"Water, water everywhere..."

At most lunch places, you eat with your hands. To be hygienic and polite, one always washes ones hands, even if it's just one of the stand-up places. You will find a signs for HAND WASH and DRINKING WATER. HAND WASH is usually a small sink and a tub of liquid soap. DRINKING WATER is filtered and/or UV treated water. The faucet has cups next to it from which everyone can drink and then return the cup, but no one touches a mouth to the cup.

Strangely, spoons tend to get wiped and placed into a bin of water when plates are cleared. You then draw the same spoons out of the water (my fantasy is that they are washed and then put in the water to keep flies off).

[Jan '08: Turns out my hopes are true! they are washed properly and then stuck in the water, probably for that very reason.]

I drink filtered water instead of bottled water at restaurants and home. Almost everywhere filters tap water before serving, so the risk is pretty low. After a time, you get a sense of where you should and should not drink water. Also because I am not traveling (and can go be sick and miserable at home), I have abandoned "peel it, boil it, or forget it," though most Indian veggies are peeled AND boiled. I am more conservative outside of Bangalore, though.

Cooties
To date, I've had no major gastrointestinal trauma, other than eating too much rich food or getting dehydrated. Malaria medication (no longer taken), Western food and red wine are the most likely things to give me stomach aches.

What gets you are coughs, sore throats and sniffles. Everywhere people are coughing and hacking from disease or pollution. `And, when you are poor and work as a cook, you don't get sick days, so people are likely sick and working in kitchens. These days I feel fine but have a persistent pollution cough. Our cleaning lady seems to always be coughing and sniffling, and I think I have caught her cold at least once. Luckily, no severe fevers or anything worse than mild fatigue so far, though I'm pretty sure this post about guarantees I end up with dengue or something.