Coming Home

The long journey home has begun. The trip from Pune to Mumbai this morning was much easier than expected. I was able to find a shared taxi to Mumbai. The taxi driver was actually going to pick someone up for his business from the international airport and he said he could take me to the domestic airport which is close by. This was a pretty awesome set up because it meant that I didn't have to deal with rickshaw drivers in Mumbai and the traffic from wherever I might be dropped off. The drive to Mumbai was fast and smooth, but it took almost as long to get to Mumbai as it did to get from the outskirts into the airport because of traffic. I ended up getting to the airport with pletty of time to spare. My flight was scheduled for 2:10pm and I arrived at 10:00am. After killing time for several hours because I was not allowed to check in yet I went to check in and they told me my flight was cancelled. Shit. They said that could get me on a flight a couple hours later. They better!

I made it to Delhi. I am currently waiting for my taxi at Hotel Grand Godwin. My flight leaves at 2:10am. I hope I don't fall asleep and miss it! It is crazy how many miles I am about to cover...

Oh ya I almost forgot. Don't flight Go Air in India. I have decided to make a post where I impart all of my knowledge about getting around in India when I get back.

New Delhi Airport Experience:
I had begun to feel very good about myself and how I had finally figured out how to easily get around in India by the time I left for the airport from Hotel Grand Godwin. After taking some strange detours and picking up someone random on the street I arrived at Delhi International Airport about 11:00pm for my 2:10am flight. I waited in the line that was formed outside the airport and I showed my passport to the security guard who promptly told me I could not get inside without a ticket. As I stared inside in confusion at the ticket counter I pleaded that this made no sense whatsoever but my arguments were either lost in the language barrier or just completely ignored. Other people where able to get in because they had printed off the recipe from the ticket they had purchased online. I saw some airline offices near where I had gotten out of the car so I decided to go find British Airways and see if they could help me get some kind of a ticket. I was a little worried now because Josh had bought the ticket and he had already gone home so I was only left with the electronic record of my ticket, if they could find it. The British Airways ticket office was closed but I did see someone in the American Airways office so I went in to see if they could help. They could not... My ticket apparently was booked through British Airway's so they could not find any record of it in their system. I explained to them that the BA office was closed and they recommended another office in a different location that might have somebody in it. It did not, but it did have a security guard outside who recommended that I try talked with the BA people in the road who check luggage at the curbside. So I went to plead with this person who spoke better English and must have understood my predicament and he eventually went in to get a supervisor. The supervisor spoke with me got my information and ran around until he eventually told me to get back in the line and he would meet me at the front when I got to the security guard. When I got to the front the man was no where to be seen and I was left with the same problem I had before. Eventually the man came with a ticket in his hand that he got printed from the ticket counter (wow) and I was able to enter the airport.

After making it through one of the most intense, but worthless security checks I have been through I planned to kill a little more time shopping around inside the terminal. The terminal was just like the security, pretty terrible. I settled for a weird orange juice drink and then tried not to fall asleep while waiting.

The rain has come

The monsoon has started. I planned to go to Mumbai today (Monday) by bus but I was told that the monsoons have begun in Mumbai and it is not a fun place to be in the rain. I was also told that the ferry out to Elephant Island would not go in the rain and this was the main thing that I wanted to see while in Mumbai. Neela also said that at the beginning of the monsoon last year many parts of Mumbai became flooded and people were stranded in the vehicles for days and she was worried that I may not be able to make it up to the airport because the place that I was going to stay was on the southernmost part and it is a good distance from the airport. It has been raining here in Pune for the last couple days. It isn't a downpour but it is a steady rain. So I will be in Pune for two more days. Neela said that I was welcome to stay and I said that I only wanted to stay if they could put me to work. They said no problem. I will leave Wednesday morning and travel to Mumbai where I will catch my flight to Delhi as planned at 2:00pm.

Deep Griha

Yesterday, Saturday, I spent the day seeing and hearing about what Deep Griha (http://www.deepgriha.org/) does. The amount of programs and the size of this operation is much larger than I had been expecting. They have completely filled the first center I visited in Pune. A young lady named Claire showed me around the four story building that was complete with a clinic area, computer center, volunteer room, kitchen, and rooms for the HIV/AIDS program, nutrition program (DISHA), Women's Empowerment Program, educational programs, and childcare programs. Even though it was a Saturday the building was fairly busy with volunteers, staff, and Pune children and adults. It was an impressive sight.

In the early afternoon I finally got to meet Dr. Neela Onawale in her office where she told me all about the Deep Griha story and the evolution of the society. What impressed me the most was how Deep Griha has been able to adapt to changing conditions both in regards to the people it serves but also in terms of administration and finances. As Neela told her story she would talk about how some programs led to the development of other programs because they uncovered underlying needs. That afternoon I took a bus with several other volunteers and an engineer and his wife led by Bhoscar (Neela's husband) to visit City of Knowledge and City of Child.


City of Knowledge (photos below) is a project in progress that currently has a upper and lower kindergarten class and a nursery located about 50 km outside of Pune. The purpose of this facility is to provide inexpensive education to rural children that matches the quality of educational centers inside Pune, but keeps these children and families from moving to the slums in the city. The current plan is to add on standard (grade level) per year. The facility is located on a old poultry farm. Some of the buildings have been converted to classrooms while others are still in the abandoned condition they were left. One of the problems that this trip was hoping to solve with the help of the engineer was the lack of water at the location. We toured several sites around the complex looking for well sites (I think) and had tea with the local farmers while the men were talking business. It was great fun to listen to Bhoscar and see his vision and passion both for this project and all of what Deep Griha does. (The photo on the left are the buildings that have been converted into a Upper KG, Lower KG, and a nursery with a playground outside. The photo on the right is rest of the poultry facility viewed from a hill in the back of the complex that will eventually become the upper grade levels)










City of Child (photo below) is an orphanage that is located 40km outside of Pune. Some of these children are true orphans and others are children of parents who cannot take care of them (possibly because of AIDS, lack of family structure, or a combination of illness and poor resources). Unfortunately it was getting late so we did not have much time to spend there, but we did get to see the children who were playing games and we got to see the dinning facility, sleeping area, and classroom areas as well as the building where large groups of volunteers stay when they are here.

For the last couple nights I have been staying at the Cultural Center where the volunteers are housed. The house is located in a nice neighborhood and the facilities are quite descent. I am sharing a room three bedroom room that has one bathroom. There are couple Indian ladies who work in the kitchen and provide us meals. There are many people from all over staying here, most are either in undergraduate studies but some have already graduated. There is a small group of people from France and England, a guy from Ireland, a girl from China, a girl from Australia, and a girl from New York. Most of the people here are going to be here for weeks to months. One girl that I talked to will be here for 6 months!

On Monday I will get to see a few more centers including a youth center that volunteers have recently been working out. I also hope to speak with Neela more about the medical programs and about how conducive these programs would be to have either rising MS2s or students doing international 4th year electives. It is my plan to include this in my presentation to MS1 students interested in doing programs abroad after their first year in the hopes that a UNC medical student could come here next year. I think that it would be a great opportunity and I wish that I would have set it up to have more time here. My experience with the Himalayan Health Exchange was fabulous, but it would be much different being involved with Deep Griha in Pune because there would be the opportunity to submerse yourself in the culture and be a part of a more in depth form of health care through the relationships of Deep Griha.

Arrival in Pune

I made it into Pune today (Friday) at about 4pm. The flight out of Udaipur was seem less, but a bit strange. The airport had one terminal and two propeller planes. This was my first flight on a prop plane. On the plan I was talking with my seatmate who was from Chennai India and I was telling him about my trip and where I was going. The man sitting across the isle from us must have been listening and spoke up after we had been talking about how I was going to get to Pune. He said that instead of taking a taxi to the bus station and then a bus to Pune it would be easier and faster to get a shared taxi and he offered to help me get it. He said that it would take about and hour or an hour and a half to make it to the Dadar bus station. I followed him and we walked for a little ways outside the airport and he began talking to people and eventually told me that I could either take a shared taxi or that there would be an AC bus coming in 10 minutes for 250 Rs (very good price). After thanking him profusely he went on his way. His business card reads Manohar Samuel, Senior Vice President for Strategic Marketing of Grasim Industries.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP MANOHAR!!

The bus ride went smoothly all the way to Pune, but instead of letting me off at a bus station it left me in the street somewhere random. It then took a very expensive (I got ripped off) rishshaw ride to find the Deep Griha operation.

Wandering In Udaipur

I spent most of the day just wandering around. It seems that I saw most of what Udaipur had to offer in the first day. I tried to find this place called Sahilyon Ki Bari but never did. So I walked for a while near Fateh Sagar Lake and back towards the Gangore Ghat were I was yesterday. On my way there was a couple guys on a motorcycle who spoke pretty good English that asked me where I was going and then told me to hop on the bike. We rode for a little ways and then we stopped at his store and had some Chai while they acted like they weren't trying to sell me stuff. This kind of thing happened to me several times throughout the day. Young looking, well dressed men that spoke good English would befriend you and then try to get you to come and get fitted for a suit. The lines that many of them would use were so similar I thought they had to be a part of the same company. There weren't really pushy though so I enjoyed chatting with them (usually getting a little something for myself like directions or opinions about museums) and then went on my way. I went out onto a little peninsula where there was a hotel and I got pretty close to the Lake Palace. There was a French couple (I think) that spoke good English so I chatted with them for a bit and recommended to them that they go for dinner at the Jagat Niwas Restaurant because the sunset was beautiful. Next I went down to the Gangore Ghat to hang out near some elephants. It is impossible to sit anywhere without attracting a gathering of people. I spoke with a couple little boys that were "collecting coins" and they would pull out various foreign coins that people had given them and ask me how much they were worth. A little while later a older boy came and took all there coins. One boy had a nasty looking wound on his foot probably from and old blister. I had some tape with me for the blisters on my foot so I wrapped his up and told him to wash it with soap as soon as he could. People saw this and I then had several more people sticking dirty feet with blisters out for me to wrap up. I wish I would have had my first aid kit though.

At one point today I walked near a school and there were many school children walking by. Besides loving the fact that they could say hello to me they would ask me for rupees. These were well off children asking me for rupees. I don't know if foreigners just throw out rupees (and pens) here because all children ask for it.

Then I went to the Bangore museum next to the Gangore Ghat. I am glad that I didn't pay more than 25 Rs to get in though, it wasn't that spectacular. They did have one cool display with many different styles of turbans. Apparently you can tell where someone is from because of the way they wrap their turban.

Tomorrow morning I get on an airplane and fly to Mumbai. From there I will try to make my way to Pune by bus and should be getting there in the afternoon to meet Dr. Neela Onawale and the rest of Deep Griha. I don't really know what to expect but I am looking forward to it!

Udaipur: City Palace

I arrived in Udaipur about 8:30am this morning after taking a night train from Jaipur. I am now traveling by myself, as Anna and Sydni stayed behind and will be returning to New Delhi today by bus. I didn't get much sleep on the train last night but it was a good experience. I finally got to stay in one of the cabin rooms that sleeps four people. I shared the room with three elderly Indian people, two of them looked like a couple and the other lady looked like an older friend. The man spoke a little English and he told me that they were traveling for religious purposes, to visit a specific temple (don't know which one). While I was on the train the man taking care of first class passengers handed me a brochure for a "backpackers" hotel named Mewar Inn. The prices were much cheaper than any of the hotels in the guide book and it looked like a place other young travelers would be going so I decided to check it out. The hotel said on the brochure that it was a hard place to get to because riskshaw drivers don't like to take people there because the don't pay commissions, so I went to the Tourist information center at the train station, got a map and directions and walked all the way there. I will be staying here for the next two nights.

After eating breakfast at the rooftop restaurant at the hotel I started the walk towards Lake Pichola. The map I got is only semi-useful. Nothing is to scale and all the roads aren't on the map. After a lot of walking and asking many people for directions I got to the lake. Even though it is rainy season the lake was almost completely dried up. I walked for a little while along the shore before I was told I wasn't suppose to be there. The streets near the lake are very much like the narrow streets near the Ganges in Varanasi and it was very easy to get lost. I had to go into a restaurant that boasted the "highest restaurant in Udaipur" to get my bearings.


I spent most of the day in exploring the City Palace. This monster palace has an extensive museum, courtyard, a palace for the prince, a luxury hotel, and more within its walls. The highlight for me was going into the luxury hotel end near one end of the palace. Everything was elaborately decorated which was much more fitting than the emptiness that now fills most of the smaller palaces within the museum tour. This part was almost empty, only a few people hanging out around the pool. I went into the bar at the end and had a "Cobra" beer in the window seat of a beautifully decorated and room overlooking the JagMandir. I had someone waiting on me and for that short time I felt like a king. My other favorite part of the palace was the Bodi Mahal which was at the top of the other end of the palace and within the museum tour. This was a peaceful courtyard purched at the highest point of the palace with lookouts on three sides. There was also a fountain which provided a soothing sound. At first I was disappointed that the lake was near empty, but after viewing the JagMandir and Lake Palace from the city palace I humbled by the beauty of this place.


Down near where the docks were I was looking up in the trees and I saw these things that looked like large pieces of fruit. Upon closer examination it was a tree full of bats! Big bats! There were at least 10 trees with hundreds of bats in each! The people working nearby said that these were fruit bats. There was also a new kind of monkey playing in this park and I sat there for a while watching the baby ones goof off.

For dinner I went to the Jigat Niwas Restaurant which is also the Hotel that I was originally planning on staying at. The rooftop restaurant has a beautiful view overlooking the lake. You can see the north end of the city palace, the Lake Palace, and the Jag Mandir. To the west I watched the sun set behind the surrounding mountains. The restaurant and hotel were amazingly empty. I had the place pretty much to myself! I walked back towards the hotel along the lake shore until I got lost. This was a poor idea both because it was dark and my feet were killing me from blisters. After about a 30 minute detour I found my way to the hotel. Aftering cleaning up I watched some cricket on tv... I don't know why anyone would want to watch cricket on tv (slow slow slow).

Jaipur: Chokhi Dhani

Tonight we took a taxi out to this "Ethnic Theme Park" called Chokhi Dhani. The first thing that we did was eat a completely authentic Indian meal. The plates and bowls were made out of leaves that were dried and pressed into the right shape and the cup made out of clay. Buttermilk was served as the drink and then there was the usually nan, rice, paneer, and a few other things scooped out of a main serving dish and plopped onto our plate. In the picture above you can see me and Chris wearing the very authentic (and sweaty) turbans of our servers. Next to us was an Indian family from Washington so we talked with them for a while. The rest of the park consisted of things like magic shows, ethnic dances, camel rides, elephant rides, and caves and huts to explore. The girls got henna tattoos on their hands. The park was definitely aimed at a younger audience but we still had a good time. I especially liked the camel ride because I had been wanting to go on a camel safari/trek but wouldn't get the chance. Below is a video of Chris and Sydni on the camel. They kneel in the most peculiar way.

The Pink City

We started off the day this morning by visiting the City Palace in the heart of the Pink City. With the entrance ticket came an audio tour so we spent the next couple hours following the audio tour signs. One of the highlights for me was seeing the single largest piece of silver (in the Guinness book) that was used by the royalty to gather water from the Ganges and carry it for long journey's. Next we went to the Jantar Mantar which was one of several observatories built by Jai Singh II. This one was suppose to be the most well preserved and indeed it was. The highlight of this place was a large sun dial that read the time within an accuracy of 20 seconds! There were many contraptions that were suppose to calculate various aspects of the solar system and it would have been really neat to watch someone who knew what they were doing demonstrate with them. We then headed towards the Hawa Mahal which is the Palace of Winds. The path there took us down many crazy bazaars. Every shop owner would yell and people would even block your path trying to get you to come into their store. We ate lunch at LMB (Laxmi Mashthad Bhantar, I think). This was an amazing retreat from the craziness of the streets even though it was located right in the middle of the Johari Bazaar.


Outside of The City Palace and adjacent to the Jantar Mantar were these three snake charmers. Chris touched one of the snakes but he didn't want to hold them. Of course that cost him 10 Rs though. These snakes were defanged so these men were not worried about getting struck. They were struck at and bitten several times while we were standing there.

Bollywood

The first night in Jaipur we got tickets to see Kismat Konnection at the Raj Mandir. The Raj Mandir is the "most famous" movie theater in Indian and only second in popularity. The movie was going to be all in Hindi so we went mostly for the experience. Several Indian people from HHE had been talking about Bollywood films so we thought should see what they were all about. There were several levels of seats that varied from the 60-100 Rs. We ended up getting the mid range ticket because the box was sold out. We arrived at about 6 to get settled before the 6:30pm showtime. We all got our popcorn and drinks and headed up to where our section was only to find that the door was locked. We talked with some people who were all waiting in the lobby and they said that the other movie was still going on. Apparently the other movie finishes about 6:15 and then 1500 people pile out, and then in again before the 6:30 showtime. Indeed this is what happened; the film actually started before everyone had found their seat. The initial pictures where a couple previews as well as a short patriotic video about Rajahstan ( I wonder if this shows every time), and then some public service announcements about health and hygiene. (I forgot to mention that all theaters in India are government owned).

The film was just what we all expected. An intelligent, handsome, budding college graduate enters the real world and has absolutely no luck. He meets beautiful girl by accident and then continues to run into her in various places. He realizes that she is good luck for him and he pursues her. They then go through the usually he can't have her because she is engaged, then he does something stupid and loses her, and then gets her back...yes this took over 3 hrs! The movie was quite cheesy but that is what we all liked the most. We would laugh at how people would break out into song and dance randomly and at the corny scenes while everyone else would laugh at the appropriate cues. One thing that was interesting to me was that there was quite a bit of English used in the script. Enough so that it helped me figure out what was going on. I don't know if this was because there was not the correct Hindi word or phrase to convey what they were trying to saw or because it was just common for Indian people (Bollywood stars) to do that.

Rickshaw in Jaipur

This video shows what it is like to ride in a rickshaw on the busy streets in Jaipur. As you can see in the video there are a tone of motorcycles and people constantly pass within inches of each other!

Amber Fort

The Amber Fort which was located a short distance out of town. We didn't get to see everything because the top portion closed before we made it up that high. This place was even more like the city in Aladdin than the Pink City. There were many pretty views of the surrounding ramparts which scaled the sides of small mountains and then ran along the ridges to create a walled off region that contained the town.

Jaipur

I am traveling light now. I had Josh take back a good bit of stuff from my back to Delhi to put in my suitcase that I left there so I am down to the bare essentials. My entire backpack probably weighs about 15lbs now. It feels good to move with such ease. Also, I will have more room to put presents!!

We arrived at night by bus from Agra to Jaipur. The bus we took was a private AC bus that left at about 2:30 pm with a planned arrival time of about 8. The bus was nice and spacious and it looked like it was going to be a pretty nice ride. About 15 minutes into the trip the AC cut out! We went for a couple hours without it until we stopped at a roadside fix-it station. Apparently there is a separate motor that runs the AC and it had broken. There was one stop about half way through the trip at a rest station. Amazingly we saw two other members of the HHE group (Kate and Kathleen) headed the opposite direction in the station as well. We came into Jaipur after the sun had fallen but from what we could see Jaipur was going to be the most modern and best put together town we had visited yet. Wide roads, actual stores, and more cars than before. Our hotel (Arya) was only a few blocks from the bus station so we just decided to walk. We were all really impressed with the hotel. The rooms had everything we needed (including shower curtains). There is a nice bookstore, a lounge, outside seating, restaurant, and business certain. We will be here for the next three days.

We all decided to cut back on the pace for the next few days so we decided to sleep in the first morning here. This will also give us time to plan out the next few days. Anna and Sydni will be heading back to Delhi after this so Chris and I have been discussing various options about where to go and what to see. Right now it looks like he is headed to Goa after this and I will be going to Udaipur. We plan on meeting up in Mumbai around the 28th or 29th. I booked a flight that will leave from Mumbai on the 30th to meet my international flight leaving Delhi at 2:10am on the 31st. All I will need to do is run back to Hotel Grand Godwin to get the suitcase that I left there.

The first place that we went in Jaipur was to the Raj Mandir Cinema to get tickets for an afternoon show. This theater is the "most famous" in all of India. It seats about 1500 people!! They only show on movie at a time so we got tickets for the Kismat Konnection at the 6:30pm showing. There was a McDonalds next door and none of us had eaten at one in India yet (they serve no beef) so we thought we would check it out. I got a Paneer Salsa wrap of some kind that was really good. Amazingly the french fries tasted exactly like the french fries they make in the US. Wow and Yum! While leaving McDonalds we ran into Dustin and his friend Nathan. Dustin was with us during the HHE part of the trip and we had run into them in Agra at the Taj Mahal. Next we headed downtown to a park and the central museum (in the picture to the left). There were also suppose to be gardens and a zoo around there too. We found the park entrance and went for a stroll through one of the most poverty stricken parks I have seen to date. Trash everywhere and people sleeping everywhere. The shade was nice... Next we went to check out the Central Museum. On the way we passed the "Zoo" which looked a lot more scary than fun. I think the thought of increasing the number of animals around us in any significant manner was an overwhelming thought. The museum looked old and cool from the outside but our books description of the artifacts did really motivate us to go inside. So far this part of the day was kind of a flop. Dustin had talked about a walking tour through the Pink City so we went back to the Raj Mandir (the starting place) and walked around the streets for the next few hours. The Pink City is a city inside a city and it could probably be described best by imagining Aladdin. A lot of the main tourist attractions are within these walls (the Hawa Mahal, the Jantar Mantar, and the City Palace and Museum). Many of the shops we walked by where closed because it was Sunday. Tomorrow we plan to spend most of the day in this area checking out the sights and doing some shopping.

Agra: The Taj Mahal

The group of ten that we were with in Varanasi split up, with three people heading back to Dehli and the rest of us going towards Agra. Sarika had used her families travel agent to book us a very nice, and expensive hotel in Agra. The name of the hotel was Palace Place and was a 4 star hotel. Even though the last place we stayed was pretty nice this was a significant upgrade and I nice break from the regular pace here. I have never been so happy or surprised at the fact that there was shower curtains in the bathroom. Along with the hotel the travel agent had booked us a car and a guide to show us around Agra. The first place we visited was Fatespur Sikri which was about 40 km outside of Agra. This city/palace was built to replace Agra as the capital but after 8 years it was left behind because there was not enough water to sustain the population there. The city is like you would imagine a planned city anywhere else, with a place and a purpose for each type of activity. The architecture, design, and the palaces mint condition made this a spectacular site. The emperor had three wives (and thousands of concubines), a Hindu wife, and Muslim wife, and a Christian wife and there were complexes built for each of them with the corresponding religious symbols and patterns etched into the sandstone walls. The most elaborate was the complex for his Hindu wife. This was because it was the Hindu wife that gave him his only son.

Another very cool feature of this city was how it was built with a natural AC system. The town was on a ridge next to a lake (that is dried up now) so that the cool air from the lake would flow over the hot stone walls of the town. In the kings bedroom water flowed from the wall and flooded the floor of the room. The huge bed was raised about 8 feet off the ground so that the cooling evaporation from the water below would keep the room cool. Also, everything was designed so that air could flow. Most buildings were almost entirely open designs supported by many arches.
We then left the main complex and walked a little way down a road to a Mosk. This Mosk reminded me of the Jamal Masjid in New Delhi but it was a lot nicer. On one side there was small white marble temple that was the tomb of the emperor. We were there during the pray call so we got so see hundreds of people clean for worship in a small pool in the middle of the complex and then go over and line up along one of the walls where they did their prayers.

Next we visited the Agra Fort. Initially our tour guide tried to convince us that we didn't really want to go inside the fort because there wasn't that much to see. We eventually overruled him and I am glad we did. The inside was very cool and it was ten times better than the Red Fort in New Delhi. This fort was actually designed with the intention of defense. There was a mote and then a guard wall and then a space in between another higher defensive wall where our guide said that the put lions, tigers, and other mean animals. This fort was the place that Shah Jahan was imprisoned after making the Taj Mahal. The story goes that Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son because he was power hungry and wanted to make an identical black Taj Mahal across the river from the one he built for his wife Mumtaz Muhal. You can still see what we were told were the remains of the beginnings of his palace across the river. From the Agra Fort there was a great view of the Taj Mahal.


The amazing Taj Mahal. We woke up early the next morning to view it at sunrise because the white marble is suppose to reflect the colors of the sky and sun so that it is supposed to change colors as the morning progresses. There was tons of people and you had to wait in line at most of the coveted picture stops, but this didn't bother me. Even with all its build up this was truly something special. One picture I took after walking through the arch of the entrance courtyard appears as if the Taj Mahal is photoshoped into the picture, and this is how it feels. Shah Jahan was very much into symmetry and the this palace he built for his wife exemplifies it. The only asymmetrical part is the inside where Mumtaz Mahal is buried in the exact center of the room and Shah Jahan is buried in a bigger tomb off to one side. Of course he had no control over this and I don't think he would have been very happy about it. The inside was the only disappointing thing about the Taj. It was dimly lit and you could only walk around the middle of it. It was not nearly as big as you would imagine from the outside, but we could only see a small part of it. The one cool thing about the inside (it was also on the outside) was the precious gems that were inlaid into the white marble creating beautiful patterns and pictures of flowers. All of this of course was done by hand by some of the 20,000 artisans used to build the Taj Mahal.

The rest of the day we spent eating a luxurious breakfast and packing up our bags. Josh, Sarika, and Roshan would be heading back to Delhi, while me Anna, Chris, Sydni and me would be heading on to Jaipur.

First Night Train: Varanasi

I took my first sleeper car train from New Delhi to Varanasi. It wasn't quite like I had imagined it to be. Instead of cabins of 6 or so the entire train car was connected by a single walk way. On one side of the walkway there was two hanging beds against the way and on the other side there was six hanging cots perpendicular to the walkway. The middle beds of these folded down so that six people could sit on the two bottom beds before it was time to sleep. The train left from New Delhi around 6:30pm and we arrived in Varanasi around 7 :40am.


Our hotel is called Hotel Surya and it is a really nice place. It is located a little ways from downtown Varanasi and the Ganges which means it is a lot quieter than the Hotel Grand Godwin in New Delhi. It was raining when we got off the train and for the first few hours of the morning. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then a few people got massages while others rested a bit some got on the internet. At around noon we all gathered to go on a guided tour of Varanasi. We took our group of ten people, a driver, and a guide and headed towards downtown. The first place we went was to the Ganges and we got a boat to paddle us around. The Ganges is flooded this time of year so some of the places we paddled over there was normally a street. The Ganges is an huge river, the Mississippi pales in comparison. One side of the Ganges is not developed and the other side is lined with concrete buildings. There are hundreds of ghats (stairs to the Ganges) and at all of them people are swimming/bathing in the river. There are also what is known as burning ghats which are crematoriums that take your ashes and put them directly into the river. There are electric ones and then there are ones that use wood. We saw several of the wooden fires burning in several locations. At one point we watched as a wrapped body was rowed out about 100 feet into the Ganges and then shoved overboard. He/she sank like a rock. Some people don't have to be cremated before going into the river.



The next part of the trip we visited a Hindu temple in the middle of the Banaras University. This university is one of the biggest in India and has around 35,000 students. The temples are so bazaar to me. Of course you have to take off your shoes before entering and then people are praying in front it life size dolls that are very decorated. Also, it didn't help that our tour guide was not the most useful person. When talking about the age of certain religions he said that Hindu was "millions of years old". This was one of many things that I felt like was a pretty inaccurate statement. At the end of the tour he took us to see a "weaving school" which ended up being some persons weaving shop. We were then ushered into the area where he was selling the silk. This had obviously been set up before hand and the people were not very happy that we left without buying anything. Oh well. We then toured around town on our own for the rest of the day. The was a ceremony for the Ganges that we went to at 7:30 pm. It was fun to watch but I really didn't know what was going on. There was a lot of waving fiery things around in the air and many offerings of what looked like spices and vegetables. There was also some sprinkling of the water on their heads as well as a few sips out of the river. That night we had reservations for this place that was recommended to us by another person on our trip that was called Banga something. We got there about 8:20 and he said that he held the table for us until 8:15 (ya right). So he recommended another place called Phulwari which ended up being really good. The highlight of this place was for me the "Mocktails". These are various combinations of juices that were really good. I had one called the Banana Rama that was made with yogurt, peanut butter, bananas and topped with ice cream. There were many more delicious combinations.

The next morning we left the hotel around 4:30am to get out to the Ganges to watch the sunrise. It was mostly overcast but we did get a glimpse of the sun at one point. The was a special time of day because the people come down to the river to bathe. Today we saw an unwrapped dead body floating near some boats. We also got a up close view of the burning ghats. You could see body parts, skulls, and shattered burnt bones within the ashes. It was strange being there because I felt like it was too intrusive on the families watching their deceased family members burn. It was a strange strange site.

Solang Hike

Today we hiked up to a glacier/boulder field above the ski village called Solang. A group of 9 of us set out for a full days hike at 8:00am and had two jeeps take us to the trail head. The jeep that I was riding in blew out the transmission half way so the rest of the drive up were spent in 1st gear going a record-breaking 10km/hr. A little ways past Solang and about 6 km from the trail head there were a few shops on either side of the road and a rope that was held up by 2 branches standing vertical on both sides. The "road block" was manned by a short, but stout, Indian man. At first we though this was going to be a simple matter of bribing and we would be on our way. We were told, however, that there was military blasting going on and that we would not be able to cross. So we called Hem, partially for translation services, and got the full scoop from him. For a minute it looked liked we would have to find another place to hike for the day, but shortly after speaking with Hem, the rope man took down the rope and let us through. We had no idea why we had been allowed passage. We found out later that night after talking with Hem about what happened that he had called up a military general that was in charge of the area and had a little chat with him. (WOW)

The scale of this boulder field is completely lost. Many of the boulders in this picture are much much large than me. Also, the top of this picture is not nearly the top of the mountain. Fog clung to the peaks almost the entire time we were there so we only got glimpses of the mighty peaks above us.


At the top we stopped under this enormous boulder and had lunch because it was raining. Looking out from the boulder was the rest of the boulder field and mountains forming a bowl around them with glaciers dipping down all the way around.



Shortly after we had gotten on the trail we could see a large glacier off in the distance and we were all excited about getting as close as we could. The hike took us over the same creek several times and by little rock and tarp houses whose children would run out to greet us and ask for biscuits. Early on a few dogs befriended us and one stayed with us the whole time, all the way to the top. We named him Sherpa. The uphills were pretty hard on the lungs, at a snails pace I felt like I could keep going without having to stop every 10 ft or so. Once we had all made it to the top we had lunch under a giant rectangular boulder that was situated on a ridge looking down onto a boulder field, surrounded by mountains with glaciers coming down them. We actually never got go see the tops of the mountains around us because the clouds never completely lifted. It rained about 5 different times throughout the day so we were constantly taking on and off rain gear as different cloud systems would role in. It took about 3 hours to make it to the "top" and about 2.5 hours to get back down. This hike completely wore me out so I went to bed around 8:30pm again.
Taking the picture was Nate Montgomery. We didn't want him to set the timer and run over, partially because we were on a steep ridge line and partially because the rocks were slippery and wet.

Gemur Clinc Day 2

I was stationed in dental today along with a pile of other people that hadn't been there yet. None of us were expecting to see many patients so we were surprised to see a crowd gathering. The med clinics and the eye clinics were slammed today.I got to pull out a molar which was pretty cool. The pt looked to be in a good amount of pain even with the dental blocks. We asked him if he wanted more stuff for the pain but he would deny it and tell us to just get it out. It was strange for me to be doing something like this because I have never really had to inflict pain to help someone before. Many people that we saw in the dental clinic would have a mouthful of rotten teeth. One man in particular had pretty severe dental decay and he denied any type of treatment except for medications. This has been a common theme throughout all of the clinic sites and all of the different med clinics. There is this misconception that Westerners have different drugs to treat any type of ailment.

For the afternoon I went up to the eye clinic to help out and Anna and I got some more patients for the study. The eye clinic went until the very end of the day and we were the last clinic operating. Ravi had told us earlier in the trip that the general pattern when you have a multi-day single location clinic site is that everyone piles in on the last day. This was certainly the case. I guess it also takes a little while for the word to spread.


Tomorrow will be the last day with our drivers and cooks so we had a little farewell tonight. The dinner, as usual was excellent tonight, but I have been getting some uncomfortable heart burn the last few days and I haven't been eating the spicy stuff for a while. I am going to cut out a few more things the next couple days to see what helps.

Gemur Clinic

We all thought the clinic today was going to be in Jispa, but as usual, things change with little to no explanation or warning. The clinic was in a nice hospital, similar to the one in Tingriti, however this actually had a staff. One full time doctor, one doctor on rotation, one dentist, and several nurses. I was stationed in Ophtho today and spent most of the morning recording data for Anna's research project. The clinic was so slow though that we called it quits at lunch and went to a school in Jispa to do well child check ups.

On the way to Ghemur today the roads were clogged with civilian trucks with paper in the windshields saying "Army Duty." There were also numerous buses carrying men in uniform. The previous day, on the way to Baralachala pass we passed a small army base. On the way back from the pass we saw 15-20 army cargo trucks all leave at once. This was the largest troop/supply movement that I have ever seen. I asked Hem where they were going and he said the Chinese border, but did not elaborate. I have had no news so I don't know if this is precautionary or reactionary, either way it is a little scary.

Baralachla Pass

There were a few options for our day off: hike to a monastery, rafting, or trekking. Rafting ended up getting canceled because Ravi said someone had died because the river level was up. Trekking past Jispa got turned into a 3 hour trip up to Baralachala Pass. Me, Josh, and Jenny (all NC State grads) ended up driving up there. This pass was quite a bit different from the Rohtang pass. There was not nearly as much traffic, the grade overall was much less steep, and it was paved (nicely) most of the way. When we arrived the weather was nasty, cold, and raining and we threw on our rain jackets and walked for a little bit. Within minutes the rain soaked through our pants and we began to get cold. We headed back to the car to get our rain pants so we could continue to explore. Once we had completely suited up and went back out, the rain stopped and the heavens opened. It happened slowly and the clouds gave way to reveal the peaks around us. We were at 16,500 ft and I could definitely feel it. I could move fine on a level grade, but inclines and standing up made me light headed and dizzy. Keylong is about 10,000 ft so this was quite an increase in elevation. At the top, just as we were about to leave we saw a group of trekkers and we went to say hello. They were from the UK just ousted of London and were a part of a "challenge " group that was doing a 16 day trek. We came back down in about the same time but I had a nasty headache that didn't go away. Even after several hours at Keylong the headache didn't get better, so I went to bed around 8:30pm. I am still not sure if the headache was caused primarily from the altitude, or if the mefloquine I took that morning had something to do with it.

The Chandra Bhaga

In Keylong we stayed at the hotel called the Chandra Bhaga. The view from this hotel was stunning. To the left and right were large mountains with snow capped peaks and directly in front of us was a mountain grassy mountain scattered with houses and then 500 feet of rock cliffs above that. From our hotel it was about a 10 minute walk downtown into the market. As you can see the outside of the hotel looks really nice, and indeed it was for some people. Me, Nate, Josh, and Garant got the shaft though. Our room was a dorm style with four single beds that were made out of scary looking vintage mattresses on plywood. That was the nice part. Above the pillow of each bed on the white wall was a dark greasy spot from the heads of the many people that had slept there. The bathroom was by far the worst feature. As with most bathrooms here the shower comes out of the wall randomly and there is a drain somewhere on the floor. There is never a shower curtain. If you are lucky there is at least a dropped down portion of the bathroom so that the entire place does not flood when taking a shower. There was no dropped down portion of this bathroom and the drain was not located at the lowest point in the bathroom.

This meant that there was a constant pool of water on the floor. Shortly after arriving we had some people from the hotel come in to "fix" the bathroom. What they actually did was dismantle our shower and take it to the room next door. Besides this there was no hot water unit in our room so we got to take glacier cold bucket baths from the lower spicket. Another nice feature was that the sink drained directly on to the floor. We found this out after several of us had shaved and the hair spread itself over the floor into the standing water. This bathroom was so bad that one day we offered one of the Indian drivers to take a shower in our bathroom because they were sleeping in tents outside and had to use a shared bathroom in the hotel lobby. It was so bad that he spent about 30 seconds in the bathroom before leaving, unbathed.

Tingriti Clinic

This is an aerial picture of the clinic/hospital in Tingriti. The elevation (based off of the tree line) was about 10,000 ft. The mountains on either side of this town go straight up and we climbed a good ways up one of these mountains to get this shot. The yellow tents scattered around are where we have been sleeping the last four nights. As you can tell the hospital here looks quite nice, so why in the world would we need to set up a clinic here? Well nobody works in this hospital. The government built this hospital but there are no staff or doctors to run it! The original plan was to have three clinic sites in this valley but because of flooding and landslides we set up clinic here three days in a row and had people from the surrounding villages (Tindi and Tandi) walk to us.

Tingriti: Day 3

For the last day of clinic in Tingriti I was stationed in pediatrics with Dr. Reshmi. This rotation is less hands on than the other stations, usually because Dr. Reshmi can speak Hindi so she does the history and exam on her own. She is really good though at keeping you up to date
on what is going on. She would take multiple breaks throughout the history to let us know what she was finding out. Unfortunately there were only about 5-6 children who came to clinic today so we didn't get to see many children. Many parents would bring their children in with complaints of "weakness". Dr. Reshmi said that she had seen a lot of this chief complaint and that the children was usually quite healthy. Usually what it boiled down to was that the mother thought the child was not eating enough and was too skinny. Dr. Reshmi said that she had several patients bring in overweight children with the same chief complaint and reasoning. The little boy to above had a broken elbow that was never fixed properly so that when he would hang his arms by his side his right arm would bend medially, instead of laterally like normal. The only real treatment for him would be surgery to correct the normal anatomy in the elbow. We talked with
Hem to see if we could help subsidize his surgery, but I don't know what ever happened to that. In a previous clinic I saw an injury very similar to this in a 71 yo female. In her case she also had a anterior dislocation of her shoulder that had not been reduced for 20 years! She said she had a cast on her elbow, so she had obviously been to someone to fix it and they must not have set the bones correctly before placing her in the cast. We had a Orthopedistnamed Dr. Ravi along with us so I took it up to him for a consult. He said that reducing the shoulder at this point would provide no help to this lady because all the muscle and cartilage in the shoulder would be so atrophied that it would either fall right back out or it would be in place and just not work. Since she had been coping with this injury for so long and because of her agehe said that surgery was not really an option. The little boy to the left with the cut hat had come in the previous day with lobar pneumonia. He had coarse crackles and wheezing that was loudest in one particular lung. Dr. Reshmi said that even after one day of antibiotics she could tell that he was doing better.
I was hoping to see a case with some worms because the previous day in pharmacy we handed out a lot of prescriptions for albendazole. Most of the children had come in the previous day, including the more interesting cases. There was one child that had what we decided was viral warts all over his hands. I think that we gave him acyclovir to help. I got to see him when he came through pharmacy to get the medication.

Before clinic even started today Chalini tried to open a window by pushing on the glass. The glass gave way and when she jerked her hand back she lacerated the inner surface of her distal forearm and it started gushing blood. The doctors are concerned about the loss of sensation in parts of her hand although they think she is going to be fine.

The whole clinic was pretty slow so we finished about an hour early. A few of us hiked up to a Monastery were we where showed around by one of the young monks. We are actually not sure if he was a monk yet. The monk told us all to sit down and he shared with us the Buddha store through a set of pictures. The inside was quite peaceful, but there were many things that to me seemed tacky. There were lights around a framed picture of the local guru the Dali Lama and a strange flashing pixel screen in one corner. Other than that there were large posters of what I guess were the different Buddhas. Outside was a temple/monument that was situated between an enormous rock face on one side and a peak of a smooth and grassy mountain on the other side. It was a cool place.

Tingriti Moonshine

I went into town today with the intention of buying some wine liquor that I had spoken with Ravi about. I had seen some plants that looked a lot like hop plants on the drive to Tingriti but they turned out to be some type of grape and that they used it to make liquor. So a few of us went to the small local store and asked for it. After smiling and laughing a little he said that he could get me some liquor. I also asked it I could see where and how it was made so he had a man take me down and back a little alley where a hunchback man stood under a porch breathing the smoke of a wood fire that had a large kettle on it. Above this was a cool water bath on top and a shoot out the side that was dripping a clear liquid into another container. This I assume was the liquor. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me so I am unable to upload any pictures into this post. The liquor was actually made from fermented wheat rather than grapes. So I took the canister they gave me back to camp and held onto it for a little while because I wanted to ask Ravi if he new of any definite dangers or stories of local people getting sick from this stuff. As far as he knew no one had but he said to drink it at our own risk. So that night few of us tried it. It seemed to almost evaporate right off the tongue, giving merit to the upper 90 percent alcohol percentage that we had been hearing. It wasn't very good at all. It had a slightly goaty/sheepy aftertaste. I couldn't tell if this was a quality of the wheat or a byproduct of the process. Either way, none of us drank very much and the rest of it ended up getting poured in the fire for the entertainment of all. It is also worth noting here that none of the people that drank it suffered any ill consequences.

Tingriti: Day 2

We woke up in the rain this morning. It was a much lighter rain than the rain storm that had flooded our pharmacy tent the day before. I was stationed in the Med Clinic today and I got to work with a new doctor that just got into town to help the team. Her name was Sarah and she was a internal medicine resident. The other people working in the clinic with me today were Chalini, Josh and Bavana. The first patient I saw turned out to be one of the most interesting cases of the day. The patient was complaining of epigastric pain and I first thought that this was going to be another case of acid reflux. However, on visual examination of the abdomen I saw a small bulge in the area he had complained about. With palpation I noticed a nodule that was about 3-4 centimeters long and was tender. The patient also had rebound tenderness. We ended up sending this patient to get a CT scan. We think that he might have had a piece of incarcerated bowel which can be quite bad if it loses blood supply and becomes ischemic. Throughout the rest of the day were many more cases of arthritis and acid reflux and a few cases where we were concerned about Tb so we all had our masks on. Another case that stands out in my memory was a young guy who had repeated left shoulder anterior dislocations of his shoulder, many times while playing cricket. Even though he was right handed something about the throw in cricket caused his left shoulder to come out of socket. He also had an interesting medical history because he was taking medication for epilepsy. This case was one of several where people wanted us to do more than we really could. He was trying to get more epilepsy medication from us and he wanted us to make his shoulder stay in place. Of course we couldn't do either. We recommended that if his shoulder dislocations got to the point where he couldn't do normal activities than he could have surgery. Near the end of the day I had a lady who was having pain in her left ear and difficulty hearing from the same ear. It turned out that she had a pile of ear wax that was completely covering her tempanic membrane so I got to do a warm water flush of her ear. I was able to clear most of it and she said that she could hear better so I had a nice sense of immediate satisfaction.

I am beginning to feel much more comfortable with my histories and physical exam skills. With most of the pts I have been seeing I really feel like I am able to adequately assess them and figure out what they need. Even if I can't figure out exactly what they need, I feel confident in sending them to someone who will know what to do.

I have no real sense of time here. I would not easily be able to tell someone how long I have been here or even how much longer I plan to stay. All that has really mattered is the rising and falling of the sun. This combined with the busy schedule of this trip has made it seem that I only left home a couple days ago.

A group of us took a hike up the mountain beside us after clinic today. We made it up pretty high and had a great view of the town and the campsite.

Pills, Pills, Pills

The first day at the clinic in Tingriti I was assigned to the pharmacy tent. We actually only had a pharmacy tent for one day because during the first day of clinic it rained so hard that it flooded the tent. Hem, the guy who runs the clinic, has bags and bags of medicines that lay all around the edges of the tent. When he realized that the tent was flooding and getting all his medicines wet he begain screaming SHIT, SHIT, MY BAGS, MY BAGS, SHIT, SHIT (all with his Indian accent which was really very amusing). He is a really nice guy but he doesn't have much of a sense of humor so we all tried to hide our chuckles. Of course we reenacted the whole thing after he left for a bit.

We have been giving out lots and lots of medicines. One thing to keep in mind about the types of medicines that we have been handing out is that there is no local pharmacy (or chemist as they call it) in most of these villages. Things like ibuprofen and tylenol are really hard to get so we have been giving out a lot of it for minor headaches and various joint and body pains. Other common medicines that we have been dishing out our albendazole (for worms) and a lot of Ranitidine (think Pepcid AC) and a ton (literally) of multi-vitamins. Other than those the next most common medicines would be antibiotics. We have all different kinds and we have given them for a variety of problems including: upper respiratory infections, pneumonia, and sinus infections. From the top picture you can see that things can get pretty crazy at the pharmacy tent. There is no such thing as a line here so people crowd in and around you in every direction. The picture actually shows one of times that we weren't as busy.

Gondhla Clinic

After working hard indoors all day you tend to forget where you are and exactly what you are doing. Then you walk outside and you see this view... and remember that you are helping people in a truly amazing place. The triage tent is on the bottom right and the building behind that is the hospital.
This clinic was about 14 kmn from our campsite near Sissu. Instead of using all tents like we did in Kaksur we used the local hospital for several of our clinic rooms. I began the day in OB/GYN and finished the day in the Ophtho clinic. There were not many OB/GYN patients so many of our pts were general medicine pts taken to relieve the burden on their tents. One pt that I had was complaining of arm pain and a couple other things. On examination I noted limited range of elbow flexion and extension as well as limited ROM at her shoulder. Apparently she had dislocated her shoulder and broken her distal humerus 20 years and had never gotten them fixed. Her arm had healed improperly and her shoulder muscles atrophied. We had an Indian doctor who was a Orthopedist with us who said that even if we reduced the shoulder now it would not help her b/c she wouldn't be able to move her arm. He said a shoulder prosthesis would be possible but was not probable b/c it wouldn't benefit her much either. The picture to the right is the Ophthalmology clinic. The clinic today was set up in the hallway right next to the two medicine clinics. Having a clinic this visibly open is not the best idea because everyone who walks by thinks they need to have there eyes examined, not just the people who really need it. This was one of the busiest afternoons the optho clinic had. In the picture from top to bottom are Vipul, Dustin, Sarika, and then our translator/driver.

Outside the clinic site there was a cool 800 year old fort. After clinic I walked around it and tried to pier inside, but I couldn't see much. There was a couple young boys who were also playing around the fort and trying to throw rocks into the higher open windows. There was a rock on one side that the kids would surf/slide down. I gave it a try and busted my butt. They enjoyed that very much.