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McLEOD GANJ > SAFETY & HEALTH
Current Travel Safety in North India
Please contact your embassy for their latest advice on travel in India.
Personal Safety in India
Personal safety is a common concern for travellers.
Our general advice is this:
Be careful and apply the same common sense
in India that you would use at home. Also, watch your bags, secure your
room when going out and always carry your passport and valuables in a
money belt ON your body and INSIDE your clothing. Be especially
watchful in airports, train stations and on public transport. But also
relax and enjoy! India is an amazing country and most Indians are very
hospitable and helpful. The vast majority of travellers have no safety
problems while travelling in India. For more information on personal
safety, please see the safety section of your travel guidebook (e.g.
Lonely Planet) and talk to other travellers about their experiences and
for advice.
Crime and violence in McLeod Ganj and Dharamsala are relatively
rare. However, there are occasional robberies (sadly these are
often perpetrated by fellow travellers) so watch your bags and secure
your room . There are also occasional acts of violence against
women, usually at night in isolated areas, particularly along the roads
leading out of McLeod Ganj to the local villages of Dharamkot and
Bhagsu. So we STRONGLY encourage all women to NOT walk alone in
isolated areas at night. This may be especially important to
remember when choosing the location of your guesthouse. Walking
around the town of McLeod Ganj itself is usually quite safe, even in
the evening.
For more information on personal safety in India, read the safety
section of your guidebook and talk to other travellers about their
experiences and advice.
 Travel Health Concerns
Many travellers to India, especially first-time visitors, have many
questions about health issues. We at Tushita are not doctors or
medical experts in any way, but we would like to offer some general,
practical advice based on our experience of living in India.
There is no malaria in this area, since Tushita is situated at 2100m (7000ft).
Please note that among the common side effects of the anti-malaria medication
Larium (Mefloquine) listed by the Center for Disease Control are: ‘…anxiety,
vivid dreams, and visual disturbances. Mefloquine has rarely been reported to
cause serious side effects, such as seizures, depression, and psychosis.’
It is our experience at Tushita that meditating while taking Larium may
increase the likelihood and/or severity of these side effects and therefore we
discourage students from taking Larium while meditating or participating in our
courses.
We’d like to reassure you that medical care is
available here in Dharamsala and is extremely inexpensive by Western
standards. Delek Hopstial and Clinic offers Western medicine
administered by Tibetan doctors (and by volunteer Western doctors when
available). The hospital has a laboratory which can do stool and
blood tests, a pharmacy, an eye clinic, a dental clinic, an in-patient
ward, and even a delivery room! While having surgery here in
Dharamsala is not generally recommended, there are good surgical
facilities available in Chandigarh and Delhi. A well-equipped and
sanitary dentist (recommended by several of our staff) is also
nearby. There are also local doctors and pharmacies offering
Tibetan, Auyrvedic, and Homeopathic medicine.
When preparing for travel to India, we suggest you consider the following:
 Read the health section of your travel
guidebook. All the major guidebooks have extensive sections on
health concerns, often containing much more information than the
average traveller would ever need to know! - Contact your local travel health clinic and/or visit
the World Health Organisation’s website www.who.ch for the
latest information on travel vaccinations, disease outbreaks, and
general travel health advice.
- Those of you who are students and/or 25 years of age
or younger, may want to visit the International Student Travel
Confederation website www.istc.org for information on their student
travel cards which include the benefit of very affordable travel
health/accident insurance.
- For those of you who like to be really prepared,
consider carrying a small travel health guidebook with you (Lonely
Planet publishes a very handy and inexpensive one) and a small medical
kit (see your guidebook for tips on what to include).
- While bottled water is available in India, the trash
heap of non-recycled plastic bottles left by travellers is reaching
unbelievable heights. Therefore, please consider purifying your
own water. If you’re only in Asia for a short time, this
can be easily accomplished with water purification tablets (these are
generally not recommended for use over long periods of time). For
longer trips, consider bringing your own water filter with you.
While these filters can be expensive, they are a good long-term
investment. Just think, you won’t have to constantly spend
rupee after rupee on bottled water, you’ll have the peace of mind
of knowing that you can always have safe water wherever you are, and
most importantly, you won’t be contributing to the
ever-increasing pollution of Asia’s environment!
Basic first aid supplies and medications such as plasters (Band-aids),
paracetamol (similar to aspirin), oral rehydration solution, and
antibiotics are readily available at local pharmacies. If you wear
glasses, you may want to bring an extra pair or at least carry your
prescription with you as replacements can be made very cheaply in
India. If you take prescription medicines, you should bring more
than enough to last through your trip and a copy of your
prescription. If you are planning a long trip to Asia, you may
want to consider bringing multi-vitamin supplements with you, as
maintaining proper nutrition on the road can be quite challenging!
Personal toiletries such as shampoo (with and without conditioner),
soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper, and laundry detergent are
readily available and quite cheap throughout India. Deoderant is
hard to find, and while sanitary pads and tampons are available here,
they are of inferior quality to Western versions, so you may want to
bring supplies of these items with you.
MAY ALL BEINGS BE HAPPY!
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