Writing to you all now from Kathmandu, Nepal!
The night after my last post, Kev and I checked out the bar scene in Bangalore...which, while better than that of Oddan or dare I say it our beloved Dindigul, was not all that crash hot. That said, there were women in (most) of the bars (shock!) and noone was staring at them. Not too much, anyway.
A very strange thing happened to us as we were walking from the rickshaw to our hotel. In a side alley just near our hotel, there was a stage set up, and people were crammed in and on the stage listening to music and dancing and generally being merry. We walked in being the tourists we are, cameras at the ready, and a helpful local with good English told us that it was a celebration of the local language (and the cultural differences that go along with it) for the Bangalore area. A local moviestar was on stage singing, but his celebrity was soon overshadowed by ours, as we were (forcefully) danced with and pushed up on stage. We were a bit drunk and had no idea really what was going on, but the crowd loved it and about 30 people jumped up on stage to have their photo with us and the movie star. Very bizarre...but also very unique. The helpful guy said that not many westerners would ever see this sort of celebration.
Anyway, the next day was spent in transit (mostly waiting around in Kolkata airport which is really quite crap for a city of 7 million or so...). We arrived in Kathmandu at about 4pm and we were met by Ram, the manager of the Yeti Guest House in Thamel, the hip and happening tourist area of Kathmandu. A friend of Kev's has stayed and trekked with him six times, including one 6-month stay, and he came highly recommended. His organisation of our trek (starting tomorrow) explained why. He organised absolutely everything, and has given us a very good price for the 10 days, as well as only charging us AU$3.50 per night to stay in his guest house for the last three nights!
We spent yesterday sifting through the mountains of trekking gear on sale here (mostly fake we suspect - at these prices!) and stocked up on supplies. Apart from a few more small things to get in Pokhara tomorrow, we're set.
Today we did the world's second highest bungy jump - and I have never been so scared and/or excited! It was from a steel suspension bridge 160m above a gorge and a raging river. I also did a canyon swing from the bridge - the world's highest. http://www.bungynepal.com/ It was one of the craziest and most exciting things I've ever done - I'm definietly going to do it again!
Getting late here, so I'll sign off. Tomorrow we're off to Pokhara to start a 10-day trek called the Annapurna Sanctuary. Can't wait! Not sure whether there's any internet in the mountains (prob not) so I'll update (with photos) after we get back!
-S
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Farewell Oddan, we'll miss you
Well, we've left Oddanchatram never (probably, but who knows?) to return. After heading in to 'work' for a couple of hours yesterday morning we packed up our gear and headed to Dindigul (did I mention we love Dindigul?). Leaving our packs locked up at the train station, we had a bit of a wander and came across a very nice hotel restaurant with A/C where we sat and relaxed a bit with some ice-creams (three of us had what was called on the menu a 'Funny Hug' - no idea why - it was only funny because it was called a hug and it was really just fruit salad and icecream..strange).
With about an hour to kill before they started serving dinner, we went outside for a wander of the surrounding area. The sun was just about to set at this point. We still had a few flowerpots and crackers left over from Diwali that we had to get rid of, so we let a few off in a sidestreet near the hotel. Then the most bizarre thing happened. Fireworks started going off all over the town and within literally ten minutes of leaving the hotel, all the local doorsteps were lit up with small oil lamps illuminating beautiful chalk drawings that the locals had drawn. Everyone started spilling out into the street and lighting fireworks and before we knew it we were in the middle of WWIII. A young Indian bloke told me that it was yet another Hindu festival being celebrated (just looked it up - its called Dev Diwali), and handed us all sparklers. We wandered around the small alleys and markets avoiding the crackers for about an hour and the effect of the lamps in the dark, with a full moon overhead was simply stunning. A very unexpected treat for our last night in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Kev and I got the overnight train to Bangalore and we're spending the day here, before flying to Nepal in the morning. The girls left us having to get a bus to Madurai in order to catch a train to Nagercoil in the south. Bangalore is a very westernised city, complete with bars that sell alcohol (and allow women, in fact some places won't let in blokes without female 'chaperones'), dancefloors and all the big brand shopping you can handle. We had pizza for lunch - apparently we were craving some non-Indian food after our 4 weeks in the back of beyond - it tasted soo good :) Can't wait to get stuck into some Nepali food starting tomorrow!
Thanks for dropping by!
With about an hour to kill before they started serving dinner, we went outside for a wander of the surrounding area. The sun was just about to set at this point. We still had a few flowerpots and crackers left over from Diwali that we had to get rid of, so we let a few off in a sidestreet near the hotel. Then the most bizarre thing happened. Fireworks started going off all over the town and within literally ten minutes of leaving the hotel, all the local doorsteps were lit up with small oil lamps illuminating beautiful chalk drawings that the locals had drawn. Everyone started spilling out into the street and lighting fireworks and before we knew it we were in the middle of WWIII. A young Indian bloke told me that it was yet another Hindu festival being celebrated (just looked it up - its called Dev Diwali), and handed us all sparklers. We wandered around the small alleys and markets avoiding the crackers for about an hour and the effect of the lamps in the dark, with a full moon overhead was simply stunning. A very unexpected treat for our last night in the state of Tamil Nadu.
Kev and I got the overnight train to Bangalore and we're spending the day here, before flying to Nepal in the morning. The girls left us having to get a bus to Madurai in order to catch a train to Nagercoil in the south. Bangalore is a very westernised city, complete with bars that sell alcohol (and allow women, in fact some places won't let in blokes without female 'chaperones'), dancefloors and all the big brand shopping you can handle. We had pizza for lunch - apparently we were craving some non-Indian food after our 4 weeks in the back of beyond - it tasted soo good :) Can't wait to get stuck into some Nepali food starting tomorrow!
Thanks for dropping by!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Clinics, Kodaikanal, the Dreaded Delhi Belly and Dindigul (again)
DWDB : 3 (the inevitable finally happened...ugh...think I'll stop putting this on the posts now, you get the point)
Here goes, this will probably be the last post from our elective home base of 'Oddan'. The fabulous five are going our seperate ways tomorrow night, when Kev and I head North to Bangalore on our way to Nepal, and the girls head south to...somewhere (not sure if they know yet) to eventually end up in Kerala, Goa and Delhi before we all fly out of India in late December.
Last thursday Kev, Georgie and I went along to the second of our village clinic visits. We had been expecting to head up into the mountains but on arriving at the clinic it turned out to be only about 10km from the hospital in a small lowlying village off the main road. The clinic here was much more established than the Gandhi Nagar clinic we visited last Tuesday, as it's been in use for about 15 years. There were three doctors at the clinic and it was bigger and more organised than the shed of the previous clinic. After spending the morning sitting in on patient examinations and getting a few explanations from the doctors, we had lunch in a little building about 100m away which was used as the nurses quarters for the clinic. We had a packed lunch from the mess, but the nurses ('sisters') served us some of their curry lunch which they'd warmed up in the kitchen. After lunch it is traditional around here to have a bit of a kip, so after cleaning up the nurses got out some straw mats and started to lie down on the floor. We had been playing cards over lunch so we thought the noise may not be welcome if they were trying to sleep, so why not have a sleep too? As Kev and I were the only guys in the room, we weren't sure if it was kosher for us to lie down on the same mats as the nurses. Although they can all speak english, they only do so when necessary and otherwise they seem a little too shy to communicate with us other than the odd 'excuse me' if we're in the way on the ward. So when we lay down to have said nap, there was a lot of hushed whispering and giggling amongst the nurses. We didn't really know what was going on and we ended up laughing too, about what we're not sure, but the whole room ended up in hysterics for a few minutes...all about apparently nothing! It was a little strange... We headed back to Oddan at about 4.30.
Thursday night at about 4.30 the inevitable happened. Delhi Belhi finally took it's fourth victim of five (me). Somehow, apart from a bit of a sore throat, Kev has managed to avoid getting sick this whole time. Guts of steel. I was pretty pleased that I'd made it nearly three weeks without getting sick. Needless to say I took Friday off and Kev headed in to surgery outpatients for our last day in surgery.
We decided to skip town early on saturday and take a long weekend away in the mountains at a place called Kodaikanal. It's at almost the same altitude as Mt Kosciuzko, so it was pretty cool up there. The bus ride was very picturesque, but took 3.5 hours to make the 65km trip from Palani to Kodai. Just when we thought we couldn't go any higher, the bus would turn around another ridge and keep on climbing...when we finally arrived in Kodai at about 3pm, the bus was crammed full of people, a lot of whom had brought with them huge sacks of fruit and veg to sell at the markets, and these were stacked three deep almost the entire length of the bus. The legroom in these buses leaves a little to be desired, so it was quite an uncomfortable trip. The views made it alright though, just.
We spent the afternoon exploring Kodai while at the same time looking for somewhere to stay. In the middle of Kodai is a beautiful man-made lake (lake Kodaikanal), surrounded by market stalls, horseriding, bike riding and some really nice lookout spots. Kodai is quite a touristy spot, even for Indians, and there were a lot of Indians around taking photos looking almost as touristy as us which was a relief because it meant we were able to enjoy a bit more anonymity than back home in Oddan ('the five whiteys from the hospital'). When the sun went down it got quite cold (well, probably only about 12 degrees, but it was cold compared to Oddan). None of us had really come prepared, so we bought the ugliest cheapest jumpers we could find at a streetside stand (see the photos, you'll agree). The all-knowing Lonely Planet had informed us of a great restaurant that did western-style meals including Pizza, and we eagerly searched it out only to find it closed for the winter. Somebody said "I know a nice little Indian place..." and we ate there, a little disappointed at the lack of pizza on the menu.
On Sunday morning we did a five hour trek with a local guide starting at 7.30am. The mountains around Kodai are very very steep and beautiful and I guess the best way to tell you about them is to just let you see for yourself. We arrived back in town around 2.30 and headed to a local Tibetan restaurant for lunch. We had a great (non C&R!) meal of chowmein and dumplings. After a bit of a nap back at the hotel (watching crap daytime TV on cable....ahhh TV) we wandered around the lake checking out the markets and just enjoying the fresh mountain air. After dinner Jenna and Suzie got massages at a local parlour. Apparently the masseuses really weren't shy and when they said full body massage they meant it! George, Kev and I walked back up the hill towards the hotel only to come across a big group of Indian college students from out of town having a dance party in front of their hotel around a big fire. Some guys came and tried to talk to us about Australia (cricket) and tried to get us to dance. They were very keen to show us their dance moves, and I think Georgie might have preferred if we hadn't told them all that she was not married. They suddenly became even more interested in what is apparently quite a strange sight for an Indian man : a white woman in Indian clothing (they all stare unashamedly at the girls, no matter how rude it seems to us...it must be pretty unnerving!). We went back to the hotel, and Jenna and Suzie soon arrived back covered in oil and looking relaxed, if not a little disturbed.
On monday morning we went for a 'swan about' on the lake in pedal powered Swan-boats. We had lunch at the Tibetan place again (I got a very watery vegetable soup - my stomach wasn't really agreeing with much at this point) and then wandered around a bit more before getting on the bus back to Oddan. The bus trip home only took 3.5 hours (as opposed to 5 on the way) and because it wasn't the weekend it wasn't full of tourists or people with stuff to sell at market.
Tuesday afternoon we tried to book train tickets online for our trip to Bangalore but failed miserably so we made another impromptu trip to Dindigul (we love Dindigul) and organised our tickets with no fuss at the train station (and we had to pick up our flight tickets from the travel agent too). The girls came with Kev and I and we showed them the bar we'd been to last week and introduced them to our barman friend, who insisted on more photos with us (what is their obsession with cameras!?) We had dinner and a few drinks in yet another bar, this one a rundown dirty room behind a 'Wine Shop' next to the busstop. Not a classy establishment at all and the men in there (there were only men) seemed flabergasted at the sight of three women in their bar. Once again, everyone stared, but this time it was the leering, unsteady stare of men who'd had a few too many cheap Indian whiskys. There were signs on the wall in Tamil with exclamation marks at the end everywhere you looked...they may have said "No women allowed!" but we weren't to know. Guess if anything we provided the locals with a bit of entertainment...haha!
This week Suzie and I have been in the ICU which has been quite interesting. I've been reading a lot of ECG's, learning about various poisonings and discussing with the consultant the significance of various clinical findings. Dr Suni was a little aloof at first (because we're only first year) but once he realised what our level of knowledge was he's become a bit more accommodating. We've been going on rounds with him every morning and seem some interesting cases, however most of them are heart or lung problems (MI or COPD).
This week we've had meetings with Meena (our preceptor) and the medical superintendent and his wife had us over after dinner on wednesday to meet us which was nice. He is the son of the hospital's founder (it was founded in 1955) and is a psychiatrist, and his wife is an ENT specialist. We've almost organised all the paperwork that needs to be filled out before we leave and tomorrow we're going in for rounds in the morning then packing up and heading to Dindigul for the afternoon and catching our trains at about 9pm tomorrow.
Walking down the main street yesterday with Suzie, we were actually a little sad to be leaving this place. It's been such a great experience, unlike anything we (certainly I) have experienced before, and it will surely never be forgotten. The people here are so nice, despite all the hardships in their lives, and have made us feel nothing but welcome. I can't say I'll miss the hard beds and the 5am call to prayer from the local mosque waking me up, but other than that Oddan will be missed.
So begins the next chapter : climbing the Nepal Himalaya!
Haven't got time to add photos to the blog now, but there are new one's here!
You stay classy San Diego
Here goes, this will probably be the last post from our elective home base of 'Oddan'. The fabulous five are going our seperate ways tomorrow night, when Kev and I head North to Bangalore on our way to Nepal, and the girls head south to...somewhere (not sure if they know yet) to eventually end up in Kerala, Goa and Delhi before we all fly out of India in late December.
Last thursday Kev, Georgie and I went along to the second of our village clinic visits. We had been expecting to head up into the mountains but on arriving at the clinic it turned out to be only about 10km from the hospital in a small lowlying village off the main road. The clinic here was much more established than the Gandhi Nagar clinic we visited last Tuesday, as it's been in use for about 15 years. There were three doctors at the clinic and it was bigger and more organised than the shed of the previous clinic. After spending the morning sitting in on patient examinations and getting a few explanations from the doctors, we had lunch in a little building about 100m away which was used as the nurses quarters for the clinic. We had a packed lunch from the mess, but the nurses ('sisters') served us some of their curry lunch which they'd warmed up in the kitchen. After lunch it is traditional around here to have a bit of a kip, so after cleaning up the nurses got out some straw mats and started to lie down on the floor. We had been playing cards over lunch so we thought the noise may not be welcome if they were trying to sleep, so why not have a sleep too? As Kev and I were the only guys in the room, we weren't sure if it was kosher for us to lie down on the same mats as the nurses. Although they can all speak english, they only do so when necessary and otherwise they seem a little too shy to communicate with us other than the odd 'excuse me' if we're in the way on the ward. So when we lay down to have said nap, there was a lot of hushed whispering and giggling amongst the nurses. We didn't really know what was going on and we ended up laughing too, about what we're not sure, but the whole room ended up in hysterics for a few minutes...all about apparently nothing! It was a little strange... We headed back to Oddan at about 4.30.
Thursday night at about 4.30 the inevitable happened. Delhi Belhi finally took it's fourth victim of five (me). Somehow, apart from a bit of a sore throat, Kev has managed to avoid getting sick this whole time. Guts of steel. I was pretty pleased that I'd made it nearly three weeks without getting sick. Needless to say I took Friday off and Kev headed in to surgery outpatients for our last day in surgery.
We decided to skip town early on saturday and take a long weekend away in the mountains at a place called Kodaikanal. It's at almost the same altitude as Mt Kosciuzko, so it was pretty cool up there. The bus ride was very picturesque, but took 3.5 hours to make the 65km trip from Palani to Kodai. Just when we thought we couldn't go any higher, the bus would turn around another ridge and keep on climbing...when we finally arrived in Kodai at about 3pm, the bus was crammed full of people, a lot of whom had brought with them huge sacks of fruit and veg to sell at the markets, and these were stacked three deep almost the entire length of the bus. The legroom in these buses leaves a little to be desired, so it was quite an uncomfortable trip. The views made it alright though, just.
We spent the afternoon exploring Kodai while at the same time looking for somewhere to stay. In the middle of Kodai is a beautiful man-made lake (lake Kodaikanal), surrounded by market stalls, horseriding, bike riding and some really nice lookout spots. Kodai is quite a touristy spot, even for Indians, and there were a lot of Indians around taking photos looking almost as touristy as us which was a relief because it meant we were able to enjoy a bit more anonymity than back home in Oddan ('the five whiteys from the hospital'). When the sun went down it got quite cold (well, probably only about 12 degrees, but it was cold compared to Oddan). None of us had really come prepared, so we bought the ugliest cheapest jumpers we could find at a streetside stand (see the photos, you'll agree). The all-knowing Lonely Planet had informed us of a great restaurant that did western-style meals including Pizza, and we eagerly searched it out only to find it closed for the winter. Somebody said "I know a nice little Indian place..." and we ate there, a little disappointed at the lack of pizza on the menu.
On Sunday morning we did a five hour trek with a local guide starting at 7.30am. The mountains around Kodai are very very steep and beautiful and I guess the best way to tell you about them is to just let you see for yourself. We arrived back in town around 2.30 and headed to a local Tibetan restaurant for lunch. We had a great (non C&R!) meal of chowmein and dumplings. After a bit of a nap back at the hotel (watching crap daytime TV on cable....ahhh TV) we wandered around the lake checking out the markets and just enjoying the fresh mountain air. After dinner Jenna and Suzie got massages at a local parlour. Apparently the masseuses really weren't shy and when they said full body massage they meant it! George, Kev and I walked back up the hill towards the hotel only to come across a big group of Indian college students from out of town having a dance party in front of their hotel around a big fire. Some guys came and tried to talk to us about Australia (cricket) and tried to get us to dance. They were very keen to show us their dance moves, and I think Georgie might have preferred if we hadn't told them all that she was not married. They suddenly became even more interested in what is apparently quite a strange sight for an Indian man : a white woman in Indian clothing (they all stare unashamedly at the girls, no matter how rude it seems to us...it must be pretty unnerving!). We went back to the hotel, and Jenna and Suzie soon arrived back covered in oil and looking relaxed, if not a little disturbed.
On monday morning we went for a 'swan about' on the lake in pedal powered Swan-boats. We had lunch at the Tibetan place again (I got a very watery vegetable soup - my stomach wasn't really agreeing with much at this point) and then wandered around a bit more before getting on the bus back to Oddan. The bus trip home only took 3.5 hours (as opposed to 5 on the way) and because it wasn't the weekend it wasn't full of tourists or people with stuff to sell at market.
Tuesday afternoon we tried to book train tickets online for our trip to Bangalore but failed miserably so we made another impromptu trip to Dindigul (we love Dindigul) and organised our tickets with no fuss at the train station (and we had to pick up our flight tickets from the travel agent too). The girls came with Kev and I and we showed them the bar we'd been to last week and introduced them to our barman friend, who insisted on more photos with us (what is their obsession with cameras!?) We had dinner and a few drinks in yet another bar, this one a rundown dirty room behind a 'Wine Shop' next to the busstop. Not a classy establishment at all and the men in there (there were only men) seemed flabergasted at the sight of three women in their bar. Once again, everyone stared, but this time it was the leering, unsteady stare of men who'd had a few too many cheap Indian whiskys. There were signs on the wall in Tamil with exclamation marks at the end everywhere you looked...they may have said "No women allowed!" but we weren't to know. Guess if anything we provided the locals with a bit of entertainment...haha!
This week Suzie and I have been in the ICU which has been quite interesting. I've been reading a lot of ECG's, learning about various poisonings and discussing with the consultant the significance of various clinical findings. Dr Suni was a little aloof at first (because we're only first year) but once he realised what our level of knowledge was he's become a bit more accommodating. We've been going on rounds with him every morning and seem some interesting cases, however most of them are heart or lung problems (MI or COPD).
This week we've had meetings with Meena (our preceptor) and the medical superintendent and his wife had us over after dinner on wednesday to meet us which was nice. He is the son of the hospital's founder (it was founded in 1955) and is a psychiatrist, and his wife is an ENT specialist. We've almost organised all the paperwork that needs to be filled out before we leave and tomorrow we're going in for rounds in the morning then packing up and heading to Dindigul for the afternoon and catching our trains at about 9pm tomorrow.
Walking down the main street yesterday with Suzie, we were actually a little sad to be leaving this place. It's been such a great experience, unlike anything we (certainly I) have experienced before, and it will surely never be forgotten. The people here are so nice, despite all the hardships in their lives, and have made us feel nothing but welcome. I can't say I'll miss the hard beds and the 5am call to prayer from the local mosque waking me up, but other than that Oddan will be missed.
So begins the next chapter : climbing the Nepal Himalaya!
Haven't got time to add photos to the blog now, but there are new one's here!
You stay classy San Diego
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Oddan On a Shoestring
DWDB : 17
Last night we had a very cheap and very entertaining night on the town in Oddanchatram (Oddan for short). We had Brota and Curry from a nice veg restaurant across the road for the grand total of 17 rupee (Rs.17 = AU50cents - all you can eat too!). Then we went to the cinema again, this time to see an 'action' movie, for Rs.20 (60cents). So a delicious all you can eat meal and a 3.5 hour movie set us back less than a buck fifty. (AFTERTHOUGHT: Kev and I also had barber shaves that day at our 'local' - we've been going a few times since - for the ridiculously low price of Rs.15 (50c). So a shave, dinner and a movie for two bucks! Sweeeeet)
The movie we saw (don't ask me what it was called, but it had a guy called 'The Boss' in it...thats all we could figure out) was better than the last one, but to almost the same formula (still in Hindu, dubbed in Tamil). The dance scenes were amazing, and there had obviously been some serious rupees spent on this one. Once again, the fair damsel in distress was won over by some seriously good dancing scenes with 100+ dancers and a few awesome fight scenes. If only it were that easy!
Spent the day in surgery today, saw some toe amputations which were pretty cool. Off to a mountain station about an hour away tomorrow for one of the hospital's 'village clinics'.
Last night we had a very cheap and very entertaining night on the town in Oddanchatram (Oddan for short). We had Brota and Curry from a nice veg restaurant across the road for the grand total of 17 rupee (Rs.17 = AU50cents - all you can eat too!). Then we went to the cinema again, this time to see an 'action' movie, for Rs.20 (60cents). So a delicious all you can eat meal and a 3.5 hour movie set us back less than a buck fifty. (AFTERTHOUGHT: Kev and I also had barber shaves that day at our 'local' - we've been going a few times since - for the ridiculously low price of Rs.15 (50c). So a shave, dinner and a movie for two bucks! Sweeeeet)
The movie we saw (don't ask me what it was called, but it had a guy called 'The Boss' in it...thats all we could figure out) was better than the last one, but to almost the same formula (still in Hindu, dubbed in Tamil). The dance scenes were amazing, and there had obviously been some serious rupees spent on this one. Once again, the fair damsel in distress was won over by some seriously good dancing scenes with 100+ dancers and a few awesome fight scenes. If only it were that easy!
Spent the day in surgery today, saw some toe amputations which were pretty cool. Off to a mountain station about an hour away tomorrow for one of the hospital's 'village clinics'.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Dindigul, Mountain climbing and Madurai
DWDB : 16 (still going strong)
Hello again,
Yet another fun-filled weekend had by all. Kev and I spent sat morning in theatre watching (among other things) a haemorrhoidectomy (rather unpleasant) and an appendicectomy. It was pretty good to finally see some real surgery up close (and very personal).
Sat afternoon Kev and I went off to Dindigul (about 30 mins by bus) to meet with a travel agent re: Nepal. 2 rather tedious hours later, we had booked our flight (Bangalore - Kolkata - Kathmandu on Nov 26th FYI). We're planning to do the 'Annapurna Sanctuary' trek leaving from Pokhara, west of Kathmandu, which should take us about 2 weeks. After this, we're going to bus/train back to India and see some of the sights between Kathmandu and Delhi (incl Agra where the Taj is) before leaving Delhi on Dec 20th. The barman at a place in Dindigul was very keen to have his photo with us, so we went next door and printed him out a copy for the wall in the bar. We feel like such celebs over here!
On Sunday the Suzie and Georgie went to Palani, and Kev and I stayed behind to climb the mountain that overlooks the hospital and Oddanchatram. We went up with one of the registrars from the surg department, a really nice guy (originally from Northern India) called Krosa, but his nickname is 'Pucho' (no idea why). The road only took us about halfway up before it doubled back and went around the other side, so we had to scramble up through the bush with no track to the top. Kev and I were in shorts, and ended up pretty bloodied from the very dense undergrowth which consisted mainly of very thorny bushes. The 360 degree view from the top was amazing, and Pucho was right about it being a great place to get away from the noise (all we could hear was a lone cow somewhere in the distance). Since we hadn't followed a track up, we decided to climb down the other side, which turned out to have about twice the thorns of the side we came up, so we took quite a while to get back down (spent mainly on all fours crawling through thorny lantana-like bushes...fun fun).
Yesterday we got up early and hopped on a bus to Madurai, another major town about 2 hours SW of Oddan. After one of the bumpiest bus rides I've ever had, we headed to the Meenakshi temple. It was very similar to the temple in Trichy, only this time we weren't allowed to wear shorts (we had to have our legs covered), so Kev and bought Doti's. They're white cloths that men wear - along with the Lunge (a multi-coloured version of the Doti - we got some of those in Trichy) they are touted as being "functional yet flattering" and we wholeheartedly agree. Comfortable too!
After the temple we headed to the Ghandi museum which was short, but interesting nonetheless.
After dinner and 'ice-cold' beers at a rooftop bar (full of Westerners, or 'Whiteys' as we call ourselves - it was listed in Lonely Planet...) we got the long bumpy ride back to Oddan.
This morning Kev and I went with one of the doctors to one of the hospital's local 'village clinics'. It was only about 1km away in a slum area of Oddan and consisted of a small shed with a desk and some medicines. There was a doctor, the two of us, and 4 nurses, so we were a little surplus to requirements and walked home around lunchtime. Seeing what the locals call the 'slums' when most of the town seems like a slum to someone from Australia was quite sad. We did a few quick housecalls, one of which was to tell an elderly lady living in a tiny hut with a dirt floor, that her daughter had died...we stood there with her while she prayed for about ten minutes. It was very sad, and really made us feel lucky to live in a place like Australia. Here's a photo of the "clinic":
Thats about a wrap for this installment - I'd be keen to hear what everyone's up to back home and elsewhere so send me an email!
Hello again,
Yet another fun-filled weekend had by all. Kev and I spent sat morning in theatre watching (among other things) a haemorrhoidectomy (rather unpleasant) and an appendicectomy. It was pretty good to finally see some real surgery up close (and very personal).
Sat afternoon Kev and I went off to Dindigul (about 30 mins by bus) to meet with a travel agent re: Nepal. 2 rather tedious hours later, we had booked our flight (Bangalore - Kolkata - Kathmandu on Nov 26th FYI). We're planning to do the 'Annapurna Sanctuary' trek leaving from Pokhara, west of Kathmandu, which should take us about 2 weeks. After this, we're going to bus/train back to India and see some of the sights between Kathmandu and Delhi (incl Agra where the Taj is) before leaving Delhi on Dec 20th. The barman at a place in Dindigul was very keen to have his photo with us, so we went next door and printed him out a copy for the wall in the bar. We feel like such celebs over here!
On Sunday the Suzie and Georgie went to Palani, and Kev and I stayed behind to climb the mountain that overlooks the hospital and Oddanchatram. We went up with one of the registrars from the surg department, a really nice guy (originally from Northern India) called Krosa, but his nickname is 'Pucho' (no idea why). The road only took us about halfway up before it doubled back and went around the other side, so we had to scramble up through the bush with no track to the top. Kev and I were in shorts, and ended up pretty bloodied from the very dense undergrowth which consisted mainly of very thorny bushes. The 360 degree view from the top was amazing, and Pucho was right about it being a great place to get away from the noise (all we could hear was a lone cow somewhere in the distance). Since we hadn't followed a track up, we decided to climb down the other side, which turned out to have about twice the thorns of the side we came up, so we took quite a while to get back down (spent mainly on all fours crawling through thorny lantana-like bushes...fun fun).
Yesterday we got up early and hopped on a bus to Madurai, another major town about 2 hours SW of Oddan. After one of the bumpiest bus rides I've ever had, we headed to the Meenakshi temple. It was very similar to the temple in Trichy, only this time we weren't allowed to wear shorts (we had to have our legs covered), so Kev and bought Doti's. They're white cloths that men wear - along with the Lunge (a multi-coloured version of the Doti - we got some of those in Trichy) they are touted as being "functional yet flattering" and we wholeheartedly agree. Comfortable too!
After the temple we headed to the Ghandi museum which was short, but interesting nonetheless.
After dinner and 'ice-cold' beers at a rooftop bar (full of Westerners, or 'Whiteys' as we call ourselves - it was listed in Lonely Planet...) we got the long bumpy ride back to Oddan.
This morning Kev and I went with one of the doctors to one of the hospital's local 'village clinics'. It was only about 1km away in a slum area of Oddan and consisted of a small shed with a desk and some medicines. There was a doctor, the two of us, and 4 nurses, so we were a little surplus to requirements and walked home around lunchtime. Seeing what the locals call the 'slums' when most of the town seems like a slum to someone from Australia was quite sad. We did a few quick housecalls, one of which was to tell an elderly lady living in a tiny hut with a dirt floor, that her daughter had died...we stood there with her while she prayed for about ten minutes. It was very sad, and really made us feel lucky to live in a place like Australia. Here's a photo of the "clinic":
Thats about a wrap for this installment - I'd be keen to hear what everyone's up to back home and elsewhere so send me an email!
Friday, November 9, 2007
Diwali - "Flashlights and Explosions!"
DWDB : 12
Someone had the brilliant idea of going to the movies the other night. We knew we wouldn't understand a word (it was in Hindi but dubbed in Tamil), but it was certainly worth the experience. I don't even know what the movie was called, but it featured all the corny 'look-but-don't-touch' romance, insane dance scenes and action that Bollywood is apparently famous for. We can't quite figure out why, but whenever there is a movie playing (be it in a bus, in a shop or in a cinema) they seem to have the volume set to about 200% all the time. We had to sit through most of the movie with our fingers in our ears it was so loud! Unfortunately the star of the movie was not Veejay who we saw in another movie on the bus to Dindigul last weekend.
Thursday 8th Nov was the Hindu festival of Diwali. Everyone buys bags and bags of firecrackers and fireworks and the place sounded like a war was going on from sparrow-fart on wednesday until about midnight last night. The odd cracker has been going off today too. Pyros that we are, we purchased a healthy collection of fireworks in Trichy last weekend and we had ourselves a little pyrotechnic bonanza on the hospital's soccer field last night. With the help of James as cameraman, we managed to take this pretty sweet photo using 5 giant sparklers..
Someone had the brilliant idea of going to the movies the other night. We knew we wouldn't understand a word (it was in Hindi but dubbed in Tamil), but it was certainly worth the experience. I don't even know what the movie was called, but it featured all the corny 'look-but-don't-touch' romance, insane dance scenes and action that Bollywood is apparently famous for. We can't quite figure out why, but whenever there is a movie playing (be it in a bus, in a shop or in a cinema) they seem to have the volume set to about 200% all the time. We had to sit through most of the movie with our fingers in our ears it was so loud! Unfortunately the star of the movie was not Veejay who we saw in another movie on the bus to Dindigul last weekend.
Thursday 8th Nov was the Hindu festival of Diwali. Everyone buys bags and bags of firecrackers and fireworks and the place sounded like a war was going on from sparrow-fart on wednesday until about midnight last night. The odd cracker has been going off today too. Pyros that we are, we purchased a healthy collection of fireworks in Trichy last weekend and we had ourselves a little pyrotechnic bonanza on the hospital's soccer field last night. With the help of James as cameraman, we managed to take this pretty sweet photo using 5 giant sparklers..
We started new rotations today - Kev and I are in surgery, Georgie and Suze are in O&G and Jenna's in ICU with James. We all had a pretty big first day in our respective depts. I am so glad that tonight I'll be able to get some sleep without firecrackers going off constantly.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Tots and Temples
DWDB : 9
The last few days have been jam-packed with fun touristy goodness.Friday night the O&G dept had a bit of a get-together, and James and I were invited. There were a few songs sung (in Tamil), a few games played, and some great food eaten. One of the games involved taking turns rolling a dice and if you rolled a 6 you had to dress up in this stupid costume (see photo) and eat a chocolate bar with a knife and fork (cutlery use is less natural to locals around here). Since we'd heard some lovely Tamil songs James and I decided to regail them with Waltzing Matilda, which was met with mild bemusement and applause, and I think limited comprehension...it was great to see how the staff here entertain themselves without luxuries like television and computer games.
On saturday I saw two more deliveries (in quick succession) to finish my stint in O&G. Sunday morning early we hopped on a train to the nearby (100km) centre of Trichy (Tiruchirappalli). Had yet another amazing lunch, then headed to the Trichy Bazaar and Rock Fort Temple. The crowds at the bazaar were truly amazing - and since we were the only white folk in the area (as far as we could tell) we were instant celebrities. Invitations were flying in from all directions to have coffee, buy clothes (I was offered 50 rupee for a toddler's dress which I politely declined...) and try on shoes and jewelery. From the middle of the Bazaar we climbed 200 steps to the top of the Rock Fort Temple, from where the view was spectacular. We sat on a rock in the cool afternoon breeze for about 2 hours before coming down into the Bazaar again, which seemed to have become even more crowded.
That night we had a few (some might say a few too many) ice-cold beers in the hotel bar. Cold beer is a little hard to come by in Oddanchatram...and the hospital frowns upon it anyway. On monday, a little hungover, we ventured to Sri Ranganatha Swami Temple, which is the biggest temple in India. (India at this time of year is possibly the worst place to be when hungover I think we all agreed). We had an awesome tourguide who showed us around for about 2 hours telling us all about the various gods, including Krishna and Vishnu.
On the way back to the train we had some time to kill so Kev and I decided to have barber shaves and haircuts. I'm still sporting my Movember moustache...I had planned to get rid of it after a few days but even though I think it is ruining some great photos I think I'll keep it until the end of the month. The rest of the guys love it and it helps me fit in with the locals here (90% of the guys have Tashes). The barber cut-throat shave is something you have to experience - its by far the closest shave I've ever had, as terrifying as it was. Amazingly, not a single drop of blood was spilled by the guy who shaved me, who had no teeth.
Thursday is a Hindu festival called Diwali and it involves LOTS of fireworks (the ICU dept at the hosp is bracing), so before we left Trichy to come home last night, we stocked up on fireworks for the festivities. It should make for some good pics :)
Thats about enough for now - you stay classy San Diego (and thanks for dropping by!)
Friday, November 2, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Meconium!
Days without Delhi Belly (DWDB) : 5
I've been allocated to O&G for the week. Went in this morning and within 5 minutes had seen my first delivery. Awesome...except some of 'it' went on my pants...not so awesome...
Followed the docs round trying to look smart for rounds (good thing the patients don't speak English or they'd be on to me!). Just the one birth this morning, but after lunch I got to go into theatre for the first time to watch a C-section. I didn't faint (always a good sign for a med student) and found it a really interesting experience! The docs are pretty busy so don't really have much time to answer questions, but some are pretty good (or have better English) so they are a bit more willing.
Kev and Georgie are in ICU, apparently its a bit quiet there until the middle of November when a massive Indian festival sees a huge influx of Fireworks injuries. Fun fun fun!
I've been allocated to O&G for the week. Went in this morning and within 5 minutes had seen my first delivery. Awesome...except some of 'it' went on my pants...not so awesome...
Followed the docs round trying to look smart for rounds (good thing the patients don't speak English or they'd be on to me!). Just the one birth this morning, but after lunch I got to go into theatre for the first time to watch a C-section. I didn't faint (always a good sign for a med student) and found it a really interesting experience! The docs are pretty busy so don't really have much time to answer questions, but some are pretty good (or have better English) so they are a bit more willing.
Kev and Georgie are in ICU, apparently its a bit quiet there until the middle of November when a massive Indian festival sees a huge influx of Fireworks injuries. Fun fun fun!
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