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1. Pollution 2. Rabies shots
1. I just read in a recent Economist that the pollution in India particularly New Delhi was worse than Beijing. The picture shows very dense pollution in the air. Would anyone care to comment if that was an issue at all. No one has mentioned it in the Forum so I am thinking it wasn't.
2. I am thinking of getting a rabies vaccine but the Travel Clinic is saying not necessary. However, I understand that giving dogs a rabies vaccine is not that common in India. On your trip did you notice many animals roaming around freely?
2. I am thinking of getting a rabies vaccine but the Travel Clinic is saying not necessary. However, I understand that giving dogs a rabies vaccine is not that common in India. On your trip did you notice many animals roaming around freely?
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Of course there are loads of animals roaming about, especially cows. I never saw any of the dogs that seemed rabid or even ill. We have a very thorough travel clinic (Kaiser), and had all recommended vaccinations ( we already had most of the necessary ones after traveling to Africa and Southeast Asia) and dutifully took the prescribed malaria meds. There was no mention of a rabies shot. Honestly, I never even realized there was a proactive rabies shot for humans, just reactive shots. I really did not see a need for it. I would go by the advice of the experts.
There were stray dogs all over the place, they all look the same, lean mid brown in color. It is totally obvious to me to keep away from them, but in our Tauck travel group on our Africa tour, where they have the same dogs, we were making our way over the beach in Zanzibar to our dhow boat trip, a stray dog came running over to us, and guess what, a number of the supposed well educated group that Tauck is supposed to attract, began petting the dog, yes crazy!
We have not had rabies shots. However, on one of our early trips to a travel clinic, it was suggested we have rabies shots to Costa Rica, we declined, pointing out, that in fact, you see very few animals in Costa Rica.
As others have mentioned, street dogs are common in India, and so long as you don't feed them or bug them, they are remarkably indifferent to people. We occasionally saw a few get energized/agitated, but it was only when other street dogs were nearing their "territories". (And they don't like hot air balloons and the sounds the burners make!) I do not see any need for rabies shots.
Consider looking at some of the many recent Delhi travel videos people continually post on YouTube to get a better sense of the scene.
The India trips are really good--you will have a great and memorable time.