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Dangers and annoyances
Common sense and reasonable caution are your best weapons against the risk of theft or worse. There's no need to be paranoid - talk to other travellers, and pay heed to what reliable staff at hotels and guesthouses tell you.
Theft
Never leave those most important (passport, tickets, health certificates,
money, travellers cheques) in your room they should be with you at all times. Either have a stout leather passport wallet on your belt, a passport pouch under your shirt, or simply extra internal packets in your clothing. On trains at night keep your gear near you; padlocking a bag to a luggage rack can be useful, and some of the newer trains have loops under the seats which you can chain things to. However some travellers report that padlocking your gear this way only serves to alert thieves to the fact that you have something worth stealing. Never walk around with valuables casually slung over your shoulder. Take extra care on crowded public transport.
Thieves are particularly prevalent on train routes where there are lots of tourists. The Delhi-Agra Shatabdi Express service is notorious; Delhi-Jaipur, Jaipur-Ajmer, Jodhpur-Jaisalmer, Varanasi-Calcutta, Delhi-Mumbai and Agra-Varanasi are other routes to take care on. Train departure time, when the confusion and crowds are at the worst, is the time to be most careful. Just as the train is about to leave, you are distracted by someone while their accomplice is stealing your bag from by your feet. Airports are another place to be careful, especially when international arrivals take place in the middle of the night, when you are unlikely to be at your most alert.
From time to time there are also drugging episodes. Travellers meet somebody on a train or bus or in a town, start talking and are then offered a chai or something similar. Hours later they wake up with a headache and all their gear gone, the tea having been full of sleeping pills. Don't accept drinks or food from strangers no matter how friendly they seem, particularly if you're on your own. This has even happened to people travelling in 1st class compartments who have fallen for a well-dressed, well-spoken con artist.
Beware also of your fellow travellers. Unhappily there are more than a few back packers who make their money go a little bit further by helping themselves to other people's.
Remember that backpacks are very easy to rifle through. Don't leave valuables in them, especially during flights. Remember also that something may be of little or no value to a thief, but to lose it would be a real heartbreak to you - like film. Finally, a good travel insurance policy helps.
If you do have to report it to the police. You'll also need a statement proving you have done so if you want to make an insurance claim.
Note that some policies specify that you must report an item stolen to the police within a certain amount of time after you observing that it is missing.
Travellers Cheques
If you're unlucky enough to have things stolen, some precautions can ease the pain. All travellers cheques are replaceable, although this does you little immediate good if you have to go home and apply to your bank. What you want is instant replacement. Furthermore, what do you do if you lose you cheques and money and have a day or more to travel to the replacement office? The answer is to keep an emergency cash-stash in a totally separate place. In that same place you should keep a record of the cheque serial numbers, proof of purchase slips, encashment vouchers and your passport number.
American express makes considerable noise about 'instant replacement' of their cheques but a lot of people find out, to their cost, that a number of precautions 'instantly' can take longer than you think. If you don't have the receipt you were given when you bought the cheques, rapid replacement will be difficult. Obviously the receipt should be kept separate from the cheques, and a photocopy in yet another location doesn't hurt either. Chances are you'll be able to get a limited amount of funds on the spot, and the rest will be available when the bank has verified your initial purchase of the cheques. American Express has a 24 hour number in Delhi (( 011-687 5050) which you must ring within 24 hours on the theft.
Contaminated Food & Drink
Sometimes microbes aren't the sole, or main, risk when it comes to eating and drinking. In Rajasthan bhang lassies laced with marijuana can pack more of a punch than the hapless traveller would reasonably expect. Some people have become very sick indeed after drinking them. On more serious note, a food scare broke out in northern India in 1998, principally in Agra and Varanasi, when numerous travellers became sick (a couple died) after eating at local establishments (see the Diarrhoea with Your Meal, Sir? Boxed Text).
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Do not use fires as a means of heating in unventilated hotel rooms. The Indian police have confirmed that a number of number of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning occur each year.
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