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!!