Happy Birthday Harry!

Our Team will be driving back to Bilaspur from Kotdhar today. And it's Harry's birthday! Too bad I'll be missing that. I did get him a gift, though... I shall post a picture of it later today. Happy Birthday Harry!

I just called the hotel. Apparently they will be there in 20 minutes or so (it's 4:20 AM here so 5:50 PM there). Expect a hefty update later on today.

Update: Just spoke to Harry! Wished him a happy birthday. He sounds well. Karin is asleep as she became nauseous during the treacherous bus ride they took today. It had started raining so they expedited their departure. The tiny, poorly-maintained, cliff-side mountain roads that they were traversing then became wet and muddy. Overall it sounds like a really awful ride. And Karin doesn't do well even on good roads in decent vehicles and in stellar weather... so I imagine it was quite hellish for her.

Harry, Anjum, and Karin stayed up until midnight last night so as to kick off Harry's birthday properly. At midnight Karin brought out the Champagne and some other mini-bottle of something that she had been hauling around the Himalayas just for the occasion. Someone else got a plate of cookies together and even a candle for Harry to blow out. Harry's plan for the rest of today is to talk to many of you and to continue the celebration tonight.

Harry has continued with his triage duties but also took on organizing the chaotic manner in which people were gathering to get service. He came up with a system whereby he would have the staff write the names of individuals down and then he would call them when it was their turn. Unfortunately, Harry's Hindi isn't quite fluent yet, and the staff didn't have very good handwriting... In the end, Harry's name calling turned into serious sport. Each name he would call would bring howls of laughter. People were asking him to "Say my name next!" Eventually, the group figured out ways to get him to repeat names such as by saying "Who?" or by just not coming up for a while.

And then there were the people trying to sneak through his system. One particular group of 5 elderly women were slipping by and going to the tents without waiting for their names to be called. Harry would catch them and bring them back but they were relentless. Eventually Harry found a translator and explained to them exactly what was going on (read them the riot act). Thereafter, the 5 elderly women became Harry's enforcement team. I think he may bring them to Princeton in the fall to help handle the new pledges at his fraternity.

Their campsite was reasonably nice. It was at the top of a hill or mountain so the view was beautiful. Evening activity consisted of being entertained by stray dogs that roam the area (they even named a couple of them - Tripod and Mongoose). Apparently these dogs have somehow trained themselves and are a pleasure to be around. At one point a group of dogs did turn on Har however - growling and being aggressive - but Harry beat his chest and made it clear who was boss and they gave him no more trouble.

More later when I speak to Karin. If you feel like wishing Harry Happy Birthday call him at the Sagar View Hotel: 011-91-1978-223095 (it's GMT + 5:30 in Bilaspur).

You, You, You, You

Enough about me. Let's talk about you. At least let's talk about the information I can glean about you through Google Analytics. I promise to get back to the whole Himalayan Adventure tomorrow but this happens to be interesting and I happen to have to get back to studying.

Check out the Geo Map Overlay in the bottom left corner. Expected are the clusters of people viewing this blog from California, New York, Montreal and Toronto... But Kuala Lumpur? Brazil? Stockholm? The entire east coast of China? And, most shocking of all, Kansas City?!! Who are you people? And can I come visit?

Me, Me, Me, Me

I have nothing new to post about the Himalayan Explorers so I'm going to write about the sad life I lead when Karin is away. Basically, every day after work I come home and drown myself in a bottle of Scotch Whiskey while watching 3 to 5 hours of Home Shopping Network. I have now purchased 9 sets of Ginsu Knives and 14 self-realization programs. Once sufficiently plastered, I make my way to the bedroom and cry myself to sleep - either on the bed, if I'm lucky, or, more often, next to or under it.

Well, that may not be entirely true. Most of my non-work waking hours now are taken up with blogging, trip research and planning, and flying-related activities . I have been trying to squeeze in workouts but this blogging thing is time-consuming - at least while I'm still learning how to do it. I think I've done a total of one mini-workout since Karin left. Atrophy-city.

As for the flying... I'm being checked out in a Liberty XL2 this weekend. Being "checked-out" in an airplane involves sitting down with an instructor for a while and going over the basics of the plane and then going flying together in the plane. It's part training and part an opportunity for him to assess if my skills and knowledge are current. This will also serve as a biannual flight review. Since I haven't been doing a lot of flying on my own recently, I have a fair amount of studying to do to make sure I'm on top of everything.

Flying the XL2 is going to be good fun for me. It is going to be the first "modern" aircraft that I will be piloting on a regular basis. "Modern" in general aviation in 2007 refers primarily to what is happening in the cockpit - it is controlled with a stick instead of a yoke, many of the instruments are digital and integrated, and it takes advantage of the revolution we have seen in navigation and communications over the past couple of decades (think GPS, satellite communications, and computers). Most of the rental planes out there were manufactured in the 60's and 70's (I can tell you why if you're interested) so this is pretty exciting. Mind you, the plane itself is not exactly revolutionary. We all fly in planes whose aerodynamics and propulsion systems were cutting edge in the 50's and 60's - from the tiniest Cessnas to the 747's that we all know so well. The real advances to date have been the so-called glass panels that newer aircraft use (as opposed to the more traditional panels).

On Tuesday evening I flew to LA with my first flight instructor, Jim Norman. He now runs a charter business and has a couple of sweet pressurized planes. The flight was about 30 minutes each way with a 2 minute stop in LA.

Once again I have blogged my way out of a workout. But I did promise daily posts. So there you go.

In Spite of the Gods

My dad just showed me this review of In Spite of the Gods. Looks interesting. I think I'm going to order it. First chapter is available here. Update: I ordered it.

OK Oliver, I'm changing all the links to open in new windows. I don't see a way to automate it so I have to go one by one. Hopefully, I'll have it done by tomorrow.

India the Growth Engine; Team Himalaya Hits the Hinterland

This from the Feb 3-9, 2007 Economist Magazine: "The roar from Delhi is echoing across Asia... At some point this year India's growth rate could even outpace China's..."

Karin & I are on the explosive-economic-growth circuit. Vietnam (8.4%) last year and now India (9.2%). Visiting countries that have spent decades stagnating due to things like crushing over-regulation, communism, entrenched corruption, colonialization, fanatical religion, and general mismanagement, can be fascinating. These are countries of incredible potential whose populations have been held back by unfortunate political, religious and economic realities. Those same policies that lead to economic misery, in many cases serve to preserve such things as culture, centuries-old architecture, nature (once in a while) and low low prices! To be able to immerse oneself in a region just on the cusp of phenomenal development is extraordinary.

As expected, I have no new information from Team Himalaya. As promised, they have moved out of our purview and into the rugged and inhospitable Himalayan hinterland. I believe they are now in Harlok or Amarpur (Baged). These places are so remote they don't even register on the Internet! The question you're all asking is... If they don't exist on the Internet, can they actually be said to exist at all? The answer is no. As the age-old saying goes, "if it doesn't google, it doesn't exist." Clearly our Team has entered some kind of time-space continuum and all we can do is sit idly by and wait for them to emerge.

TB, Scabies, Where's Harry?

I spoke to Karin this morning. She called me around 6:30 AM. I answered and we agreed that I would call her back 5 mins later. Sooo... I went downstairs, turned on the computer, and got comfortable with the phone. Then I dialed. But it did not connect. So I dialed again. This time a recording came on in Hindi. I tried again... and again and again. Then I resorted to different numbers, different combinations... Twenty minutes later I was ready to murder both the phone and the innocent plant next to the phone. I gave up in frustration and called Cathy. Thankfully, she had the number. And it wasn't the one I that I had been calling. I had pulled 2 numbers off the internet for her hotel and neither worked. Sooo... I called Karin's hotel and actually got through to the front desk. Then I had to try to get the front desk person to understand her entire 17-letter last name. Oy vey. By the time I got through to her I had bruises on my forehead from banging my head against the table.

Their trip to the northeast involved a 4 hour train ride followed by a 5 hour bus ride. The train was comfortable but the bus was... less so. The bus covered 90 miles in 5 hours. For those of you less adept at mathematics, that comes to an average of 18 mph.

So far they have seen about 70 patients. Things started off slowly in Bilaspur, largely because the doc there had neglected to properly advertise the arrival of this crack team of American and Canadian do-gooders. But tomorrow, when they get to their first (apparently crappy) campsite, they will be seeing hundreds of people!

As for the team make-up, I have only been told that there are 5 or 6 Canucks, who hail from Queens, Dalhouse and UBC (universities in Canada). The rest are Americanos.

Harry has been doing triage! He takes people's blood pressure and pulse, and then any loose change he can find. Anjum, who speaks Urdu (did you know that Urdu = Hindi?), has been translating for many of the patients. When I called, Anjum was busy shaving the back of Harry's neck (doesn't anyone edit this thing?).

One bright spot for Harry is that he is one of only 3 men on the trip. And Karin does all the scheduling - so Harry gets to influence whom he works with, if-you-know-what-I-mean, and-I-think-you-do. As soon as that neck is cleanly shaven, WATCH OUT HIMACHAL PRADESH!

The hotel has no heat. Instead, they provide all the guests with giant blankets. I think it's time to let the hotelier know about this central heating invention that is sweeping the western world. I don't think it's just a fad.

And now two potential "contraction" stories: Yesterday, Karin was asked to see a family member of the owner of the hotel. She agreed and examined this woman without wearing a mask (foreshadowing). Now Karin thinks that the woman has TB. The second story involves Anjum and a very cute baby that was brought in. Oh how they played and played... just Anjum and the baby. It really was something. The baby, it turns out, has scabies.

And one last story. Apparently upon arrival at some destination, Harry was suddenly nowhere to be found. No one could figure out where he was. After careful, level-headed analysis, they decided Harry had been................ kidnapped! They eventually figured out that he had run off early to be first on the internet.

LINKS: There are links all over this blog, people. Apparently not everyone knows that words that show up in different colors are links. Try clicking on them. They will take you to interesting places. And yes, Roy, I actually know people who do not know about links!

Message from Karin!

I wasn't home when Karin called today. Here's some of what she left in the message: Things are going well. Yesterday she was woken up by Ravi because the lead physician was sick... So Karin had to be the lead at the clinic - on her first clinic day in the Himalayas! Worked out well apparently. In other news, she is already sick of the food. Everyone is very nice. And Harry and Anjum are doing well.

She said she would try to call me tomorrow. So stay tuned for a full update!

Meanwhile, back in North America, I spent the weekend out of town. In Chicago today - as I was passing through - it was ZERO degrees FAREINHEIT! And blowing! I have not felt cold like that in a looong time. I think with wind-chill it was about zero degrees Kelvin. I also got to spend time driving in a complete white-out for the first time in a decade or two. Drove about 1 mile in an hour. There just isn't a lot of that in San Diego (high today here was apparently 75).