems to have claimed another victim.

you are most welcome. please do come as often as you can.

hopefully the pollution will have lessened a bit by then what with the various city municipal corporatons enforcing stricter (as if they were strict b4 lol) emmision standards and phasing out the old diesel-guzzling & fume-spewing buses with newer ones.
2 things.. was it a rickshaw or a tuk-tuk you rode? in india they arnt called tuk-tuks .
and which ranakpur are you talking about? the one i passed through in rajasthan on the way from jodhpur to udaipur surely is no place to visit !! must be another i dont know of :P