Amritapuri

Last week was one of the most interesting and crazy weeks I’ve had in India so far. Our program had scheduled 5 days off of classes for independent travel. Me and two other girls from the U.S. Decided to go to Amritapuri, an ashram in southern Kerala. Amritapuri is the Hindu saint, Amma’s, ashram. She is known as the “hugging saint” among most westerners but she is actually a lot more than just that. You can read a ton about her and her “Embrace the World” charities here: www.amritapuri.org

So our journey started out with a train ride south from Mangalore in sleeper class (open air, non-AC). It was about a 11 hour trip and it actually wasn’t that bad on the way there. I think that’s because it was Diwali which is comparable to traveling on christmas eve in the U.S. I was pleased to actually get some sleep (it was an overnight train) on my lower bunk. We arrived in a small town called Kayankulam in Kerala at about 5:30 am. and managed to hail a rickshaw which took us the 30 minutes to the backwaters where the ashram is. There is no bridge that vehicles can cross over to get to the other side of the backwaters so we walked the rest of the way over a footbridge. They also have row boat type things that you can hail and they will take you across if you have a lot of luggage. Walking across the bridge was an amazing scene because the sun had just started to rise and at the top of the bridge you could look over the backwaters at all of fishermen starting their workday. Also, from the bridge the ashram is very visible. There are two tall pink dormitory buildings that rise above the palm trees. I guess they had to build taller buildings to be able to house the huge crowds of people that come when Amma is there.

The train station in Mangalore

Our berths on the way to Amritapuri (before a bunch more people came on the train).

We got into the ashram and we were able to get our rooms pretty easily (for Indian standards). Everyone was really nice and welcoming. Our room turned out to be in one of the best locations possible. We were on the 11th floor in a corner room. There was a balcony right outside the door which looked north over both the backwaters and the Arabian Sea. From up there you were able to see that the ashram is actually just on a tiny strip of land (like a sandbar) with the ocean to the west and the backwaters to the east. The room itself was pretty simple but clean. There were three mats on the floor which we slept on and a ceiling fan (no AC). For 4 dollars a night, including three meals a day, I’d say it was a great deal.

A view from the bridge of the backwaters at dawn

The view of the ashram from the footbridge. Our room was on the 11th floor of the tall building on the right.

A view of the kali temple at the ashram and the Arabian sea beyond it (not my picture).

Our basic daily routine at the ashram was:

4:30 am.- wake up
4:50-6:00 am.- archana (chanting and songs) in the temple
6:00 am.- Chai (included in the stay)
6:30-9:00 am.- personal meditation or reading
9:00 am.-breakfast
10:00-12:30 pm.- Seva (selfless service) at the composting center sorting through the compost and recycling
1:00 pm.- Lunch
2:00-4:00 pm. - More seva or personal meditation
4:00-5:30 pm.- Chai and reading/meditation
6:00-8:00 pm.- Bhajans (songs and chanting) in the temple
8:00 pm.- Dinner
9:30 pm.- Bed

I thought it was going to be really hard getting up at 4:30 am. every morning but it was actually pretty painless. During morning chanting in the temple I would start to get pretty tired because it was still dark out, but just as we were finishing up the sun started to rise  which definitely helped me wake up. I had never really meditated a lot before so it was definitely a learning experience for me to meditate for 2 or so hours at a time. A lot of people gave me some really great pointers and techniques for meditating though and near the end of my stay I felt like I came a long way. It also helped that I could choose from either meditating on the roof of the temple, our 11th floor balcony, the pool under the palm trees, or the beach.

Oh, I should also mention that Amma wasn’t actually there when we were there. She does her Europe tour for all of October and November and, unfortunately, that was the only time we had to visit. As a result, the ashram (we were told) was a lot quieter and less chaotic than usual. It was actually the first place I've been in India where I didn't hear car horns, traffic and whistles so I was pretty much in heaven.

I met a lot of really interesting people, many of which were living long-term at the ashram. Maybe about a little less than half of the devotees who live there are westerners so there is a really cool mix of people from different countries and people who speak different languages. I had tons of great late-night (until 10:00) conversations with the people who live there about spirituality, life, etc. Just to give you an example, I made an Indian friend who’s living there and who’s from punjab in norther India and lived in Brooklyn for a while, I met girl from Israel who was just passing through for about a month and traveling all throughout India to meet different gurus, I met a girl from Austria who is also traveling all around India, and a lady from Chicago who has been living at different ashrams and monasteries in different parts of the world for the majority of her life.

It was kind of bittersweet for me to leave and all the people we met were sad to see us go. Somehow I’m sure I’ll come back though.

Now, our return trip back to Manipal was quite the adventure to say the least. So on Sunday at about 10:00 am. we left the ashram to go to the Kayankulam train station. When I got on the train it dawned on me that this was probably the worst day and time to be on a sleeper class train. First of all, it was in the middle of the day which means that it’s extremely hot and you can’t lay down because everyone is piled on the bottom berth and so you can’t pull out the beds. Second of all, it was the end of Diwali, which is a huge Indian holiday and everyone was traveling home so they could get to work by Monday morning. So here it goes:

Chapter 1: Confusion and lap-sitting.

I walked to find my “seat” number and came to find that there were five people all squeezed into the berth where me and two other people were supposed to sit (Each berth has 3 people assigned to it and once it’s night time you can pull out the middle and top bunk so that each person gets their own bed to sleep on). I didn’t even feel like trying to argue with the people sitting there about my seat since there really was nowhere else for them to relocate to seeing as people were even standing up in the isles. So I decided to sit next to my friend on her berth where there are supposed to be two people assigned to it. It was fine for about 20 minutes until a lady and her baby got on and proceeded to basically sit on my lap with her baby instead of asking me if she could sit there or if there would be room for her. I presumed that meant that she wanted me to squeeze next to my friend so she and her kid could take up the other half of the berth only meant for two people. So I learned that apparently, even though mostly everyone had tickets and seats assigned to them, no one sits in their seats and there are way more people than seats available. Also, sitting or laying on one of the top bunks would have been an option had everyone not stuffed their entire family’s luggage onto all of the top bunks.

Chapter 2: Laying on bags

After the lady and her kid squeezed next to me even more people got on the train who didn’t have anywhere to sit. I spotted an upper bunk (where I think my actual assigned bed was supposed to be but one can never be sure) with some people’s bags on it but I figured if I just went up there and sort of sprawled out on their bags, no one else could come up there and squeeze in. The plan actually worked, for a while, until the train stopped for much longer than usual and the smell of sewage and completely stagnant air started to overwhelm me and I desperately needed some air. Keep in mind that there was no AC and no windows near the top bunk. I asked my other friend who was sitting near the window if she wanted to switch with me for a little bit so I could get some air.

Chapter 3: Upright fetal position

It was definitely nice to get some air and a slight breeze by the window but my gratitude soon disappeared when some more people got on the train and decided to sit in the “extra space” next to me and two other guys. Before I knew it there were four guys sitting next to me on a berth that is only made for two people to sit on. In order to accommodate everyone I had to curl myself up in a sort of upright fetal position with my bag sitting on top of my knees and in front of my face. I sat in this same position for 6 straight hours without hardly moving at all because there were people standing in the skinny aisle so there wasn’t even room for me to put my legs down. On the upside, I got in some pretty great people watching.

Chapter 4: The flood comes

Sometime after about 6 hours it started to rain outside. The train windows have some glass that you can pull down if it starts to rain however, none of the glass really pulls down all of the way. I was sitting with my back pressed against the window while rain literally poured inside, completely soaking my shirt and the entire berth. At one point I looked down at the aisle and realized it was flooding. There was a stream of water creeping all the way up the aisle and people started shouting at each other to grab their bags off the ground, underneath the seats and put them on their laps. It was quite the chaotic scene.
Chapter 5: Sitting in curry

So after about 11 hours, with about 2 hours still left, the people sitting next to my friend got off the train and I decided to go sit next to her so that I could sit in a different position from the one I had been sitting in for the last 7 or so hours. As soon as I sat down It felt like I had sat on something wet and I figured it was just rain, but when I looked I realized that I had sat in a bowl of curry. Apparently it wasn’t even my friend’s food it was probably just left there by the last person. For the rest of the trip I had a giant yellow spot on the butt of my pants.

Chapter 6: Wrong stop

At about midnight the train arrived in Mangalore which is actually where our tickets said we were getting off but once we found out the train went all the way to Udupi (only about 3 miles from Manipal) we decided to stay on for the extra hour and a half and get off in Udupi. When the train started to slow down after it had already stopped in Mangalore people kept telling us that Udupi was the next stop so we stood near the door and got off when the train stopped. After walking for maybe 100 ft. I saw a huge sign that said “Surakhtal”. I asked my friend if she was sure that we were in Udupi and she said that she was pretty sure we were. I then remembered hearing about Surakhtal before so I asked one of the workers at the stop if we were in Udupi or not and he said no. He pointed to the train which was still stopped and shouted “go go!”. So we ran back to the train and climbed into the first car we could. It immediately started moving so we were lucky. We had nowhere to sit so we just stood at the doorway for the rest of the way to Udupi which actually took a lot longer than it should have because the train kept stopping in the middle of the tracks. We finally arrived in Udupi at around 1:30 am. For the following 24 hours in Manipal I felt like I was still in a moving train and I experienced some of the worst back and body pain I’ve ever had. I also realized that I was completely covered in dirt, train floodwater and curry when I got back to my room. Thank god for fabric whitener.

So that’s the end of my story. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. I now realize why my round-trip 13 hour sleeper class train ticket cost just 10 dollars. Thank you Indian Railways.

I now have a 10 page paper to go write!
Hopefully I’ll have time to post again next week. If not, I’m going to Gokarna (a beach) next weekend so I’ll definitely do an update on that.

-Mia

Travel Week!

vidhana soudha

Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore

Hello all!
I am finally back to writing again. (And I got my internet back up!). I did get back from traveling about a week ago but as soon as I returned to Manipal I was inundated with assignments and papers. Basically I had double the work but half the drive to do it due to the crazy whirlwind of travel week.

So I will attempt to cover the highlights of our trip but I doubt I will think of everything. We covered about five places in southern India in just ten days. The group I was with consisted of eight study abroad students from the U.S and our program coordinator.

It started off with a late night flight from Mangalore to Bangalore (the capitol city of Karnataka state). The two hour drive from Manipal to the Mangalore airport was especially rough for me. I have a tendency to get motion sickness in most moving vehicles and the driver of our van was pretty aggressive while driving down some really windy roads. I bet you can guess what happened. I got sick! When we finally arrived at the airport I remembered that I had bought some motion sickness pills from the Manipal Drug House (the pharmacy) so I took one as per the pharmacist’s directions. Of course, the pill turned out to be VERY strong and I passed out as soon as I sat down in the airplane. The next part of the night is kind of a big blur, but I remember getting in another small bus once we arrived in Bangalore. Someone woke me up at one point and said we were getting out to eat dinner at some restaurant (at around midnight). When we got inside the restaurant the waiter told us it was actually closed but he was nice enough to let us sit down and eat some rice and noodles which was all they had left. I hardly remember eating as I was in a state of delirium and practically falling asleep at the table. Anyway, we did eventually end up at our first hotel in Bangalore and a bed never felt so good in my life.

The next day we visited the Vidhana Soudha which is kind of similar to a state capitol building. It’s a huge, imposing building that houses Karnataka’s state legislature. We got a tour of the inside which was very interesting and much different than the capitol buildings which you would see in the U.S. One of the most interesting things about it is that the record keeping system has not changed since the time of independence. Records are all kept on paper and they are stacked and tied with string, piled up in rooms from the floor to the ceiling. For the rest of the day we got a chance to shop around the city for a bit and we also went to meet a member of Karnataka’s congress party. We had a little chat with him over some chai and biscuits about what his job is like and how he perceives the whole anti-corruption movement and such. I actually found out that he did his masters degree at American University which was such a coincidence since me and another one of the students in the group both go to AU also.

Bangalore

Lalbagh botanical gardens in Bangalore

That night we had dinner on the balcony of a fancy restaurant on the 13th floor of a building in downtown Bangalore and we stayed the night at the Bangalore Club. The next day we tooled around the city a bit more and took a walk around the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens which was a nice and peaceful retreat from the traffic and chaos of the city. After a lot of shopping we boarded the nine hour night train to Hampi. The train was pretty uneventful because a little bit after it started moving I got in my bed and went to sleep. Surprisingly, I slept really well. Actually, almost too well because about 30 seconds before it stopped in Hampi I got woken up and pretty much had to grab my stuff and run off of the train, all without my contacts in.

The group at the gardens

My upper bunk bed on the overnight train

Hampi ruins

Hampi was amazing. The landscape there makes you feel like you’re in some sort of fantasy land. There are giant boulders strewn about everywhere amid remnants of the 14th century Vijayanagar empire. It was the most powerful empire in south India during that time period. After getting to our hotel, our driver took us around Hampi and we stopped at several of the ruins to walk around. We also had a tour guide which was really helpful otherwise you don’t know what you’re looking at. The architecture was incredible and you could tell how advanced the empire must have been for it’s time. We went inside the main temple in Hampi which is actually from the Vijayanagara empire and is the only temple from the empire still in use today. We couldn’t take pictures inside, but the temple complex was much bigger than most of the other temples I’ve been to. It sort of felt like stepping back in time. Also, along the main bazaar road in Hampi which branches off from the main temple, are rows of stone houses and shops which were part of the empire and which are still being used today by families and businesses.

The main Hampi temple still in use

Hampi

Hampi

Houses in Hampi

Hampi

Riding bikes around Hampi

The next day we rented bikes and rode around Hampi to see some of the sites that we didn’t get to the day before. Despite my brakes not working on my bike, I loved being able to finally ride a bike in India. I think it’s actually a lot easier to ride bikes on many of the roads than it is in a car. While we were riding along we stopped to watch a procession consisting of many of the villagers and an elephant. I was told it’s an annual hindu procession called durga pooja. There were a bunch of women carrying jugs on their heads and men playing drums. At one point a women with a jug on her head started screaming and all the others in the procession rushed toward her and had to hold her up. It was quite startling, but I learned that it’s common for the women to be overtaken with emotion during this holiday. It was very interesting to watch.

The Durga Pooja procession in Hampi

My thali at the Mango Tree Restaurant

In Hampi there is this amazing restaurant called the Mango Tree. You have to walk a down a little path through a banana plantation and the restaurant is outside on the top of a hill. You sit on mats on the floor outside which is basically a terraced hill and the view is gorgeous. I had a mango lassi and a thali served on a banana leaf. When we were done eating we just sat back and took a little nap. It was definitely the best lunch place I’v been to so far in terms of atmosphere.

We took a night train again to Bangalore but just to stop over. In Bangalore we met our driver again who drove us about 4 hours to Mysore. Mysore was whirring with excitement, not to mention traffic, when we got there. The annual hindu festival, Dasara,  was being celebrated. Dasara is supposed to be about the battle between good and evil. Every year people from all over come to Mysore to see the Mysore Palace all lit up at night and then to attend the popular Dasara procession the next morning in front of the palace. Apparently the population of Mysore more than doubles during this festival.

Chamundi temple and the sea of people at Chamundi hill

Scary and pesty monkeys kept stealing bananas. This one stole 2.

That afternoon we went to the top of Chamundi Hill which is a very sacred place for Hindus. The top of the hill overlooks the city of Mysore and it also is home to the Chamundi Temple. The entire hill was completely full of people going to see the famous temple and receive darshan. Trying to enter the temple and receive darshan was quite the feat. We had to push our way into the line leading into the temple and wait for a while among persistent monkeys who kept stealing bananas from people. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people be so aggressive to get in to a temple; I was practically pushed up against the wall when I finally got inside. But I’d say it was a pretty good opportunity to see how religion plays such a huge role in India. It also reinforced fact that you should never expect any sort of personal space whatsoever.

Mysore palace

The crowds coming to see the Mysore Palace

At night our driver took us from our hotel to the Mysore Palace so we could walk around and see the palace all lit up. About two thirds of the way there and after 30 minutes of waiting in absolute stand-still traffic we realized we were never actually going to make it to the palace so we all got out and walked the rest of the way. It was still sort of treacherous walking to the palace because the motorcyclists started realizing that they could move faster if they drove on the sidewalks. Man, why did no one think of that before?! Maybe because a sidewalk is for walking. The palace was gorgeous at night and I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many lights in my life. It was awesome walking around the palace and just experiencing the energy of all the people there.

Dasara procession in Mysore

Mysore Palace in the day time

The next morning we got up to go to the palace again to watch the Dasara procession. There were thousands of people there and luckily we had gotten tickets ahead of time which also meant that we got to sit down. The procession almost reminded me of the Macy’s Day Parade or something because of the huge line of floats that paraded by but, of course, the floats all had something to do with India. I felt like the procession was more of a modern event that someone had created so they could charge people to get good seats and make a lot of money on a hindu holiday that already existed. There was really nothing religious about it. Again, a lot of people here were especially aggressive and pushy. For example, there was a lady behind us who kept standing up to see the procession better and the man behind her started to yell at her. It soon turned into a full blown yelling match and when the guy started waving the tip of his umbrella at her face we decided to leave.

We drove to The Kabini River Lodge that night with our trusty driver. It’s sort of an eco-resort in the middle of a big wildlife conservation area. What was supposed to be just a 4 hour journey from Mysore to Kabini turned out to be an 8 hour drive on the most treacherous roads I have experienced in India so far. The director who was traveling with us said she had been down the same road about 6 months ago and it was bad then, but she said it was much worse this time around. After the monsoons the roads get eroded and the holes that already exist get bigger and deeper. The only way I can really describe it is that it resembled a mogul course. I also wouldn’t consider the van we were in to be the best vehicle for the job. At one point we were driving through a small village and came across a large group of people who were celebrating dasara by parading through the streets and playing music. They also apparently had a tradition of lighting small fires in a line down the center of the narrow village road. As there was no other way to Kabini or through the village our driver proceeded to slowly drive over these fires while trying not to hit the people. I think everyone was pretty delirious at that time because it was pretty late at night. I somewhat glanced at the other people on the van and exchanged concerned looks while someone said “it probably isn’t safe to be driving over fire right now”. The driver didn’t look too concerned though and it was over soon enough.

The next morning everyone woke up early to go on a morning safari to hopefully be able to see some elephants and tigers. I, however, woke up and my eye was completely red and it felt like someone was continuously pouring soap over the back of my eyeball. I couldn’t see that well and was in so much pain that I decided to stay back at the lodge while the others went on the safari. It was disappointing but I don’t think I could have enjoyed it all that much. I ended up being taken to a small one room type clinic in the next village where a doctor who commuted everyday from Mysore worked. I got some pretty interesting stares while waiting for the doctor in the clinic because I’m pretty sure they don’t get too many foreigners coming to see the doctor there. It just turned out to be conjunctivitis and the doctor prescribed me some pain killers and eye drops. It was really pretty simple. Also, the bottle of eye drops only cost me about 6 cents and started working within an hour after I used them.

My wonderful hotel room in Ooty with a fireplace

The western ghats and me

After stopping at the pharmacy we were on our way to the hill station in the next state, Tamil Nadu. It’s called Ooty and was basically where all the Brits lived during the summer because it was too hot for them to stay near the coasts. Today it’s a beautiful little city on the top of the Western Ghats with some colonial remnants such as chocolate shops and bed and breakfasts. We stayed at a bed and breakfast called King’s Cliff which is on the outskirts of the city at the top of a hill. I think it was my favorite hotel we stayed in. There were little rooms for reading, each with a fireplace, comfy chairs and beanbags. There also was a multi-cuisine restaurant for dinner and breakfast was served outside in the garden in a small glass house. My room had a king sized bed and a fireplace. And yes, there was a need for the fireplace at night time because it got below freezing when the sun went down. I probably could have stayed there for at least a week doing nothing but laying in bed by the fireplace.

Nilgiri Hills

Tea plantations in the Nilgiri Hills

After a cozy night at the B&B we drove a little bit outside of Ooty to the Nilgiri hills which is basically a more rural area with a lot of tea plantations and small villages. Our first stop was the Kurumba tribal village. After getting out of the van it was about a 45 minute walk through the hills and tea plantations to get to the village. The Kurumbas are a tribe from that area who were originally forest dwellers and who knew how to survive on the forest. They have several villages scattered throughout that general area of the Western Ghats. It was a really different feeling walking into a village which is not reachable by car. It felt like we were so far from everything having to do with the city and pollution (even though we weren’t that far). When we first walked in to the village I was surprised at how friendly the people were and how quickly they welcomed us in to their village. It also struck me how clean the village was. There were only about 13 houses which they had built, the ground was simply made of dirt and there was no litter to be seen. We got a tour of the whole village in about 5 minutes. Our “tour guide” was a man who is a social anthropologist and who has been doing research on the tribal people in the Nilgiri Hills area for many years. He said he actually lived for a while with some of the tribes to conduct his research. It was great to have someone there who knew the local language.  He explained to us that that particular village 18 years ago had been located on the other side of the hill which is much harder to reach. When a lot of the people in the village started to get sick and had no way to reach any kind of medical services they decided to move their village to where it is now. Unfortunately they built their new village on a so-called forest conservation area so the government won’t allow them to connect their village to electricity. The only light they had set up was one solar powered lamp which was given to them by a local NGO. It is also unfortunate that all of the big tea plantations which use a lot of pesticides are encroaching around their village. The Kurumbas grow food by simply tossing seeds onto the earth because they believe that digging into the earth is harmful. The day that we happened to visit the village was the same day that a local NGO came to pass out a few more solar powered LED lights. Luckily for us, they had already planned on making a traditional lunch for the people with the NGO and invited us to stay and eat. We were told that it was the first time in a while that they had made this food because the government gives all scheduled tribes rations of rice. I think they find it easier to just eat the rice because of the pressures of modern times. The NGO who was there had been working with the tribe to try to get them to start growing all their own food again because there were many emerging health problems in the village due to eating just rice. Their traditional food is extremely healthy and filling as I experienced personally. After the lunch they showed us a traditional dance and told us we should all join in. So for about 20 minutes they got us dancing with them in one big group and they were all laughing at us because I doubt we were doing the steps right. I had a lot of fun there and they were actually sad to see us go. Some of the people followed us down the path a little bit as we were leaving and kept saying goodbye.

The Kurumba tribal village

A house in the tribal village.

A lady from the village who let us watch how she made a dish in her house

Traditional Kurumba meal prepared for us

The ladies from the village as we were saying goodbye

So I think I have done the trip justice in this post and I’m sorry it was so long! (I also need to go to bed).
This week I will be starting my classes in Hindi and Bollywood dancing which I have been looking forward to for the last two months. I am also leaving next Tuesday for Kerala so get ready for more crazy stories!

-Mia

Massages, Cobras, etc.

There were so many things that happened in the last week, so I'll just do a short summary of a few of the more memorable events.

Last Tuesday I was the brave volunteer for my ayurveda practical class. I received a treatment called udwarthana which is basically a full body dry herbal powder massage. It's supposed to improve your complexion and reduce fat cells. The ayurvedic texts say that if you get this massage once a day for seven days you will loose 1 to 2 kg. It was quite the experience. I had to take off all my clothes and put on a gown, then lay down on a wooden table with everyone surrounding and watching me receive the massage. The professor then said that he would be leaving because men are not supposed to be present when women are receiving the massage. I soon realized why. It was awkward enough having seven girls watching (one of which was our program director and Indian Studies professor who was taking pictures). After a few minutes though, I stopped caring because the massage felt so amazing. I don't think I lost any weight but I definitely slept well that night.

One of the pictures of me during the massage

Last weekend me and some friends went to Kaup beach. It's about a 35 minute bus ride from Manipal. We weren't really sure how to get there because we had only heard people talking about it before. When we got off the bus we asked a vendor where the beach was and he pointed us down a small village road. It was actually one of the more beautiful walks I've gone on in India. The road winded through fields of rice and palm trees with very brightly colored houses scattered around and friendly puppies and cows peacefully resting in the shade. After 20 minutes of walking we found the beach without much trouble. It was basically my ideal kind of day. We walked down the beach a little with our feet in the perfect water and lied on the sand, soaking up the sun for awhile. The only thing that wasn't so ideal was the group of fat white men in speedos playing in the waves. Other than that it was a pretty peaceful beach scene. Kaup is also famous for its lighthouse on the beach. I decided to climb up the tall spiral staircase and ladder to the top for 10 rupees. It was worth it. The view was amazing, even if I was standing on a 3 foot wide ledge with just a thin railing.

Kaup Lighthouse

View of Kaup from the top of the lighthouse

Kaup beach. Perfect day-no rain!

This weekend we visited a king cobra refuge at the top of the western ghats. It's one of the world's biodiversity hotspots as well as the wettest place in India. It's mainly a research station where they rescue and track king cobras. No, we didn't see any cobras, but we did learn how to track them using radio telemetry. We were told they are pretty secretive snakes and it is very rare that someone will see a cobra in the wild. It was an amazingly peaceful and beautiful area. It was great just to listen to the sounds of nature and not be surrounded by cars honking and trash everywhere. We did see a big black scorpion by a small river while we were there but our guide informed us that it wasn't as dangerous as the kind you would see in the desert and it wouldn't necessarily kill you which was semi comforting.

A field and the forest in the background at the Agumbe cobra refuge

The scorpion we found

A stream in the rainforest that we waded across

The monsoons seem to be over at last. We've had sunny and mostly cloudless skies for the last few days which is such a great change from the constant rain. I don't even have to carry my umbrella with me everywhere anymore.

Also, remember the picture of the puppies living in the gravel pile I posted a few weeks back? Well they disappeared for a while but then they reappeared for the first time last week. I was so glad to see they were alive. Their new home is a moldy furniture shed behind the hostel next to mine. Even though it is moldy with a bunch of falling apart furniture I think they are fairly safe there from the dangers of the streets. My friend and I have named them Felipe and Panchita and we say hi to them every time we walk past. They're growing up so quickly.

Felipe and Panchita outside of their moldy furniture shed

This Friday evening we leave for our one week trip around southern India, so I have a lot to do in the next few days to prepare for it. Our basic itinerary is Bangalore, Hampi, Mysore, Kabini River Lodge, Ooty and Nilgiri Tribal Village. I'm so excited to see more of India and get out of Manipal for a while. I'll be sure to post about it once I return.

-Mia

Illness in India

It's been such a long time since my last post!
I really did mean to do a post last weekend, but then I got sick and time just slipped away from me.

And yes, I did get sick. But no, it was fortunately not malaria.
It started last week amidst my public health readings about all of the communicable diseases such as TB, malaria, etc. I woke up with a horribly sore throat on Wednesday morning and it got worse throughout the day as my classes went on. On Thursday it was no better and I started to feel very achy so I decided not to go to my maternal and child health weekly field visit in the morning. After sleeping it off for the whole morning, I decided to give classes a try in the afternoon. By my last class I was in terrible shape. I felt like I had a fever and I was dizzy. I ended up going to bed at about 7 pm. but I woke up innumerable times during the night shivering and feeling very feverish. I suddenly started to come to the realization that I may have malaria. After all, about 300,000 world travelers per year get malaria (This is what all public health classes do to you). So I didn't go to my classes on Friday either and instead ventured alone into the fascinating world of Indian healthcare. (Actually, Manipal has a very well-known hospital right here on campus so it wasn't as dangerous as it sounds). I was vaguely told which entrance I should go in and which desk to go to first, so at least that part was semi-clear. So I get in the hospital, (keep in mind this is a huge hospital with tons of people coming in everyday from all different parts of the state) and go to the help desk. They tell me I have to first fill out a card with all my information on it and then go to the "registration desk" to give it to them. When I give a lady at the desk my info card and Indian insurance card she did not know what SAP (study abroad program) meant so she had to ask about 6 different workers if they knew and, after much confusion and many words lost in translation, she prints me a "ticket" which everyone apparently needs to get any kind of care. She tells me to go up one floor to room 17 and wait. Luckily, I found room 17 okay but the problem was that the room was padlocked. I waited outside for about 30 minutes and finally the door was opened only for me to realize that there was another waiting room inside room 17. After waiting in that room for another 45 minutes I went up to one of the desks to ask where I was on the patient list. They told me I wasn't on it yet because my file still had to be sent up to them from downstairs, and told me "it takes much time" so I waited a little more. After another 30 minutes I went up again to ask if they had my file. The lady looks at my ticket and says I have been waiting in the wrong place the whole time and points across the hall at room 15. So I go into room 15 and ask the lady there if they have my file and she says "it takes time" and then "I'll call your name when ready". After only 20 minutes of waiting this time ( I was getting impatient ) I went up to the same lady and asked her if she could just see if my file is there because I had already been waiting for about 2 hours total. After quickly running through the stack of papers and folders, she finds my file and gives me a slip of paper. She tells me to bring it to the "cash counter" to pay. So I have to walk down the hall and give them the paper and my insurance card and they stamp it. When I get back to the lady at the desk she tells me to get on this huge scale that's literally in the middle of the waiting room and weigh myself. After I get on she asks what my weight is from her place at the desk, at which point I basically yell to her my weight. I just think it's so interesting because in the U.S. there is this obsession with privacy and personal space whereas in India, there is no such notion.

Anyway, after recording my weight, the lady goes into one of the rooms and hands off my file. After 10 minutes when the lady realizes I'm still waiting, she takes my file out of that room and summons me to a different room to, yet again, wait near. Luckily, I only waited about 10 minutes before the doctor called me into his refreshingly air-conditioned office. He basically asked me what was wrong, listened to my heartbeat and breathing. He immediately (somehow) concluded that I had a bad sinus infection and told me that if the fever didn't go away in two days it was more or less safe to assume that I had malaria (and also to come back for blood tests if that were the case). He wrote me some prescriptions and sent me on my way. So after a total of maybe three hours of waiting in a crowded hospital while feeling very sick and dizzy and a two minute doctor visit it would not be an exaggeration to say that I was severely exhausted and semi confused about what had just happened.

Thankfully, I started to get much better after taking the antibiotics and my fever did go away which means that it was definitely NOT malaria! So exciting.

Somehow, in a severely medicated state, I was able to go on the small day trip that was planned for Saturday. We went to two small towns called Karkala and Moodabidri. They are both famous Jain pilgrimage sites. Karkala has a tall, 42 ft. statue of the Jain lord Bahubali. It is in a very serene setting on the top of a hill which overlooks the surrounding countryside and rivers. There is also a Jain temple in Karkala called chaturmukha basadi which we visited. In Moodabidri we went to the well-known Savirakambada Basadi, or thousand pillar Jain temple. The Basadi in Moodabidri had amazing, intricate carvings on the pillars and all throughout the temple. The guy at the basadi who was collecting donations and who gave us our tour turned out to be a very hard bargainer. Ginny, our resident director who went with us, pretty much got into a fight with him about the price of the tour and the price of taking pictures (she's been there for the same tour before). Classicaly, when he named a price about four times what it normally is, she told him a lower price but to no avail. As we were leaving the basadi Ginny told him, in Hindi, "we paid the foreigner price, right?", to which he responded with a smile on his face, "OK". 

Lord Bahubali statue in Karkala

Stonework on a pillar at the thousand pillar temple in Moodabidri

Me and an elephant in the front of the thousand pillar temple

I am currently in the process of planning a last-minute weekend trip to Kerala after finding out today that we have no scheduled activities this weekend. If it all works out, I'll be leaving tomorrow after our public health field visit!
I'll let you know what becomes of it. 

Here's a quote which was given to us by our professor in Ayurveda today. I thought it was kind of cute.

"Yesterday is history

tomorrow is a mystery

today is a gift

that's why they call it the 'present'"

-Mia  

Holiday Week

This week has been pretty laid back due to the two days of holiday we got in the middle of the week. Wednesday was eid-ul-fitr (end of Ramadan) and Thursday was Ganesh Chaturthi (a hindu holiday celebrating Ganesh). It was so nice to have two days of doing nothing especially since the assignments and readings have been picking up for all my classes. On Wednesday my American friends and I had a beauty day at the local beauty salon where I got my hair cut and a pedicure. The lady who was cutting my hair seemed very concerned and asked us why Americans don’t take good care of their hair but that may be due to the fact that the only two Americans who came into her salon to get a haircut hadn’t had a haircut in two years...oops. Anyway, I’d say it was a great use of my  day off.

On the second day of our midweek break I went to see a bollywood movie called Aarakshan in Mangalore with some of the other study abroad students. It was an interesting experience as the movie was completely in Hindi and with no subtitles. I could sort of get the gist of what was happening, and during the intermission (bollywood movies are really long) a professor who came along with us explained the basic story line to me. I found out that it was about a professor who was teaching classes to kids from lower castes so that they could pass the exams to get into college, but the higher caste college students started to get angry that they were admitting people from lower castes. Eventually, the professor overcomes all the obstacles and his classes become a huge success. I was told it’s based on true events which have been happening around India.

One thing I’ve found that I still really miss from the states is my morning cup of coffee. In India, there is no such thing as strong brewed coffee. At the breakfasts in the mess hall they serve nescafe instant coffee with tons of sugar and milk, which can be okay but it’s so sweet and doesn’t really have that caffeine kick to it. There is one coffee shop outside of the main library witch has espresso drinks and so on, but if you want just a black coffee, they give you an americano. After a week of buying cappuccinos every day, I’ve realized it’s not such an economically sustainable habit so I think I’ve decided to break down and buy a water boiler for my room and some instant coffee so I can at least control how much sugar and cream goes into it.


Other than coffee, I really don’t miss anything from the U.S. and I’m quickly appreciating the way many things are done here ( eating with my hands, taking bucket baths, and rickshaws ).

Yesterday I got really bored and decided to go on a small adventure to try to find Manipal Lake, which I’ve heard people talking about. I pretty much just looked at google maps and remembered the different landmarks along the way because India doesn’t have street names. I managed to get there without getting lost and it was surprisingly pretty nice and the water was semi-clear. It’s just a really small lake in a more rural area so there’s not much to it but it was nice to at least sit there and put my feet in. There was also a small temple on the lake but it seemed rather run down (or maybe a dog had gotten in and made a mess).

The lake was sort of overflowing onto the road on the way there

s

Lake Manipal. I think there's supposed to be an island but it's monsoon season so the lake is really full

The little temple I found by the lake

Today I went to a park in Manipal with my roommate and some of her friends called endpoint. It’s a really popular place with families and students to go for walks and just sit and enjoy nature. Manipal is on top of a really tall, rocky hill and endpoint sits right on the edge of it. There’s great views and apparently it’s THE place to take your date to, especially at sunset. It has almost a 360 view of the surrounding countryside and you can sort of sea the Arabian Sea which is just 5 kms away.

Me, my roommate to the right of me and her two friends

One of the look out points

 End Point

 

I’m hoping to go to the beach sometime next weekend but everyone keeps warning me not to get in the water because it’s really dangerous so I guess I’ll just walk around and take in the scenery. There’s not really much of a western beach culture here anyway.

I’ll try to update more regularly in the future so my posts aren’t quite so long every time.

Happy labor day weekend!