Our chronicle begins early Saturday morning. I woke up around 3:30 to get myself ready and make sure I had everything packed before we were to catch a rickshaw an hour later. We got to the airport around 5 and checked in for our flight. Airport security is not a whole lot different than in the states, but it's more relaxed. There are separate lines for the "ladies and gents" because everyone gets the wand waved over them after coming through the metal detector. You don't have to remove your shoes or watch (because I forgot to remove my watch and nothing happened). Our carry on gets a tag that is stamped confirming that it was checked. If it does not have that tag, you do not get on the plane. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:45 and we boarded at 6:10. Remember in my second entry how I marveled at how we didn't disembark into the terminal, but a bus came to get us instead? Well that's just how they do it in India. We all got onto a bus, which took us to the plane.
A short two hours later, we were in New Delhi. We had hired a driver who was going to stay with us for the weekend, so we set off to find him. It was a lot easier to find him than it had for me to find Claver when I first arrived because our driver was right there outside the door with his sign in plain sight. We all hopped into our air conditioned car and set off for Agra. The drive lasted four hours and was interesting to say the least. As I have probably mentioned before, if there are rules of the road for this country, they are not followed very closely. If you see an opportunity and an open space, you take it.
We met up with our tour guide first and then we were taken to our hotel to check in. For some reason, they thought we would need some time to freshen up and rest before heading out. It was already around one in the afternoon and we had literally been sitting all day, it was time for some sights. The monsoon season hasn't quite started up in Northern India, so it was very hot up there but, fortunately, it was a dry heat.
First stop. Taj Mahal, the entire reason we made the trek up to Delhi in the first place. :D It was amazing! So much better than anything I have ever seen or could have even imagined it to be. Don't worry, I got a lot of pictures. I literally took over 100 pictures on Saturday. Our guide was very good and very informative. He really knew his stuff. You're not allowed to take pictures inside the actual tomb so I'm going to have to explain this next part the best that I can. The marble walls are inlaid with semi precious stones and, maybe you know this and maybe you don't, when light hits marble it becomes translucent. That is why the Taj appears different colors at different times of the day. There is one stone used in the designs that is only found in India, in the Punjab if I remember correctly. This (of which the name escapes me, but it did start with a C) stone is red in color and when you put a flashlight directly upon it, it goes red. It was really amazing because it is only the marble that does that and this stone, none of the others will transmit the light.
After the Taj, we went to Agra Fort from which you can see the Taj Mahal. Agra Fort was built by the grandfather of the man who built the Taj and he was placed under house arrest in Agra Fort by his own son later on in his life.
We saw a lot of Japanese tourists and a few white people, but for the most part everywhere we went we saw Indians.
The next day we took the four hour drive back to Delhi. The first place we went to was the Qutab Minar which is something that I have wanted to see for a long time. I was super excited!! While there, people took pictures of us in their creepy stalker-ish way they do. I was approached not too long by a man and his daughter and they asked if they could get a picture with me. I assented and the picture was taken. Not too long after that we were approached by three teenage boys who also wanted pictures. We thought they just wanted pictures with Bryce, so Kristie and I stood back and let them rotate taking pictures with him. When that was done, they wanted pictures with Kristie and then with me. I told them that they could only get their pictures with me if I could get pictures with them as well. :D It was funny and then we went back to our exploring. It didn't take too long after that for people to work up their courage to ask for more pictures with us and once people saw others taking pictures with us, they also approached for pictures. We literally had a line of people wanting pictures and I think I was in at least 70 or 80 that I consented to. We finally had to draw the line and tell them to stop or we would never have gotten out of there. Man! It was like being a celebrity. :)
We also went to Humayun's Tomb where we spent a really long time in the hot, hot sun. The grounds seemed to go on forever. After lunch, we went to an open air market and I got to practice my bartering skills some more. I'm really getting good at it and I wish that things were like that back home. It's one of the things I'm really going to miss. It was also one of the things I was most nervous about when I came here. Go figure!
We came back to Mumbai late Sunday night by plane and this week is full of clinical visits. In the mornings we go to the clinic of the doctors Mehta. They are a husband and wife who are both doctors and they own and run their own practice together. In the evenings, from 6-9:30, we are at the clinic of Dr. Bathla a young doctor who caters to the upper middle class. Last night was my first night with Dr. Bathla and things went pretty normally, for the most part. He is a great physician, he really cares for his patients and makes sure they are well cared for. He is the most westernized doctor that I have seen here so far. His patients, being upper middle class, can afford more on their healthcare and so they get better treatment in the sense that they can afford all the different tests and such so they actually are investigated. He is also a really good teacher. In the middle of seeing a patient Dr. Bathla got a phone call about a woman who had just vomited blood so as soon as we were finished with that patient, we went on an emergency house call. In India, when there is an emergency, you call the doctor out to your house. The ambulances are only used for transportation from one hospital to the other. I won't go into the details, because it took me over an hour to write them last night and I'm sure that you don't want to hear it all anyway. When we got there, it was already too late. The woman was the grandmother, roughly mid 80's. I've seen cadavers before and such, but this was different. Seeing her wasn't the hard part because death is a natural part of life and we all are going to experience it. What was difficult for me was the grief of the family, but I kept my professional composure. After that, the night was pretty much uneventful.
This week is going to fly right on by and I'll be home before you know it! I hope to be able to make it back to the cafe at least one more time before I have to head back on Saturday and I'll let you know how things are going.
Love, peace, and chicken grease!!
No comments:
Post a Comment