* Bag snatching and pickpocketing are common; thieves often work in teams, with one person creating a distraction while the other snatches your bag.
* Be alert for credit card fraud. Don't let merchants take your card out of your sight to process.
* "Chain-snatching" - stealing a woman's necklace - is a common crime. But I'll mostly wear two silk necklaces (made in India) from Eileen Fisher. Think I'm safe on this one.
* Money pouches worn inside your clothing are the best place to keep your...money....Try to avoid letting people see you take it out. She likes to keep hers in a zippered wallet attached to her zipped bag with a chain. Not sure I can do all that.
* Keep your luggage locked even in your room.
* But then she goes on to say the #1 hazard is traffic, not crime or disease. Given the lack of skill of the average Indian driver, the general disinclination to obey traffic laws, and the sheer density of pepole and vehicles weaving in and around each other, it's not surprising that India has a high accident rate. If any open place is available along the road, more than one person or vehicle is usually aiming for it. The incredible variety of vehicles sharing the same roadways makes for utter chaos. It always feels like open season on pedestrians in India....An assortment of people, vehicles and animals moving at different speeds can make it really difficult to time your dash to the other side of the road. Having found an opening in the traffic, you may get part way across the road when suddenly a beggar or tout or a boy selling toy ducks blocks your way to get your attention, or a bicycle veers in front of you, or an auto-rickshaw screeches to a halt in front of you to see if you want a ride - all completely unmindful of the bus bearing down on you at top speed. This sort of thing happenes constantly.
* Sidewalks in India, when there are any, are not always available for pedestrians. If they are not blocked by sleepers, beggars, families cooking lunch, itinerant vendors, illegal shops, bicycles, motor scooters, cows, buffaloes, sleeping dogs, piles of gravel, open ditches and other obstacles, then the local men have been using the adjoining walls as a toilet, rendering them unfit for use because of the horrendous stench.
* Rape is the fastest growing violet crime in India, cutting across all classes and economic brackets.
* Most taxi drivers don't know how to read maps....If you are a woman, the driver may ignore your directions even when you know the way perfectly well.
* Then there's the whole issue of dengue fever growing around New Delhi especially. We'll wear long sleeves for sure at night.
* She writes at length of the challenges of uneven sources of power, spikes; irregular deliver of water and power; absence of hot water in many places; and of course the Indian toilets. We should be fine in our nice hotels, but there may be some adventures on our long drives.
Of course there's a whole chapter on hygiene.
* Contaminated water is probably the single most common source of disease in India for westerners. Salads should be avoided....Dairy products can be risky.
* Paper currency tends to harbor a lot of disease-causing microorganisms. We'll be clutching our bottles of Purell for sure.
After all the warnings and negatives, it was reassuring to read the Conclusion, and to be reminded of why we're enthusiastic about this adventure.
The real secret to enjoying India is learning to be in harmony with the way things function here. In order to accomplish this, you need to respect the culture, to relax and be flexible with your plans, and you need to be aware of what is going on around you....The more you can attune yourself to India, and the more you can learn to take everything as it comes, the more you will enjoy it. Indians are friendly, warm-hearted people, and getting to know them is a great delight.
....The more you open your heart to the people you meet and your mind to their ways of thinking and living, the more India will open itself to you. Ultimately, it's mostly up to you whether you have a good time or not. Your attitude makes all the difference.
India is the land of all possibilities, the land where every day will bring you sights and sounds, smells and tastes that you have never before experienced or even imagined. May you enjoy it to the fullest!
Whew! Now it's on to re-reading the inches-thick file with all the emails from Piotr (our planner), etc. that I've been gathering for six months. The suitcase is beginning to fill. Meds, electronics, cosmetics, etc. are all in their special bags. Dried fruit and trail mix are ready for times when we need familiar food. I've researched restaurants for Saturday night's dinner in Mumbai. So many choices, and just 1 night. Onward....
A few more family photos. I've learned to do captions!
Notes on blogging: I see the default format for these blogs is to allow comments. It also suggests you could subscribe by email. I have no idea if that works. But I can see it will be easier not to try to remember to turn off the default setting for each post; just know I'm not expecting/needing/desiring comments! I'll continue to send an email notice to those who've asked when I post a new blog.
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| Adah, Tag, and Gram |
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| Evie at the beach |
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| Xander |
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