Obstacle Of The Day: Airlines In India No Longer Accepting Foreign-Issued Credit Cards

I have been trying to book my flight from Mumbai to Delhi for the past week. There are many airlines and many flights that are available. Unfortunately, due to a "widespread fraud" that the airlines encountered a month or two ago, they do not accept foreign-issued credit cards. Period. That leaves only going to a travel agent to book the flight. That would seem to be perfectly acceptable but travel agents double or even triple the fare when it comes to domestic Indian travel. Of course no one just comes out and tells you all of this. It's all discovered piecemeal by actually going to each website and going through the booking and registration process and then, after the very last step, when you click PURCHASE, it brings up some seemingly-benign message like "Input Correct Phone Number." In case it's not obvious to you, that is code for "we don't accept foreign credit cards." If it wasn't obvious to you, you might spend, say, an hour or so trying to figure out what the phone number should look like before you brace yourself and make the call to India to see what the problem is.

I finally did find an Indian agency that does not double the fare and is willing to accept my credit card if I will fax them a "Letter of Dispatch" and a photocopy of my credit card. I chatted with a helpful representative and she told me to fax the document ASAP and she would take care of it. Then I tried faxing. But it failed to go through... I think it took 11 attempts before it finally worked. And now the agency is unable to locate the fax.

I did find a great resource for researching travel planning in India: IndiaMike.com. It contains forums by people who are passionate about travel in the region and who are intimately familiar with the vagaries of Indian travel planning. Here are some of the forums I've been perusing:

Knowing the Indian Train - contains everything about classes, food, vendors, reservations, cancellations, etc.

Booking Indian Rail Tickets from abroad - self explanatory

Train Information - still more information about trains in India

Scams and Annoyances

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DSL Dead. Work Done. Leaving In 3 Days.

I wanted to post this morning but my DSL inexplicably died. I did everything I could think of to avoid calling AT&T and going through their infuriating tech scripts but in the end I had to give in and spend a few hours dealing with that. It ended up being a "problem with the line" which they have now fixed but which ate 4 hours out of my finite life. In a just world I would be compensated for that, n'est-ce pas?

Work was a grind as I scrambled to get every file I have open (~20) in shape to withstand 2.5 weeks without my attention. I was at the office past 9:00 PM twice this week (a lot for my office) and tonight I only got out earlier because I had a wedding in Laguna Beach to attend. I didn't make it to the ceremony but caught some of the reception.

No luck yet on getting an earlier flight to Mumbai.

Contact With The Crew: Meditation, Knitting, Debating. The Scenery is STUNNING. They are FREEZING.

I received a call yesterday evening from Anjum's father. His message: The Himalayan Crew is leaving the hotel in 20 minutes. Call now or forget about speaking to them for a week. And he gave me exactly what I had been dreaming of: A phone number!

I immediately called Karin and caught her just as the Team was about to head off. After exchanging requisite Valentine's Day wishes, she gave me a quick run-down of what is going on. Yesterday the Medical Team delivered care to monks in a monastery. Apparently this was particularly enjoyable because the monks are very pleasant people (and oh so darn cute). Following the clinic, the team was treated to a meditation session. And, later on they all learned how to knit. Since wool is the primary source of what keeps people warm(ish), knitting is a crucial skill to have. Harry abstained from knitting as he finds knitting "unsexy" and, understandably, a potential threat to manhood everywhere. Thanks for standing up for us, Har.

Our Intrepid Trio (Karin, Anjum, Harry) have figured out that a grand total of 2 of the 6 Jeeps have heat. They are currently riding in Anoop's Jeep. Anoop has really got it goin' on... Not only does his Jeep have heat, but it has a CD player and an MP3 player (with USB port). During the drive yesterday they were actually warm (I'll get to how rare that is shortly) and were able to listen to U2, Aretha Franklin (and others) while driving through some of the most unbelievably beautiful Himalayan terrain. Having a decent ride makes it a lot easier to enjoy of course. The Intrepid Trio are worried that they will not be able to hold onto their coveted seats, however, as they are encouraged to move around between vehicles and mix with other team members.

At one point during the drive someone had asked Anoop what elevation they were at. Anoop responded: "Fifteen thousand meters." When one of the passengers questioned that estimate Anoop was adamant (note that Everest tops out at 8,850 meters and a Boeing 747 tops out at 12,500 meters). There was an uneasy silence in the Jeep for a little while... Until they passed a sign that read "1500 meters" and Anoop said "Oh, 1500 meters. Sorry. I make mistake." They are all friends again now.

While the drives are long and sometimes treacherous, they are not uncivilized. The team stops for regular tea breaks and chip breaks. Apparently Lays makes a Himalayan version of their chip that is extremely popular with the Explorers. Karin describes it as a modified-ketchup flavor. During yesterday's drive Anoop's passengers decided to debate some contemporary issues. Among them: capital punishment, gun control, legalization of drugs. If you wish to have your topic debated in the Himalayas by medical practitioners listening to soul or rock (or other) music while eating Himalayan Lays, please let me know and I will pass on your request.

The team will be at the next campsite for 6 nights. They expect it to be vvvery cccold. And speaking of cold, last night in the hotel Karin went to sleep wearing, among other things, long-johns, a thermal shirt, a turtleneck, wool socks, wool hat, wool gloves, with 3 blankets and a space-heater and was completely and utterly freezing. Freezing is an ongoing theme now. The buildings are not heated and even though everyone is constantly bundled up, the cold is never-ending and pervasive. And now they are traveling to an even more frigid area. Brrrrrr.

Himalayan Expedition Draws International Attention

This is amazing: France, Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Sweden, Israel, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, lots of China, 3 Canadian provinces, about a dozen US states, and India. And that's just the past 7 days. People are reading this blog from a northern latitude of 71°23'N to a southern latitude of 41°17'S. That, my friends, is a whole lot of latitude.

Karin called me this morning but I was squeezing in a workout and only caught a snippet of her voice. I ran for the phone but it had disconnected by the time I got there. Unfortunately she did not leave the name of the hotel or a phone number - and it's not in their itinerary. I looked up hotels in Palampur but found over a dozen. I quickly decided against playing the "Hello, Hello, Hello" game with every hotel in Palampur. Estrella (Karin & Harry's mum) passed on Harry's cell phone number but I couldn't get that to connect either. So basically I struck out. Hopefully she calls back. I also have no progress to report with American Airlines. Given that it's a long weekend, I don't expect anything to open up. But I'll keep trying.

And, in a completely unrelated development, Cousin Alex was on NPR yesterday.

Team Himalaya Is Incommunicado. Expedition Schedule. Realization: I'm Leaving in Less Than a Week!

Our Intrepid Himalayan Explorers are now, by my calculations, on their way to Palampur, where I will hopefully be able to communicate with them (although I do not have a phone number for them there). Here is part of their schedule:

Feb 13 & 14: Clinics at Monastic school. Stay in tents. The 14th will be a half clinic day. Immediately after lunch they are scheduled to drive to Palampur and stay in a Hotel.

Feb 15: Drive into clinic site at Chowari (Yet another Himalayan town that is successfully avoiding Googleation). Overnight tents.

Feb 16- 20: Five day clinics at and around Powari (Also not Googleable. You can see my theory about that at the bottom of this post.)

Feb 21: Morning drive to Dharamsala/McLeodganj . They're going to see the Dalai Lama!

Meanwhile, back in San Diego, I have to start packing! I'm leaving in less than a week. And I am in the process of trying to leave earlier. Right now I'm scheduled to depart on the Tuesday following a long weekend. I'm going on points (we're talking major point drain) and Tuesday was the only day available. But something could open up. Inevitably I will plan for Tuesday and on Saturday evening I will call and there will be a seat open for Sunday at 5:00 AM. I will then be in a mad rush to get out of here and will forget my dental floss, my earplugs, and, quite possibly, my teddy bear.

I will be flying into Mumbai (Bombay) to hang with Eric Bellman. Apparently another friend of ours from SAIS will also be in town - direct from Italy - Fabio Soleri! When we were at SAIS in Bologna he was running Rimini. I think he's setting up a consulting business in India. Eric has provided the following run-down of what we will be hitting:

Restaurants: Salt Water Grill, Indigo, Trishna, Koyla, Kyber, Rajdani

Bars: Henry Tham's (apparently this is his house), Olive, Enigma, Shiro, Zenzi, Red Light, Poly Esthers

Sites: Gateway of India, Haji Ali, Banganga, Mahalaxhmi, Dhobi Ghats, Horniman Circle

and much much more

Just so you know, I have a bad habit of going back over posts for a few days and modifying and adding to them. Soooo.... you may want to scroll down and see if anything has appeared subsequent to your initial reading. I apologize but it's part of having an obsessive personality (I will be editing this post for a while).

Contemporary India

I love that cool head-bob he does as he admires his masterpiece.

Holy Cow! Planning Travel In India Is Complicated.

Wikipedia on the Cow: In Hinduism, the cow is considered sacred and its protection is a recurrent theme in which she is symbolic of abundance, of the sanctity of all life and of the earth that gives much while asking nothing in return. Most Hindus respect the cow as a matriarchal figure for her gentle qualities and for providing nurturing milk and other products for a largely vegetarian diet. Hindus do not worship the cow, yet it holds an honored place in society, and most Hindus do not eat beef.

Jaime on travel planning: I am working on getting us to Jaisalmer in western Rajasthan. The problem is that there are no flights to Jaisalmer. There is a military airstrip but no commercial flights land there. So we will likely have to fly into Jodhpur and then train to Jaisalmer (so as to minimize Karin's time on the roads). Doesn't that sound simple? It's not. If you try booking a train you will find that none exists. Or maybe it does. Depends whom you talk to and which website you visit. And don't even bother trying to book a bus from here. And then there is the never-ending flow of warnings about hiring the wrong driver who will explain to you how your hotel burned down overnight and who will then drive in circles until you agree go to wherever his biggest kickback lies. India is a nonstop barrage of people trying to rip you off. Or maybe it's not. If they openly charge foreigners 5 or even 10 times as much for the same product or service, is it highway robbery? Of course! Or perhaps not. Perhaps I'm just being culturally insensitive.

I don't think I've ever been quite so bombarded with information (and that includes law school). At one point yesterday I had between 40 and 50 webpages open. I've planned trips to quite a few places in this world - including when I have prepared the actual flight plan - but this is something else. Getting a handle on traveling in India is like trying to install democracy in Iraq... The concept makes for a marvelous sound-bite but, in reality, is quite impossible (end of controversial analogy). Even after we have narrowed our trip down to one tiny region of India, the options are seemingly endless, the histories long and complicated, the accommodation choices practically infinite, and the means of travel labyrinthine (Connie: "Oh, quit your belly-aching Levine!").

The plan, as it stands, is the following: 1. Spend a couple of days exploring Delhi. 2. Do a day trip to Agra. 3. Fly as far as we can into western Rajasthan. 4. Visit Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jaipur, and then finally end up in Alwar before we head back to Delhi.

Harry's Email (Lite)

Well hello.

Before I start, I want to let all of you less accomplished readers (you know who you are) know that at the bottom of each paragraph I will be writing a one-sentence summary in bold print so you don't have to read everything. If you think that paragraph would interest you, you can go back and read the whole thing.

After a long day of travelling, I arrived in Delhi at 11pmish to make the exciting discovery that India has another rush hour at midnight. I don't know why, but it was standstill traffic for an hour, and it sucked. Also, you have a better chance of getting to your hotel in one piece if u jump out of the plane as it flies above it, than if u take a taxi there. However, the Indians take their street decorations very seriously. At many intersections you will often pass red, yellow or green lanterns that the city has generously set up for the tourists' viewing pleasure. The locals seem not to appreciate these ornaments and ignore them completely.

Driving in Delhi sucks.

I was taken to our hotel, which was in the middle of Delhi's red light district, and stayed up the few hours left of the night. We took a train to Chandragarh where we met the Indians who would hold our lives in their hands for the next few weeks. I had planned to sleep on the 5 hour drive to Bilaspur, and although keeping my eyes closed sheltered me from the edge-of-your-seat feeling of impending doom of driving the winding mountain roads of the outer Himalayas, the winding, rocky, bumpy, jerky roads of the outer Himalayas did not allow me any sleep. Occasionally, when I was able to ignore the vibration of the land-rover type car and relax, the window would meet my head quite aggressively to remind me to stay awake.

Our hotel in Delhi was in the middle of the red-light district. My head hurts.

We started clincs the next day. We set ourselves up in army-style tents on the roof of a brand new but not yet operational medical clinic. (they didn't want us tramping on the new floors...) I worked in the pharmacy. Apparently, indians dont' like hearing they are healthy when they come to the doctor. In fact, they don't consider it a complete visit unless they leave with some pills. Even better if they get an injection. We hand out lots of pills. Mostly ibuprofen and vitamins. Also, lots of Tuberculosis, GERD, Worms and eye problems. Thankfully, no leprosy as of yet. I was also pleased to find out it is curable, very easily curable. :)

Leprosy is curable.

I'm gonna get more general now cuz it's getting late.

Our hotels have had no real showers (sometimes a shower head, no curtain, somtimes no water comes from the shower head) no toilet paper and about 30 seconds of hot water. The bathroom floors are thinly disguised sheets of arctic ice. We have also been camping. Our toilets are holes in the ground. We wipe with the baby-wipes we brought. (I am never using toilet paper again). To shower we go into shower tents with big buckets of boiling water. We then use little buckets to pour this water on our heads. I have burns. There are stray dogs everywhere. We named one that limped around our first campsite Tripod. She was amazing. She sat and waited patiently for food, snuggled by our fires, didn't bark, didn't beg, best trained untrained dog i've ever seen. The trained domesticated dogs from across the street tried to attack me, I fought them off with a big stick. I am not kidding, I was scared shitless. At our second campsite we had an untrained stray dog who would sit on command, would give "paw" on command and was also very well behaved. I find this pretty cool.

WAAAAAAAAH! I'm dirty. Some stuff about dogs.

We've had more medical clinics at some schools, at our campsite and at the house of the ex Health Minister. I learnt to take blood pressure, hear rate and all that stuff at triage. I also decided to organize the camp since patients were pretty much running around with their heads cut off. Little old ladies continuously escape the waiting room and sneak into the tents where doctors see patients to try to skip the line and also to laugh whenever the doctor asks the patient about the condition of their poop. Occasionally, I have to call out the patients' names and tell them where to go, what to do, etc. Unfortunately, the names are illegibly scrawled on pieces of paper by the guys at registration and also they are indian names. The locals make me repeat them over and over just so they can laugh at my bad pronunciation. After a while, one of them feels bad and comes over to help me out...and then asks me to read out his friends' names a few times so they can have a laugh too. Bastards.

I am licenced to practice medicine in the state of Arkansas.

The night of february 9th, Karin, Anjum and I stayed up with a bunch of the Indian drivers to wait for my b-day at midnight. Karin surprised me with a little bottle of champagne and a mini-bar grey goose. The cook brought me a plate of chocolate chip cookies with a candle in the middle. The next day we had clinic in a tornado, birthday cake for lunch, and then drove for 4 hours on the edge of cliffs at .5mph through fog, rain, high winds and mud. I was in bed by 9:30. Happy Birthday to me...

My 20th birthday was to my 19th birthday as Rolle/South Brunswick/Abitibi is to St Tropez/Vegas/Montreal.

Now I'm in Manali. There was a bar in our hotel yesterday so I tried to get drunk for my belated birthday...and failed. We played kings, I took shots, but by midnight, everyone was in bed, so I gave up.

It's cold here. we're in the middle Himalayas now. It's not that it's so cold, probly around zero. But ther's no heating in the hotels or in the cars, so it's 24 hours of cold. I'm wearing layers to eat my meals, to watch tv, to use the computer. I will be cold for the next 2 weeks. This sucks. The food does not. Our cooks are really good and we've been stuffing our faces. Everyone has gained weight...go figure. Today our clinic was at a school and all the little Tibetan/Nepalese kids were ridiculously cute.

Just skip this one.

Yeah k, this has gone on too long and i'm tired. You get the picture. Thanks for all the b-day wishes.

Love to all,

Harry

Rain, Sleet And Snow

It is about 7pm in Manali.

This morning we went to a buddist school to perform physicals on all the students. The building was old and decrepid and very cold!!!! I don't know how the students live there in these conditions. Many of the windows were broken and the common room was open to the outdoors. Despite that the children were all cheerful and happy to see us. They were timid at first, but when we photographed them and showed them the pics on our digital cams, they smiled and happily posed for many more. They were so adorable. Wait till you see the pics.

Since it was so cold (and because we wanted to take advantage of our time in Manali), we cranked through the physicals and were done with ~170 exams by 2pm. We then headed back to the hotel for lunch, followed by an afternoon of shopping and walking around town.

Manali is surrounded by snow-capped peaks- very beautiful. But the weather has been rather harsh. The day started wih sleet, followed by rain, and now it is snowing. Brrrr! The hotel is unheated except for tiny space heaters in the rooms. Last night I heard a buzz and then saw smoke rising from our heater. We got it replaced. We need to leave it on for most of the day because that is the only way our clothes will dry.

Purchases so far have included scarves, hats, gloves, and socks. All wool.

Tomorrow we leave for a buddhist monastery where we will reside for 2 days in their guest house. It is unheated too. No space heaters. Afterwards we will camp for 6 nights. Yikes! Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger!

It is awesome to have Harry and Anjum here to share this experience.

Love to all,
Karin

Bad Weather, Hard Work, Harry In His Element (and XL2 success)

When I last spoke to Karin she was just coming off 12 hours of sleep following the hell-ride she had coming out of the mountains. She had done the Gravol-Dramamine thing (read sedation) in anticipation but even that wasn't working so she had doubled up... which did not work either. By the time she arrived at the hotel she was extremely nauseous and even more medicated and went straight to bed. Even after 12 hours of sleep she was still in a bit of a stupor.

When Team Himalaya had arrived at the home of the Ex-Health Minister, they had each been treated to a bindi and a garland. A bindi is the red decorative dot that is worn on the forehead. Wikipedia describes its religious significance as follows: The area between the eyebrows (where the bindi is placed) is said to be the sixth chakra, agni, the seat of "concealed wisdom". According to followers of Tantrism, this chakra is the exit point for kundalini energy. The bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration. It is also said to protect against demons or bad luck.

The team then went to work seeing patients. Over the past 4 days, the Team has seen an average of 150 patients per day. Karin, for some unknown reason, had been advertised as a "child specialist" (she is a family doctor). She thus has been seeing children almost exclusively since our last report. What's interesting about these children is that they often come in without parents. Dr. Rash says it's quite something to have a 5 year old boy come in alone and to have a discussion with him about his condition, symptoms, and treatment options.

A number of the cases are of developmental delay and mental retardation. Those are particularly tough as there is very little that can be done for them. For many other patients the doctors are able to give a few samples of medication but it's frustrating because they know the patients will not follow up by securing more once the sample runs out. And for others the resources that the physicians have are too rudimentary to properly test and/or treat. For extreme diagnoses they get referred to a hospital in a city but there are many borderline cases where additional equipment would be welcome.

It's hard work. It got particularly rough when the weather turned and they were suddenly confronted by strong winds and pelting rain. Since Karin is in a supervisory role, she had no choice but to run between the tents where patients were being seen. Within a short time she was completely drenched.

Eventually the weather got so bad that they decided to wrap up early to get on the road to Bilaspur and then on to Manali. That's when they packed up, loaded up the bus, and had that terrible ride.

The celebration of Harry's birthday continued last night at the hotel. Harry, as he is wont to do, held court in the hotel bar. Most of the revelers went to bed at 10. Karin retired at 11. But Harry and the trip leaders were still going strong when she headed off. This morning Harry chose bed over breakfast.

Today the group will be seeing children in a mission-school. Sounds like they are all doing well and are seriously enjoying being back in a hotel. I have yet to hear of anyone that is overly-excited about getting back into the tents - at what will be even higher elevation and with significantly colder weather.

I do have one complaint about calling them at the hotels in India. Every time I call, a man typically answers and says "Hello?" I then say "Hello, may I speak to Karin....?" Then I hear "Hello? Hello?" as if they do not hear me. So I will say again, more loudly, "Hello! May I speak to Karin....?" Then they will say "Hello? Hello? Hello?" as if all they hear is dead air. And so it goes, back and forth, getting louder and louder. This usually goes on for a minute or two, until the phone is inexplicably passed to another person. The second person says "Hello?" and I say "May I speak to Karin..?" And they say "Certainly, just one moment please." As in, there was never anything wrong with the line! The first person obviously heard me but chose to keep on saying "Hello? Hello? Hello?" anyway. Anyone care to explain?

And in case anyone is interested, all went well in the XL2. There's a story there too but this isn't the right forum for it. If anyone wants to go flying, let me know.

Anjum's Email

Anjum just sent out an email. Here is most of it:

Hello Everybody!

So much has happened in the last 8 days, I'm not even sure where to begin.

We left Delhi on Feb. 3rd and took a train to Chandrighar. The train ride was about 3 hours, after which we got into vans and drove another 5 hours to Bilaspur. The sites are breathtaking, the people warm and happy to have us in their state. We did two days of clinic in Bilaspur-"clinic" was housed in canvas tents, on the second floor of an unfinished hospital. Pictures can only truly describe our physical location. I didn't realize how much of a help knowing the language would be. So much more happened in Bilaspur but I can't seem to remember it right now (it was our first clinic site). Once I have my journal in front of me, I'll better be able to recall!

From Bilaspur, we drove about 2 hours to our first camp site. We camped out for two nights in Baged (yes, no running water, no toilets, no showers) and had clinic at Mr. Nadda's home-the Health Minister for the BJP. They were very hospitable; they greeted us with garlands and bindi's and had farewell ceremonies and gave us Himachal hats, more bindi's and burfi (yum). We had clinic at their house for two nights and then left for our second camp site (Kotedhar) where we camped again for two nights. This was a less comfortable camping experience. We were at an altitude of 3500 ft. It was incredibly windy-which wasn't THAT bad-but on our second day, winds hit up to 70 MPH and it was raining. We were holding clinic at a local government school, again in canvas tents, in the schoolyard (the kids were so cute). The weather got pretty bad so we ended up having to cut clinic early. We hiked back to our campsite and took shelter in one of the few canvas tents that was still standing. After about an hour, we started driving in pretty bad conditions (don't worry, Ma, we were safe) back to our hotel in Bilaspur. We drove REALLY slowly across muddy roads. One car got a flat tire during the trip but the drivers changed it out in less than 10 minutes. They're incredible. We finally arrived safely-but very cold and very wet-none of the vans had heating and there was so much condensation that we had to keep our windows open. Karin was getting pretty nauseous as we were driving up the windy roads; one of the other girls threw up, but thankfully all are back to good health now.

Upon arrival at the hotel in Bilaspur, we all took lukewarm bucket baths that felt INCREDIBLE. We all felt so dirty after 4 days of camping, getting rained on and having dust in our clothes and hair from all the wind.

The next morning (today), we left Bilaspur at 830am and made a stop at Mrs. Nadda's school for those with special needs. The visit was nice and we saw a few patients-though it seemed that the trip was more of a photo-op for the media. We arrived in Manali at about 3pm - again cold, but not so wet. The temps here are a lot colder than we all expected. And with our luck, it's been raining much as well (of course it hasn't rained here since September). Karin and I spent two hours in our room washing all our clothes. It was disgusting. The water was BLACK by the time we were done washing just 4 pants! I had some rope so we've hung all our clothes in our room and have little place to walk (thankfully Karin is only 5ft tall so she fits nicely :)

The people whom we have seen at clinic have been incredibly grateful for our work. We on the other hand, all feel completely inadequate b/c we feel we are unable to provide adequate care b/c at some level, the sources of their illnesses always will be there - their water will always be contaminated, their living conditions will likely always be unclean, and most do not have the money to get adequate care for long-term medical problems. Nonetheless, this is an incredible experience and is teaching us much about others and about ourselves.

The staff are incredible and have been taking such great care of us. They make sure we are safe and well-fed (in fact I've made many requests for food and they've been availed!). They are incredible.

Now Karin and I are both on the computer with only 3 mintues left. We'll have internet access until Thursday so please do write! I'll try to write again soon!

Hope everyone is doing fantabulously and keeping warm and dry!

Much Love,
Anjum