Hello everyone. I apologize for not posting in awhile but things have been crazy so I'll go ahead and cut to the chase.
Travel Break
Well, the plan for our week long travel break was originally to go to the Valley of Flowers but there was a little problem with that. The monsoons had been sooo bad up in the north that buses and cars were sliding off the cliffs and plunging like 3,000ft down. So yea, that was a no go. The next suggestion on the list was Rajasthan aka the Land of the Kings and indeed it was.
When you think of deserts in India, Rajasthan is the place that comes to mind. It's very hot and dry, but incredibly beautiful in its own way. So the game plan was to go from Lucknow to Delhi to Jaipur (pick up two friends from the CLS Hindi program) to Mt. Abu to Jodhpur to Lucknow. Yes, we essentially made this HUGE triangle across the country but it was totally worth it.
The first leg of the journey was by train from Lucknow to Delhi. If you didn't know, India has the LARGEST rail system in the world. People travel by train here like we do by car in the States. The hardest part about traveling in India is that you have to get your plans together early. Tickets usually sell out 2 weeks prior to your travel date, and you really want confirmed tickets. There is a way of traveling on the train without a confirmed seat but it's not the most enjoyable. So our first leg consisted of us traveling in the Sleeper Car aka a very cheap ticket because that was all they had left. This was an overnight train to Delhi so the benches in the sleeper car folded down to make three bunks per side. The only misconception I had was that this car had AC.... it didn't. It really wasn't that bad though. During the day time it was a little warm until the train got up to full speed. Once that happened, there was a lot of circulation throughout the train car. This was one of those train cars where people without confirmed tickets generally cram in and find a seat somewhere. The little area we were sitting in was designed for 6 people and we generally had 6-8 at all times. When the sun went down and it was time to sleep on your bunk, that's when all the interesting things happened.
In this rail car, it is definitely not safe at all to leave your stuff unattended. Especially at night when you are sleeping. I had my big camping backpack with me (the only bag I brought for the week) and had to figure out a way to sleep with it in the middle rack. It was by far the worst spooning session of my life. My problem was minor compared to another counterpart on our trip that had to sleep with another person in her bed!!
In the weeks leading up to this trip, I was booking all the tickets on my card and people were joining our group and leaving our group constantly. This resulted in me not being able to get everyone in our party together in the same seating section. When my friend Tabby told me that she wanted to come with us, the best thing I could do for her was to put her in the all female section. Well, some older women came to that section and took all the bottom and middle bunks. They probably hadn't paid for the tickets but you can't be disrespectful to them. So all the younger girls were pushed to the top two bunks, thus Tabby ended up sharing her bed with another girl for part of the night. I'm kind of glad I had such a big bag with me (even if it was the size of a small person) because no one was going to be able to fit in that bed with me and my bag.
We make it to Delhi and successfully make it to the other tiny station in Delhi to catch our train for Jaipur. Lets just say this train was like night and day. We were in the 3AC class which is the same as sleeper except with AC and it was soo nice. It's cut off from the other cars (ie the sleeper cars) so you don't have as many "lost" people walking around looking for seats. You also don't have to deal with beggars that populate the lower class cars. Anyway, the ride to Jaipur was uneventful and everything is wonderful.
After getting a wonderful nights sleep, we meet up with our friends Rhea and Rachel that are studying Hindi in Jaipur. We do some sight seeing in the morning, Jaipur is known as the Pink City because of all the pretty sandstone used, and met them at their institute for lunch. It was very nice to see all the counterparts we became friends with in DC and Delhi but hadn't seen since we went our separate paths. That evening we get a nice meal and catch our overnight bus to Mt. Abu.
Let me go ahead and say that buses are not fun at all. I've never been able to sleep on a bus, and this remained true here in India. There were so many bumps and things in the road that the constant up and down motion just keeps you awake. I even took a Tylenol PM and it didn't do a thing. I probably should have taken two pills to really knock myself out, but I know now for next time. Regardless, all my grumbling went away once we approached the base of Mt. Abu.
Mt. Abu is one of those special places that I will remember vividly for all of my life. Imagine in the middle of desert a mountainous plateau with rich green foliage, tall trees, and India's largest man made lake on top. The ascent in the bus was mesmerizing. I seriously could not figure out if I was in Jurasic Park, Narnia, or Pandora. It looked and felt like something out of a movie. It was the best decision of the entire trip to spend 3 full days in Mt. Abu so we could truly explore the place.
It's 745am when we arrive and we begin our hunt for a hotel. In these remote locations, hotels are not advertised on the internet so you just have to find them when you arrive. Rachel had a suggestion written down from the Lonely Planet book (a wonderful book about places to see, places to stay, where to eat, etc) and the recommendation was right on. We found a simple hotel that was dirt cheap. The room for Kevin and I was 400 rupees a night. That's $8.90 a night. Oh yea, divide that by two to get the price per person. Besides the cheap prices for the hotel, it's location was superb, right in the middle of the town. It also had a wonderful little restaurant that served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and had the BEST tour guide ever.
Our tour guide's name was Ashok, and lets just say that Kevin and I will never forget him. The first day we get there, we did his free sunset tour that he leads every evening. Kevin and I did some exploring of the mountains earlier that day and thought we knew where Ashok was going to take us. We were totally wrong.
This hike which was a lot more physically strenuous than I thought it would be, was awesome. While the clouds did not work in our favor to observe the sunset, the view was incredible from the ledge we were sitting on. We could see all of the town, the lake, and even where the mountains drop off of the plateau and back down the plains.
The next day we hired Ashok to take us on a half day hike all in the mountains. It was without a doubt the best part of the entire trip. We climbed all the local peaks, went caving in 3 caves, and visited 4 temples. It was seriously mind blowing. Ashok has been exploring these mountains and caves since he was 8 and he was in his late 20's. On top of teaching us about the land surrounding Mt Abu, Ashok also taught Kevin and I about local delicacies and Indian life lessons. Unfortunately, none of it is information appropriate to share on the internet. Sorry folks.
After the exhausting hike, we take a nap in the afternoon during the warm time of the day and prepare for an evening walking around the town. The climate in Mt Abu was incredible. In the early morning it was actually very cool as the mists/clouds rolled through the town. We were all so relieved to be away from the heat!! That evening we walked around, stopping in a lot of the local shops to see what they had to offer, and enjoyed some wonderful soft serve ice cream. It's funny but I normally don't eat too many sweets when I am at school. Every now and then I may crave something, but here, I've been a wreck. Whenever we go out, all I want is ICE CREAM!! It sucks that it's dirt cheap here too! Something that would be $3-4 is just less than $1 here. How can you say no to that? Haha. I haven't. Every time Kevin and I go to the mall in Lucknow, we always stop at McDonalds and get an ice cream since it is so wonderful and cheap. It also didn't help that there were just as many ice cream shops along the main strip as there were stores.
The next day, we decide to be a little adventurous. We had seen the mountains as the sun was setting so we decided to see the sunrise from the mountain top. We woke up at 430am with flashlights and headlamps in hand and set off for the far side of the lake to a local peak Kevin and I knew about. We get to the top by 530 and plop down to listen to the world wake up. There was a better spot that we wanted to go to but it was too dark to get there so we had to wait until the beginning of the first lights. Sitting in our first spot was incredible though. One of my all time favorite things in life is listening to the world wake up. It truly is a symphony as the sun gets closer to coming over the horizon. The first thing we had that morning were the trees gently swaying in the wind and the constant dripping sound of mist condensing on the foliage. Next came the crickets and other insects. Then the birds, the other animals, and then the humans. It was amazing how you could identify the beginning of each part. Especially when the crickets begin because it's COMPLETELY silent and then
instantly they all start at the same time. I swear it was like the conductor stood up and they all started at once.
As the first light started to come over the horizon, we moved to the higher peak just a few hundred meters away from where we were. This spot was awesome because we were in between two valleys and could see the mist rolling in on both sides. As more and more light began to shine into the valley with the lake, it was awesome to see the town appear and then disappear with the thick shroud of mist.
What a wonderful way to start the day. It was very refreshing to be up there so early. The rest of the day was very interesting. We had discovered while we were there that Mt. Abu is the honeymoon spot in India. It's off the regular tourist path so we were like the ONLY white people there which was awesome for the most part. It was unbelievable how many people asked me to get in a photo with them. That afternoon we took a taxi up to the highest mountain peak in all of Rajasthan (all of Southwest India) and that was awesome. Even though dark storm clouds loomed over us the entire time, the view was awesome. Prior to reaching the peak, we had a first hand taste of a traffic accident in India.
As you can imagine, the roads are small in India, especially going up the mountain and they aren't always the most maintained. Well, there were two guys on a motorcycle and they came around a corner too fast. The driver lost control of the bike and laid it down its side. This was a Godsend for these two gents. The sand/gravel pulled them away from the bike as it was sliding on its side just as we were coming around the corner. I was in the process of taking a picture as our jeep impacted with the motorcycle which was ridiculously scary because everything was happening in my peripheral vision. There was a very loud BANG/CRUNCH and then the screech of our jeep's brakes. The jeeps that they use for taxis here are seriously built like tanks. The metal bumper on the front didn't even have a dent. The bike though... demolished into individual pieces. The driver and passenger were lucky that they were about 12-15 feet from where our jeep impacted with the bike. The next couple of moments happened in a blur of action but exactly how it should have. As our jeep skidded to a stop and I quickly assessed that no one was hurt in our jeep, I was jumping out the back, going to these guys that I had thought were still on the bike as it impacted with us. It's amazing how all those instincts you learn in medical training never leave you. I had seen and worked in a situation very similar to this where a woman riding across a street at the beach got hit by a car, but it wasn't a head on collision like this was and it wasn't at nearly the same speeds. As I rounded the corner of the jeep and saw these two guys like 15 feet away from our jeep, I was very very relieved. They were able to get to their feet which was a good sign. They had lacerations on their heads and all over (neither were wearing a helmet) but were stable. About as quickly as I had jumped out of the jeep and surveyed the situation, a lot of cars began to stop all around us. The driver pulled me back to the jeep very quickly and we hastily drove away. I was very very confused about this and later asked the hotel owner why we did this once we got back. As we drove away though, I had that familiar adrenaline rush/ heart pounding that I got every time we had a real medical call. I missed it. I missed the unknown nature of going on a med call and not knowing what we were getting into it. It was that rare chance to make a significant difference in someone's life and allow them live another day that I lived for.
When we returned to the hotel I asked the owner about the driver quickly hustling me back into the jeep and to my surprise, his answer was this; if we were the ones at fault and killed one of them, we quite possibly could have been killed by the crowd that accumulated around the accident. I was like, "WHATTT!!!!!!" I was prepared to save lives, not defend my own. It was seriously one of the most interesting things I had ever heard but this is a place where stuff like that happens. When you are that far out in the countryside, laws made by lawmaking bodies don't really apply.
While I probably just made that car/motorcycle wreck seem like a huge deal, it didn't really put too much of a damper on the rest of our day. We went out and had a wonderful last dinner and Mount Abu and prepared to say goodbye as we headed out to Jodphur the next day.
We successfully caught the bus that took us down the mountain to the train station and then caught the train to take us to Jodphur. We arrive in Jodphur that afternoon and are greeted with very bleak and dark skies. We were only staying in Jodphur for the night and were leaving the next morning early for Lucknow. After we found another lovely hotel, we started to venture out to see some of the city when the skies opened up. Supposedly, that was the first rains they had received all summer and let me tell you, it rained. It rained and rained and rained. All afternoon and all night. We were in this restaurant while it was raining, which we thought was a good idea since we were out of the rain, but it took forever for them to get us our food. We probably spent 3 hours sitting there, waiting for our food, and talking in the candlelight. It was a great way to spend the evening though, just relaxing since we would have a long day of travel back to Lucknow. The train ride was listed as 17 hours, but trains in India are always late or take longer than they are listed.
The greatest thing about our return trip was that we were able to upgrade and get seats in 3AC. The 17 hour trip in the Sleeper Car would not have been fun. The return journey went without a hitch and we arrived to Lucknow at 4am. I waited till 6am in the train station reading a magazine and then got a rickshaw to my auntie's place.
Without question, this was the MOST successful trip I have ever planned/ executed. Nothing went wrong. We never had to rush to catch a train or a bus. We never felt worried or unnerved about finding a hotel room. It was absolutely perfect. I think it's because it was vacation. We knew we had to be back by Sunday (one week from when we departed) and everything that happened in between were just minor details.
Travel Break
Well, the plan for our week long travel break was originally to go to the Valley of Flowers but there was a little problem with that. The monsoons had been sooo bad up in the north that buses and cars were sliding off the cliffs and plunging like 3,000ft down. So yea, that was a no go. The next suggestion on the list was Rajasthan aka the Land of the Kings and indeed it was.
When you think of deserts in India, Rajasthan is the place that comes to mind. It's very hot and dry, but incredibly beautiful in its own way. So the game plan was to go from Lucknow to Delhi to Jaipur (pick up two friends from the CLS Hindi program) to Mt. Abu to Jodhpur to Lucknow. Yes, we essentially made this HUGE triangle across the country but it was totally worth it.
The first leg of the journey was by train from Lucknow to Delhi. If you didn't know, India has the LARGEST rail system in the world. People travel by train here like we do by car in the States. The hardest part about traveling in India is that you have to get your plans together early. Tickets usually sell out 2 weeks prior to your travel date, and you really want confirmed tickets. There is a way of traveling on the train without a confirmed seat but it's not the most enjoyable. So our first leg consisted of us traveling in the Sleeper Car aka a very cheap ticket because that was all they had left. This was an overnight train to Delhi so the benches in the sleeper car folded down to make three bunks per side. The only misconception I had was that this car had AC.... it didn't. It really wasn't that bad though. During the day time it was a little warm until the train got up to full speed. Once that happened, there was a lot of circulation throughout the train car. This was one of those train cars where people without confirmed tickets generally cram in and find a seat somewhere. The little area we were sitting in was designed for 6 people and we generally had 6-8 at all times. When the sun went down and it was time to sleep on your bunk, that's when all the interesting things happened.
In this rail car, it is definitely not safe at all to leave your stuff unattended. Especially at night when you are sleeping. I had my big camping backpack with me (the only bag I brought for the week) and had to figure out a way to sleep with it in the middle rack. It was by far the worst spooning session of my life. My problem was minor compared to another counterpart on our trip that had to sleep with another person in her bed!!
In the weeks leading up to this trip, I was booking all the tickets on my card and people were joining our group and leaving our group constantly. This resulted in me not being able to get everyone in our party together in the same seating section. When my friend Tabby told me that she wanted to come with us, the best thing I could do for her was to put her in the all female section. Well, some older women came to that section and took all the bottom and middle bunks. They probably hadn't paid for the tickets but you can't be disrespectful to them. So all the younger girls were pushed to the top two bunks, thus Tabby ended up sharing her bed with another girl for part of the night. I'm kind of glad I had such a big bag with me (even if it was the size of a small person) because no one was going to be able to fit in that bed with me and my bag.
We make it to Delhi and successfully make it to the other tiny station in Delhi to catch our train for Jaipur. Lets just say this train was like night and day. We were in the 3AC class which is the same as sleeper except with AC and it was soo nice. It's cut off from the other cars (ie the sleeper cars) so you don't have as many "lost" people walking around looking for seats. You also don't have to deal with beggars that populate the lower class cars. Anyway, the ride to Jaipur was uneventful and everything is wonderful.
After getting a wonderful nights sleep, we meet up with our friends Rhea and Rachel that are studying Hindi in Jaipur. We do some sight seeing in the morning, Jaipur is known as the Pink City because of all the pretty sandstone used, and met them at their institute for lunch. It was very nice to see all the counterparts we became friends with in DC and Delhi but hadn't seen since we went our separate paths. That evening we get a nice meal and catch our overnight bus to Mt. Abu.
Let me go ahead and say that buses are not fun at all. I've never been able to sleep on a bus, and this remained true here in India. There were so many bumps and things in the road that the constant up and down motion just keeps you awake. I even took a Tylenol PM and it didn't do a thing. I probably should have taken two pills to really knock myself out, but I know now for next time. Regardless, all my grumbling went away once we approached the base of Mt. Abu.
Mt. Abu is one of those special places that I will remember vividly for all of my life. Imagine in the middle of desert a mountainous plateau with rich green foliage, tall trees, and India's largest man made lake on top. The ascent in the bus was mesmerizing. I seriously could not figure out if I was in Jurasic Park, Narnia, or Pandora. It looked and felt like something out of a movie. It was the best decision of the entire trip to spend 3 full days in Mt. Abu so we could truly explore the place.
It's 745am when we arrive and we begin our hunt for a hotel. In these remote locations, hotels are not advertised on the internet so you just have to find them when you arrive. Rachel had a suggestion written down from the Lonely Planet book (a wonderful book about places to see, places to stay, where to eat, etc) and the recommendation was right on. We found a simple hotel that was dirt cheap. The room for Kevin and I was 400 rupees a night. That's $8.90 a night. Oh yea, divide that by two to get the price per person. Besides the cheap prices for the hotel, it's location was superb, right in the middle of the town. It also had a wonderful little restaurant that served breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and had the BEST tour guide ever.
Our tour guide's name was Ashok, and lets just say that Kevin and I will never forget him. The first day we get there, we did his free sunset tour that he leads every evening. Kevin and I did some exploring of the mountains earlier that day and thought we knew where Ashok was going to take us. We were totally wrong.
This hike which was a lot more physically strenuous than I thought it would be, was awesome. While the clouds did not work in our favor to observe the sunset, the view was incredible from the ledge we were sitting on. We could see all of the town, the lake, and even where the mountains drop off of the plateau and back down the plains.
The next day we hired Ashok to take us on a half day hike all in the mountains. It was without a doubt the best part of the entire trip. We climbed all the local peaks, went caving in 3 caves, and visited 4 temples. It was seriously mind blowing. Ashok has been exploring these mountains and caves since he was 8 and he was in his late 20's. On top of teaching us about the land surrounding Mt Abu, Ashok also taught Kevin and I about local delicacies and Indian life lessons. Unfortunately, none of it is information appropriate to share on the internet. Sorry folks.
After the exhausting hike, we take a nap in the afternoon during the warm time of the day and prepare for an evening walking around the town. The climate in Mt Abu was incredible. In the early morning it was actually very cool as the mists/clouds rolled through the town. We were all so relieved to be away from the heat!! That evening we walked around, stopping in a lot of the local shops to see what they had to offer, and enjoyed some wonderful soft serve ice cream. It's funny but I normally don't eat too many sweets when I am at school. Every now and then I may crave something, but here, I've been a wreck. Whenever we go out, all I want is ICE CREAM!! It sucks that it's dirt cheap here too! Something that would be $3-4 is just less than $1 here. How can you say no to that? Haha. I haven't. Every time Kevin and I go to the mall in Lucknow, we always stop at McDonalds and get an ice cream since it is so wonderful and cheap. It also didn't help that there were just as many ice cream shops along the main strip as there were stores.
The next day, we decide to be a little adventurous. We had seen the mountains as the sun was setting so we decided to see the sunrise from the mountain top. We woke up at 430am with flashlights and headlamps in hand and set off for the far side of the lake to a local peak Kevin and I knew about. We get to the top by 530 and plop down to listen to the world wake up. There was a better spot that we wanted to go to but it was too dark to get there so we had to wait until the beginning of the first lights. Sitting in our first spot was incredible though. One of my all time favorite things in life is listening to the world wake up. It truly is a symphony as the sun gets closer to coming over the horizon. The first thing we had that morning were the trees gently swaying in the wind and the constant dripping sound of mist condensing on the foliage. Next came the crickets and other insects. Then the birds, the other animals, and then the humans. It was amazing how you could identify the beginning of each part. Especially when the crickets begin because it's COMPLETELY silent and then
instantly they all start at the same time. I swear it was like the conductor stood up and they all started at once.
As the first light started to come over the horizon, we moved to the higher peak just a few hundred meters away from where we were. This spot was awesome because we were in between two valleys and could see the mist rolling in on both sides. As more and more light began to shine into the valley with the lake, it was awesome to see the town appear and then disappear with the thick shroud of mist.
What a wonderful way to start the day. It was very refreshing to be up there so early. The rest of the day was very interesting. We had discovered while we were there that Mt. Abu is the honeymoon spot in India. It's off the regular tourist path so we were like the ONLY white people there which was awesome for the most part. It was unbelievable how many people asked me to get in a photo with them. That afternoon we took a taxi up to the highest mountain peak in all of Rajasthan (all of Southwest India) and that was awesome. Even though dark storm clouds loomed over us the entire time, the view was awesome. Prior to reaching the peak, we had a first hand taste of a traffic accident in India.
As you can imagine, the roads are small in India, especially going up the mountain and they aren't always the most maintained. Well, there were two guys on a motorcycle and they came around a corner too fast. The driver lost control of the bike and laid it down its side. This was a Godsend for these two gents. The sand/gravel pulled them away from the bike as it was sliding on its side just as we were coming around the corner. I was in the process of taking a picture as our jeep impacted with the motorcycle which was ridiculously scary because everything was happening in my peripheral vision. There was a very loud BANG/CRUNCH and then the screech of our jeep's brakes. The jeeps that they use for taxis here are seriously built like tanks. The metal bumper on the front didn't even have a dent. The bike though... demolished into individual pieces. The driver and passenger were lucky that they were about 12-15 feet from where our jeep impacted with the bike. The next couple of moments happened in a blur of action but exactly how it should have. As our jeep skidded to a stop and I quickly assessed that no one was hurt in our jeep, I was jumping out the back, going to these guys that I had thought were still on the bike as it impacted with us. It's amazing how all those instincts you learn in medical training never leave you. I had seen and worked in a situation very similar to this where a woman riding across a street at the beach got hit by a car, but it wasn't a head on collision like this was and it wasn't at nearly the same speeds. As I rounded the corner of the jeep and saw these two guys like 15 feet away from our jeep, I was very very relieved. They were able to get to their feet which was a good sign. They had lacerations on their heads and all over (neither were wearing a helmet) but were stable. About as quickly as I had jumped out of the jeep and surveyed the situation, a lot of cars began to stop all around us. The driver pulled me back to the jeep very quickly and we hastily drove away. I was very very confused about this and later asked the hotel owner why we did this once we got back. As we drove away though, I had that familiar adrenaline rush/ heart pounding that I got every time we had a real medical call. I missed it. I missed the unknown nature of going on a med call and not knowing what we were getting into it. It was that rare chance to make a significant difference in someone's life and allow them live another day that I lived for.
When we returned to the hotel I asked the owner about the driver quickly hustling me back into the jeep and to my surprise, his answer was this; if we were the ones at fault and killed one of them, we quite possibly could have been killed by the crowd that accumulated around the accident. I was like, "WHATTT!!!!!!" I was prepared to save lives, not defend my own. It was seriously one of the most interesting things I had ever heard but this is a place where stuff like that happens. When you are that far out in the countryside, laws made by lawmaking bodies don't really apply.
While I probably just made that car/motorcycle wreck seem like a huge deal, it didn't really put too much of a damper on the rest of our day. We went out and had a wonderful last dinner and Mount Abu and prepared to say goodbye as we headed out to Jodphur the next day.
We successfully caught the bus that took us down the mountain to the train station and then caught the train to take us to Jodphur. We arrive in Jodphur that afternoon and are greeted with very bleak and dark skies. We were only staying in Jodphur for the night and were leaving the next morning early for Lucknow. After we found another lovely hotel, we started to venture out to see some of the city when the skies opened up. Supposedly, that was the first rains they had received all summer and let me tell you, it rained. It rained and rained and rained. All afternoon and all night. We were in this restaurant while it was raining, which we thought was a good idea since we were out of the rain, but it took forever for them to get us our food. We probably spent 3 hours sitting there, waiting for our food, and talking in the candlelight. It was a great way to spend the evening though, just relaxing since we would have a long day of travel back to Lucknow. The train ride was listed as 17 hours, but trains in India are always late or take longer than they are listed.
The greatest thing about our return trip was that we were able to upgrade and get seats in 3AC. The 17 hour trip in the Sleeper Car would not have been fun. The return journey went without a hitch and we arrived to Lucknow at 4am. I waited till 6am in the train station reading a magazine and then got a rickshaw to my auntie's place.
Without question, this was the MOST successful trip I have ever planned/ executed. Nothing went wrong. We never had to rush to catch a train or a bus. We never felt worried or unnerved about finding a hotel room. It was absolutely perfect. I think it's because it was vacation. We knew we had to be back by Sunday (one week from when we departed) and everything that happened in between were just minor details.
