Jodhpur

I don't know how most of you spent your Thanksgiving but I spent mine working during the day and then on an overnight train to Jodhpur. Doug was playing in a cricket tournament that the Maharaja of Jodhpur sponsors for Charity between various embassies and indian teams. So we took the train. Satender had picked up the tickets for us and I didn't realize there was an actual "first class" that was different than the sleeper classes I had been in before. It wasn't a huge difference - two bunks on either side of a cabin - but this cabin had a door, not just a curtain, had slightly longer beds, a secret sink that turned into a table and a little closet. It was cute. I brought a homemade pumpkin pie to celebrate the day and we ended up sharing it with our Canadian rivals who were also on the train. They provided the wine and whisky!

Muna and I had briefly been through Jodhpur on our way to Jaisalmair almost four years ago but had only stopped by the Maharaja's palace for tea or something for like an hour. The weekend ended up being really busy and chaoticly organized. So we got in at like 9am to the hotel and realized that Doug was expected to play in an hour - so really quick breakfast and showers and we were at the stadium. The stadium was big and sorta impressive the but stands were so decayed (see scoreboard picture). The game - played in the shorter and more exciting 20-20 style - was long and not particularly exciting. The US team was killed by the Jodhpur team. And there were no spectators. I had been thinking I might play - hence the practicing with Satender over the past two weeks but I was never informed of their actual practices so it wasn't the best idea for my first game to be in a tournament. We then explored Old Jodhpur - not very interesting market but good people watching - and the fort, which is totally different than all the other forts I've seen in these parts. Much more palace than fort and really well preserved for visitors. Really fancy rooms with crazy decor. Artifacts that had been used by the royal family, even the handheld carraiges from when they visited London. A great audio tour that explained a lot about their lives, the history, and the architecture. And then we stopped by the Maharaja's palace - which is really impressive - to briefly meet the Maharaja.

Oddly, Jodhpur was not what I expected. I thought it would be like Jaisalmair, which is pretty small. Jodhpur is actually quite big and has parts that look like every other smaller city in India - dusty, dirty, busy. We really only had one glimpse of the real older city - called the Blue City for obvious reasons - which was in a rickshaw ride that took us through the old alleys.

On our last day the US played Canada in a consolation game (sad, non-cricket playing teams) and won! I have to say, I avoided cricket for many many years here and just couldn't figure out what the fuss was. When they started playing 20-20 matches, I finally started understanding the game and once you play you can see the appeal. But it's still not a great spectator sport in my opinion.

What I'm thankful for this year

Happy Thanksgiving!!

• No monkey attacks in 2007! You all laughed when I said that last year – who’s laughing now???
• A pretty amazing last 12 months including exploring new places (Sydney, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Kodai, Ellora, Orchha, Matheran, Goa - twice), and new experiences (first Indian wedding, first big concert in India, first elephant safari, most enjoyable Legwarmers concert yet, tango-ing with a fat sikh man in a turban, cheerleading in a Malaysian mall, getting blessed by a temple elephant)
• Facebook and the ability to reconnect with some old friends – I’ve missed you guys – and play scrabble
• The visits of Mom, Rachel, Bev, Cheinan, Carolyn and Todd – looking forward to seeing the rest of you soon!
• I’m sort of embarrassed to admit this but I’m thankful for Ultimate Frisbee Games at Nehru Park – it’s so nice to be outside, with fun people, getting some exercise.
• That John is recovering well from knee surgery #1
• That I was able to go to Kristin’s wedding – it’s so nice to be friends with people who have known you almost all your life. Clearly Kin wins that title but there are actually quite a few of you who help by reminding me what a dork I really have always been.
• The rise of steak and bagels in Delhi – it’s not great yet but it’s getting there. Next mission: good filter coffee, dannon coffee yogurt and real pies!
• I can’t say enough about the people who make my life possible here:
• Satender: Anybody who offers to come in on the biggest holiday of the year to give my cat an injection as I’m out of town has my undying loyalty. Driver, personal assistant, negotiator of all things India, cricket coach… what doesn’t he do?
• Tenzing: It’s pretty easy to take for granted the clean house, wonderful food, made bed, folded, perfectly hung clothes. But it’s the preparing a little tin of ground coffee for me when I’m headed out of town, the coming in on her days off when she’s worried I might be sick and the sharing of her son’s successes that remind me of how wonderful she is.
• Jagdish: While I don’t directly employ him, and when I come home late at night or early in the morning, he is generally sleeping and un-wakeable (not great traits in your night guard), I really enjoyed meeting his family and having him open his home to me.
• Krishna: my new, five foot tall, nepali, professional kickboxer (“kickboxing, sport of the future? Maybe you’ve heard of it? I can see by your face, no”- anyone?) personal trainer who is giving me some new energy to get in shape.
• BC’s great football start. While they’ve clearly slumped in the last few games, it was really fun there for a while. Really wishing they’d announce bowl games further in advance so I could plan to go to one!
• In total hypocrisy, I am thankful that Doug is generous enough to give me access to the commissary. I recognize that I will continue to insult the bizarre-o-land that is the American Embassy Peeps but the frozen blueberries and chocolate chips do improve my quality of life.
• While work is going through a rough spot with cut funding I am still very grateful to work with such amazing people. Where else could I say “What have I done this year? I’ve led efforts that prevented an estimated an estimated 500,000 men from getting HIV this year.” Proven success that beats all benchmarks and saves lives is pretty cool.
• Less work travel – it may be because our funding is cut but man does it help to not travel two days a week!
• Air Crash Investigations - how else would I know to sit over the wing?? OK fine, I've learned nothing useful but it's bizarrely entertaining.
• Travel coffee filters - to ensure I get my fair trade, organic, shade grown black coffee and none of this nescafe madness.
  
• Kali – the aptly named “goddess of destruction” cat – without whom my life would be boring and drama-less.

Diwali in Goa

For Diwali this year we ended up with a four day weekend - as holidays here follow the lunar calendar no one is ever sure when exactly the holiday is.... So my colleague Dana, his girlfriend Gertrude and our friend Amy all headed out to Goa. If this post seems like a travel guide, i apologize - I've learned that it's useful to document all the places for future trips!

We decided to stay in Panaji (which also goes by like 15 other similar names), which is inland a bit. We stayed at the Panjim Inn - which is this lovely old building. Rooms were great (although ours was over a noisy street) and in this cute town that is totally decaying portugese (first and second pictures)! The colors are gorgeous! We thought we were in Old Goa but learned we were not! Just another small town in Goa.

On Friday everyone but me wanted to work - but I am such a sucker for beach and sun that I hooked up with my friend Radhika who had come down for vaca with her husband and one year old. We, and her cousin all headed to Uttorda Beach - about 45 minutes south. Pretty deserted and beautiful. The water was hot - not just warm! No real waves though. And the general weather is still about 90F. We lucked out too cause they still get thunderstorms but we missed them. We had lunch - the most amazing fish (red snapper) I've ever had at Zeebop's. Then headed down to play in the sand with Devin for a while. We headed home around dark and I met up with Amy at this crazy resort place. It's amazing to think that all these european tourists come straight to Goa - I mean who are these like 19-year-old couples that shell out $250 a night?? Couldn't tell if they stay with their parents or just look younger than they are. Anyways we enjoyed some bad cover songs of Bob Marley and a diwali fireworks display. When we got back to Panjim some local kids were doing the diwali I know so well. Setting off firecrackers that aren't particularly pretty but are noisy and dangerous and the thrill seems to be not dying. You feel like you are watching the "what not to do" safety special and it sounds like you're in a war zone. Thankfully it was short.

The next day we all went to Aswem beach - where I had gone last year but it was just before the real season starts and so a lot of places were not yet open. The crazy thing though is that it seems way more developed than last year. The taxi driver said the mayor was corrupt and so allowing construction that was previously illegal. Since the place I went last year was closed we randomly stopped at Silence. Totally randomly we bumped into friends from Delhi (Dharma from frisbee and his girlfriend) who were staying at their little beach shacks for Rs. 500 a night. That is definitely what I'm doing next time. The old town is very pretty but it can't beat waking up to the ocean. Although Radhika mentioned camping on this cute island (butterfly island 10 minutes from Palolem) that also sounded great. So I spent the day sunning - but really got very little tan (stupid effective sunblock!) - and reading. At one point I swam down the shore (it just keeps going and going) which was great. You turn the bend and it's just gorgeous palm trees. Would have been really relaxing except I was desperately trying to avoid rocks as Dharma had gotten all cut up the day before and I guess some russian guy died apparently from hitting his head and drowning a day or so before that! Later went for a walk and admired the overwhelming number of starfish! Did you know they burrow into the sand?? And tons and tons of little crabs. Totally fascinating.

The last day I had a relatively early flight so we went to Old Goa (the real one). Didn't have much time but all it seemed to be was big tourist attractions. Like the church that has the "relics" of Saint Xavier Francis who died there and never decayed (courtyard of the church is the third picture through the prayer candles). We think relics mean his body but not totally sure. Since it was Sunday they were actually having services and we saw a wedding too. It's been so long since I've been in a place that closes on Sundays - I forgot it was even an option! The churches were pretty (although why mix churches and cannons -fourth picture?) and the gardens were beautiful.

Sorry for the lack of beach photos. I let other people be the photographers there - if they send me picts i'll post them! This last one is just a sign I really liked. Mickey and Daffy are classic goan??

Office Rangoli

Three unusual happenings - all related to the office.

Monkey - the other day, only like two weeks after a monkey gang attacked the Deputy Mayor of Delhi which resulted in him falling off his balcony and dying, I heard a big sound outside my window, which is like 2 ft from where I sit in the office and expected to see birds nesting on the A/C again. Instead a monkey was jumping around the neighborhood. I haven't seen him at the office (or anyone like him) in several years.

Cricket - So I admit I kinda got into watching it during the recent 20/20 tournament that India won. 20/20 is a few hours long (like a baseball game) so more tolerable than the 5-day matches. No tea breaks. Then Doug invited me to join him in Jodhpur for a long Thanksgiving weekend as the American Embassy folks were invited to play in a charity tournament hosted by the Maharaja of Jodhur. I said yes because though I've spent a few hours in Jodhpur, I've never explored the fort or the rest of the town and it sounds cool. Plus I haven't been to Rajasthan in awhile. Somehow though joining him turned into playing. So I had Satender (my driver) go buy me the necessary equipment (bat, ball, gloves and wickets) and now every afternoon for lunch I go out to the nearby park and he teaches me cricket. This attracts a huge crowd - first because everyone loves cricket and would stop and watch no matter what. But that it's a white girl is just too much so the office guys have started playing and then kids appear out of nowhere to play catcher (wicket keeper) and fetch stray balls. This might be better than the tournament!

Rangoli - We celebrated Diwali at the office today with a Rangoli contest and movie. I at first was disappointed as we usually have a big party where I can wear a sari (don't have many excuses and have two new ones). And I don't want to see a hindi movie - that's not social. But they made me a judge of the Rangoli contest at our two delhi offices and it was really pretty. Rangoli is a traditional art/prayer done in doorways during celebrations. Although one website I checked said, "In a traditional household, the lady of the house starts her daily chores with purifying herself, drawing some Rangoli lines in front of the pooja room and the tulsi. Her regular routine begins after this ritual. With this, her entire day remains fresh and lively."It varies from culture to culture around India but usually it's done with colored sand, chalk or rice. Often accompanied by lights (especially around Diwali) and flowers. Various departments competed. The top two pictures won their respective offices. Others integrated condoms and PSI very creatively! As last year I learned that Diwali in my house is unbearable due to the very loud fire crackers my landlord sets off just outside my window I'm running away to the beaches of Goa for the actual holiday (which is Thursday).

Happy Diwali!

Halloween 07

So as I've mentioned in the past, Halloween doesn't really get a notice here. That's weird because they seem to incorporate most celebrations into their own - especially if they're fun!

So I held my second annual halloween party last night and in order to decorate I bought a bunch of pumpkins. I found last year that they actually have pumpkins here although they're green. They're called sitapal in hindi. So we went to Malviya Nagar market since the one we went to last year was closed down. This time I found three fairly big ones, good for carving and actually found two smaller orange ones which was exciting. I was going to have my friends over to carve but Doug mentioned inviting Tenzing's son over, which I thought was great idea. So friday night, Tenzing, her son, sister-in-law and nephew came over to carve pumpkins. The kids drew the faces (basically just the same as the one I did first to show them) and the adults cut. I thought they came out pretty well. (Tenzing's son is the one on the right). Although I didn't do a very good job of explaining why we were doing this - I hope they didn't think it was
work! I said they scared off ghosts...

When I was home this past July I found my old cheerleading jacket and so decided to be a cheerleader for halloween. Found some pon-poms in a toy store before I came back and went to the fabric store to get the makings for the skirt. It was actually funny to try to explain how thick the fabric needed to be. I finally reverted to the fabric used in cricket to describe it. Since this is holiday season (with Durga Pooja and Diwali, amongst others) the tailor took forever to do it! And they had no idea what I wanted - and why I would want this (not knowing what cheerleaders or halloween were). I picked up the skirt about 6 hours before the party and it wasn't quite what I wanted but close enough..... It's still in the 90s here so the jacket was a little warm to wear all night!

Black Eyed Peas

So I have been trying to combine all the work travel I do with social outings. This week I went down to Bangalore and saw the Black Eyed Peas in concert. It was the first big concert I've ever seen in India. The tickets were about $30 for general admission up front (there were cheaper $20 tickets where you stood further back). The area was a dusty fair ground and around the edges were stalls selling various indian snacks and free water (which was nice). I thought I saw tour t-shirts but they weren't actually for sale. I went with my friend/colleague who now lives in Bangalore, Justin and his wife Jyoti.

Doors opened at 5:30, we got there slightly after 7 and there was supposed to be an opening act but they didn't show. So the Peas went on at 8. I worried a bit about crushing crowds - it being india and all - but for the most part, while it was crowded, it wasn't bad. For a while we were standing behind this guy who was doing what I term as the "nixon" dance with his peace signs up and wiggling his hips. It may have been the least cool thing I've ever witnessed. We were maybe 10 rows of people back from the front corner of the stage. They actually sounded good live and definitely brought energy - although I didn't feel the crowd gave them much back. They just wanted to watch fergie. Everytime she came to the front of the stage or on the jumbo-trons the men would go crazy and everytime she wasn't they chanted "we want fergie". Actually pretty obnoxious. It's as if they've never seen a woman in a short skirt (which might be true). Fergie and Will.i.am did some of their solo stuff and mentioned the other two had solo albums coming out next year. I wish they would have gotten a chance to showcase their stuff. Would make me more likely to buy their albums.

So besides a few india moments (where people were squishing too close and didn't seem to understand that if they wanted to squeeze in front of us, we'd have to move back and that wasn't an appealing offer for us) - it was really fun. Great music. Not a huge crowd (my other colleague who went said Bangalore was really more of a rock city - as evidenced by the last concert he had seen, The Scorpions!). Show ended promptly at 10, which felt really strange but all in all, good times.

Next time maybe I'll try to get a press pass and take photos!

All about the picture

Yup - this post is all about the picture.

I was in Chennai yesterday watching a magic show about sexually transmitted diseases and noticed this little guy didn't seem so interested.....

Ellora and Ajanta caves

Ever since I visited the fake caves at the Hyderabad Bollywood movie sets I've been dying to see the real Ellora and Ajanta caves. They're in central Maharashtra (the state of Mumbai). Doug had some work to do this week in Mumbai and I hadn't visited our Maharashtra activities in a while so I spent half the week in Nasik (wine country, India) and Malegaon and we met up near the caves for a long weekend.

The town that's the jumping off point for the caves is sadly .. nothing. The first day we did a government sponsored bus tour to Ajanta caves which is like 2.5 hours away. Once we got to the caves we ditched the group - as I'm really adverse to moving in packs and explored ourselves. It's a semi circle of caves dug into the mountain side by buddhists sometime between like 400BC and 600AD. It wasn't discovered until 1875 or something. From the movie sets I was expecting lots of cool sculptures but Ajanta is actually more about the paintings. I mean pretty impressive and rare that these paintings from 2000 years ago are preserved but I'm not really all that into paintings. At the back of most caves was a huge buddha statue - and those were impressive. In the last cave it was shaped like an arc (will full fake wooden beams carved out of the rock) and had tons of sculptures around the perimeter. Including the reclining buddha pictured, which was as least 10ft long. The whole thing was really impressive but I was vaguely disappointed versus the fake ones. Also - due to the paintings they don't allow flash photography (fair enough) but they also don't allow tripods or any camera stands. That I don't understand!

The second day we went to Ellora, which I had expected to be the duller one of the two. It's only 20 minutes or so outside the town. Ellora is newer than Ajanta - like 800AD-ish - and was built in three waves, first the buddhists, then the hindus and finally the jains. These were really cool. Tons of stone sculptures. Some of the caves that were dug out were three stories high and were all carved from the top down so they didn't need scaffolding. The biggest cave is a hindu one and is called Kailasha for the Mt Kailasha of the Himalayas. In the middle is what's meant to be a chariot, covered in sculptures flanked by two huge elephants. It's said to be bigger than the coliseum! The guide we hired for that cave really annoyed me (between his trying to relate to our culture by telling me a chariot was like an Amish buggy - I just said I was from the States, no other info and believe me it looked nothing like a buggy, a chariot would have been a better explanation - and his patronizing explanation of Indian culture and female gender roles and finally is sometimes completely inaccurate explanations).

The hindu and buddhist caves were right next to each other and while some of the depictions were clearly of different religions they also had a lot in common. The Jain temples were about 1km away and really did look different. They also featured a really pretty waterfall. In the one picture you'll see the women's breasts have been touched so often that they are totally shiny. I saw this in Ankor Wat in Cambodia as well. Universal temptation?

One thing, besides the clear artistic merit and incredible effort that went into these caves was the acoustics. There were some where knocking on the beams (solid rock) at different parts of the cave would make different reverberations. Obviously lots of echoing. At one point we were surrounded by SCREAMING school children and with the echoes it was one of the most overwhelming moments of the last year or so! But various points in different caves had amazing acoustics.

Overall a great trip - one I'm really glad I made. I have to try not to get so jaded (oh, ANOTHER 10 foot solid stone buddha from 2000 years ago?).

If you don't like India.... wait a minute, it will change

I've been having some thoughts recently that maybe I've done my stint in India - I'm not getting as excited by it as I used to. And this morning India won. I was on my way to get a manicure/pedicure (I know, tough life) and when Satender pulled over to let me out some car thought they could fit between our car and the other parked ones in the parking lot and they were wrong. I'm surprised they even got through, they seemed stuck. But they scratched up the side of the car and broke off the side mirror. And then tried to drive away! So Satender ran after them. I guess he wanted to move the car out of the way and was afraid they'd leave so he took their keys! The lady in the other car (not the driver) came over and started pounding on my car and saying how could we pull over and why didn't we flip the mirror out of the way (there wouldn't even been time to roll down the window).

Anyways, I hate when I lose my cool and hate even more when I play the "don't mess with me I'm a foreigner" card. Doesn't feel good.

But then, as India always does, it served up the opposite. My guard Jagdesh has been asking me to come to his home for a while and we finally did it today. I don't actually employ Jagdesh, my company does, and I really don't know anything about him except that he had a baby girl 6 months ago. So I went to his house, which is one room about twice the size of his guard booth. Apparently there is a bathroom somewhere in the building too. It had a single cot, a little shelf for clothes and an area to cook (y'know spot on ground where they use natural gas to light a burner). I had given them a quilted baby blanket to celebrate the birth of their baby and that was in the middle of the floor where the baby was lying- I don't know if that was for my benefit or not. They have nothing. It's really striking - I mean in theory you know what to expect but it still is eye opening to actually see it.

He is from Rajasthan and got married at age 16, if I understood correctly. I brought Satender along to translate for me. His wife was much younger when they were married and only completed 5th grade. Thankfully he's now about 27 and his eldest boy is 3 so they waited a good long time before starting a family and are spacing their children well! The kids both look really healthy although they did say they wanted to send the boy to school but couldn't afford it. They had bought me bottled water, diet coke (per Satender's suggestion), chocolate cookies and potato chips! Ah, what everyone thinks American's like! It was really touching that they wanted to have me over. And a reminder of how luxurious my life is.

A walk in Delhi

There are times when I wish I was a better writer so I could really capture what it's like to live here - the sights, smells, sounds.... a week or so ago I walked to my doctor's appointment (like 3 blocks down on the same street I live in) and that was one of those moments. I'll try. On the truck picture -which has nothing to do with the story - look at the words written in white in the center bottom.

So as usual I'm running later than I intended, getting into a longer conversation with Anna than I meant to. So I head out the door, am enveloped by sweaty heat - which I was reveling in because it was only high 90s and a slight breeze - and put the headphones of my ipod on. Since I saw a break in the traffic I immediately crossed the street in front of my house which is a four (?) lane highway with a median that is currently under construction, making it difficult to cross. So I hop the knee-high barbed wire and cross. On the other side of the street there's a fence separating the "sidewalk" from the street so I find a break in the fence and start walking down the sidewalk. I put sidewalk in quotes because while uniquely this one does not have many cars on it - it has many deep holes and many obstacles. There's a guy cutting hair and shaving with his mirror hung on the tree so I step over his clippings. There's a bunch of men sleeping on the sidewalk (as it's noon siesta time) - I like these guys cuz they are often snuggling and I wonder if they know they do that as they nap. I pass the pretty park that has almost no one in it because it's too hot. Then comes the area that is a defacto pissing wall, so as I approach I take a deep breath and hold it, to avoid the smell. It never fully works.

Then I get to the bus stop. There's always tons of people there so I have to step down (about a foot - not so handicap accessible) off the sidewalk down to the street and because there are always broken down vehicles and auto rickshaws hanging out I have to head halfway into the street to walk by. There are inevitably some people at the bus stop giving me looks that make me uncomfortable. And as soon as I step back up on the sidewalk I must duck (me!) due to the low hanging electrical wires. Then I have to cross a major intersection which always reminds me of playing that game 'Spider' we used to play on the elementary school swings where you try to get past one and wait in that small space hoping not to get hit and then run past the next. As this was a holiday (the celebration of sisters and brothers) the next segment of street was parked two rows in, so what should have been a four lane side of a road, now it's about 1 1/2 lanes. The first rows are parked front of the car to the curb and the next is parallel parked. So I'm back in the middle of the road, and of course there are people walking towards me so there's always this moment of who is going to be nice and step closer to the traffic and who will stay safe.

Then I pass the dumpster - one of the most foul smelling places. Dogs and cows are rifling through the garbage for food (fortunately this time there were no people rifling). Then past the group of tent homes that look temporary but have been there for at least 2 years whose sole business is creating the ceramic donut-shaped things people put around ceiling light fixtures. Seems very specialized to me but walking by these mini communities is always a mixture of emotions. Some of the kids look very happy but you can't help but notice their malnutrition-caused puffy bellies and the tents they live in.

I finally arrive at the hospital (which is crazy modern given the surroundings) and the guards barely know how to react to a white girl (full stop) and someone walking - which is never done. They almost tried to charge me a parking fee:)

Wrapping up Sri Lanka

A week in Sri Lanka probably doesn't deserve 3 posts but oh well...

The beach at Unawatuna was wonderful! Highly recommended. I got up wicked early to do sunrise picts (first two). Had breakfast at my hotel; Sun N Sea which is now a living tribute to the owner's wife who died in the tsunami - including photos, paintings and the piece of door she clung to. The rains meant visibility for scuba diving was bad so they didn't want to take me out. Too bad - I haven't been diving since 2001! Instead I laid on the beach.... all day... Seriously. The ocean was wonderful - the first day it was what I'll call Grandma-appropriate waves (totally mild and perfect for floating for hours). The second day was Grandpa-appropriate; rough enough for good body surfing. Mom, correct me if I've reversed the labels:)

For sunset I thought I'd head into Galle, which is surrounded by a fort built by the Dutch in the 1600s. While the tsunami devastated Unawatuna, the fort walls totally protected Galle. It also has shops and nice restaurants (Unawatuna has almost nothing except beach huts). And while it was lovely, I realized I'd much rather continue lying on the beach. One of the surprises of Galle was all the different religions co-mingling. You see the pictures of monks and young muslim kids and there were also tons of churches. Nice to see.

Final thoughts on how Sri Lanka is different than India:

• didn't see anyone peeing on the street
• far less horn honking
• my rickshaw (called tuk-tuks) had a sun roof; plexiglass and all
• much more catering to western food tastes; did I mention that all my colleagues found thai food too hot to eat:) Now they see what I mean!
• A store called Baghdad Gifts (okay not really different than India but it struck me as funny)
• 5 hour drive - only 2 McDonalds (and with beef!)
• Dogs aren't scared of my patented pretend to throw a rock at them trick - don't know if sri lankans are nicer to their dogs or the dogs are just tougher.
  

Colombo to Unawatuna

The conference had its closing ceremony this morning – which I skipped. The conference was good overall. We brought 11 people from India (7 posters and 5 presentations) and ran into colleagues from Nepal, Cambodia, China, Myanmar and Pakistan. Compared to the Australia conference it wasn’t nearly as scientific – which is good and bad. Good because stuff was more usable and practical (and a lot more representation from ‘community members’) but bad because the level of the presenters was incredibly variable; many were completely pathetic. It was the first international conference held in Sri Lanka and you could tell. For me as presenter it meant that my presentation didn’t really relate much to the others in my session (mine was on the fact that the majority of men who pay for sex in our areas aren’t truckers or migrants and was part of a violence prevention session) and for me as an attendee it meant that it was hard to know which sessions to go to. And the organization of the whole thing really tested my patience. My colleagues – most of whom had never been out of India or to a conference – said they were disappointed that they didn’t learn more but actually it was useful in terms of building everyone’s ability to know how to navigate these things in the future, and for contacts and for actual learnings (who knew that Indonesia had such a comprehensive HIV prevention/treatment program for drug users in its prisons?).

So instead of going to the closing ceremony I decided to try my luck on a second class train ticket to head to the beach. Various books said Unawatuna (described as top 10 beach in the world pre-tsunami) was 2 to 5 hours away. I successfully got a train ticket and got on the right train (was a bit touch and go there) but there’s no first class on this train and honestly I saw no difference between 2^nd and 3^rd. It was PACKED! And of course I was lugging around a medium-sized trolley bag and computer bag and camera bag and weighed down by all the materials I had picked up at the conference. Not well packed for the situation. Fortunately, as is almost always the case, some poor gentleman took pity on me and shoved his way through the crowd with my bag until he found a place that satisfied him for me. He then made various suggestions about how to best situate myself, went to his cabin and returned back at stops to suggest I move based on whether people were clearing out or coming on. Honestly, the kindness of strangers is always amazing. He made up for all the people who frustrated me in my first few days. So I stood near the door of the train, sardeened between various sized people and the bathroom (lovely). I was beginning to question my desire to save money (it was $1.80 for the train and $60 for a taxi) but it’s all about expectation setting – I knew it would be insane, and it was.

The train follows the coast – really closely (as you can see from the top pict). It’s easy to tell how a train was swept away on this track for one of the greatest losses of life in the tsunami. The cars from that infamous event are actually the ones you see on the left of the side of the train – they are completely battered, as if a mob took bats and stones to them for hours. The scenery was pretty – the one side ocean and the other palms and villages (all pictured). After the first hour, the train crowd thinned. I still had to stand but could occasionally move my legs or arms. Thankfully the trip was just under 3 hours and arrived at a great little beach. I had an incident while laying out with a group of local boys (maybe 16 year olds) being extremely vulgar and having to raise the issue with their care taker. But other than that – the weather is perfect, the ocean is really nice to swim in and a stunning shade of aqua, sitting in a beach hut with a beer watching a stunning sunset over the palm forests – it just doesn’t get better. I’ve got big plans for tomorrow which includes 5 hours of sitting on the beach.

Sri Lanka - first two days

Crazy moment of the day - lounging on a chair by the pool at the hotel listening to "Country Road - West Virginia" while an iguana the size of my arm walked under my chair and disappeared. Literally - never saw him again!

I'm not sure I'm in the best position to be judging Sri Lanka yet - my flight left Delhi at 2am and arrived in Colombo at 5am - which is not the best way to get sleep. And then the conference I'm attending (ICAAP - international congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific) provides a bus from the airport to the hotel which of course means lots of waiting and then a crazy line at check-in as we all descend on the desk at the same time. So I'm tired.

But I have to say I'm not overly impressed with Colombo. It's just India with guns, beef and better beer. The city doesn't really seem like a big city (the indians keep noting the streets are abandoned) as it just has some hotels - and not much else of note. I'm told there's good cheap clothes (cuz, yeah, I need more clothes) and the beach is pretty but not one where I would lay out as it's packed with indian men who can't swim and it's sorta dirty. So you can get that in India. Service has been really poor so far which isn't helped by the fact that I clearly haven't mastered the Sri Lankan accent, as I have for India - because people here have NO idea what I'm saying.

I did hear the President speak today at the opening ceremony. His speech wasn't bad - but they really want people to think Sri Lanka is safe. Really really want that.

The rest of the island sounds really nice, with tea estates, gorgeous beaches and elephant orphanages. I'm planning on heading to a beach at the end of the week and am looking forward to it. But I guess I was expecting more from Colombo. I think I'll sit by the pool tomorrow until 2 when the work starts!

Back in the NCR

NCR=National Capital Region (it's what they call Delhi and its suburbs).

Anyways, I'm back and it's hot!! It's about 10pm and my thermometer reads 90F and wicked humid!!!! I stepped off the plane and it hit me like a ton of bricks (along with that lovely Delhi smell). For a quick summary of my travels in the US

Southern Cal: First I went to Kristin's wedding. The wedding was beautiful and it was so nice to see Kristin and her family. Some highlights:

• The bride and groom walking out to the reception to House of Pain's 'Jump Around'
  
• The slide show of Kristin and Larry's lives - so sweet and inspired Kristin's little brother to comment that we haven't changed since high school (not sure yet whether that's a good thing)
  

Amherst was great as always; lots of scrabble with mom and john, time with Kin, browsing used record stores, lots of coffee. Great food.

The final stop in the US was good old Lancaster County PA. This involved an Amish vegetable auction where my cousin got an egg sandwich, I got a donut and mom's partner John bought 8 large boxes of tomatoes. The kids actually looked poor, ripped dirty clothes and barefoot. That was unexpected. And the women were hefty and it was enjoyable to think that men must have very different ideals of women there. Got some good family time with Grandma, aunts and uncles and cousins. Much needed. And Rachel made a trip up for a quick lunch and walk and then turned right around. THANKS RACHEL!!!

Headed to Sri Lanka in a week so will definitely have more good stories then.

California Dreamin'

Okay - not really, sort of sad to be leaving Australia so soon. I'll add it to my growing list of places I'll have to come back to someday. Tomorrow morning I'm off to San Diego.

Since I don't have a lot of pictures of my last few days, I'll populate this post with picts from the earlier part of the trip.

So it was a typical large conference. Some of the sessions were actually pretty good but my interest in the topics is very narrow. A lot of it was on gene investigation to find new HIV treatment options. They did a summary of the conference today at the closing ceremony and I literally didn't understand the summaries! Interesting lessons: circumcision works in HIV prevention (already knew that, but very much reinforced), other things like microbiocides are promising but are already being disproven, condoms and needle exchange will always be our most effective prevention "technologies" - since effective means in the real world, abstinence doesn't hold up and finally too much science and scientists are divorced from the implementers and so don't realize how valuable their info could be if they just analyzed it in different ways.

Non-conference things I've accomplished:

• Ate Kangaroo (they were so cute I had to taste them!)
• Went to see a live band (I so needed that after the lack of them in Delhi)
• Saw Il Trovatore (verdi opera) at the Sydney Operahouse
• Had a different good beer about every 8 hours
• Practiced my aussie accent enough so that people almost think I'm from somewhere near here
• Constantly left Deepa in the dust when I forgot that it takes her 5 minutes to step onto an escalator as she's a bit afraid of them. I kept forgetting and would keep on talking only to realize she was now like 100ft behind.
• Walked so much I reached the point where my walking shoes proved uncomfortable. It's just been so long since I really walked, I couldn't stop!
  
• Successfully gained back all the weight I've lost over the last six months. Oh well, it was worth it.
  

First impressions of Australia

Greetings from Sydney!

This is my third day here - packed days! My colleague Deepa and I stayed in Bondi beach until last night. Australia is really growing on me - I can see why you all who have been here rave about it. It's not actually foreign - it's very familiar but with extra charm. So far Australia is fulfilling all the stereotypes about beer drinking, backpacking, rugby-loving, funny accented, beef lovers. But it's really cosmopolitan - in a sort of European way (sidewalk cafes, etc). What's really struck me is how friendly people are - I don't know why American's aren't as friendly. I haven't noticed if the toilet flushes backwards but the locks on doors are opposite - you don't turn the handles towards the lock but away from it. Weird aussies. And it's really expensive here (although that might be just in comparison with Delhi).

It's actually been really interesting to see Sydney through the eyes of an Indian. She's been to Singapore and Thailand, but never anywhere like this. Her observations so far:
-"The public buses are so wonderful - they're clean and efficient"
-"The malls don't have sand in them!"
-"There's only one lock on the door?"
-"The waves are so violent!"
-"Australians are so tall!"
-"Is this pure veg?"


So on Friday we walked around Bondi, great cafes and shops and obviously a beautiful beach (although it's too cold to spend much time by). On Saturday we decided to do a one day tour up to the blue mountains - it's a great time because as it's winter they do Christmas in July up there. I was hesitant to do the tour as I usually find organized tours annoying but this one was actually wonderful. (Oz Trails if anyone is heading here). The mountains were beautiful (the eucalyptus trees create a blue looking haze - hence the name). Waterfalls (pictured), rock formations, aboriginal drawings of kangaroos, actual roos in the wild (hee hee), a cute little town with great chocolate, the steepest inclining train in the world (how come everywhere I go they have something with a similar label to this?). Deepa was really hesitant about the sky train thing but loved it! She said the best part was the train though. And the roos were so crazy - I had a nice one on one talk with the roo in the picture with me. And two of them actually did a little boxing (see the very fuzzy picture)! The tour ended with a cruise into Darling Harbour (where the Opera House is).

We then transfered into our conference hotel (which is amazing - much better than the bunk beds at the backpacker's lodge in bondi). So last night Deepa was tired and I decided to go find beef and beer (mmmm...). Everything along the harbour seemed really swanky and way more fancy than I was looking for. Someone finally pointed me to an Irish pub and Australia was playing Japan in soccer asia world cup. I grabbed a table and these really nice guy and his wife totally included me in their evening and we had a great evening. Australia lost in free kicks but it was such a fun time.

Next onto the conference!

Around the world in 20 days

Hey all

I'm off to Australia tomorrow to present a poster at the IAS conference <http://www.ias2007.org/>. Then to San Diego for Kristin's wedding and then to Mass/Penn to visit the fam. Can't wait to see you all!

I'm sure I've done a bunch of interesting things over the past week but my head is to full of 'to-do' lists to remember them. My boss is leaving India and as her farewell party she requested that the whole office take a bus to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri. The picture is our group at Fatehpur. I hadn't been to Fatehpur Sikri in six years - I remember really liking it - especially the human parcheesi board. And it really was stunning and almost unrecognizable - they've done a lot of restoration work.

This is the kind of suitcase I would like to take with me!