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India Very High Risk Nation for Delhi Belly

 Health, Tourism  Comments Off
Dec 192010
 
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You schmucks can scream Mera Bharat Mahaan and India Shining till you are hoarse but India stands tall on the global stage only for all the wrong things.

Like for instance, travel diarrhea, rape, frequent random violence, treatment of minorities, extra-judicial murders by the police (encounters) et al.

In this post, we intend to examine the danger travel diarrhea a.k.a. Delhi Belly poses to travelers making the mistake of visiting India.

India continues to be one of the highest risk countries in the world for travelers ending up with travel diarrhea.

What is Travel Diarrhea
UK’s Health Protection Agency defines travel diarrhea as:

Three or more unformed stools in a 24 hour period, often accompanied by at least one of the following: fever, nausea, vomiting, cramps, tenesmus, or bloody stools (dysentery), with symptoms usually starting during or shortly after a period of foreign travel.

While rarely fatal, travel diarrhea can, however, be a very unpleasant experience and ruin your vacation or business trip.

Causes
Travel diarrhea can be caused by bacteria (like Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, Shigella spp and Campylobacter spp), protozoa (Cryptosporidium spp, Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica, Cyclospora spp) and viruses (norovirus).

Travel Diarrhea – India Stands Tall
A recent report by the Health Protection Agency finds that India had the highest number of Delhi Belly victims (581) for travelers from England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2008 and the second highest rate (64.85).


HPA Advice to Travelers on Preventing Diarrhea
• Wash your hands after using the toilet and before eating or preparing food; if soap and water is not
available, carry alcohol hand gel with you.
• Investigate the destination before you go; is the tap water safe to drink? If it is not, then do not drink
it or use it for cleaning your teeth. Avoid ice in drinks.
• Make sure any food you eat has been recently prepared, is properly cooked and piping hot. Avoid raw
fruit and vegetables unless you know they have been washed in clean water or peeled yourself.
• Practise good swimming pool hygiene. Do not swim if you have diarrhoea and make sure any babies and young children wear suitable swimwear while in the pool. Take care not to swallow any swimming pool water.

Of course, if you ask the wise souls at SearchIndia.com, the best and safest thing travelers can do to avoid Delhi Belly is to strike India off their itinerary.

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 9:51 pm

What’s the Big Deal about Times Square?

 America, Tourism  Comments Off
Nov 292010
 
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Show me where your people gather and we’ll tell you where your country and planet is headed.
- The Wise Souls of SearchIndia.com

What is it about Times Square in New York City that has the tourists, both foreign and domestic, swarming the place in droves?

Any time you go to the area, the place is a pedestrian’s nightmare.

Not on account of the cars, buses or cabs but because of the teeming crowds that makes it hard to pass through the place.

Times Square – December 2003 around 11PM

The other day a friend visiting from India and staying at a high-priced hotel in Times Square mentioned the area was full of life, full of energy.

Really?

We looked around to see if we were missing something and all we saw were lines of stores and humongous billboards everywhere.

Planet Hollywood, Hard Rock, Sony, Budweiser, Swatch, Samsung…they are all there in the form of stores or on towering billboards in a sad testament to the relentless consumerist age we live in.

Times Square – December 2009

Over the last decade or so, we’ve gone to Times Square at different times.

Morning, evening and late night, as the pictures document.

Any time we’re there, we’re assailed by the huge crowds. To be sure, some of the crowds could be the Broadway theater goers.

But that still doesn’t explain the large crowds.

Times Square – October 2010

Like zombies, the crowds keep coming.

Future generations will likely marvel that people used to throng this area just to gawk at some monstrous billboards and ugly lighted buildings.

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 8:13 pm

$25 Cheapo Fares from Southwest Airlines

 America, General, Tourism  1 Response »
Oct 272009
 
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All ye cheapo desis (sore over the $44 British Airways fiasco), here’s some good news for y’all.

Southwest Airlines today announced a fare sale that lets customers purchase one-way travel for $25, $50, $75, or $100 depending on length of their trip.

* Travel up to 375 miles for $25 one-way Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 4:14 pm

Pierre Reopens After $100m Renovation by Tatas

 America, Tourism  2 Responses »
Sep 152009
 
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The Pierre Hotel, a major NYC landmark, has reopened recently after a $100 million renovation by its Indian owners, Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces.

Located near Central Park at 5th Avenue and 61 St, the Pierre offers 189 redesigned residential-style guest rooms, including 49 suites.


Pierre, New York City
(Pix: Taj Hotels web site)

Since we have more time than we know what to do with, we played around with booking a Grand 1-Bdrm Suite at the Pierre for September 24 for just one night.

Folks, the rack rate shown us was $13,772.30 (no typo here) for one night.

Cheap, na?

Wonder if that is the Presidential Tata Suite (contains handcrafted artworks by artisans from Paramparik Karigar)?

Or was it the less regal Rajput Suite (bed-frame hand-finished with centuries-old Zardosi embroidery)?

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 1:38 pm

Desperate India Tries Freebies to Woo Tourists

 Tourism  6 Responses »
Apr 152009
 
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India has been a dismal failure at attracting foreign tourists compared to even tiny nations like Croatia.

Frequent terrorist bombings in major Indian tourist hubs like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore et al, the global recession and rape and murder of tourists must surely be causing nightmares to the somnolent pen-pushers in India’s moribund Ministry of Tourism.

As if the bombings and violent assaults on tourists were not bad enough, there’s the shockingly pathetic tourist infrastructure for travelers daring to visit India.

Now in what seems like a desperate bid to bring in tourists, India’s inept Ministry of Tourism is laying it on thick with a host of incentives via dull campaigns in magazines like the New Yorker.

Here are some of the bribes India is offering these days to draw foreign tourists:

* One complimentary companion Air Ticket
* One day’s complimentary hotel stay
* One complimentary sight seeing tour in a city of your choice (or so they say)
* One complimentary rural eco-holiday at any of 15 locations
(Source: New Yorker, April 20, 2009, P.44-45)

The freebies are being offered under Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 12:55 am

Incredible India 10

 Incredible India, Tourism  12 Responses »
Feb 152009
 
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Time for the next instalment of Incredible India, those Only-in-India stories.

Here we go:

* Holy cow, unholy representation in the Holy City. What does it take to be the BSP’s Lok Sabha candidate for the holy city of Varanasi? Over two dozens cases including murder, attempt to murder, kidnapping, extortion, loot and land grabbing. Our candidate Mukhtar Ansari will contest the upcoming election from Gazipur jail, where he’s lodged now for the alleged murder of BJP-MLA Krishnanand Rai.

* Foreign tourists to India have never had it so bad. They are raped, murdered, cheated, assaulted et al, merely for the sin of coming to India. Now foreign tourists are so sick of the crimes against them that the other day some of them staged a protest march in Gaya in the North Indian state (or sewer) of Bihar. No kidding. Here’s an excerpt from the TOI story:

In perhaps the first protest of its kind, a group of foreign tourists took out a protest march in Bodh Gaya, on Saturday to register protest against incidents of crime, including road robberries targeting visitors from abroad.

The placard-carrying protesters also silently walked around Mahabodhi temple, the seat of Buddha’s enlightenment. The protesters from countries like Belgium, Canada and Mexico also demanded the deployment of “tourist police” to gain the confidence of visitors and prevention and detection of crime.

M Mariya, a visitor from Mexico, told mediapersons that some of her friends visited Bodh Gaya a couple of months back and stayed on the Root Institute Campus. One evening when the tourists came out of the Institute, a group of road robbers overpowered them and demanded money. When the visitors told the road robbers they were not carrying wallets, one of the tourists was made hostage while others were freed to fetch money and the hostage was freed when payment was made.

* You say there’s a backlog of 2.5 crore cases in various Indian courts, right. Who gives a damn. The Madras High Court has worked only nine days this year. Continue reading »

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 Posted by SearchIndia.com at 6:18 pm
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