The last week traveling...and back home!

Once we were finally on the bus...heading out of Siliguri up to Gangtok!
The bus convoy we were apart of that included a police escort to get us through the blocked roads from the strike in West Bengal.
The first place we camped on our trek.
Prayer flags at our 2nd campsite - there are many Buddhist monasteries in the area.
Me looking down toward our second campsite.
This was where we were supposed to see mountains...the weather did not cooperate!
Valentine's Day dinner at our lovely hotel in Gangtok - momos are the crescent-shaped food you see and they are DELICIOUS!
A view of Gangtok, capital of Sikkim.
Z bought Tabla! Luckily we were about to bring them back safely to the U.S. as well.
Our last night in Delhi, just before we left the city center to head to the airport...what an incredible trip!


Hello from snowy and cold Minnesota!

We had quite an eventful last week traveling together, and now have returned to a solidly winterized Minnesota - quite a shift. Our last entry was from Bangalore, where we enjoyed time with our new good friends, Gautham and Paro. The day before we were to depart for our next "act" in our journey, we learned (luckily) that there was a pretty significant strike that had just started in the region we were set to travel in. Apparently, some people in W. Bengal (which is a Northeastern Indian state w/ a border to Bangladesh) have been unhappy about their working conditions and decided to strike. After a long morning researching many different options and making many phone calls, we decided to continue with our plan to fly to the region, however knew that we would need to divert our travels to a different place in the hopes that we would still be able to do some trekking.

We were put into contact with a very kind man names Bickey, who met us at the airport in northern India (we flew into Siliguri, W. Bengal). Then we went with him to the bus station. The roads were all blocked with strikers, but travelers and locals were still able to get on limited government buses, which daily were being escorted in a large convoy by the police to a state north of W. Bengal called Sikkim. Sikkim is the northernmost Indian state in that region and has borders with Nepal, China/Tibet, and Bhutan. After realizing that there was quite a lot of chaos at the bus station, we discovered a tourist office that was helpful, mostly because it put us into contact with a number of other tourists who were able to offer some advice. We returned very early the following morning to get into a line to hopefully be able to buy tickets (separate lines for women and men...that is the case throughout India, including at the airport). After quite a lot of waiting, asking questions to of people who only spoke limited English, and wondering if we were ever going to get out of there, all of a sudden a man approached us (by that time we were a group of about 10 tourists all waiting to buy tickets) who said he had just found a bus to take us up to Gangtok (capital of Sikkim), but that we would have to RUN immediately to get onto the bus before other people realized that it was departing. Mild panic ensued, which luckily resulted in all of us getting ourselves and our stuff safely on the bus into seats. Phew!

Once we arrived in Gangtok, the next challenge we faced was finding a trek that would work for us. We had to cut our plans by 2 days because of the strikes, and the trek we had booked (though luckily hadn't paid for) was not available from Gangtok. We met with a friend of Bickey's, who did offer us a trek for 4 days, departing the following day. We departed around noon the next day, and had 3 days of trekking in the jungle mountains in the lower altitudes of the Himalayas. Unfortunately, our weather was incredibly cloudy and foggy, so any altitude that we were able to gain did not result in the views we had so hoped for. We returned on Valentine's Day a bit discouraged, but hunkered down at a wonderful hostel for 2 days, made good friends with the staff there, and explored a bit of Gangtok the following day.

We were lucky enough to get a bus down to Siliguri, even though the strike had continued while we were there. Another surprise we discovered was that trains in India hardly ever run on time, so we had to give up our long train trip across northern India to get to Delhi for our flight back to the states. Instead we flew to Delhi, which allowed us one more day to explore in Delhi last Friday. It was a beautiful and relaxing last day for us, which included a nice rooftop breakfast in a bustling area, a long walk to the National Museum, a great little market where we did some final shopping, and an evening meal complete with the sunset. Then we headed to the airport and flew for 16 hours to get home...just ahead of the snow!

So those are the stories...or some of them, at least. We have really enjoyed keeping you updated on our travels and have many, many more pictures to share if any of you would care to take a look. We are so incredibly thankful to have had such an intense and foreign experience together, and we will be digesting all that we learned there for a long time.

Namaste,

L&Z

The travelers' first update

The Taj! It was so beautiful in the morning light. We were both awestruck.
This is inside the Taj - so many of the windows had marble carvings that created beautiful light designs on the walls.
This is outside the Taj - such a striking contrast of the white marble against the blue sky.
This is at Agra Fort - a temple room inside the huge military fort. All of the walls are made of carved white marble and inlaid precious stones.
This is "Baby Taj" - a smaller tomb in the city of Agra that is built in the same style as the Taj.
A spot where we had breakfast and dinner with the Taj in the distance.
This is Z attempting to drink coconut water out of a coconut. Usually tourists drink with straws. It looks a bit more like a passionate embrace rather than drinking, don't you think?
Our hike outside of Bangalore with our friends, Gautham and Paro. Beautiful hot day!
It was quite steep at the top!
Our celebratory descent!


Well, we've made it to Bangalore (Bengaluru)! Our first "act of India", as Z likes to put it, was up north in Delhi and Agra. What an incredible weekend there! We managed to navigate ourselves from Delhi to Agra, stayed in a quaint spot quite close to the Taj Mahal, evenings were spent dining on rooftops with a great view of the amazing building we were there to see. We made good friends with our hilarious driver, Ram (who we hired in Delhi...a story all in itself). We worked out a system to not get too annoyed by all of the hawkers (SO MANY here!). And we enjoyed 1 full day of sight-seeing, including the Taj Mahal at sunrise, Agra Fort, Baby Taj, Akbar's tomb, Fatephur Sikri. Check out the pics!

Then we got onto a plane and flew down to Bangalore, where we were warmly greeted by our new friends and hosts, Gautham and Paro (Gautham is one of my co-worker's cousins). They are both musicians, Gautham is a recording engineer and Paro sings and does voice-over work. And they are a great duo! They live in a comfortable bungalow in southern Bangalore and have been incredibly generous with their time and attention. Yesterday we hiked with them up to the top of a 4000ft stone mountain outside of the city - it was beautiful! And quite hot! We enjoyed it tremendously. After a 4-hour hike in the hot afternoon sun, drinking coconut water straight from the fruit was a much needed refreshment.

We have one more day here to explore Bangalore with our new friends and tomorrow we depart for "act 3" - our trek up in the Himalayas. We're not sure that we'll have internet there, so our next post might be once we return to the states. Enjoy the pics!

Z&L

One more post...

A visit earlier this week to a local PHC (primary health center) with Nandini and Jenny (a Canadian who is interning with SVYM doing public health work)
On the visit with Jon to the local village for diabetes screening
Teaching Ani and Abhi (sons of some of the physicians who work at the hospital) how to throw a disc forehand, or "flick" - they caught on so quickly!
Some writing in one of the PHC's we visited that lists the pregnant women in the village and when they are due - right out in the open!
In the OT (operating theater) with Dr. Bindu (OB/Gyn) assisting in a hysterectomy.


Time is running quite short for me here! I have just a few days left here to enjoy and soak up my rich experience. It is incredible that time has gone by so quickly, and my last few days have been great.

This week has been filled with some interesting meetings and village-visits, as well as preparing for a few presentations that I will give prior to my departure. I leave here Friday morning, then traveling to Bangalore, then getting on an evening flight up to Delhi to meet up with Zach, who is flying over from the states for 2 weeks of traveling together. My presentations this week should be great - one is a talk I'm giving to the kids at the school about some of my Arctic canoeing/camping experiences. It should be great for them to see an entire different environment, and hopefully have some good questions to ask me about the experience! The other is a medical talk I will give to the physicians, etc at the hospital.

I was able to go on a village visit yesterday with Jon, who is the friend who is here for a year doing diabetes research. I have also been on the wards with the general medicine team and have gotten a few great lectures about tropical medicine and practices here.

As my time winds down here, there are so many things and people that I know I will miss when I leave. A month is hardly enough time to really start feeling at home somewhere, but, of course, as soon as you dig in and get to know people and have attachments is right when you have to leave. The experience has opened my eyes to so many different things - practicing medicine in resource-poor settings, public health concerns in a rural, underserved population, not to mention the people of India and how warm and welcoming and friendly they are. I have been incredibly lucky to have met so many wonderful people here!

I am not sure whether Z and I will be able to continue the blog while we're traveling - it will depend on our internet access. If I can, I will upload pictures of our adventures for all of you to see. Otherwise, we'll do it once we return to the states in mid-Feb (we return Feb 19th). Thanks for following my adventure and for all of your comments and support while I was here!

Laura