We're not in Tamil Nadu anymore Toto

Hiya folks. Lots to report on. But lacking time, so we'll see how much we get. I am not officially on VACATION. It's wonderful to having time to just travel and see things. Although, it has been a little harder on my wallet. No matter.

Two weeks ago, I left my place and the wonderful little town of Sivakasi to go to Varkala in Kerala. I had been to Varkala before, for my first weekend away. It's a lovely sea side town with a long boardwalk stretching down the coast up on high cliffs. Absolutely lovely place. We spent several days there and didn't do much other than sit on the beach, sit in hammocks, or sit in cafes on the cliff side. It was wonderfully relaxing. I also performed the service of a jukebox by taking requests and constantly singing backround music. Disney songs were quite popular, especially the Little Mermaid. One evening we had a campfire on the beach. I sang, another guy played guitar and we lit off some very unstable and cheap Sivakasi fireworks. The night eventually degraded to us throwing large explosives into our fire, sending hot embers and other explosives in all directions. It was a lot of fun.

I left Varkala on tuesday afternoon with Sander and Anup, two other volunteers and met up with Adrienne and Hannah in Trivandrum where we caught the express train to Goa. Well... it was supposed to be the express train, 14hrs supposedly. However, after leaving trivandrum and pulling up into Kollum (the next stop) we were delayed significantly and stuck at the stations for about 40min. The train finally left the station, but made it a very short distance before it stopped, and started going in reverse. We then went back to the station on and sat there for another extended period of time. Knowing that the train would be there for awhile, we exited the train and stretched out legs. We saw a large group of indian men looking a the back of our carraige, which just so happened to be the back of the train. Funny... it wasn't the last car when we boarded at Trivandrum. We soon realized that they had somehow lost the back half of the train when leaving the station and were completely baffled as to how to rectify the problem. It was immensely humorous at first, but then the delay just got annoying. We finally managed to attach the back half and get off to Goa. We finally arrived 20hrs later.

The long train ride was most definately worth it. Goa is gorgeous. It was similar to Varkala in the sense that we spent most of our time relaxing, swimming and eating western food. We also went to a large market where we practiced our refined haggling skills. Indian people really don't listen when you say know. They all know what it means, but they just don't listen. I much prefered shopping at the Tibetan stalls (which there were many of). Sander and I also go matching straw hats, which for some odd reason made us very very popular with the locals. Despite how many westerners were there, we found ourselves constantly getting photographs taken of us. One day we headed to Old Goa to see some of the remnants of Portugese architecture. On the way, I was able to identify a beggar that had leprosy which I thought was pretty cool. Well, awful for him, but made me feel good that I can diagnose it. Old Goa had some lovely old churches. One of which contained a priest that was over 4oo years old and was still well preserved, which was probably a result of him being burried in the salty ground of China for 50 years. There are really no other amazing stories from Goa. It was just a wonderful little "peace" of tropical paradise where we let our worries melt away in the hot sun.

We caught a train to Mumbai (Bombay) on Sunday and arrived 10 hours later. I'm having a hard time believing that I'm still in India. It is incredibly modern. It is very easy to see the British influence from many of the old building still in existence. The architecture is beautiful. We've spent some time wandering around, looking at buildings, going into museums and telling guys wanting to sell me marijuana to go away. After living off southern indian food for over two months, we've been gorging ourselves on western delights. We even went to a movie theater and saw the new Bond film. Before the film started, they put up advertisements for what to do in case of a bomb scare, but said nothing about cell phones (which is too bad because everyone's phone kept going off... and they answered them!! crazy indians). Before the movie started the indian national anthem was played and we all stood up and sang along... well, we didn't but all the indian did. The movie quality and sound was poor and had some awful editing jobs to keep out the "raunchy" bits. They also added in an intermission for our convenience.... so wierd.

Tomorrow we leave for Udaipur in Rajistan. It should be great fun. Hopefully I have the time to post again soon. Take care everyone. I wish you all well

Sweet Relief!

I'm sorry if it seems like I've been remiss in my repsonses lately. I've had my nose to the grindstone lately while working on my medical school secondary applications. I finally finished them today and mailed off the ones that needed mailed. It's a huge weight off my shoulders.... and a huge divit out of my pockets to post four envelopes to different locations express mail, but worth it I suppose. I have some catching up to do, so here goes!

Two weekends ago I ended up staying in Sivakasi. We had a celebratory dinner for someone's last night and I wanted to stick around and work on my applications. Maybe it was wise that I staying in Sivakasi because I ended up falling ill on Sunday (the first time since I've been in India! Over a month in. Not bad). I wasn't even that ill. I was well enough to leave that evening with two other volunteers to trivandrum, which was a 5 hour drive away. We spent two days at an ayurvedic clinic! Let me just say, it is one of the most rediculous forms of "scientific" medicine I've ever encountered. I think the fact that they insist on it being scientific and interspersing scientific terminology when talking about it that makes it even more rediculous and frustrating. The clinic was subpar, probably because we never actually saw anything, just got dictated to by an overbearing woman that kept making judgements about our character. Apparently, part depending on your personality depends on the treatment you receive and for how long. I apparently don't smile much and am unhappy and am very arrogant. Another volunteer is very dull and shy around women. This woman wasn't exactly scoring points in my book. She also said I was childish, which I won't disagree with, but that doesn't put her back into my favor. After half a day of dictation, we all splurged three hundred rupees to get an ayurvedic massage. Basically, it was a 45min rubdown with smelly oil during which point I felt very violated.... especially when he bathed my oily body. But it was still an interesting experience, albeit one that I'll never repeat. Oil fomentation is one a primary healing method in ayurvedic medicine. Depending on where oil is placed depends on what symptoms it can cure. Oil on the head can get rid of headaches, the chest get rid of asthma, and get this ladies, an oil massage can tone muscle and remove excess fat... this is particularly funny when being told to me by an overweight indian woman... of course, most indian women are overweight. They also employ methods such as enemas, laxatives (apparently every headache is caused by constipation) blowing powder or oil up your nose, and two others which are my favorite: Blood letting and indiced vomitting! Blood letting can be done with needles, blades, or the most common choice leeches. Apparently, once all the bad blood has been sucked out, the leech dies... how scientific. Induced vomitting can be used to cure headaches, epilepsy, asthma and mental disorders. How ironic! In my country, making yourself vomit IS a mental disorder. I guess that just culture clash for you. haha...... What hogwash. It was interesting to learn about, but really the most rediculous thing I've ever heard.

After a lackluster week of listening to my doctor speak to patients in tamil and berate his staff, we took off for a tpa weekend in Kanyakumari. It is on the southern most tip of india where the bay of bengal, arabian sea and indian ocean all come together. It was an alright weekend with a few interspersed sights of beauty, but what I can't get out of my head is what I saw on the bus ride over. We hitched a bus from Sivakasi to Nagercoil and Nagercoil to Kanyakumari. On the 45min bus ride from Nagercoil to Kanyakumari, we crammed onto a crowded bus and managed to find a few seats towards the back. Two volunteers ended up sitting next to a man that was drooped down in his seat and not really moving. We tried to gain his attention, even shook him, but received no response. One of the members of our group reached to feel his pulse and could feel nothing, only cold. There was also a small bit of blood that had dripped out his mouth and onto his white shirt. The tpa employee that was with us at that point told us to move away from him and leave him alone. We thought he meant because the guy could have some disease we don't want to catch. When in actuality, he just wanted us to move away because it wasn't our problem. We tried telling other people on the bus, some said he was just drunk or didn't seem to care. We also told the conductor collecting money, but when he heard, he just continued to collect money as if nothing was wrong. Clearly distressed by the fact that we were on the bus with a dead guy and that nobody seemed to care we hopped off the bus at the next stop. Apparently in this country, when something wrong happens, nobody wants to do anything or report it, because that means you have to go down to the police station and make a statement, which is clearly far to much work for an indian to do. These people are rediculous. I wonder what about that man's family who is waiting at home for him, and he never comes... He got on the bus either go home or going to work, and passed away. I will never travel alone in this country. Ever. Well, I think I should quit now before I really get worked up and tell you more awful things about indian culture, like how one month ago, child labor was still legal and only two weeks ago, you could beat your wife and not be infringing on the law. Whoops! Maybe I should stop now.

I don't know when I'll be able to write again. I leave for Varkala this weekend and then go from there to Goa and work my way north for three weeks. I will most definately be stopping at several internet cafes, so if you bear with me, I'll get to you all in due time. I hope you're all well and healthy and maybe avoid buses for a short while. Tata!