Oiler 1,
Like you i thought distilled water to be good for you, ...until i got talking to a water Engineer/scientist, who promptly told me this is not so, because it is void of all minerals and other bits and bobs that the body needs. He went as far as telling me that drink too much of it and your muscles will start dieing off, as he put it, ...it's almost like a poison to a living body....
rockycoon,
Some filters are pretty good, but it's getting the right type of water filter. whatever medium you use, it's always advisable to have a finish/polishing filter after the main filter, using something like activated carbon.
General....
Some here give me a chuckle, they think because they haven't picked anything up until now, there going to immune to these bugs. I was basically under the same impression myself when i first went to China. I didn't get caught by anything for well over a year, ...believe me when you do cop it you will wish you hadn't!! So it can happen to YOU at ''anytime''!!
I eventually copped it on at least 3 other occasions too over the 8 years or so i was living there, and that was with taking precautions!!! I can honestly say on the later times i went down, it was definitely nothing to do within my own living conditions or lack of personal hygiene. Two were further water bourne bug infections an one was from a food bug, so go figure where they were picked up!!
NO-ONE is immune to water bourne bugs, ...if they get a hold in your system you WILL go down like a sack of potato's and you won't be getting up for around 3 days with medication, and maybe longer. Some of these bugs are real nasties, and can be a lot more serious and even fatal under the right conditions....
Now if anyone was to see ''Any'' of the City municipal water tanks, or for that matter the water towers, and see what's in them and living in them.... i can assure you, you won't be letting any of that water anywhere near your mouth, let alone brushing your teeth with it!! ...haha!!
One of the reasons some of the upper class hotels in the bigger cities have there own water treatment facilities, in that all the water within the hotel is treated water, apart from toilet/WC flush facilities...
Anyway totally up to the individual, if or not your going to take precautions against getting sick!!!
David.......