Need to Know Facts About Haridwar
Health & Safety
Health
India Hotel Packages - The entire Indian sub continent has the same health hazards so one line of defence should cover you on all territories. The major risks to your health from the armies of mosquitoes are malaria, encephalitis, kala azar and dengue. Cover your arms and legs; be liberal with the repellant and in problem areas sleep under a mosquito net. Traveller’s diarrhoea is another running problem and year after year traveller after traveller gets the ‘loosies’. Ensure it’s nothing nastier by avoiding green salads, uncooked food, and water that you haven’t sanitised by dropping an iodine pill into. Slightly more serious is the risk of contracting AIDS, Hepatitis B and other sexually transmitted diseases. For your sake and the sake of the people you’re visiting always use a condom - Hotel Packages of India.
Indin Hotel Packages - The quality of health services is adequate in major urban centres like Dehradun, Nainital and Mussoorie. Medicines are fairly cheap and though chemist shops in the cities are well stocked, it is always a good idea to take along prescription drugs. Travellers from yellow fever areas are required to have an inoculation certificate. Prior immunisation for poliomyelitis is recommended - Indian Hotel Packages Asia.
Safety
Hotel Packages of Haridwar - Uttaranchal is not as commercial as its southern neighbour, Uttar Pradesh, and although tourists are prime targets for touts (especially in touristy areas like Mussoorie), things are not too bad elsewhere. Don’t get taken for a ride, though; try to deal with accredited or licensed travel agents, guides and tour operators only. Be extremely alert after sunset and try your best to be in a familiar area when it gets dark. Cases of mugging, theft and pick pocketing, though less than in the plains, are by no means unknown, and tourists are the favourite target of touts and scamsters. Women travelling alone, particularly, need to be overcautious - Haridwar Hotel Packages.
Basic precautions:
1. Keep your money and travel documents close to your body (perhaps in a pouch slung around your neck, tucked out of sight under your shirt), but not in a waist pouch- it’s virtually an invitation to be robbed.
2. Keep several photocopies of your passport, insurance, travellers’ cheques etc. scattered through your luggage
3. Do not put all your money in one place
4. Many women travellers wear the long tunic and loose pyjama dress of Indian women called the salwar-kameez and find that it substantially dissuades unwanted male attention.
5. If you are travelling alone, do not advertise it.
6. If you lose your passport, lodge a First Information Report at the local police station and contact your embassy.
Weights and measures
India uses the Metric system where 100cm=1meter; 1000meters=1km, liquids are measured in litres and solids in kilograms.
Electricity
220 volts/ 50 hertz is the frequency at which electricity is available WHEN it is! Power cuts and ‘load shedding’ is a regular feature especially in the summers. If your electric razor has flat-pin plug then carry a combination plug that will feed into a round-pin socket: across the sub continent plug point sockets are round rather than flat.
Customs & Duties
If you are above 17 years you may import the following in without attracting duty:
200 cigarettes or 50 cigars or 250 grams of tobacco, a litre of alcoholic drink, 250 ml perfume, gifts up to a value of Rupees 750 (foreign passport holders), gifts up to a value of Rupees 6000 (Indian passport holders) and articles of personal use. It is illegal to bring in drugs, gold and silver bullion, plants and coins that have gone out of use.
Post & Communications
Postal services in Uttaranchal differ in efficiency; major urban settlements like Mussoorie, Almora, Dehradun and Nainital are well connected through the postal network, but the smaller towns and villages which dot the state fare pretty badly. Mail posted from these places can take ages to reach, and vice-versa; it’s a fairly chancy affair.
Letters overseas must be marked "Air Mail" or "Par Avion". If you’re expecting mail, there are poste restante services available in larger cities. Have letters for you (surname first) addressed to the GPO (General Post Office) in the specific city ‘Poste Restante’. The GPO will hold letters for 30 days, and you have to show your passport for identification. Parcels are a bit tedious to send or receive and often when they do finally arrive, they’ve been tampered with. Courier services are widely available in the cities and larger towns.
"Cyber cafes" are an increasingly common fixture in the cities of the state, though rates vary from city to city and locality-to-locality, but you can check your mail and surf the net for a modest sum. Very often the Internet business is an extension of what used to be a just a "PCO", one of the many `Public Call Office’ kiosks which dot India’s villages, towns and cities, offering fax services, IDD, long distance dialing, photocopying and what not.
Country code for India: 0091. Code for Delhi-011. When calling from overseas omit the zero in the city code.
Tipping
It is customary to tip 10% of the bill at restaurants, but you may tip less if service charges have been included in the bill. At hotels tip 10 bucks to the bellhop, the same to the doorman ‘durban’; if the service is particularly good, substantially more to the concierge and housekeeping.
Black and yellow cab drivers do not expect to be tipped. The opposite is true if you have a hired a cab for a long period. You’ll find some of the most friendly and colourful service at tiny nondescript roadside stalls called ‘dhabas’. A small tip, even if it is only loose change, will be appreciated tremendously.
English Language Media
Getting hold of an English newspaper will usually not be a problem in most towns in Uttaranchal. Local editions of national dailies and metro editions of English newspapers are available at newsstands and vendors who also sell weekly newsmagazines, filmzines, women’s magazines and even international fashion glossies that now have an edition coming out of India.
Cable TV has reaped a rich harvest and you’ll see TV antennas sprouting from village rooftops even in fairly remote places. BBC World Service and CNN beam the latest news; ESPN and Star Sports keep you up to date with how your club is (or is not) thrashing its rivals in UEFA; and Star (elsewhere known as Sky) beams an entire stable of entertainment channels. The widely accessible national channel too has some English programmes, and a daily English news segment.
BBC World Service and Voice of America are on the MHz bandwidth but the frequency is variable.
Recommended Reading:
1. Ganga Descends by Ruskin Bond (most books written by Ruskin Bond are set in Uttaranchal, and are worth reading for a glimpse into the life of this area)
2. Maneaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett
3. The Living Himalayas by R K Gupta
4. The Kingdom of Gods, Uttarakhand by Giriraj Shah
5. Glorious Garhwal ed. by Ganesh Saili
6. Uttarakhand: land and people by S S Negi
7. A Bunch of Wildflowers and other Articles by A Hasan
8. Pilgrims in Hindu Holy land: Sacred Shrines of the Indian Himalayas by G W Maw
9. Uttarakhand, Garhwal Himalayas by K S Fonia
