India - Mumbai,Pune in July
 

Hi All! I am going to India for the first time in July. The first two weeks of July to be exact. I am accompanied by my husband who grew up there. We are attending his sister's wedding and visiting with family.

I am very excited but also a bit nervous about what to expect. We will be spending most of the time in Pune I think and possibly travelling to Agra or somewhere else to do some sightseeing.

I am a bit concerned about the Monsoon. I was wondering what exactly to expect? I am trying to figure out what type of clothing would be best for this weather. In particular, I am wondering about footwear? I know I will probably be walking everywhere under a few miles and am wondering if I need to bring a waterproof hiking boot or just rain boots?

Any other tips would be appreciated. I have heard no one likes taking the malaria medication but I am afraid mosquitoes tend to like me so I better be prepared. My Dear Husband seems to think there are no precautions/ nothing to worry about. While I am comforted by travelling with him, I would appreciate advice greatly. He doesn't think there should be any problems but from what I have read so far and heard from various friends there definitely could be...

I have heard you can get some types of worms/parasites through your feet from the soil? I read you need to make sure you wear closed toe shoes, etc.
Is this true?

Please offer your advice, my hypochondria is killing me....

Also, any good places to visit the first two weeks of July?

Thanks for your help!!

Hello
I am from Brazil and working in Pune for 1 month. We are not experience problems with rain here so far. I got some rain in the first weekend and it was all we had .. some rain ...
I did not get vacines from Malaria and as soon as you will be staying in big cities I think we don't need to be afraid of it.
Claudia

You should check with a travel clinic or doctor about vaccinations recommended for travel to India. Here is what the CDC website says about malaria in India:

Malaria risk area in India: Risk in all areas throughout country except no risk in areas above 2,000 m (>6,561 ft) in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Kashmir, and Sikkim. Risk also exists in urban areas below 2000 m, including Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay).

And: Malaria is reemerging in India. In recent years, India has reported malaria outbreaks leading to deaths. The proportion of malaria cases caused by Plasmodium falciparum has increased, and severe complications of P. vivax malaria have also recently been reported.

Most people are able to take Malarone without ill effects, but I would try to avoid Lariam. I've found that when I take Malarone I'm much less attractive to mosquitos than normally.

The best clothing is probably what the locals are wearing - shalwar kameez as saris might be difficult! Anyway, light cotton, covering shoulders and knees.

How much time do actually have for sightseeing after the wedding?

Thanks for your info!! I am concerned that my husband hasn't taken any vaccinations. I have taken tetanus, hep a&b, typhoid & measels, mumps, rubella. I think they have a measels outbreak in asia. I have malarone tablets so hopefully they will be ok. The side effects are numerous and yucky!
I wonder if DH needs to get malarone maybe he will be ok with OFF!

We have probably up to a week for travel.

Thank You!

For recommended vaccinations for India see wwwn.cdc.gov/travel/destinationIndia.aspx - if your husband grew up in India he may have some immunities you don't have. Sorry you're getting side effects from Malarone, it works well for me.

With a week you can certainly make it to Agra if that's your top priority, with a little time for Jaipur and maybe Delhi as well. Or you could go south to Kerala. I'm not sure what the monsoon schedule is. For an idea of what to expect take a look at "Chasing the Monsoon" by Alexander Frater.

Pune is a bit elevated, and while it will have rain, it does not get the deluges of rain in the monsoon like Mumbai and other areas get, it is quite a pleasant temperature, although in July. See weatherbase.com for an idea of temps and rainfall. If you go to Agra, which is in the north, they get less rain than the south (like Kerala mentioned below which will have plenty of rain), but can still be on the wet side. This is an early monsoon year and apparently a heavy monsoon year, Delhi has had a good bit of rain already, and that is early.

For footwear, even in monsoon you will not want rain boots. Way, way too hot. Your feet will be sweating and slipping inside. (Unless you mean boots that go <i>over</i> your shoes, like galoshes, those would work, but will still be quite hot, IMO; however you do see people, usually men, wearing those during monsoon.) Your relatives will be wearing sandals more than likely. I would suggest wearing flat or low heeled shoes that you don’t mind getting wet, I am not a fan of open-toe shoes in India because the streets are quite dusty, but in the monsoon with wet feet they may be best. Rubber thongs may be good. Tevas would probably be very good, more sturdy. Hiking boots are fine if you are hiking in the country, IMO you will feel very strange wearing them in any city or village. But up to you. At least you can wear socks with them which will absorb sweat from your feet, unlike rain boots. My guess is that in Pune you will be making lots of home visits to relatives, which means the shoes will come off at the front door, and whether you want to do this with boots and socks 2-3 times a day is up to you. You will also have to leave them outside places like the Taj and temples and mosques, and while I think they are perfectly safe, if you have very expensive hiking boots you may not feel so comfortable doing this.

For clothing you can certainly go local, my personal view is that unless you grew up wearing them it is hard to do so with any <i>chic,/i&gt;, we can’t do the scarf thing with the aplomb that an Indian woman who has been doing it all her life can…..your efforts would certainly be appreciated and I would certainly wear a sari to the wedding (I do myself to Indian weddings), but otherwise you should wear what you are comfortable in. Jeans would be a bit warm, IMO, but perfectly acceptable. I find that Indians are extremely tolerant of dress in others. If you go local like a shalwar kameez, look for cotton fabrics, which are hard to find actually unless you want to spend a bit, many of the local clothes are polyesters, which would be quite hot in the damp monsoon. Silk of course would work, but will cost you more too, which for a sari is fine, but not for touring around the streets in.

I travel to India 1-2 times a month and do not take Malaria prophylactics, but that is a personal decision. They don’t protect against Dengue, so you have to use repellent in any event, which provide good protection for Malaria. The other vaccination I would recommend are Polio (a growing problem in India) .

I would not worry about the worm parasite, that is really for farmers and people standing in local streams to fish, etc. You will not encounter them walking in open-toed shoes on the streets of India. Please do not be paranoid about germs and be looking for cholera at every turn. My personal experience in over 100 trips to India is that I have been ill exactly twice. You have probably had a “flu” at home that was actually a food borne illness, they are extremely common, and no one in the “clean” US would think that the food is the problem, but the moment they leave the “safety” of the US, salmonella lurks. In my opinion, the hygiene issues in India are way overblown. It is generally the <i>difference</i> in food and water, and not really its cleanliness, that upsets people's digestive systems more often than not. (My mother moved from Chicago to NYC almost 50 years ago and STILL thinks the water tastes weird....)

As for places to travel, of course lots of people want to go to see the Taj Mahal, so that generally means a flight to Delhi and including some time in Delhi would be interesting, lots to see and do there, good shopping and restaurants. That generally then lends itself to more sightseeing in the north, but without knowing your other interests (i.e. hiking and rafting versus cities and museums), it is hard to say. It does not appear you have done much reading up on the subject, as your trip is in less than a month but you have made no plans. What are you interested in seeing in India? Does your husband have a view?
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Thank you Cicerone for all your information. It definitely helps. I was thinking about wearing the tevas.
I have actually read up on India in a DK Eyewitness Guide and on these message boards. Everytime I bring up a precaution (that I have read about) to my husband he dismisses them. I was just trying to get more data, if you know what I mean.

It seems to me that my friends that were born in the U.S. have gotten very sick despite taking precautions. Most of my friends born in India don't seem to have any problems at all. I think some Indian family members that have left the country in the 70's tend to have more issues of getting sick. It may be that their immunities have gone away more than those who have been more recent emigre's.

I definitely think salmonella is a big issue in the US. As I have seen recent business news on a recent India/US business conference in D.C. where the U.S. Ambassador to India said that a major goal is to work on Indian health issues. It just is not up to speed on infectious diseases and handling waste &amp; garbage. Obviously this will be easier to take care of as the economy improves. With all those Billionaires you'd hope they could spread the wealth?! I hope the government can develop the infrastructure to ensure to protect all Indian citizens...One day.

I grew up in the UK but have lived in the US for 30+ years, and the only time I got sick in 10 weeks in India was when I skipped a normal precaution. (I opted for politeness and drank pineapple juice a fellow-passenger had bought for me on a station platform.)If you drink bottled water, use it for cleaning your teeth, only use ice made from purified water and eat food that has been cooked or peeled you should be fine.

We have not made plans to travel around because of the monsoon. My husband wants to wait to see how it goes when we are there. He has alot of friends and family he would like to visit with in Pune. We agreed beforehand that it would be fine if we just stayed there the entire trip this time. We have only really considered Mumbai and Agra as possible side trips.

A caution for your husband: people who live in malarial risk areas may develop a partial immunity to malaria. But, when they leave and live elsewhere for some years they lose that partial immunity. If you husband has been living away from India for some years, then he has no more immunity than you have. Please encourage him to talk with a travel medicine doc.

Thanks Kathie - I have been begging him to speak with a travel doc but he refuses. All his friends from India don't take the precautions.

He thinks applying OFF! should be enough. Do you think that is true?

Also, have you heard anything about getting some sort of worm/parasite through the feet? I am wondering if I should be worried about wearing sandals.

I saw you commenting about the rabies - that worries me b/c neither of us have that vaccine although we have tetanus.

UGhhh! Sometimes I think I should just stop thinking about all this! :)

Your husband is foolish to not get his vaccinations updated, but what can you do?? Show him the post on Rabies that came up last night...Frances' daughter was very lucky she had her rabies vaccine.

I don't like the anti-malarials, so I depend on mosquito repellent. I use Cutter Advanced, which contains Picaridin. Its a new Deet alternative that doesn't smell bad and isn't greasy. (Thanks BostonHarbor!). CDC studies show it works just a well as Deet, without the side effects.

One of the best accessories in the hot Indian summer or the monsoonal rain is a good umbrella.

I definitely recommend waterproof sandals for India. On my last trip, I took a pair of Croc &quot;Cleos&quot;. Don't laugh; they don't look a bit like the crocs you are thinking of!

http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/...p;CS_010=19219

They are so light it feels like you're barefoot, yet they have arch support and your feet won't sweat in them. I would take them into the shower each night, so they looked clean and new each day. Really amazing sandals, and they looked nice enough to wear everywhere. Well, probably not to a wedding, but I noticed that Indian women don't wear really nice shoes out in public. Too dirty, I'm guessing.

Only problem I had was the first two days. Their bumpy sole kind of irritated my feet, but by the third day they felt great! I eventually tossed all my other shoes as they worked for all my situations (nice restaurants, bicycle riding, hiking)

Health decisions are individual decisions. Lcuy has opted not to take anti-malarials, but she does so taking into consideration all of the relevant information. Your husband should have all of the info before he makes a decision.

Have him read the info on the cdc website www.cdc.gov/travel on visiting India and on malaria and anti-malarials before he makes a decision. But even then you can lead a man to a website, but you can't make him read.

Thanks Lcuy - I loved the cleo crocs! I picked them up today! I couldn't believe how cushion-y the heel is...I have never felt shoes with such cushion as you walk!
Thanks for the great advice.

Thanks Kathie - I will try! I think off! is my only help for him.

Glad you liked them! On the second half of my recent trip, four out of the six of us wore them (One w/tan, one brown and two had black, so we weren't totally twin)and loved them. One Vietnamese woman even asked to try them on!

Leave the jeans home it will be too hot. I travel less than Ciccerone to India but its usually always warm to me (Nor hard when you live in Dublin!) Linen and cotton trousers and summer dresses. Careful showing cleavage its not really appropriate.

I take malarone but started giving up last trip. Take it if it make you feel more comfortable. Deet or any spray with deet will do. I spray the bottom of my trousers and my legs and arms before going out most days and that is enough.

Hi Lucy777,
Your husband should be up to date on any immunizations for the US, whether he travels or not. Tetanus is a big one adults forget about.
Hepatitis A is good for any travel because it protects you against the foodborne hepatitis (gross, but it's the oral-fecal contamination kind of hepatitis).

Most of the other vaccines are relevant if you are doing field work and will be out in villages and non-urban areas.

Spray OFF on the exposed parts of your ankles and feet. The mosquitoes like feet when your sitting at the dining table and can't feel you're being bitten.

If you will be in decent family housing, you should be fine from catching other illness.

Loose, cotton clothing that is also modest will work for daily wear. Jeans and t-shirts are a no-no when visiting family. Keep your attire nice.

Have a mosquito net put up over your bed for night if you're concerned about being bitten while sleeping.

For dressing up for wedding functions, the ladies wear georgette or chiffon fabrics in the summer. They are light and airy. Cotton saris are for daily wear and require serious ironing. Silk is a winter fabric.

Shoes are usually sandals that can withstand getting dusty, dirty, wet. Often people leave their &quot;outside&quot; sandals at the door and wear their &quot;inside&quot; sandals at home. If you are visiting, you will probably just leave your sandals at the door and go barefoot.

Try to bring sandals that have a lot of foot coverage for when outside in the street. Shoes protect best when on trains or doing sightseeing walking.

Find out how many wedding events/parties you will be attending. Since it is your sister-in-law getting married you will be in the main part of the wedding party and will need a different dressy outfit for each event! Best choice is a salwar kameez or sari.

Chandelier earrings are in style, but you need to know if your dress outfits will have gold or silver trim, so have some of both. Buy some bangles to match your dress outfits after you get there. Don't overdo the ethnic look like wearing 6 inches of bangles on each arm. 1 or 2 inches is tasteful and stylish. Also diamond or good look alike diamond studs are fashionable when visiting family.

Let go of the anxiety and enjoy.