Thursday, April 24
We took Friday off that week cos it's a long overnight journey too Ooty which is pretty far away-and as we found out later when we gave our team Ooty chocs on Monday, no one even noticed we were gone! (oh..but maybe John did!) :p It's our first Indian train experience and an overnight train at that- and we had to book a non-AC sleeper- being poor med students/ poor med student who'd rather spend $$ on sarees :) We'd heard horror stories about tha Malaysian's trip to Ooty where they tried to get tix the day before and couldn't so took the crowded common cabin where everyone squeezes in and has no seats for the whole 10 hour journey cos they didn't succeed in bribing the train conductor to change to 2nd class.
We took our first public bus ride that night with our weekend bags, cos the public bus pulled up just as we walked out of the campus gate and the guard told us to get on- it looked really empty, and we thought ok..but little did we know that tt was cos it was the first stop and we had an hour's journey ahead! People kept piling in and it got a little freaky when there were these 2 men who kept staring at Joey and Teresa and the one beside Joey kept looking at her bag! But we survived- and it wasn't too bad- and a very cheap alternative at that at 4 Rs instead of a 100plus Rs auto. :p
We hardly got sleep that night, cos the train cabin floor was pretty dirty and Harti and I were on the lowest of the 3-tier bunks and Harti swore she saw cockroaches scuttering up the walls but I refused to look.. It was nice and breezy but everytime the train stopped at a station people peered into the windows and the coffee man came on at every stop going 'coffee coffee coffee' at god knows how many Hertz waking us at every SINGLE stop!!! Really wanted to wring his neck!
We reached the Mettupalayam station at 6 plus am and needed to get onto the toy train at 7.30am, but there were no tickets left! Nowhere to buy them, and even people with reservations couldn't get them. :( So after being in the waiting list cue rather fruitlessly and missing the train, we just barely got onto the only other 9am toy train. It was a higher class toy train with a smaller capacity and better seats, with food and chips and biscuits to go. :p I really liked the train ride- it was scenic, albeit a bit long at 5 hours and went through all the hills and tea plantations- though Jeremy and Stanley were upset at not being able to see the nubile young women picking tea in the plantations as advertised in the pamphlet.. :) It was a steam-run train which meant it was really noisy, especially when it went though tunnels and all the smoke got sucked in through the windows as well. :)
So we finally reached Udagamandalam (ooty!) at 2pm and checked into our YWCA cottage which were lovely with pretty flower gardens outside! The girl's cottage was very nice, complete with pink furnished sitting room outside- the only qualm was that the water was brown- but by that time, not having bathed for 12 hours I was just glad for warm hot water- brown or otherwise. :)
We went to the Ooty botanical gardens that evening- and seriously, it was really pretty. Colourful flowers, pretty roses all sculpted lovelily- it could rival many of the rose gardens we've been to in Europe- this was seriously one part of India that totally didn't feel like India. :) The rest of the evenign before dinner was dedicated to shopping at the Tibetian market and buying homemade chocs for everyone at CMC. :) Then dinner was at King's Cliff hotel- which is a really pretty posh hotel we really wanted to stay in (it has personal fireplaces in each room!!) at a pretty reasonable price but was all booked out! So, to make up for it, we had dinner there in it's very nice cosy restaurant (complete with fireplaces of cos)- nice and warm, and good food. It felt like Christmas. :)
Wednesday, May 21
It's day 3 in Oddanchatram and we're settling in to a very nice slack sleepy lifestyle. :p We have nice mess aunties who secretly sneak us yummy food to fatten us up (like this morning we got cornflakes and milk JUST for us!!) and the homecooked south india food here is YUMMY. My meals are the highlight of each day these days. ODC is pretty much like Vellore- just as hot and the outside is similar just that everything is slightly more backward..all the signs are suddenly in Tamil and I have to condition myself to reading them- even thought they are mostly english words spelt out in tamil. The transportation links here are pretty bad though and we're finding it difficult organising weekend trips out- but hey! we're still going anyways!!
The hospital itself is waay smaller than CMC and the patient load is much lower and I'm getting rather bored in clinics and wards..but at least it's just a week and a half left.. :) We got pretty good teaching at rounds today though, and there are supposedly daily evening post-grad teachings tt are supp to be pretty good- but they've been cancelled the past 2 evenings- so we've gone out to explore the numerous tea bars and ice cream stalls by the road. :)
Well, tmr Jeremy and I are off to the village 10km away for clinics and home visits- I hope tt'll be interesting- will bring my cam along. :)
Joey and me are sharing a double room in the women's hostel- it's nice and cosy just like back in hall..but I had to get used to the shared toilets and bathrooms and the lack of air con after Bergen house has spoilt me soo..also have to wash clothes by hand now :( And I'm very sad cos my prettiest new salwar just ran yesterday :( Sad sad sad!! We had several blackouts yesterday- one at night lasting about 20 min and it got sooo hot without the fan, we couldn't sleep, and lit up candles and read books by it. :p There was another one this morning when we woke up which meant I couldn't use my heating coil to boil water for bathing and couldn't use the iron!! pout.
Thursday, 1st May
Today is not a holiday in CMC. Well it is for the students, but not for the clerks or poor elective students like us. Outpatient clinics are still running full swing and haven't ended. I escaped while nice Mizouram doctor went to have lunch. Today was cool comme toujours- I felt a bag of worms- varicocele in someone's scrotum!! How cool. That's like a once in a lifetime thing no! Many pple here have hydroceles and TB. I hope I don't get any.
We had a dinner party over at Bergen House last night which was loadsof fun. We invited Huey's group over to treat and thank them for everything and Neel and Taran came over as well as a farewell b4 the first group of pple left. We attempted to cook some stuff- I cooked rice in a pot the way we do at home (cos apparently everyone else uses a rice cooker) for the first time in my life unsupervised (and I didn't burn or overcook it!!) :) Joey made vege soup, tomato-based and Teresa made omelette. :) The rest we got from Darling- and mangoes and kulfi for dessert. :) It was really fun and homely and we ate quite well, prob since we moved into Bergen. :) That was followed by a guitar and song session cos Taran swiped a guitar from some pharmacist he randomly met.. And I discovered really cool hilarious med songs which I will upload lyrics to once I find them. :)
Btw! He's not married! However, every girl who has ever been posted to Surg IV has faleln for him, as I found out from the clerks when we visited them in the woman's hostel the night before. And so he has lost his charm. :p I loved the hostel KE should totally be like that..with med classmates living side by side on a whole floor through med school...the camaraderie. :) Oh, and we learnt more about entrance exams to CMC..will update soon, but gotta leave now b4 I miss the 4.30 shuttle bus!!
Monday, April 21
This comes to you from the wonky computer at Bergen House- But hey, I'm not complaining about some form of internet at home! Bergen house is even lovelier than Aavanaa Inn! We're all really excited about it. It really feels like home :) The toilets have all the right fixtures, just the way i like it..and the rooms and toilets are huge! :) There's only a slight mosquito problem outside at night..but 'Off!' keeps them at bay. :)
The girls went shopping today and got Teresa some nice salwars.. Joey's finally gotten her's back and we're wearing ours tmr. :) We had the loveliest lassi in Vellore at dinner b4 we headed back at a Punjabi restaurant- it had Rasmalai shreads in thick sweet yoghurt. :) Today was a good day with HD as well :). His sweet little smile was waay more prevalent across the table at M&M and we had 10min with him in FNAC clinic, where he didn't ignore us. Only 8 days left of him, in 2 weeks, he'll just be a memory. Sniff. Everyone got to see him today cos the team walked by while we were drinking coffee at the coffee stand. :) He'd cut his hair today and he looked slightly less dashing from afar. but still :)
The weekend was spent in Pondicherry..we reached there in the afternoon and didn't quite appreciate it all cos of the really bad heat so we were wondering what all the fuss about it was.. The beach wasn't too remarkable either and the whole place was quite small and walkable.. The best bits of it though was without a doubt the food. It was a welcome break from the daily rich Indian meals- The coq au vin, bouilabaisse and apple tart with ice cream at our poshy dinner place called rendezvous was quite worth it. Went back to walk the beach and have a look at the nfrench architecture early the next morning. It was nice and peaceful cos all the shops were closed and just the nice temperature and everything looked much more pleasant, perhaps there was some charm to it.. the water was blue and pretty. We had breakfast at this nice French deli, the highlight of which was the toilet, which was an experience on its own! For one, for the first time in india, we encountered toilet paper in a public toilet and this one was complete with a toilet roll holding fixture! Plus it was a piece of art all on its own and the wash basin was another story altogether. :)
The rest of Sunday afternoon was spent at Auroville, the concept of which I quite liked and enjoyed. The concept of a utopian society where spiritual aspirants can live together unrestricted by religion and the constraints or rather necessities of the outside world was quite appealing albeit seemingly idealistic.. The Matrimandir/ meditation hall was quite a sight (a giant golden golf ball)- I would have really liked to go inside and have a feel of it, but bookings needed to be made a couple of days in advance. Jeremy Ho and I had a hibiscus drink at the cafe tt gave us bad cramps later that night.. But me, no GE yet! *touch wood*
Alritey, laundry's done..off to bed!
Friday, April 18
Aah..finally a slack day. Day surg wrapped up really quickly.. Joey and i managed to gown up for mini ops..mine was a fistula-in-ano that was over in 2 minutes..haha. HD (handsome doctor-as Joey calls him) was around and I grabbed a pot of iodine off his gloved hands. ;) But then I managed to embarrass myself in front of him by adjusting the lights when I was already all sterile and getting a very good scolding from the con. :( Sniffle. He stared like I was some moron. :( Well, he did ask joey where 'her friend' was b4 I joined them.. :p (P.S. lately he only talks to Joey,I'm jealous) Sigh..2 weeks left with HD..I think I shall start weaning off him..
Btw david saw him at clinics yest and agreed that he was gorgeous. :p Then I got all mopey about him at dinner, but when we came back to check mail in library, guess who was right there! :) That made my night. (Btw, Goodwin and Aziz brought us to a roadside tea and coffee bar last night.. It was quite cool..but I got insomnia with all the caffeine after that..and more time to think abt HD :) ) Oh dear, dear..I sound like an idiot..
HD or no HD, my inerest in Surgery has been rekindled.. I'm now extra confused, cos I'd decided that I was all settled for Medicine/ Peads but now surgery seems like a really fun option too.. Sighs. Sighs. Sighs. I was all excited at being allowed to scrub in for a Whipple's last Wed (tho there was no HD to stare at in the OT) only to discover liver mets in the patient when we opened him up..I got to feel a liver met and did a few stitches as we closed him up (and confused everyone as well as myself with my left-handedness, tho i technically usually use my right hand to stitch!!). I was so sad.. esp since this was a really poor thing guy who we'd watched the consultant take consent for the day before. The con had told him that there was a 30% risk of complication and a 5% risk of mortality form the op. And the man almost broke down saying that he had no other options and that he would pray to God and leave his fate in the surgeon's hand.. Quite emotional.. And then the next day they find out he's a stage 4 and that they can do nothing else, and he has only 3-6 months to live..
Tuesday, 15 April
He smiled. :D
Monday, 14 April
Visited the golden temple on Friday evening. It was quite a sight. We could already tell the direction it was in when we were still kilometres away from it 'cos the night stay was glowing above it. The pillars, statues, EVERYTHING was made of pure gold. The main sanctum had a little moat of water around it and you could see its reflection in the water in the night light. It was breathtaking. Amritsar must be even more beautiful..
We din leave for Mahabalipuram on Sat in the end cos we decided we could cover it all in a day. So we went off for half a day of clinical skills workshops where we got to stitch goat's intestines together. After the workshop, the profs started talking to us and aid it would be good to stay overnight in Mahabalipuram cos it was beautiful. So we all got really excited and decided on the spur of the moment to leave right away. But that got quickly dampened when we started packing, cos we decided it was already a little too late to get there and we'd end up spending a whole lot more. :(
But the trip on Sunday was lovely anyways. We went off to Kanchipuram in the morning and visited the 3 main Shiva, Vishnu and Kaamatchi temples. It was Tamil New Year and I feel quite honoured to have been able to be in these places at this point in my life. :) Kanchi is one of the 10 holy cities in India, and the Shiva temple is fabled to be the place where Shiva married Parvati under a 3500 year old mango tree (which fell just 3 years ago, and so now a new one has been replanted :( ). And the Vishnu temple is suppoed to be where Brahmna did a yaagna to bring Vishnu down.
Mahabaalipuram was really nice and lovely..I was really wishing we'd decided to spend 2 day there. We got dropped of between two rows of restaurants opeing up the the blue blue waters and beaches lined by colourful wooden canoes. Got some seafood by the beach (and got cheated yet again. People here just take the liberty to decide how much food u should order, or add an extra word to your order that helps triple the price. Grrr!) Then we had a good trek amongst rocks and boulders that lead up to old cave temples. This was a place where goats, monkeys and cows coexisted. Of note was the huge round rock tt looked like it was about to roll off a flat boulder surface at any moment and was very cutely named 'Krishna's Buttermilk Ball'. :p By that time it was 5.15pm and we realised that the other 2 attractions we had to go to all closed at 6!! SO panic, and running and lots of sweating. Got a quick 15min at the Shore temple which was little but very lovely..I would have liked to have watched the sunset there :). And got to the last place- the 5 rathas- which are shrines shaped like chariots made of stone. The sculptures were really quite pretty. :) Needless to say we got back to Vellore past 9pm and seriously, all I wanted to do was sleep..
It was our team's minor procedure day today and got to do an FNAC on a cystic thigh lump. (Can't imagine being allowed to do that in Singapore, though it's mighty simple. :) ) It was a really good clinic cos we saw all the lumps and bumps all together- thyroid multimnodular goitres, lymph node metastases, breast lumps :) And cool, we saw a Marjolin's ulcer at tut today..that was quite a sight..
Since we've started travelling, I'm suddenly extra excited about everyday. :) Hospital rocks and now I can look forward to the weekends too. The week has been too good to be true. :)
Friday, 11th April
Almost the end of a very loooong week. We're not working half as hard as the 4th year clerkship students here who reach the hospital at 7am and leave at 10pm everyday. And yet, we seen to be working much harder than we usually would in Singapore. :( I'm tired to by bones everyday, but it's been an experience.
We've all started doing the ubiquitous (David is kaypohing with my blogging.) and ambiguous oscillatory Indian nod of acknowlegement quite subconsciously. Haha. It's quite funny. Teresa was telling us about how she saw a hydrocelectomy(fluid in the testes) being performed in a procedure room with the patient only under local anaesthesia cos he was too poor to pay for an OT. The patient load here is amazing. They come here from all over India and in fact, I can't even speak to more than half of them cos they speak Hindi or Bengali, etc. The out-patient clinics are true chaos. The waiting rooms are packed everyday. Patients barge in in the middle of every consulatation asking if they can be seen cos they're been waiting for hours or a full day. Doctors here are respected a lot though. The patients are all very reverent towards them. Clinics here are fantastic.. saw a Dercum's disease and Courvousier's law in action yesterday. Exam short cases galore within the span of a few hours of clinic session. I admire the doctors here..they work non-stop..clinic sessions are from 8am to 3/4pm non-stop with no lunch breaks for the doctors. Evening rounds start at 9pm at night. Medicine is really their life over here.
I'm really wishing I were Malayalee and Christian right now. All the cute doctors are. :( I love OT sessions. I get to stare at my eye candy JMM a lot. :) We saw a roux-en-Y hepatico jejunostomy today.. no scrubbing in yet.. too many local students..hopefully next week.. Saturdays are a half day here..there goes all my fantastic weeknd plans. :( Hopefully the plan for this wkend to Mahabalipuram and Kanchipuram for Tamil New Year works out..Sighs. Am fatigued.
P.S. I have been shopping. Salwars are soo cheap and lovely. I am ditching my pants and blouses. :) And jewellery. This is heaven. Almost broke for now.