Ms. Powers, Int'l Woman of Mystery

Ayurvedic Resort with the Golden Girls

2007-08-12T05:03:00.000-04:00

This past Friday, on what was supposed to be my last day of work, I went to an Ayurvedic resort and spa with some of the Golden Girls and a few of the men. It was a blast, though unfortunately now I have to work Tuesday instead.

We arrived around noon on Friday and immediately got right down to cocktails and scheduling massages. The staff didn't know how to make bloody mary's so Pradip (the big guy in the white shirt) went behind the bar and taught them the ways. They also didn't have tomato juice so we ended up throwing whole tomatoes into the blender to make fresh tomato juice. I've never like a bloody mary before, but these were delicious!

My massage was at 3pm with Swati, a tiny girl from Kerala. It started a little something like this:

Swati: You change all
Me: Into what?
Swati: You change madam
Me: Into what?
Swati (holding up a scrap of cotton on a string): Panty. You change all.
Me: Naked?
Swati: Madam you change all

So finally I started to guess that I was supposed to strip down completely naked in front of this girl so as I started to take off each piece of clothes I asked "yes?" and she said "yes" and then as my last bit of clothes came off she tied the string around my waist and tucked the scrap of cotton into the front and then brought it between my legs and tucked it into the string at my back. So now I looked like I was either wearing a sheer cotton diaper or I was ready for a sumo wrestling match. Not sure what the point of the cotton sumo outfit was because I was otherwise naked and there were no towels to cover me on the table.

After Swati prayed to the gods and lit some insense, she poured oil into my hair. Then she rubbed it all over and did that wonderful head massage you always wish the shampoo girl would do for longer. Swati kept at my head massage for nearly ten minutes and I was in absolute bliss.

Then made me lay on the table and she took a pot of oil off the hot plate and began to drip it all over me. After she rubbed it in a little, she then poured oil in a thick stream all over me. Standing at my waist, she then used both hands to rub all the way from my ankle to my head in one forceful stroke. It was amazing! She was so vigorous that the poor girl was actually panting while she was massaging. She made figure-eights across my entire body, she concentrated on my legs, arms, feet, and hands, but mostly she made wonderful strong strokes from head to toe. I've had a few massages before I can honestly say that this was the best one I've ever had.

After the massage and the steam, she took me into the bathroom, untied my last scarp of modesty, and dumped buckets of hot water over me. She then rubbed me with a soap paste made from lentils, washed my hair, and rinsed me. Then she dried my hair with the towel and combed through it with her fingers. It was decadently wonderful and all for only $15!

The rest of Friday evening and Saturday morning was food, cocktails, dancing, rummy, and a lovely bonfire. I finally came out ahead in rummy and actually won 5 rupees, though I felt a little guilty taking money from the retirees.

On the left from the front: Nalini, Nishka (Nalini's daughter), Chandrika (Aunty Simha's sister), the owner of the spa. Head of the table is Uncle Anil, then me, Aunty Simha (Shanti), Nimila, and last is Pradeep in the white shirt.

Party at Saras's House

2007-08-12T04:52:00.000-04:00

Saras had the staff over to her house on Tuesday evening for a party that ended up lasting until nearly 3am!

The volunteers: Vira, me, Aditya, Naomi, and James

With Saras and Ranesh (Asha's son)

The Obstetric Care Study Team: Baneen on the left and Asha on the right (and Aditya, but he's not on the Ob Study team)

Things I love about India

2007-08-03T03:34:00.000-04:00

Dinner for three = $3.00

Two hour bus ride = $0.90

Lunch = $0.25

Scooter rental for one day = $4.50

hotel with amazing view, one night in high season = $32.00

auto rickshaw fair per kilometer = $0.15

caged bus ride through the zoo = $2.00

The Bull Temple, B'lore retirees, and the Hash Club

2007-07-29T07:12:00.000-04:00

This weekend was meant to be relaxing... I had no plans and was going to read, shop, and rest. Well, Saturday morning Aunty and I are drinking coffee and she decides she's going to take me to the Bull Temple. It's a famous spot in Bangalore and everyone I've told is surprised I hadn't been there already. In the temple is a huge bull, at least ten feet tall and probably closer to 15 feet long and wide, all carved out of a single stone. It's unbelievable. So massive and daunting, yet the black stone bull is beautifully carved with decoration and also covered with flowers in the front. It's really amazing to see. We walked around it, Aunty did a puja, and then she marked me with the red from prayer! (Do you see the dots between our eyebrows in the photo?) We're sitting just outside the bull's room, though still in the temple because you're not supposed to leave right after you finish praying.

Later on that day I went with Saras to a talk on 'zero waste' as a model for development and it was quite interesting. The presentation was highly flawed and their wasn't enough fact to support her ideology, but I was intrigued nonetheless. After realizing over the past few months how much we consume at home, whether it be grocery bags or sweaters, I think it's going to be more difficult to leave India than I thought. Although the U.S. pattern of purchase and consumption is quickly coming here, there's still a level of cognizance about the environment among the elite do-gooders here that I don't feel is as widespread at home as it should be. Not that India is perfect. Far from it for sure.

Anyway, after my environmental awakening and some tough questions that threw the speaker a bit off balance, I headed home for an evening of cards with the 65+ crowd. As Matt said, it's like I was living in the "Golden Girls." Over the past few weeks Aunty's friends Uma and Asha have been teaching me to play Rummy their way and I've actually managed not to lose too badly. These women are vicious! They're really good at discarding just the things you don't need and trying to throw off your game so you have no chance to win. But on Saturday the husbands were there and we had a great time drinking cocktails and eating samosas and these spicy crispy snacks called chukli that I can't describe, but the ladies kept forcing me to eat. By the time everyone left and we sat down for dinner at 10pm I was a little drunk and very excited about being able to retire one day. They have so much fun that playing rummy with everyone was like a living advertisement for how great retirement can be.

This morning, Sunday, I woke up feeling only mediocre (the 65+ group can really drink!) but was quickly introduced to the Hash Club. No, not the hash you roll in paper and smoke, but an exercise club started by ex-pats from the UK in Kuala Lumpor in the 1930s. They met for a jog to explore the new place and then afterwards went for drinks and food to a bar called Hash House. As the 'hashers' spread around outside Kuala Lumpor, they took their jogging and drinking with them and now there are Hash Clubs in 180 countries. So around 11am one group went for a run and the rest of us went for a five mile walk through the hills. It was a really nice path on someone's farm outside of Bangalore and it was such a nice way to get in some exercise. Apparently they go every other weekend for the walk/run, but always afterwards there's lots of beer and food. They also have a crazy tradition of making people sit on huge blocks of ice for random reasons. Among the reasons we had to sit on the ice today - being new (me), calling too many times to ask for directions to the farm, asking a dumb questions, not being able to follow the trail, etc etc. When you sit on the ice block they take some time to embarrass you so your tush gets really wet and cold and then they sing a drinking song I haven't heard since Australia and they make you drink the mug or wear it. For lots of people it ended up being both... after the beer was half drank during the song someone invariably went up and tipped the cup so the beer went all over their face and down their clothes. They also had a bucket of cold water that only the worst offenders had to sit in (this time the lady who ran too fast for the group). It was so much fun that I will definitely be investigating to see if there are any hash clubs near home.

The weekend is nearly over now and my relaxing two days turned out to be busy and surprisingly really fun. Now just two and a half weeks until I go home and I'm getting excited. I can almost taste the raw lettuce

Some random thoughts

2007-07-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

Sericulture (silkworm production) in a village about 2 hours south of Bangalore

Hello, I don't have too much to say today, but I wanted to say hi and give a brief update. The past few weeks have been going quite well, so well in fact that I've flirted with the idea of staying here a bit longer to finish out my four months of internship. But alas, I miss bagels and lox and have been told it's really expensive to change a plane ticket halfway through the trip so the plan to come home hasn't changed.

Despite how great the last few weeks have been, I'm disappointed in the status of women both in India and throughout parts of Asia. Last weekend I read The Bookseller of Kabul (an amazing book, by the way!) and felt so blue when I realized that even now in a country just next door women are treated as garbage. They're made to be servants in their own home, married off without any regard to their opinions, and actually punished for expressing any emotion beyond consent.
In India, they've just elected their first female president (perhaps setting a precedent for us at home??) and she covers the back of her head with her sari 'out of respect,' though I wonder out of respect to whom. I don't know too many women who mind seeing another woman's hair. And on the news a few days ago I heard two different reports from two different states in India about 10 and 20 fetuses being found in mass 'graves.' Under closer examination they realized that all the fetuses were female and they reported that of the 12 health facilities with ultrasound/sex determination capabilities in one of the states, only one was legally registered. As much as we work to give girls opportunities, there's little we can do to change people's minds about the values of sons versus daughters. I can in some strangely rational world, it's cheaper for some people to pay for a sonogram and an abortion than the burden of a daughter. Sad.

But on to happier topics... I'm coming home in three weeks and can't wait. I'll be in DC primarily until mid-September, though after that I'm unsure where I'll be working. Wish me luck finding a fall internship!

Hampi

2007-07-20T02:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry it’s been so long since the last post. The internet connection at the office has been crummy at best and I’m having trouble finding time after work to visit the internet cafes. Anyway, time to talk about Hampi! This past weekend I went on a fabulous adventure with some of the volunteers from work and some other people working in B’lore who are friends of Naomi, a volunteer with me at Belaku. Hampi is an old capital of the Vijayanagar Empire that ruled southern India between ~1300 and ~1500. The empire was sacked in the mid-1500s by the Mughals who came down from central Asia and what’s left that the Mughals did not destroy is extraordinary.

The town Hampi reminded me a bit of Greece with its rocky hillsides and goats running around the roads and hills. The entire area was littered with huge boulders that were just begging to be climbed, though most of them seemed to be mocking gravity by staying perched just so. The actual town center was fairly typical – dirty, dusty, and too many flying bugs near the food. Something about it was charming though, and I really enjoyed the weekend.

We left Friday night and took the overnight train from Bangalore to a small town called Hospet, from where we took autorickshaws the ~15 kms to Hampi. The train ride was actually really fun after I got over my tears at seeing only Indian toilets at our end of the train car. I used lots of antibacterial gel this trip, but I’m actually starting to be converted to the benefits of the Indian loo… you don’t have to touch anything so in nasty public places it can actually be cleaner than a western toilet. But seeing as Eric doesn’t want to hear anymore about toilets, on with the weekend. Three of us got in each rickshaw plus three suitcases and it was quite a crowd. We found ourselves in strange positions throughout the drive with suitcases hanging precariously off the back and sides of the rickshaw.

But once we checked into our surprisingly decent hotel, $4 per night per room!, I had the most amazing cold mug and bucket shower. I never thought throwing a bucket of cold water over me would feel so good, but it did wonders for all the train dirt I'd accumulated overnight. The group of us then decided it would be really fun to rent scooters and ride around to all the sites. Hampi's ruins are spread out nearly 20 kilometers around the town and there's so much to see that everyone who'd been there before recommended renting some sort of bike to get to all the sites. I asked about helmets and the other people shushed me because it was pretty clear that there was no possible way to rent a helmet. We didn't see anyone in town even wearing them. The hypochondriac in me went a little overboard and I had terrible visions of us getting hit by crazy trucks, but everything turned out ok. We did, however, get a very loud and angry lecture from Saras, when she saw the pictures, about how we're never allowed to go on scooters again, with or without helmet. Back in Hampi though, I tried driving a little on the empty roads outside of town, but between having to stay on the left side of the road and having to keep the bike upright it was all a little much. So another volunteer Aditya drove our bike, it was two per bike, and did a very nice job keeping us upright and on the road despite my deathgrip on his backpack for most of the ride.

The ruins we saw were just incredible. They looked very much like some of the Greek and Roman ruins, though they're obviously many years younger. It was clear how viciously the Moghals had destroyed the capital when I realized that these ruins that looked so much like ancient Greece were only about 500 years old. We went to so many temples and they were quite beautiful, though by the 8th temple they started to blur together. The group leader, the only person who'd been to Hampi before, decided that it was too far to go back to town for lunch and we should just buy an ice cream from the kiosks that never seemed to appear. I was not happy to be hungry, tired, and at the 9th temple, but seeing as I didn't know where I was I didn't have a choice to go off on my own. We found a banana and coconut vendor from whom we bought some fruit and though it was delicious, it wasn't quite enough to make up for being tired of sightseeing three hours before we were actually done.

That night when we were finally done with all the temples, we went to a lovely place for dinner where we sat outside on the stone floor and had really delicious dinner. I don't understand all the fuss about eating outside (so many bugs!) or sitting on the floor (a thin straw mat does not make it more comfortable!), but the food was heavenly so it was all worth it. We shared a slew of Indian dishes, all vegetarian and rich and delicious, and for desert I had nutella pancake which is essentially nutella crepe. It was one of the best meals I've had out since I got to India.

The next day we saw another slew of temples, a queen's bath, and some really pretty gates. Mostly we just rode around and enjoyed the scenery and tried to avoid sunburn and mosquitos. The train ride back Sunday night was exactly how I imagined train rides in India to be... we all crammed together in the compartment and stayed up for hours telling stories and laughing. It was great!

A slice of humility with my toast

2007-07-11T07:15:00.000-04:00

Hello and greetings from my laptop that has finally been connected to the office internet! It only took six weeks and was the single greatest force in getting me to adapt to the Indian lifestyle...a tad bit slower than life at home. Anyway, this picture is the daughter of one of the women who works at Deepa (the block printing group). She was running around the work site yesterday when I was there and I couldn't resist taking her picture because she just looked so adorable.

I wanted to tell a little about what I learned this morning about Lalita, the woman who cooks for the Simhas and me. Aunty Simha was sitting with me at breakfast and decided to tell me Lalita's 'story,' which was actually a little bit heart wrenching. When she first came to work for the Simhas five years ago she's recently left her alcoholic husband after she got tired of being used as a punching bag. The man would steal Lalita's earnings and drink too much and finally she had the guts to defy her mother-in-law (the true powerhouse of any Indian family) and leave her husband. She took her two children and moved in with her mother and brother who were very supportive. Lalita can't read nor write and the Simha's actually had to teach her to cook when they hired her. The Simha's decided to pay for Lalita's children's education provided she promise not to pull her daughter out of school before she's 18. That's actually a big problem, even in the cities, and especially in poorer families - girls get married off anywhere after ~age 10, though sometimes even younger. Thankfully the youngest marriages typically only happen in the villages and are more common in the north, but leaving school to get married is still fairly normal. The women who get married at very young ages usually don't move in with their husbands until 'prastha,' which is usually after age 16. Unfortunately for Lalita, her brother is getting married soon and if he decides their mother's house is too crowded for his new wife with Lalita and her children, he has the authority to kick them out.

Aunty Simha and I started talking about girl's education and she told me that a few years ago she and some of her family were so frustrated with the situation of girls in India that they started a charity to sponsor education. They adopt children, girls and boys, and cover their school fees and require that the parents promise not to pull the kids out of school before they're 16. It costs 5000 rupees per year (about $125) for one child's education, though one could donate any amount to the charity's kitty.

After meeting a coworker's cook, Shyla, and learning that her situation was almost the same as Lalita's (minus the guts to leave the husband), I realized how badly I wanted to give young girls a chance to have better prospects than their mothers. So in that regard, I'm going to use my blog for good and solicit donations or commitments to sponsor children. The Simhas are good people, the charity has virtually no administrative costs, and I really believe that the money goes to one a good purpose. Education for girls is one of the few things that I still truly believe in and if you're interested too, send me an email and I share more details.

Food. Of course

2007-07-08T04:09:00.000-04:00

Hello! Things in Bangalore are actually going well. Once I realized I had less than six weeks to go, it felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders and I've been able to enjoy things more. I have tons of work that needs to be done before I can go home so the urgency is a good motivator and it's nice to have such a long to-do list.

When I realized I didn't have too much time left here, I started planning my cooking lessons with the Simhas. It turns out that Mr Simha, Anil, is a better cook than Mrs Simha, though I'm not sure it matters because they have a woman who comes in six mornings a week to prepare food for the day. Anyway, this came out as I was begging "aunty' (that's what I'm supposed to call her) Simha to teach me to make dal and she confessed her inability and Anil stepped in for the lesson. So Saturday morning we set up for my first lesson to make Toor Dal.

Toor dal is made from yellow split peas with a mix of ginger, tomato, and chilies. While all that's cooking, you fry spices up separately and the kitchen starts to smell amazing. In Anil's dal he puts fenugreek (no idea how that's spelled), coriander seeds, turmeric, cloves, and lots of garlic. There's no measuring, though the spoons they have in their huge spice jars are actually those pink plastic ones from Baskin and Robbins so if I can snag a few of those I may be able to replicate the dish. My notes have quite a few 'a few spoons of...' and 'a slice about the size of the knife handle...' so it's going to take a bit of practice before it comes out right. We ate the dal for dinner and I thought it was really tasty so with any luck they'll let me practice this week and try it myself.

I've also begged them to teach me to make my favorite dish here called Rajma, which is just the Hindi word for kidney bean. It's a simple dish with just the beans and loads of spices. If there's time, they make a nice spinach and garlic dish and also do some amazing things with these beans that are a cross between a snow pea and a string bean. The vegetable selection here is amazing and it will be such a shame to lose access to all this new foods when I go home. One good thing is that the Simhas lived for a few years in Springfield, Virginia so they keep telling me about Indian markets in the area and places where I can get the best spices and produce at home. Now if only I can get directions more specific than 'down the big road by the mall, at the red sign by the stoplight.'

In other interesting news to report, Indian food here in Bangalore doesn't have too much in common with the Indian food we eat in the states so everything I learn to make will be quite different from the things we're used to at home. The Simhas are vegetarian so our dinners typically consist of a dal (which is made from lentils, peas, or some wheatberry type of thing that I've yet to find a translated), a vegetables or two, chapati (a bread that tastes a little like matza and feels just like tortilla), and maybe rice or cracked wheat. Everything has so much spice and flavor and as long as there's not too much curd in the dishes, I like just about everything. Breakfast is usually a bowl of papayas, bananas, and pomegranate seeds; idly (a rice based pancake/biscuit); yogurt (which I've managed to avoid); boiled eggs; and some muesli/granola type of thing. It's quite good and everything but the muesli is always very fresh. The bananas here are also amazing! The really small ones are divine, sweet and creamy, but firm and have a flavor that's definitely still banana, but not like anything I've had before at home.

And with that, it's about lunch time and I'm feeling very hungry.
xoxo julie

Back to Bangalore

2007-07-03T06:06:00.000-04:00

Oh Bangalore, how I did not miss thee.

You know it's going to be a long day when at the fourth security check before 8am you trip over your suitcase and twist your ankle in a way that sends you to the ground in pain. Way too much excitement for a Sunday morning. After a few delays though, I finally made it back to Delhi on Sunday afternoon. I limped my way to the airline counter to change my flight back to Bangalore to make it earlier and then got into a taxi and went straight to my favorite place in Delhi - the Park Hotel.

The limp was bad enough that people kept asking me if they could bring a doctor, but I so badly wanted to sit peacefully in the spa that I declined the help. I did, however, discover one 0f the most amazing things about India. Manicures cheaper than even the Vietnamese salons in DC!!! I ended up choosing a manicure, pedicure, shampoo, haircut, and blow-dry that totalled, including tip, less than $55. Unbelievable. They massaged my head, neck, and shoulders during the shampoo and then had two people hovering during the blow-dry, one for the brush and one for the dryer. It felt plush, to say the least. Then it was time for my pedicure and this man scrubbed my feet better than anyone else has ever before. I kept apologizing because I didn't envy the man... I'd just spent a week in the mountains wearing flip flops almost everyday. Couldn't have been an easy job. He was scrubbing with such vigor that the manicurist had to stop and wait because my whole body was shaking. Not to mention all the screaming I did when he touched my ankle the wrong way. I felt slightly bad for the other people in the spa, but the man was just not being gentle!

After that luxury I went down to the cafe for brunch and had this fantastic mezze platter and I had the strangest feeling of not really being in India. Sadly, the feeling ended on the drive to the airport (though I got to ride in an Ambassador, one of those fabulous cars that looks like it was taken off the set of Lassie).

Of course my flight to Bangalore was delayed and when we finally got on the plane it was so unbearably hot that I felt like I was suffocating. The flight attendants told us there was a glitch and that as soon as the plane took off the ac would go into full effect. Well, that wasn't enough for the annoying lady next to me who demanded to be let off the plane becuase she had high blood pressure and couldn't fly 'like this.' There was some misunderstanding and they ended up taking EVERYONE off the plane and loading us onto Jet Airways buses where we sat on the runway right next to the plane for an hour. Then they put us back on the same plane with the same heat with the same explanations about the ac turning on when we took off. At least this time we took off quickly and of course as soon as we were in the air things cooled off nicely.

Getting back to Bangalore gave me such a visceral shock. It was dirty and polluted and the baggage carousels were too small and the line for a pre-paid taxi stretched through most of the arrivals hall and only one man was working the counter. Then to actually get into a taxi you had to wait in another line right next to all the honking and fumes and I realized there really was a difference in the honking in Delhi and Bangalore. In the north they still honk a lot but they're quick honks and don't make you wish you had ear plugs. In Bangalore, however, they seem to hold down the horn just to let everyone know who's where. If you pass another car on the road it's as though there's a rule you have to hold down the horn until you've passed. Madness.

But here I am, survived the journey and am back to work. I went to Saras's house last night and finally made her hamantashen cookies. She was so surpised that they actually were as good as I told her they'd be that I had to make a second batch because the first one got eaten before they'd even had time to cool. She even emailed mom to thank her for sending me the recipe and asked for recipes for more Jewish/NYC sweets.

That's all from here. Wish I could upload pictures but my laptop is determined to misbehave at the coffee shops with wireless and I'm not sure how to fix it.
Cheers from India. Only six weeks to go!

Nubra Valley

2007-06-30T08:42:00.002-04:00

(the main road in Diskit)

Yesterday I went with Alice to the Nubra Valley after her quick recovery from traveller's illness. The doctor injected her with something amazing and then gave her loads of cipro that seemed to do the trick. So we left yesterday morning and drove north east of Leh (near to China). It was a beautiful drive over "the world's highest motorable pass" at over 18,000 feet. My stomach is getting good at detecting the altitude and as we climb higher my stomach gets closer and closer to staging a revolt. The driver went nice and slow and luckily we came down not too long after the peak. To give an idea of the roads, it took nearly two hours to drive 40 kilometers. Wild.

A few thoughts about altitude...

Leh town = 11,500 feet
Pangong Lake = 14,000 feet
Height from which mom and I jumped out of an airplane = 14,000 feet
Highest peak in the Rocky Mountains = 14,440 feet
Everest Base Camp = 17,600
Highest motorable pass = 18,500
Highest mountain outside the Himalayas (in the Andes)= 22,841
Mount Everest = 29,029 feet

Anyway, back to the main subject... We got to a small town called Diskit where we checked into the guest house and then were driven to a small town called Hunder. We were supposed to spend a 'lovely afternoon in the quiet village' but when we got there it was essentially one hut surrounded by lots of sand dunes and some camels that you could ride. Hilarious. This was no village! It was merely a tourist stop for a camel ride. We couldn't help but laugh and had the driver take us back to the hotel. I've now avoided camel rides in two countries and will do it again if necessary.

Had a nice long nap in the very very very quiet town of Diskit and some time to read. I'm really glad I went and visited the Nubra Valley, though I must confess that Pangong Lake was prettier and I'm not entirely sure Nubra is as amazing as it's hyped up to be. The valley was largely sand dunes which were grey and not unlike what you'd see at the Jersey shore, but the mountains surrounding it were simply stunning. They looked almost like a surrealist illustration in a children's book with all their bumps and lumps. Truly a sight to see. No one mountain looked like any other and the colors and textures were so varied that I had my eyes glued out the window nearly the whole trip.

I'm so sad to go back to Bangalore tomorrow, but this trip in Leh has given me some fuel and energy to plan more weekend trips in the south. Not sure anywhere in India will be as beautiful as this, but I will search

Monasteries

2007-06-30T08:25:00.000-04:00

Over the past few days I went to five monasteries and they were all surprisingly interesting. For the first one I actually took a public bus, which was an adventure in itself, and luckily I met some Ladakhi girls on the way who put me on the right bus. The first one was Thiksey monastery and it was HUGE. It felt like I walked up a mountain to get to the temples at the top and it was really warm and my calves were aching by the time I got down. But, it was a fascinating place and the first monastery I've ever seen so a very cool experience.

The next day the British guy and an Italian girl and I went to another three monasteries and they were suprisingly different in some ways. The first one, Rizong, was more like Thiksey than the others with the mountain of steps and similar looking temples. We saw a group of people who looked local and ended up running into them at the other two monasteries that day too. It was so funny to see a monk taking pictures for them and using their video cameras. The picture below is from Rizong.

After Rizong we went to Alchi monastery which had some amazing frescoes that were about 1000 years old. Unfortunately, the main temple was closed when we were there, but the grounds were realy lush and there were no stairs! We saw some smaller temples and one of the monks had us light oil candles for good luck. Last, we went to Likir monastery and ended up just sitting on the roof a bit near the monks relaxing. It was a bit unreal, but a very nice afternoon.

That evening the three of us ate the most wonderful dumplings and soup at a Tibetan restaurant and then followed that up with 'special tea' - i.e. beer in a teapot with a cup and saucer. Good times, though two teapots of beer between two people is a bit over my limit of late and I fear I may have swerved a bit on the walk home.

The next day (yesterday) Alice staged a miraculous recovery from her stomach ailments. She seemed so afraid of staying in one place too long that I think she willed her body to feel good enough to sit for a long car trip. Either way, it worked out well for me and she and I went to the Nubra Valley. We stopped at Sumur monastery and this one was really beautiful. It had red tiles on the ground outside and a golden-colored pagoda at the center. Again, the main temples were closed and supposedly the monk with the keys had gone to another village for the morning. Strange, but still nice grounds.

Pangong Lake

2007-06-27T02:00:00.000-04:00

Ladakh is amazing! Some people refer to it as little Tibet because they say it has much more in common with Tibet than India and I finally learned why. Yesterday I went to visit Pangong Lake is the northeast of Ladakh and near the border with China. It was a four hour Jeep ride over “the world’s third highest motorable pass” and wow it was breathtaking. Literally. The scenery was positively gorgeous and it went from being warm and summery in Leh to cold and snowy up in the mountains.

I went with a nice British guy, Julian, I met at the hotel because Alice desperately wanted to go to a festival at a nearby monastery and I didn’t feel like navigating huge crowds. It turned out Julian’s father was Italian and owned a restaurant in London for the past 20 years so we spent a good part of the long drive discussing Italian food. Strange topic for the Himalayas, but it made the time pass quickly.

Back to the scenery though… as we drove higher and higher into the mountains and I kept squealing with delight that we were going to see snow it became more and more difficult to catch a good breath. Leh town is at 11,000 feet and this road we were on had its highest point at 17,350 feet so it was quite a bit higher. When I got out of the car at the resting place at the road’s highest point I nearly fell over my feet from dizziness after a few quick steps. I learned quickly to go much much slower as I trudged through the snow to use the loo.

We finally starting going down the mountains and out of the snow, but everywhere I looked it was beautiful. The trip took nearly an extra half hour because I kept asking the driver to stop so I could get pictures out the window. He took the curves gently and slowly, thank goodness, because I was terrified we were going to end up sliding off the road and down the mountains.

When we finally rounded the corner and saw Pangong Lake my mouth was hanging open. It was beautiful. We stopped at the bottom for lunch and walk around part of the lake and it was a really nice afternoon. I had to walk so slowly because I had trouble getting a good breath, the lake was at 14,000 feet, but it was great. In the distance, 40 km, I could see the Chinese peaks and this point on the lake is the closest to China that any foreigner was allowed to go.

It was finally time to turn around and head home and that became another adventure itself. At the rest point at the highest part of the road the car stopped and we heard the words ‘block’ and ‘shit.’ We learned that there had been some sort of rock slide on the road and the pieces were too big to get off the road with hands and shovels. Apparently the army had been called in to dynamite the rock into smaller pieces so it could be removed from the road. After the first blast they let us go down onto the roads thinking everything was clear. Unfortunately, by the time we got close to the impasse, we learned the pieces were still too big to move. A line of cars had to reverse up the mountain road a bit to allow for more blasting. Two hours and four terrifying booms later, they had finally gotten the rocks into movable pieces and we were on our way.

I was feeling a bit nauseous by this time because the air was thin and it was cold enough that I couldn’t stay outside the car for too long. Not to mention the road was narrow enough that there wasn’t all that much space for standing. We finally made it back down to Leh and a group of us had a wonderful dinner of ‘special tea’ (alcohol was not allowed in the restaurant so they served beer in teapots), my favorite Kashmiri apple juice, and Tibetan dumplings called momos. A fantastic day!
I have to confess that the picture here of Pangong is not one that I took because there’s no flash drive at this computer. But I was able to download an image of the lake to the desktop at the internet café and upload for you here. It really was this beautiful.

Ladakh

2007-06-25T00:47:00.000-04:00

A picture from the airplane as we flew through the Himalayas into Leh

An interesting side note - I learned that in Sanskrit the word himalaya translates into 'ice abode' or 'ice house.' Fitting name, though as you can see in the summer there's not much snow on the bottom of the mountains and the rock is clearly exposed.

Delhi, Agra, and the great Taj Mahal

2007-06-24T04:02:00.000-04:00

I made it to the north, and wow, it's been a wild ride. I'll try to go in order, but it's already jumbling together. But here goes...

On Friday morning I flew reallllly early in the morning to Delhi to meet my driver and guide who was supposed to speak really good English. At the airport in Delhi (+1 for Delhi - much nicer arrivals area than Banagalore) I found my driver Surinden and also learned he spoke almost no English. The words I remeber him knowing were 'English,' 'Taj,' times of day, 'eating,' 'car,' 'husband,' 'music,' and 'guide'. Yes, it was a long and quiet five hours Agra, though I attempted to learn a few Hindi words with the help of Lonely Planet's phrase section.

Our first stop was Agra Fort which was a very beautiful and peaceful fort that had been built by some rulers of Persian origin. The windows of the fort had an amazing view of the Taj and it was one of the first clean, quiet places I'd seen in India. Very nice!

Surinden got lost going to my hotel that evening, but the place turned out to be a gorgeous old relic from the colonial days. It was empty because it was off season and very very hot, but everyone was very nice and the room had ac. There was a small incident with what I only hope was a cricket... I ended up putting a room service mug over it because I couldn't find anything to use to swat it and it was a little larger than anything I'm comfortable swatting. All in all, not too bad.

The next morning we went to the Taj and it was quite the experience. It was beautiful, a gorgeous building surrounded by lush grounds that somehow never make it into the famous pictures. The shade was so nice that it made the whole experience even better. Interestingly, I report with a strange feeling of guilt, I think the Taj is somewhat overhyped. It was very pretty, but it wasn't the kind of thing that changes you when you see it. I think a lot of that has to do with the expectations I had set and all that I had heard before about the Taj, but the experience is just nothing compared to the temperature change you experience when you stand in front of the statue of David in Florence or walk along the train tracks into Auschwitz or taste your first glass of really good Chateneuf de Pape.

Not to dog on the Taj, it really is pretty, but I hesitate to use the word spectacular. Perhaps the funniest thing that happened to me there, and apparently to most other fair-haired foreign women, is the onslaught of people wanting to take their pictures with you. I ended up using it to my advantage and asking them to snap some with my camera, but it was a very strange experience. It started off with a few shy young girls, then become whole families, then a huge group of guys who each wanted a picture with me by himself, and then just a mess of all kinds of people. Some of the men were a little audacious and I slapped many hands off my shoulders, but they still seemed to want to have a picture with me even after I pushed them six inches off to my side. I've heard that this happens to most foreign women so can't be too flattered, but wow, what a strange obsession they have taking pictures of foreign women!

Driving back from Agra to Delhi was a bit more exciting than I hoped for... an autorickshaw crashed into the driver's side of our car (it really was the auto driver's fault completely) and that took a good 40 minutes to sort out. Surinden turned off the car and rolled down the windows, but good lord it was hot. I've developed a good glare, at least I think I must have, but after I kept glaring at people for a few minutes they finally stopped putting their faces into my open window. My mean face has matured so much in India!

Finally made it back to Delhi and nearly cried tears of joy at the sight of my hotel room. It was amazing. So clean and modern that I felt like I'd been taken home to DC for the day. I never wanted to leave! I did have to leave though and I met a colleague from work in Baltimore for dinner. I've realized there are two Indias and she happens to inhabit the one belonging to the ultra wealthy. She took me to the Hyatt for the most wonderful meal with wine and sushi and japanese style food cooked on the skillet at the table. I was so overwhelmed with this India of the wealthy and I didn't know how to thank her for letting me into her club for a few hours last night.

All good things must come to an end though, and at 5am I left Delhi to come here to Leh. Leh is a pretty spare town compared to Delhi, but I just love it. It's at such an altitude that the hotel managers make everyone drink a lot on arrival and then shuttle them off to their rooms for rest. You're supposed to spend minimum 24 hours concentrating only on rest and rehydration. The stories people have told about dumb people who get off the plane and go trekking immediately were enough to scare me into submission. Invariably the people who don't rest end up in a clinic or hospital. So, here I am typing and trying to be very restful. I'm content just to sit outside and look around... the plane ride here offered such a beautiful view I had to blink a few times to keep my eyes dry. I've just never seen anything quite like the Himalayas and then to fly down into them to land in a valley, wow is about the only word I could think of.

northward!

2007-06-21T02:15:00.000-04:00

Hello from my last day in Bangalore for more than a week. I'm so excited that tomorrow earrrrrrrly in the morning I fly up north to Delhi where I'll be visiting Agra and the Taj Mahal over the weekend. I have my camera ready to go s0 will try to get lots of pictures.

On Sunday I leave Delhi and fly up to a small town called Leh. Leh is in a region called Ladakh, which is the last valley before the Tibetan Plateau. The weather will be nice and cool and I will be surrounded by Himalayas! The town of Leh is at 10,000 feet so they advise taking a full day to acclimatize so you don't get sick from the altitude. It's in a Buddhist region in India and has lots of monasteries both in town and hanging precariously on cliffs in the outskirts of town. There are also apricot farms and supposedly other delicious fruits too.

A girl I met a few weeks ago decided to meet me in Leh so on Monday we'll get together and hire a guide and driver to take us on a jeep expedition through the mountains and valleys. There aren't too many routes to choose from, so we'll poke around and see which has the nicest scenery before deciding, but I'm angling for the one that takes us to a salt lake that's a remnant of the ocean that existed before India slammed into the rest of Asia. There's another lake nearby that belongs 3/4 to China, but we need special permits to travel there so not sure how it will play out. Either way, it all looked beautiful from a slideshow I saw and I can't wait.

A quick note about pictures... trying to use my laptop in the office has been a bit of a disaster (too many viruses on their network to make it worthwhile) but I've heard of a coffeeshop that has free wireless. When I get back from the north I'll bring my computer there and see if I can upload pictures to finally show what's been going on in this corner of the world.
love, julie

it's been so long!

2007-06-19T07:15:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last posted! Not too much has happened to report, though plans for the next week are becoming very exciting.

This past weekend Mrs Simha and I went to a biological park on the southern side of Bangalore where we rode around in a caged bus and got to see lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Seriously though, we drove the bus through these nature preserves and saw the most beautiful animals. Interestingly, the bears seemed smaller than I expected (and had such long hair!) and the lions and tigers seemed much bigger than expected. The tigers were as tall as the windows on the bus and actually came up and walked right alongside the bus. We had to stop many times to wait for the animals to move out of the path, but they were so beautiful I was just content to stare at them. The paws on the tigers were enormous and I felt like if the took a swipe at me I'd be knocked out flat. Thank goodness for all the cages around the windows on the bus!

That afternoon an amazing thing happened in Bangalore... I found chocolate and milk hazelnut cream!!! If anyone remembers the mass of jars I brought home from Croatia, this is the same stuff! Half the jar is chocolate hazelnut spread and the other half is just a sweet milky hazelnut spread. Divine. I've been spreading it on toast in the mornings and eating straight out of the jar with a spoon in the evenings. It's addictive stuff and I find myself thinking of it during the day at work and wishing I had my trusty jar and spoon with me.

Though not quite as exciting as the hazelnut cream, I also found cheese in this same shop!! Cheese, at the grocery near my house, is limited to small packs of four slics of processed american cheese. Pretty foul stuff. At this gourmet market I had trouble containing my excitement at seeing not just cheddar, but goudah and feta too!! I must have had a funny look on my face or been making strange noises because a nice Australian man in front of me at the counter asked if I was having trouble converting everything to the metric scale for ordering. I explained that it'd been more than a month since I'd seen glorious cheese was just going nuts with excitement. He'd been working in B'lore for a year now and had some good advice on other shops to visit for goodies from home.

Now, to whet your appetite for the next blog post coming soon, on Friday I fly up north to visit the Taj Mahal for the weekend. After that, I continue further up north to the Himalayas for cool weather and clean air. I can't wait!
love, julie

The return of durian!

2007-06-12T07:31:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to update you on durian - otherwise known as jack fruit in India. They have it in India too! Today for lunch someone brought little fried balls that looked, and tasted, like hushpuppies. They smelled a little funny, but hey, lots of things here smell a little funny so I didn't make much of it. But after we started talking about who had brought which foods, I learned that I had finally tried durian! Of course everything tastes good when it's fried up with dough, but it really wasn't too bad aside from the stench. It was shredded durian/jack fruit all mushed up with sweet dough and then fried. Delicious!

Ode to Cipro

2007-06-09T02:44:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone! I have now survived my second round of traveller's illness with a newfound love and appreciation for ciprofloxacin. Three pills over 36 hours and magic, I'm cured! It's the best thing that's happened to me in India so far. Well, not really, but close! So to back up, I'll start on last Sunday...

The American girls Saras set me up with were really nice, though unfortunately they're just here a short time and have already now left for Delhi. On Sunday we all met up again for some shopping and coffee (and I bought my huge book of maps - the second best thing that's happened to me aside from cipro!) and decided to go visit a Krishna Temple. Now I had no idea what a Krishna Temple is, who Krishna was, or what we were in for. In my mind I kept signing that Hare Krishna song and picturing the old ladies who come up and ask you for money at Tyson's Corner. Anyway, so we take an auto-rickshaw to the Krishna Temple at the north side of town and it's HUGE! Like a great white step pyramid with huge ornate detailig. Along the way I learned that Krishna is a Hindu God (unfortunately, I don't remember the stories associated with him...) and this was a temple devoted solely to the worship of Krishna. We decided to pay the extra 50 rupees (A little more than a dollar) to get in the patron line so we could get closer to the icons and skip the long lines. Good deal! Everyone has to take off shoes and check them (I was certain we'd have tetanus or staff infections before we left becaue there were so many people) and then we started working our way up through the chapel type of things. There were various icons and statues with bright colors and lots of gold and people were really into it... everyone was praying and down on their knees and performing rituals. It was so interesting, very different from the more familiar judeo-christian traditions. Anyway, at the top there's a huge room with very very big icons, I'm guessing of Krishna??, and lots of music (again with the Hare Krishna song whirling through my head). At the head, we in the 'patron' line got shuttled into a special room where the monk/priest type people solicited us for donations. Because the Krishna temples actually run a really good program feeding kids lunch in India, we donated the equivalent of 30 U.S. dollars between the three of us an apparently bought lunch for a kid for a year. So, all in all, fascinating place.

On Monday a new volunteer came to the office, James from the UK, and on Tuesday I had to take him out to the field and show him around. It was a little like the blind leading the blind because I'd only been there once before, but I think I gave a good intro and he seemed really interested at seeing the women's income generation projects at work. He somehow even got convinced to organize a sale of their products the following week at Bangalore's AOL offices. Yes, it's true!!! I'm finally going to see the famous Bangalore call center! Totally incidental that the product sale is also a bit of tourism for me, but if you call AOL in the middle of the night on Tuesday, I'll be there! Funny stuff.

Anyway, so quickly after I got home from the rural villages on Tuesday I felt like a truck rolled over my head and could barely stand up without my vision clouded and I ended up really sick by the morning. Had to miss two days of work and was gulping down water with oral rehydration salts. And of course my wonderful cipro saved the day and by Friday I was back at it. So here I am, found an internet cafe near 'home' and am off to a film festival for documentaries about water issues this afternoon. Should be interesting!

Missing home a bit and hope all is well.
love, julie

More about my boss

2007-06-01T06:15:00.001-04:00

I felt like I needed to share a little more about my boss, Saras, because she's such an interesting lady. She was born and raised in India and went to NYU for medical school and specialized in pediatrics and neonatology. She spent 10 or 15 years working as head of neonatology at a hospital in NYC and developed a fond affection for some of my favorite things New York - pastrami on rye, lox and bagels, chopped liver, and gefilte fish. She has a mezuzah on her door because she just thinks they're pretty and when I asked about it she immediately realized that I might know some good jewish recipes. She started grilling me, begging me to handmake gefilte fish and humantashen or chopped liver. Luckily, mom trained me well and if she sends me the recipe and I can find filling, I will bring humantashen to Bangalore!

Sometimes I think I should be calling Saras a Bubbi - she's very protective and motherly and also assertive (read: domineering) and has found me two american girls with whom I'm to be friends. The three of us are going to a play tonight and Saras has already started to make suggestions for our weekend travels - no matter that I haven't met these girls yet. And she says if I make good humantashen she'll take me on a trip to a coffee growing region in the west. Bonus point if I can teach her housekeeper/cook how to make a good pie crust, courtesy of Aunt Andi's apple pie recipe.

We sat at the dinner table two nights ago eating traditional Indian good with our hands and she told me about the time she screamed at a man behind the deli counter in New York for a full five minutes for putting her pastrami on white bread. She's a riot. When I told her how I made Matt walk 30 blocks early one Saturday morning for his first lox and bagel at Barney Greengrass she nearly salivated.

Saras's husband is a playwright and we've had some funny talks about my slow progress reading Rushdie's "Midnight's Children." Girish is not Rushdie's biggest fan, to put it mildly, and has tried to convince me to read Moby Dick instead. We settled on one of Girish's plays, though I must confess I haven't yet started it.

Well, I've successfully made it through nearly another workday and it's almost time for my date with the american girls.
Hope all is well at home.
love, julie

India!

2007-05-31T04:01:00.000-04:00

Hello and greetings from Bangalore, India. Let's just get right to the point and go over the first words that come to mind when describing India - utter and complete wild madness. Really, there's not much else I need to say for you to get the idea of what it's like for me here. But, in the spirit of vicarious travels, here we go!

I landed Sunday night after some rain delays to long, swirling, and messy customs lines. To get a better idea of what that was like, first - picture the Heathrow customs area, second - cut the space so that it's about a quarter and then count only six people with entry stams, third - take away all ropes and line guides and officials directing people, fourth - add a wall in the rear that forces the line to extend out the doors to the runway, fifth - add some heat, and last - just try to wait patiently and gently use your elbow to keep your place in line. Then, after I got the stamp I moved to the baggage area. Picture a luggage conveyer whose size is about 1/20 of the size needed and also an airport employee throwing the bags off the coveyer into a tight corner before they make the circle around so people waiting on the other side never get a chance to pick up their bags. When I finally got my bag after yelling at the man who threw it off before it reached me, I then head for the crowds ten deep on each side to find the person who's supposed to take you to the project director's house. Miraculously, I found Srinivas who's the director Saras's driver. After honking his way through cars, trucks, cows, dogs, and people, we made it out of the airport and eventual to Saras's house. Success!

Saras has been incredibly nice to me, though after seeing her yell at other people, I'm a little bit scared. Definitely want to stay on her good side! So Monday I started work and I'll be working on two main projects - first a research study evaluation the quality of obstetric care in the rural villages and also trying to determine why women who have access to giving birth in health centers choose to do so at home. Second project is working with two women's income generation projects and trying to evaluate the kind of effect they're having on the women. I'm also interested in finding a way to market the products in the U.S because I think the women will end up earning more if the products can sell outside of India. One group uses traditional India block stamps to print on fabric and make table clothes, scarves, etc and another makes paper out of scrap paper and cotton fibers and turns that into gift bags, note cards, etc. Yesterday I visited the two worksites in the rural villages and it was really exciting to see it all in action. It's something that I believe in theoretically and have read about extensively, so it was really moving to see it all up close and meet the women.

And now for the bug situation, because it's always on my mind... after seeing a flying cockroach at the office ''loo'' the first day, no sitings of the unmentionables since then. I did pee with some lizards and spiders at the field office yesterday in my first traditional India loo (squat over the hole, pour a bucket of water after you're done!!), but I don't mind those critters too much anymore.

I've also learned to take traditional Indian 'mug and bucket' showers. They're pretty much what they sound like... Fill the bucket with the tap, use the mug to dump water all over you. It was awkward at first, but I'm getting better at it and they waste so much less than traditional showers so maybe by the end I'll be a full-fledged convert.

My feet never seem to get very clean because you ALWAYS take off your shoes inside which means I'm barefoot for the whole day at work. I really liked it until I looked at the bottom of my feet.

Food is good and I haven't had too many problems adjusting to eating with my right hand because it's pretty much always with your hands and I'm much more adept at eating with my right hand than I would be at holding a fork with my right hand. I've been a little slow at adjusting to watching other people eat with their hands, but I'm getting better at being able to look up during meals now. We eat rice and spinach and lentils and meats all with our right hand, but use the left one to serve and hold the containers and drinks.

Tomorrow I move out of Saras's guest bedroom and into the Simha family's house. I'm just praying to any and every relevant god that the bathroom I use will have sitting toilet and not just the kind you have to stand over. Will update you as soon as I find out!

No generalizations yet, except that I realize India is huge and generalizations will invariably be wrong. Will let you know more as it happens.
Love, julie

Goodbye Thailand

2007-05-26T23:26:00.000-04:00

Greetings from my last day in Bangkok. The internet connection was really slowwww where Matt and I stayed in Railay (the beach) so catching up here in Bangkok to tell the rest of the story. Sorry for what will definitely be rambling - the days are starting to blend together and in the spirit of full relaxation, I'm forgetting the order of things and probably lots of good details too.

We stayed at Railay Bay Resort on the mid/south western coast of Thailand and it was absolutely fabulous! We really lucked out on weather - three quick rainstorms the entire two weeks, which is pretty excellent for 'green season.' The water was gorgeous, the food was delicious, and there really weren't too many huge bugs. I am suprised to report that the cockroaches in Railay were no bigger than the ones in DC! Of course in Thailand they fly, which adds a whole new element of terror, but they really weren't too bad. The mosquitos, on the other hand were treacherous. Silent warriors! It was almost impossible to feel them on you because they were so small, but wow, they left huge welts everytime they bit, which seemed to be often. It was as though my arms and legs were, as Matt said, a buffet of caviar and filet mignon for the mosqiutos.

In other exciting animal news, on our second to last day of rock climbing, we spotted a few smaller monkeys in the trees right nearby. Thinking how exciting this was, Matt went a little closer to get a better photo. Little did we know, there weren't just three monkeys, there were closer to thirty of them and they all decided they wanted to come watch us climb. So nearly thirty monkeys come sit, eat, and play right at the base of our climb. There they were, running all around us, trying to take our bags and water! It was madness! A friend climbing with us, who was belaying his girlfriend at the time, used the end of the rope to keep them a few feet away from us and bravely fought a monkey to get my bag away from one of them. They were funny little creatures, very forward in coming right up to us and trying to take things.

The day before the monkey adventure we rented kayaks and paddles out around the beautiful islands. In one cove a big lizard came right up by us, scared me senseless, but seemed no harm and just sat on his little rock over the water. The water and islands were absolutely beautiful, though we didn't find too much use for snorkel masks - there were fish feeding in shallow waters that you could see just fine from the surface, but otherwise not too much going on under there.

We met a nice couple who were moving between Scotland and New Zealand who turned out to be lots of fun to climb with. They argued a lot, which was mostly entertaining, but the level they climbed turned out to be perfect so I got to do some easier stuff and Matt got to do some insane stuff and everyone was happy. They also introduced us to 'Garden Restaurant' which was essentially a woman who cooked for you on a porch. This woman loved chilis and set my mouth on fire more than once.

Inspired, I also took a Thai cooking class and learned how to make a coconut lemongrass soup (Tom Ka) and a red curry that was really good! Unfortunately, that was also the day I was struck with 'traveller's sickness,' which is really more painful than people seem to let on! I was quite surprised actually that it hurt like it did. But in my continuing adoration of modern medicine, three cipro pills saved the day and I was back to burning my mouth on chilis in just a few days. Matt got a little sick our last day in Railay, but seemed to recover much quicker than I did.

Oh, almost forgot, the second to last day in Railay we rode elephants!!! It was crazy fun. And a little crazy actually. Matt nearly fell off the elephant while it was walking down a gorge (nearly tipped out of the bench that was perched on top for us!) so we held on really tightly after that. It was great though, and they seemed to treat the elephants quite well. There are strict regulations on how much shade they must have as well as access to lots of water and food. We fed them bananas and it was amazing how coordinated they were using their trunks. They scooped the bananas right out of our hands and brought them to their mouths perfectly!

In my quest not to miss allthe good food Thailand has to offer, I convinced Matt to eat with me a street vendor on our last full day in Bangkok. We didn't eat any meat, we're not that brave, but had the most wonderful fried noodles with brocoli and cabbage made by this woman at her grill on the side of the road. It was actually one of the better meals we had and made me realize I need to find a way to get paid to eat and travel - really my favorite things to do.

One last ode to the mangosteen - we bought a kilogram our last day and devoured them in between the Tim Tams we found at a minimart. All my favorite sweets from this part of the world!

We survived with barely a sunburn (and also barely a tan) and have been concocting schemes to come back. It's that wonderful :)

Tonight I'm off to Bangalore where I'll be staying with the director of BelakuTrust, Saras, for a few days before moving to my new temporary home with the Simhas on June 1. For those of you who recognize that name, the Simhas decided to get rid of their adorable basset hound becaue he was too much work and are cleaning their house and have re-invited me to stay with them. I can't wait! News from India to come...

sweat, sand, and Singha

2007-05-18T08:20:00.000-04:00

It is impossible to completely dry out here. Once realized, this can be properly compensated for. Chalk, that aid to climbing within normal climates, turns to a sort of milk at mid-day here. But in the last 45 minutes before dusk it operates as one might reasonably expect of surf wax.

Coming to grips with the constant shvitz means beer and water are more or less interchangeable. Just keep the liquids flowing in as they are floating out a few minutes later. Its really best not to rush at anything here. We've learned proper execution of simple errands become studies in shadow, breeze and sun angle, best to read these things before committing fully lest a sunstroke sit you down for pushing too hard.

And here's Julie, behind is our climbing wall, only accessible at low tide. Look carefully for the climber suffering in the late day heat.

Sell the condo, cancel the master's, we're staying in Thailand

2007-05-17T02:11:00.000-04:00

Apologies in advance if this doesn't make sense, but all the web options are in Thai so we don't quite know what we're pressing. Bangkok is better by night, hides the grime and isn't so hot. Hotel there was beautiful and luxurious, but we've moved on to grubbier and a happier place. By grubby, we mean a quiet paradise with rock climbing a few steps off the beach where we don't have to dress up for dinner. In fact, we could probably get away with not wearing shoes at all for the next two weeks. Low season means few crowds and surprisingly gorgeous weather. It's cooler now, only reaching about 90 degrees each day instead of 100. We're catching a nice breeze and Matt and I found a friend this morning to play frisbee. Our east coast values haven't quite adjusted to the non-pace, but we're (meaning I... Matt is much more calm) are working on adapting. Beer is helping the cause.

Now, especially for dad, everything we've eaten since we got here -

Fish and chips, croissants, coffee, beer, coffee, beer, Indian curry, wine, coffee, thai curries, taro root puffs in coconut milk, thai curries, beer, beer, thai curries, papaya, coffee, pineapple, beer. squid salads.

Strangely, the best food we had was in the shopping mall in Bangkok where we found the spiciest food I've ever tolerated. We got the man at the hotel to write on a sheet of paper something along the lines of "I will die if you feed me peanuts" and it's become very very very helpful here.

p.s. for aunt ellen, we love mangosteen and lychee. unfortunately, there was a huge sign prohibiting durian from our hotel in bangkok. after smelling the rotten sweaty feet in the market and realizing it was durian, we understand why.

The Visa Arrived!

2007-04-27T11:00:00.000-04:00

After much pain and suffering and confusion about how many blank pages were needed in my passport to get a visa for India, my bike-courier friend finally delivered my passport with the visa. Hurray!! Now, it's finally almost time to travel. t-15 days!!!

The participants

2007-04-07T12:04:00.000-04:00

The optimistic adventurer

The wise one (who's going home before the monsoons)

Belaku's rural worksite (inspecting newly donated animals)

new blog intro

2007-04-06T14:36:00.000-04:00

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I'm here at work, thinking of anything to do besides work, and realized that a blog would be the easiest way to keep in touch this summer. The plan is to spend three months in India working at a local nongovernmental organization (ngo) called Belaku Trust that focuses on the health of women and children. I'm so excited, just one month and 6 days until the journey begins!

In response to lots of questions that have been coming my way, here's some background info about how I scored the internship and what I'll be doing:
A professor at Hopkins, Mike Koenig, put me in touch with a colleague of his in India, Saras Ganapathy. She's an Indian woman who went to medical school at NYU and is a pediatrician. When she went home to India she started a research organization with other like-minded women, Belaku Trust, to improve the health of women and children. As time passed, they began to use their research to implement projects and now run numerous programs.

I'll be working primarily on two projects with Belaku. The first is a research study on the quality of obstetric care and the second is an evaluation of an income generation program. The income generation program is somewhat like the famous microfinance schemes and the Grameen Bank (http://www.grameen-info.org/) - Belaku teaches crafts, such as printing fabrics and handmaking notecards, to poor women and the products are then sold. Income from the sales helps the women to better provide for their families. I'm particularly interested in microfinance because it requires a holistic understanding of health that goes far beyond 'the absence of illness' as its definition. I believe that health and economic development are linked, though certainly it is possible to have one and not the other. Either way, I value the broader vision and look forward to working to improve health outside of a clinical setting.

Where is Bangalore? I like to think of India as diamond shape (it's not really, but it helps me to picture where everything is). If you're looking at the diamond, New Delhi is towards the top point, Calcutta the right point, Bombay the left point, and Bangalore near the bottom point. The CIA actually has a good map and info about India: (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html) The only way most people know about Bangalore is through the high-tech industry and outsourcing. Chances are, if you've called a 1-800 number you've spoken with someone in Bangalore. From all the added income of high-tech and outsourcing, Bangalore has a reputation as one of India's swankier cities. I'm not actually sure what that means considering I've never seen any other Indian cities, but I'll be able to tell you soon. Just a sidenote about outsourcing - even though it makes people furious in the U.S., numerous people have told me that Indians love the outsourced jobs. Even though the salaries are much much lower than the job would command in the U.S., they are still typically more than three times an average Indian salary, which means that the people who get these jobs end up relatively well-off. Rumor has it the Indians also have an affinity for George W... I'll have to keep my mouth shut.

What else can I tell you? Well, I'll be starting off the trip with a very relaxing two weeks in Thailand! Matt and I are leaving two days after the end of my fourth academic term, which is probably not the smartest idea, but I'm too impatient to wait. So May 12 we leave for London (including a nasty layover at Heathrow) and arrive in Bangkok on May 14. We'll head pretty quickly out of Bangkok and down the west coast to the beaches. (https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/th.html) We'll be near Phuket, but right by (in?) a town called Krabi. We'll be staying right around Railay, which is famous for having world-class rock climbing right on the beaches. I don't think a better place has ever been designed to suit both Matt and me. I anticipate many of our days will look something like this: eat, climb, swim, eat, nap, climb, swim, eat, drink, sleep.

This is getting absurdly long, but I just wanted to share the details and let you know where you'll be able to find information about my trip. I probably won't post much between now and when I leave for India, but I'll send an email to let you know when things are up and running in Asia. I'm also working on getting pictures up so hopefully you'll be able to see everything in one place soon.
love you lots, more soon from Asia!