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!

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..

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.

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!)

Photos!

DWDB : 6

I've put up some photos here. I'll keep adding more as I get the chance.

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!

At long last, it begins...

Well I've finally arrived in Oddanchatram, Tamil Nadu, India after a very eventful 3 days in 'transit'. I flew into Chennai (the capital of Tamil Nadu province) on Sunday afternoon to find myself in the middle of a rain storm that had already claimed 10 lives in the region due to flooding relatied accidents and collapsed buildings etc. I was the first of our group of 5 to arrive so I had to spend the first 8 hours on the subcontinent alone.

Suzie arrived and the group was complete. We had an amazing lunch at a place called Saravanah Bhavan where the waiters were all too happy to guide us through the correct order of eating the dishes, and they would stand there looking amused as us Aussies tried to look like locals shovelling rice and curry into our mouths using nothing but our right hands (the left is for wiping your bum, not eating). We spent the afternoon walking in the rain to Marina Beach, then spent the evening getting lost in the crazy streets of a nearby suburb. This really gave us a sense of Indian big city life. Streets were full of people, dogs, motorbikes, cabs, moto-rickshaws (there are apparently no road rules...although driving on the left is encouraged), cows, goats, rubbish, mud, sewage.....you get the picture. Had a few drinks at one of the few bars listed in lonely planet and got in some engaging but fairly one-way conversations with some drunken Indian dudes.

Yesterday we headed to Chennai's equivalent of Mumbai's Bollywood and were allowed to wander aroudn the studio grounds unimpeded. We were let in to one of the stages where they had obviously filmed a gameshow or something, then went next door where they were filming a music video with about 50 dancers! No-one seemed to care that we were there, this Indian moviestar (we could tell by his gorgeous hair) even offered the girls seats behind the director. Crazy!

Last night we got on the overnight train at 8pm and slept in airconditioned "comfort" until 3 when we arrived in Dindigul, then caught a cab about 60km to Oddanchatram (for only Rs.450). We met our preceptor Dr Meena Abraham at about 7am and were shown our accomodation. Kev and I are staying with a 4th year guy who's here from Flinder's Uni in Adelaide in an appartment and we've got our own rooms which is nice. The beds are rock hard and obvioulsy made for midgets, but I'm sure we'll get used to it. We're just out getting supplies before having a tour of the hospital this afternoon.

It's all very surreal to be here - but very exciting to say the least!