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India: Doctors, Hospitals, Nursing Homes
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Mumbai - P.D. Hinduja National Hospital (Veer Savarkar Marg, Mahim, Mumbai 400 016; tel. 24447000, 24449199, 24451515, 24452222; website Read more... member of the international networks of the Massachusetts General Hospital and New York-Presbyterian Hospital)
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India: Doctors, Hospitals, Nursing Homes
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Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Apollo Hospital (21, Greams Lane Off Greams Road, Chennai 600 006; tel. 91-044-28293333 / 28290200; website Read more... accredited by the Joint Commission International)
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India: Doctors, Hospitals, Nursing Homes
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For 24/7 emergency assistance, another option is to contact East West Rescue, which provides long-distance road ambulance as well as air ambulance services (website Read more... ph. 91-11-2469 8865, 91-11-2462 3738, 91-11-2469 9229, 91-11-2469 0429). East West Rescue has a network of physicians in over 100 Indian cities.
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India: Doctors, Hospitals, Nursing Homes
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For a public ambulance in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta, call 102. For a private ambulance in Mumbai, call 1299 or 3090-6609, or call P.D. Hinduja National Hospital at 2445-2575 . For a private ambulance in Kolkata, call Apollo Gleneagles Hospital at 1066 or Woodlands Medical Centre at 2456-7075 thru 7089 (cell 98300-82007, 98310-36686, 98302-90662).
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India: Doctors, Hospitals, Nursing Homes
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All travelers should visit either their personal physician or a travel health clinic 4-8 weeks before departure.
Malaria:Â Prophylaxis with Lariam (mefloquine), Malarone (atovaquone/proguanil), or doxycycline is recommended for all areas, except for areas at altitudes >2,000 m (6,561 ft) in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu, Kashmir, and Sikkim.
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India: Miscellaneous
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Travelers' diarrhea is the most common travel-related ailment. The cornerstone of prevention is food and water precautions, as outlined below. All travelers should bring along an antibiotic and an antidiarrheal drug to be started promptly if significant diarrhea occurs.
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India: People & Places
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Established in mid 1600s and abandoned in early 1700s, Bhangarh is now a ghost town. Guidebooks will have you believe that it is considered a haunted place by the local folks. Although not old, it is supposedly a charming ruin - a fort, some temples and what once was a village with 10,000 people. For more on Bhangarh the famous ghost town Read more...
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India: Housing, Lodging & Rentals
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Shanti Devi has four plain but functional rooms on the ground floor of a modest white house in Greater Kailash II, a popular New Delhi neighborhood (M-99, Greater Kailash II; 91-98-6847-2210). Rooms start at 1,500 rupees.
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India: Housing, Lodging & Rentals
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in the Nizamuddin East neighborhood, P. C. Chopra has a comfortable two-room apartment on the top floor of a house(D-9, Nizamuddin East; 91-11- 2435-8574), starting at 7,000 rupees.
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India: Housing, Lodging & Rentals
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Rajiv Chaudhary and Janis McClinch, two architects trained in Boston, designed and renovated their spacious villa to create a six-room B & B called B Nineteen (B-19, Nizamuddin East; 91-98-1896-7438; www.bnineteen.com). Rooms start at 6,750 rupees.
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India: Housing, Lodging & Rentals
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Dipmala Bindra has a cozy room in her three-bedroom apartment close to the Delhi airport (2 Palam Marg, Vasant Vihar; 91-98-11-039-894). The room starts at 3,000 rupees, or about $61 at 49 rupees to the dollar.
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India: Housing, Lodging & Rentals
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A list of B & Bs in Delhi can be found on the Ministry of Tourism Web site (www.tourism.gov.in). It’s a good idea to call the owner to inquire about location, directions and landmarks nearby.
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India: Food and Restaurants
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Biryani Paradise at Hubli , Karnataka by far prepares the best Biryani. You should taste it to believe it.
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India: Food and Restaurants
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Anant Ashram (46, Khotachi Wadi; no phone) - the seafood there is the best in the city should come as no surprise: everything is prepared by hand, spices are freshly ground and the dishes, like tiny smoky prawns in coconut curry, are cooked on a wood-fired stove. When the food runs out, it’s over. A top-notch meal for one can be had for 150 rupees.
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India: Food and Restaurants
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No Mumbai seafood experience would be complete without a trip to Anant Ashram (46, Khotachi Wadi; no phone), a mom-and-pop shop on a little village lane in Girgaum. You have to earn your meal there — you may get turned away multiple times before finally nabbing one of about a dozen tables. #DiningOutInMumbai
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India: Food and Restaurants
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At Sadichha (B-5, Gandhi Nagar; 91-22-2651-0175), in the same area, you will find an abundance of seafood thalis, platters of small dishes, served with sides and rice. Go with friends, and pass your platters around. Highlights include the rich crab masala, served in the shell, and the velvety prawn curry. Pair each bite with a bit of the chunky coconut chutney.
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India: Food and Restaurants
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Seafood in Mumbai - At Gomantak, the spicy stuffed pomfret, pan grilled, pairs well with a cooling Limca soda. The mori, or baby shark, is a more adventurous option that is both subtle but succulent. A meal for two will run you around 300 rupees, or about $6 at 49 rupees to the dollar. #DiningOutInMumbai
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India: Food and Restaurants
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Seafood in Mumbai - better to head for a few lesser-known places that serve authentic coastal seafood. A good spot to start is Highway Gomantak (44/2179, Gandhi Nagar, Bandra East; 91-22-2640-9692; www.highwaygomantak.com), a Goan specialist that’s been around for two decades. There are no napkins, air-conditioning or English spoken, but there is a focus on food. #DiningOutInMumbai
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Large bookstores in most cities in South India stock several excellent books on Indian wildlife. Two such useful guides are ''Collins Handguide to the Birds of the Indian Sub-continent,'' by Martin W. Woodcock (William Collins Sons, 1980), and ''Indian Wildlife,'' edited by Samuel Israel and Toby Sinclair (APA Productions, 1987).
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The well-prepared wildlife enthusiast should pack several containers of mosquito repellent, sunscreen, iodine tablets to purify the water, a small flashlight, binoculars, raingear, comfortable walking shoes, a hat and loose cotton clothing.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Periyar also supports a population of over 40 tigers, as well as approximately 15 leopards, numerous sloth bears and 50 packs of wild dogs. Several troops of monkey species reside in the park, too: bonnet macaque, the endangered lion-tailed macaque, the common langur and the Nilgiri langur, whose deeply booming voice echoes hauntingly across the misted lake at dawn and dusk.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The 300-square-mile Periyar Sanctuary in #Kerala is nestled in the high ranges of the Western Ghats. Nearly 200 land and water bird varieties flourish within the sanctuary, as do the ever-visible herds of #elephant, wild boar, chital and gaur. The park is also a haven for garden and monitor lizards, king cobra, python and the flying species of lizard, snake and frog. #wildlife
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India: Housing, Lodging & Rentals
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Though traveler resthouses are available in Masinagudi, a small impoverished village on the periphery of the park, they are generally noisy and dirty. The best accommodations to be had near Mudumalai (none are allowed within the park's borders) are Jungle Hut, Bamboo Banks and Jungle Trails.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Bird life in all three parks is abundant. There are more than 216 bird species in Mudumalai, and over a period of several hours I spotted a wealth of fowl, including hoopoes, magpie and Indian robins, sunbirds, brainfever birds, cuckoos; jungle, hill and brahminy mynahs; jungle bush-quail, gray partridge, coucals, white-backed vultures, peafowl and rufous-backed shrikes. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Equally common a sight, in the most deciduous forests of Mudumalai, are herds of chital, or spotted deer, gaur (largest of the wild bovids), wild boar and congregations of long-limbed, elegant langurs. These arboreal monkeys will scamper to a safe distance when disturbed, then archly turn their inquisitive black faces to scrutinize the intruder. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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All Mudumalai resorts are open year-round, though the best time for viewing game is during the summer months (March to June), when the tropical deciduous forests are leafless and when animals congregate around dwindling water holes. In all seasons, however, wild elephants exist in such plentitude in these sanctuaries that sightings are common. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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During my stay at Mudumalai I saw bison, spotted deer, antelopes, elephants, hyenas and jackals, to name just a few animals; at Periyar I saw large herds of elephants as well as other mammals and waterfowl; at Nagarahole I saw most of the animals I had seen at Mudumalai as well as a #tiger and a leopard. #wildlife
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India: Travel & Tourism
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The southern tip of the Indian subcontinent possesses an abundance of wildlife sanctuaries supporting some of the most colorful, exotic and awe-inspiring wildlife in the world. Three preserves in particular - Mudumalai in Tamil Nadu, Nagarahole in Karnataka and Periyar in Kerala.
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India: Communication & Transportation
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bear in mind when planning side trips that it is rarely possible to cover more than 30 miles in an hour on Indian roads. Journeys that look short on the map can be impossibly long. Driving at night is not a good idea in a land where bullock carts and stray animals amble around in the dark among the pedestrians and pavement-dwellers.
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India: Hotels & Resorts
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If you plan to travel on from Madras (Chennai) without an initial stopover, an excellent hotel, The Trident, run by the Oberoi group (1-24 G.S.T. Road, Madras 600027; telephone 434-747; doubles about $60), is a few minutes' drive from the airport.
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India: People & Places
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Old Cochin is a busy, noisy town, but it is possible to walk around parts of it, including the waterfront near St. Francis Church, the oldest church erected by Europeans in India.
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India: People & Places
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South of Madurai, India comes to an end in the raging surf of Kanyakumari, on the tip of Cape Comorin, where the Bay of Bengal meets the Indian Ocean. A place of pilgrimage: on a pile of sea-sprayed rocks offshore, the 19th-century Hindu reformer, Swami Vivekananda, meditated before setting off on his crusade to restore intellectualism and social responsibility to India's major religion.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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Like other #temples in the region, Meenakshi Temple of Madurai is Dravidian in form, a tall, broad but slightly pyramiding tower with dark, dank interiors. The Dravidians, darker-skinned people driven south by invaders from the north, had no arch or dome to lighten their places of worship.
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India: Travel & Tourism
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A visit to the Meenakshi Temple of Madurai is an experience in the ritual of Hindu temple-going, with all its sidelights: the beggars, the merchants, the Brahmin holy men; the blur of colored sculpture that fills every inch of the soaring temple's sides; the intense faces of the devotees; the main-chance pitch of the priests who seem to run lucrative sidelines in enlightening foreigners. #temples
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India: Travel & Tourism
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South of Pondicherry, on the way to Cape Comorin, the southern tip of India, are two great cities of art and architecture, Thanjavur (known more familiarly as Tanjore) and Madurai.
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India: Shopping
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Small studios by artisans from East and West around Pondicherry are producing interesting pottery and leatherwork for shops in cities elsewhere in India. The largest collection for local sale is in the Auroville handicrafts shop, open on weekdays only.
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India: People & Places
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Most people who stop in Pondicherry are looking for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the tomb of its founder, Sri Aurobindo, and his disciple, known as The Mother. The ashram, founded in the 1920's, is an internationally known center of yoga.
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India: History & Culture
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At Adyar, one of this tropical city's greenest residential suburbs, the world headquarters of the Theosophical Society is set in extensive grounds, both arboretum and bird sanctuary. The society - founded by an American ex-Civil War officer, Col. H. S. Olcott, and the Russian-born mystic, Helena P. Blavatsky - lures students of New Age religions as well as theosophists from all over the world.
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