Travelling to India

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Broomey

Broomey

Active Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Morning all
Hoping for some help please.
I am travelling (1st time) to New Delhi at the end of March for 10 days (volunteering cricket coaching) and am slightly anxious about how my control maybe impacted. My concerns are
- time difference and when to adjust the timing of my background insulin (levemir) upon arrival
- extreme heat
- how to avoid “Delhi Belly”
- drinking water and eating in gereral
- emergency medical care if required
- storing insulin

I have an appointment with a diabetes specialist in early March but any help/guidance/shared experience would be welcomed please.

I’m looking forward to such an amazing experience but have some slight reservations.

Thanks.
 
Only ever drink water from a brand new bottle that you have opened yourself whilst in India anywhere is number 1, 2, 3 and so on for ever. (To infinity and beyond!) Use bottled water to clean your teeth and try to keep your mouth shut whilst showering. Insulin keeps well enough in Frio 'envelopes' both whilst travelling and there and take everything diabetes in hand luggage, never in hold luggage and, pack twice as much of everything as you actually expect to need whilst there. Have you got all your necessary jabs booked to have, and got a good supply of Dioralyte, as well as Factor 50 SPF and a nice umpire's hat with a good green lined brim and aerated crown and prescription sunglasses already? Plus of course blooming good insect repellant - mosquitos, ordinary gnats and all such flying things including ladybirds all apparently adore my blood and I regularly get bitten to hell anywhere I've ever been (on holiday or otherwise) where they've been present.

Never been to 'northern' India, only Goa and Kerala - so, enjoy! Bottled beer is A OK but more like lager really and routinely served freezing cold (and rather gassy, it has to be said) but avoid 'local' brandy, it always seemed very sweet tasting to both of us. They do normally make a ruddy good cup of tea though!
 
trophywench said:
Only ever drink water from a brand new bottle that you have opened yourself whilst in India anywhere is number 1, 2, 3 and so on for ever. (To infinity and beyond!) Use bottled water to clean your teeth and try to keep your mouth shut whilst showering. Insulin keeps well enough in Frio 'envelopes' both whilst travelling and there and take everything diabetes in hand luggage, never in hold luggage and, pack twice as much of everything as you actually expect to need whilst there. Have you got all your necessary jabs booked to have, and got a good supply of Dioralyte, as well as Factor 50 SPF and a nice umpire's hat with a good green lined brim and aerated crown and prescription sunglasses already? Plus of course blooming good insect repellant - mosquitos, ordinary gnats and all such flying things including ladybirds all apparently adore my blood and I regularly get bitten to hell anywhere I've ever been (on holiday or otherwise) where they've been present.

Never been to 'northern' India, only Goa and Kerala - so, enjoy! Bottled beer is A OK but more like lager really and routinely served freezing cold (and rather gassy, it has to be said) but avoid 'local' brandy, it always seemed very sweet tasting to both of us. They do normally make a ruddy good cup of tea though!
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Really appreciate your advice. Thank you so much.
 
Broomey said:
Some more welcomed advice. Thanks.
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and of course have been watered whilst growing with contaminated water anyway so whatever fruit or veg it is ...... but there again the sort of veg we usually expect isn't commonly served with meals. Thing that amused me greatly was seeing a visiting Indian touring team enjoying a cricket lunch with the English side at a local Solihull cricket club. Spring veg soup, followed by ham salad (or grated cheddar for the vegetarians) followed by tinned fruit cocktail and fresh cream. Large jugs of tap water on the tables to drink. Bit like a bloke I once knew at work whose mother owned and ran a popular Guest House somewhere along the A23. Well used by travelling salesmen. Famous for her excellent full English breakfasts she was. His family were of the Jewish faith and so were most of her clientele. So eat and drink whatever you decide to, within reason, I'd say.
 
My diabetes and I have travelled to India multiple times with no trouble.
I avoid salads and drinking tap water. I also eat a vegetarian diet which minimises food poisoning risk.
I am happy to eat street food where there is a long queue and i can see the food freshly cooked. In fact, the last time I travelled to India, some colleagues went to the hotel restaurant and suffered from Delhi belly whereas I ate street food and was fine.
The heat does not bother me so it does not affect my diabetes. If you do struggle with the heat, I recommend drinking plenty of (bottled) water, staying out of the direct Sun and wearing a hat. This has nothing to do with diabetes. Just general advice.
Regarding emergency medical needs, the main thing is making sure you have appropriate travel insurance. City hospitals in India are pretty advanced so I would not expect it to be too bad. But, don’t do anything too risky and keep a close eye on your diabetes.
I second Frio to keep insulin cool. I took them with me when I was hiking in Kerala with no issues.

Finally, have a great time. India is an amazing country with very friendly, cricket-mad people.
 
Broomey said:
Morning all
Hoping for some help please.
I am travelling (1st time) to New Delhi at the end of March for 10 days (volunteering cricket coaching) and am slightly anxious about how my control maybe impacted. My concerns are
- time difference and when to adjust the timing of my background insulin (levemir) upon arrival
- extreme heat
- how to avoid “Delhi Belly”
- drinking water and eating in gereral
- emergency medical care if required
- storing insulin

I have an appointment with a diabetes specialist in early March but any help/guidance/shared experience would be welcomed please.

I’m looking forward to such an amazing experience but have some slight reservations.

Thanks.
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Hello, Delhi belly. Don’t do ice. Common denominator with my wife & I in south India. Brush teeth with bottled water? (As well as drink.) Had travel insurance. Needed to call a doctor out to my wife. The doctor was more than competent to send us merrily on our travels. Didn’t even need to claim on the fee with insurance at the time? (Number of years back.)
I would also advise vegetarian dishes. (Not normally my thing.)

The anti malaria tabs (issued in the UK.) might make your gums bleed. My wife was but I wasn’t bothered by “sqitos.” I stopped the course on advice by the doctor In Kodaikanal. (She was brilliant.)

This is our experience. We plan to return.

Enjoy the adventure.
 
Trespass and other outdoor stores sell smidge! It’s about the size of a credit card costs£7.99 and you only need a tiny amount of it on any part of your body. Works very well. mine is a bit grubby looking. I too am a target for mosíes
 

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Broomey said:
Some more welcomed advice. Thanks.
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It's not just salads and raw veg; I thought I was being careful but got Delhi belly from a piece of fruit in a cocktail in an expensive hotel. My fault, completely, for eatingbit or even considering keeping the drink!

One great aspect about India (of many great experiences) is that medical assistance is easily organised and obtained, starting with asking your hotel recption services. Drs speak good English (anywhere in a large town or City and a good Receptionist will make sure of that) and medications are easily obtainable using a Dr's prescription from a multitude of pharmacists. The vulnerability of non-native Indians to Delhi belly is widely understood by locals, certainly in locations where some tourism exists, and no-one seemed remotely offended by you being "cautious" about the origins of food.

Fascinating fact I heard only yesterday: the largest English speaking city in the world is Mumbai.
 
I got Gypie Tummy in Egypt Awful. You turned your back and flies were on your glass. You couldn’t leave a drink down. There were people employed in the restaurant with fly swatters. Doesn't matter how careful you try to be. Good luck with your holiday. I hope you sort out your insulin dilema
 
I'm in that part of the world (although not India) at the moment.

I'mm not going to say anything about your diabetes, but will say, in your initial days in particular, work on staying hydrated. We almost always, despite trying not to, end up very mildly dehydrated when we arrive. We are always amazed just how much water we get through, daily.

I love the sun and heat. My OH is much fairer skin, but also loves this part of the world. If he is spending sustained periods, without shade, he wets a very lightweight microfibre gym towel (it's about 30cm x 45cm) and just puts that over the back of his neck, and tucks the ends in the front of his shirt/t-shirt. The evaporation really helps keep him cool.

His favourite hat is a West Indies cricket hat, with a lovely wide brim. Again, if very hot, he will wet that, shake it about a bit and slop it on. Better to keep the body temperature down that try to get it down from over-heating.

Right now, it's 12:38, with a temperature of 33c. By the time you travel, it'll be very high 30s, heading for 40 here, so I can't imagine you'll be too far off that.

If and when you can try to wear natural fibers as they will often deal with perspiration better (although these modern athletic fabrics are great), and don't have your shoes too tight - especially in the early days.

Enjoy your trip.
 
Jinty2001 said:
Trespass and other outdoor stores sell smidge! It’s about the size of a credit card costs£7.99 and you only need a tiny amount of it on any part of your body. Works very well. mine is a bit grubby looking. I too am a target for mosíes
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What a great brand name. Must buy!
 
I think pretty much everything has already been mentioned and I would certainly second the suggestion to go vegetarian while there (which is no hardship as the food is wonderful). I spent two separate weeks in Delhi and had no troubles.
 
I live in Nepal (not quite the same as Delhi but similar challenges) and second the advice given above. The only other thing is that you may find your blood sugar readings are a bit higher than they might usually be, perhaps because of the heat. But you can just use corrective doses and it generally settles down as you get used to it. Frio pouches definitely worth it, both for the plane journey and for travel within country. One word of advice is that Delhi airport staff that I had to deal with hadn’t seen with anyone with a CGM before and when I showed my NHS travel letter they said it had to be signed in ‘wet ink’ (rather than printed off). After quite a bit of kerfuffle they finally let me through without going through the xray. Since then I just wrote in ink the pretend signature of the named doctor on the bottom of the letter and they seem to have believed it since! Good luck, I’m sure you’ll have a great time.
 
Fleetwood said:
Frio pouches definitely worth it, both for the plane journey and for travel within country.
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Take care using "charged" Frio through airport security. As the crystals form a gel when wet, some security are suspicious of it.
I have never needed them "charged" for the flight as it is not hot and insulin is fine at "room temperature". But, if you are concerned, I would suggest wetting the pouches after security.
 
Actually I was carrying about 4 x large size charged Frio (as bringing out nearly a year’s worth of insulin) and they didn’t seem to have a problem with that at all, just the Dexcom monitors which I’d been firmly told shouldn’t go through the xray scanner.
 
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