Health Concerns

Ever since Delhi, I’ve been fighting a cold/horrible air quality illness. It’s not bad at all; I’m just a little sniffly and congested most of the time. While I figure that it will go away after a while, Timila and her mother are very concerned with my health and my “common cold,” as it is always referred to as in Nepal. After a few days of hearing me sniffle through dinner and on the way to and from school, they insisted that I undergo the treatment that they usually use to treat the “common cold.” I was tired of the stuffy nose and sore throat in the morning, so I certainly had no objections.

Me receiving the 'common cold' treatment at Timila's house in Nepal.
Definitely an interesting experience.

The first stage of the treatment is to boil water with cloves. The water is then poured into a metal vase/pot sort of thing and a few drops of a minty herbal oil are added. Then I sit on my bed, hold the pot to my face, and Timila covers my entire body with the large, dense comforter that keeps me warm every night. I then remained covered with the steam in my face for about 15 minutes. I underwent this treatment three nights in a row, and I believe that it actually did help me to feel better. If nothing else it temporarily cleared out my system so that I could actually breathe through my nose, which hasn’t happened for quite awhile.

There are also many little health warnings or suggestions that Timila gives me on a daily basis. One is that before I eat anything in the morning, I must drink black tea and then milk tea, or else my stomach will be upset. One day while we were doing laundry (in a large, pan-like bucket), I of course, managed to get water all over my pants, and Timila insisted as soon as we were through that I needed to change my pants, or else I would catch a sickness that would give me diarrhea. While I wasn’t used to it at first, I definitely came to like having someone that could inform me of any impending health risks as I more or less blindly fumbled my way through the foreign land. Maybe if Timila had been giving me health advice through the end of the trip, I could have avoided my grim fate involving food poisoning in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which I am still getting over (as of 4/6).

A Week of Life in a Nepalese Home

Me with Timila and her parents on the terrace of their home.

In some ways, I can hardly believe that I’ve already been living with Timila and her family for an entire week and in other ways, I feel like I’ve been here for months. The experience of complete immersion into a foreign household is amazing, especially when it is for more than a few days. I thought that when I was in India I had to adjust to things, which was true, but our entire team lived together, first in a large house and then in a hotel. I’m currently living away from everyone else on the team, with Timila, a fourth year architecture student from Nepal Engineering College (NEC), and her family. 

Timila in front of her family's house, getting ready
for the daily walk to school.

When we were originally being assigned to our home-stay families, I was asked, “Claire, would it be okay with you if you had to walk 45 minutes to school everyday?” I think it was at that point that I realized that I was about to have a radical experience. I had no idea what to expect at that point, and I’ve found it much easier on this trip to have no expectations and just accept what happens. From what I had experienced so far in Southeast Asia, there is incredible diversity. There is a massive socioeconomic gap between the incredibly poor and the very rich, with a small emerging middle class in between the two, so I had no idea where I would land on the spectrum, what the people would be like, what the house and facilities would be like, or what kind of food I would be eating.

As it turned out, I got pretty lucky. I’ve been living with a wonderful family for the past week in Mulpani, a rural village about a 30-40 minute walk away from NEC. Timila, who is a year older than myself, is the only one in the home who speaks English, so communicating with her parents is quite difficult. Despite this language barrier however, they have been more than hospitable to me.

Me with Timila's mother (left) and grandmother (right)
in the front yard.

The food that Timila’s mother cooks is the best that I’ve had on the entire trip. It’s mostly dal bhat, which consists mostly of lentils and rice. We also usually have a vegetable such as sag, a leafy vegetable that is cooked, and every other day or so we have chicken as well. The food is wonderful, but the actual eating customs have been something that has taken some getting used to. Traditionally, much of Southeast Asia eats without utensils, so naturally when Timila asked me if I wanted a spoon, I said that I wanted to try to eat the way that they do. I tried and failed miserably. So much, in fact, that after that first night, I’m no longer allowed to use my hands to eat, and I’m required to use a spoon.

The living room where I slept.

I think the main issue was that I ate too slowly. They eat very fast here, taking care to consume the food while it is still hot. I struggled with this, as I am not accustomed to using my hand as a fork for rice and dal, which is a thick, though watery, sauce created from cooking lentils and beans. As I was about half way through my dish, Timila and her parents were finishing up. “Claire, you need to eat faster,” Timila said. A few seconds go by. “Claire, you really need to eat faster.” A few seconds again. “If you don’t eat faster, your food is going to get cold, and you’re going to get sick!” After that, I am now handed a spoon every night when we sit down for dinner.

Me wearing traditional Nepali attire. The shirt is called
a cholo, which Timila's family had custom-made for
me as a gift. The dress I'm wearing is her mother's sari.

Speaking of sitting down for dinner, Timila’s family, like many Nepali families, eats while sitting on the floor. No table is involved. There is a line of mats on the floor in the kitchen where we sit cross-legged to consume our meals. Dinner is not really a time for chatting, it’s solely a time for eating, and if you dilly-dally, your food will get cold, and as I discovered the first night, that is surely something to be avoided. Dinnertime, which lasts about 15-20 minutes, is around 8:30-9 each night. After dinner, the family usually begins to wind down, watches a little TV if there is electricity (they only have it for about 8 hours each day, and it comes at a different time everyday, so that it can be distributed throughout the entire city), and often times goes to bed very shortly afterwards. I still don’t quite understand the reasoning for eating a massive meal so late at night and then crashing almost immediately afterwards, but that’s the way they do it here.

The whole electricity thing has been something else to get used to. Eight hours of electricity is actually quite manageable once you figure out at what times there will be electricity and how to use those times effectively so you can get all of your electrical needs taken care of while there is power. Although sometimes it comes in the middle of the night, which makes it pretty difficult to utilize unless you simply need to charge something, which can just be plugged in when you go to sleep, and then it’s charged when you wake up in the morning. Even when there isn’t full electricity, Timila’s family has a battery that provides enough electricity for one bulb in each room. Nothing can be charged and the TV doesn’t work, but there is light if it is necessary.

Kathmandu

We're now here in Kathmandu! I have about ten blog entries I need to post, but the internet here is very weak, and I'm not able to access it from my computer, only from the lab. The computer I'm on is partially broken, and the man running the lab keeps looking over my shoulder, reading everything that I write...and for the first time I can't blame this on India! Nepal now, I suppose. But the internet works, so I'm grateful. That is all for now; when I have a better connection I will add my other updates involving the Taj Mahal, the plane ride to Kathmandu, and elephant rides in the jungle!

Elephants in Chitwan & Lumbini: Birthplace of the Buddha

Group of elephants at the beginning of the safari.

The whole Chitwan experience was interesting and not necessarily what I expected, though I’m trying to avoid developing expectations about this trip. We arrived at the resort, which was actually pretty quaint…maybe even one of my favorite places we’ve stayed at so far…in the early afternoon, had lunch, then took a quick nap before the elephant ride. We took a bus to the park area where the elephants were waiting for us. I wasn’t quite sure how we’d actually be sitting on the elephants, but it turned out there was a wood frame that four of us stuck our legs through on top of each elephant.

Tad and I in front of our elephant.

They tell you that you may see tigers and rhinos, though spotting a tiger is extremely rare…and I almost doubt that it’s even possible. I still hoped that we might spot a rhino…that would still be pretty exciting. As we begin the ride, the elephants walk through a small river, through a jungle area, and around some open spaces. Just as we are entering the forest again, one of the elephant operators/drivers (I’m not sure what you call the people that sit in front and tell the elephant where to go) made some sort of call from the distance. All of the drivers directed their elephants towards the call. We had no idea what was going on, but we hoped they’d spotted some sort of animal.

Sure enough, we arrive at the location and there is a mother rhino with its baby. All of the elephants were forced to surround the rhinos in the shrubbery, and it was pretty clear that neither the rhinos nor the elephants were very happy about it. Multiple times the rhinos charged out from the brush and the elephant drivers steered the elephants towards them time after time. It got to the point where it was kind of odd. We eventually moved on from the rhinos, saw some deer, quite a few monkeys, and made our way back to the base point after about two hours.

The rhinos in Chitwan.

The following day we left Chitwan and made our way to Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. I don’t know very much about Buddhism, but its very prevalent throughout Nepal after Hinduism. While it was interesting to visit such an important site to Buddhists, I felt a little odd being there. I’m not Buddhist, I know very little about the Buddhist way of life, yet there I was, standing next to Buddhist monks and religion tourists from all over the world to whom this site meant much more than it did to me. The reason that Lumbini was relevant to our travels and studies was that it’s a planned city. Many countries that have a high Buddhist population have a temple and monastery near the actual site. These were organized by the plan that also divided two of the main Buddhist sects (I can’t remember what they were called, but I think it dealt mostly with those that are more traditional and those that are more modern), with one on each side of the canal. The whole thing was interesting, though I was mildly unimpressed. Part of it may also have been that I wasn’t feeling well. I did the Parle G and coke diet for the rest of the day and felt much better by the next day when we headed back to Kathmandu. Although our bus trip to these sites in the southern part of Nepal had collectively probably taken 14-15 hours, we flew back in less than an hour in a 16-passenger plane through the mountains.

Hello Himalayas!

Me at the famous-architect-
resort. Clearly I was thrilled
to be there.

We left around 8:30 in the morning for our next destination, which at the time I didn’t really know where that was. We ended up stopping for lunch at a mountain resort designed by a famous architect. The building was pretty lame, the food was worse than mediocre and extremely expensive (my most expensive meal on this entire trip, and probably one of the worst), and my cold was keeping me miserable and irritable. So in short, I wasn’t much of a happy camper.

We got back on the bus and began our mountain journey to our next hotel. And when I say mountain journey, I mean our small bus trekking up steep mountain roads with little to no space between the road and the massive cliff that we were driving on. I was slightly terrified, but it was incredibly beautiful and we were really able to see the Himalayas for the first time (the mountains around Kathmandu are smaller, more like massive hills, rather than the snow covered peaks we saw on this journey). We made it to the hotel around 6ish, and were shocked by the incredible view that we had there. The balconies directly faced the postcard-esque mountainscape.

Sunset on the mountains.

After dumping our bags in the rooms, we went for a walk through the local village. Apparently in our next project, which we’ll be starting in a few days, we’re going to be building and designing some sort of earthquake resistant community center, and we’re looking at how and why the local people building the way they do. The village main street was surprisingly quaint and inviting. After talking to some locals and eating dinner, we made our way back to the hotel and prepared to head to Chitwa National Park the following day.

Arrival in Kathmandu

My European boyfriend Tad and myself

The arrival in Kathmandu was nearly as stressful as the departure from Delhi. We had to apply for and purchase tourist visas upon arrival, and we found out that you have to pay in cash, AND there is no ATM. What? This just seems strange to me. Nihal ended up lending Tad and I the money, and as soon we reached the ATM after the visa application stand, we paid him back. At this point, I was exhausted, sick, and just about done with all of the disorganization and unexpected obstacles. A bus was there to pick us up as well as some of the students that we will be working with later. 

Historic part of Kathmandu

By the time we actually made it to the bus, I was exhausted, frustrated, congested, and ready to be done with anything involving the Cap Asia itinerary. Our hotel is in a very touristy part of Kathmandu. It’s nearly all foreigners in this area and it has things like Irish pubs and American song cover bands. It was pretty much just what I needed after a day of travel hell. Tad and I ate dinner at the hotel, everyone had a few drinks, and then we sat down to a meeting with Nihal to sort out all of the day’s miscommunications and figure out how to distribute information more effectively in the future. There was also talk of Chharanagar; an experience that feels strangely like it took place months ago. The meeting went exceptionally well despite all of the day’s frustrations from every angle of the issue. The consensus attributed this to the beverages that were consumed prior to the discussion.

Prayer flags

After the meeting, most of us went out in pursuit of more beer, and I wound up with an exceptionally strong hot tottie for my cold at an Irish pub with an American cover band that played songs by bands such as Credence Clearwater Revival and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yes, please. After we finished our drinks, we went to a rooftop bar that smelled entirely of beer and marijuana…keep in mind that I’m smelling this through a ridiculously stuffy nose. We got beers, stayed for a bit, then left at midnight when the bar closed, and police actually storm the place to get everyone out. Midnight, police? I guess this is how Nepal nightlife works. I was glad to head back though and finally get some rest, though the evening out had definitely helped me to unwind myself from all of my vicious frustrations and bitterness I had collected throughout the day.

Buddhist site in Kathmandu

The following day we spent as tourists, visiting many of the major historical and cultural sites within Kathmandu. I know very little about all the sites we saw, though it was certainly enjoyable to get to see the city a bit. I came to realize that my hopes for cleaner air were definitely not going to come true, and that people actually wear masks here because the air is so polluted in the valley. We got back around 8, and had a similar night as the one before, though Tad and I went out on our own, independent of the group. We got back relatively early, and I packed and went to sleep, preparing for our travel the next day.

Three nights in Delhi

Tad and I in front of the legendary Taj Mahal in Agra

After spending three days and two nights in Delhi, I’m still kind of wondering what exactly our purpose was there. The travel there was hectic, as usual with this group, but not too bad. We arrived in the capitol city to see dark skies, rain clouds and smog; quite a bit different than sunny Ahmedabad. We took a taxi to “Gwyer Hall,” the hostel type of accommodations where we were staying in Delhi University’s North Campus. Even though there were walls and ceilings, the place still made camping look somewhat luxurious; we managed though, and for four days the place really wasn’t too bad.

View from the Taj

Day 1: Arrival

After arriving, we took the metro to find some food and beer (which was definitely exciting since we’d been in the dry state of Gujarat for the past six and a half weeks). The metro system was actually pretty impressive; I love knowing the feeling of being able to stretch out to any part of the city I wish to travel to, quickly and cheaply. We actually ended up finding a KFC, and even though I’m pretty sure I’ve only eaten there once or twice ever in the U.S., familiar food was definitely welcome and needed after the long day of traveling. After KFC, we hit the bar next door, had a beer or two, then jumped on the last train back to hostel to grab some sleep before the next day’s journey to the Taj Mahal.

Day 2: Agra

Me standing next to the Taj

In order to reach Nizamuddin Train Station by our 6:00 am train to Agra (where the Taj Mahal is located, about three hours by train from Delhi), we left the hostel at 4:45 to head to the metro to take us to our train. It was about 5:05 when we reached the metro station and discovered that the first train headed to our destination didn’t leave for another twenty minutes. We our 6:00 train that we already had bought tickets for in Ahmedabad, we definitely couldn’t risk it, so we jumped in rickshaws that successfully dropped us off at the station in time. Even though we were completely ripped off, we were in no situation to argue, as our timing was starting to get a bit desperate.

With three rickshaws, one was separated from the other two, but we were eventually able to meet up with everyone and climb on our train. We were in a pretty decent class, 3A I think, and we had sleeper bunks that were mostly near each other. I was actually able to get a bit of sleep on the way there, despite my biggest paranoia of missing the stop. There are no announcements about which stop is which or how much longer is left to a certain place. It seems that everyone just magically wakes up and knows when their stop is coming up. I still haven’t quite figured out how they do it, and of course I had multiple alarms set and asked the guy selling breakfast three or four times how many more stops there were until Agra.

Tad in one of the nearby buildings

We successfully got off at the correct location and then hired prepaid taxis to take us to the Taj. Four of us ended up hiring our taxi driver to take us around the city for the remainder of the day for a mere Rs. 350 (approximately $8…for the entire day).  Several of the others were pretty skeptical about this, but I though it really worked out because he knew where to take us to lunch and dinner (he asked if we wanted safe food or cheap food…I said both, and we were pretty satisfied), took us to the Taj, a marble place where we got to see how the details of the Taj were done, as well as Agra Fort. He also made sure we made it back in time for our 7:00 pm train, which was definitely a big plus, at least for me.

Agra Fort

The Taj Mahal was incredible. Many times I find large monuments and hyped up places to be fairly overrated, but this was definitely not the case with the Taj Mahal. The structure was powerful and impressive, and the entire landscape was elegant and beautiful. Agra Fort, the other main tourism spot we visited, was also beautiful, though I need to learn more about the history and what it was used for.

If I were to describe the train ride there as somewhat enjoyable and relaxing, the train ride back was entirely the opposite. We had previously bought the only tickets that remained for the ride home, which were located in the lowest coach. While we had bunks in the first train, we had long benches, filled with people. All of our seats were separate too, so most of us didn’t get to sit next to each other. In the car that I was in, all of the seats faced backward, besides the bench that I was on, which faced forward, towards all of the other people. As if I wasn’t being stared at enough already, I had to face everyone in the entire car, and was stared at by the majority of the people for the most of the three-hour train ride. I was also attempting to catch up on my journal during the ride, so consequently, I had three or four people reading over my shoulder for the entire ride. I was pissed for an hour or so, but then I realized once again that it’s India, and when things like this or mice pooping on your bed happen, or you find out that the hotel doesn’t wash the towels unless there is visible dirt on them, it’s a lot easier to accept it and move on. India has slapped me in the face so many times, what’s one more time before I run to Nepal?

Day 3: Presentations

Agra Fort

We got back around 11:00 pm from Agra; I was wiped, so I showered (by bucket of course) and went to bed. In the morning we had a presentation with the Fulbright people. Most of us were under the impression that we had to present our project in Chharanagar to them since they are funding half of our trip, but it turned out that it was pretty much an advertisement for us to consider applying for a Fulbright grant to India, which naturally sparked some ideas in my own head.

After the presentation and tea, we prepared for the next round, which involved presenting what we did in Chharanagar to students of the School of Planning and Architecture, and then they subsequently presented their most recent project to us. The two projects had amazing similarities, though the methods were almost opposite. Ours dealt with a bottom-up approach that was almost entirely based on community interactions and work with the people. SPA’s method was much more data-based, with only a few community interactions, which is really the way most planning occurs (definitely including studios at Ball State). Which is better? I would argue both, working together. One of the professors from SPA made the comment that both were good, effective approaches, but the most successful project or plan will arise only from a combination of the two.

Tad and I at Agra Fort

From my own experience, and also from conversations with the SPA students after the presentation, the main constraint for someone who is willing and able to tackle both approaches simultaneously is time. Deadlines will exist inevitably, particularly with short semester projects, so the easily gathered and manipulated hard data seems to be the most time effective approach. Because of this data priority, a heavier emphasis and value must be given to the community interaction and submersion within the society…just a thought though.

The SPA students were awesome. We only chatted with them for a bit after the presentation, but they were exciting, interesting, and interested in our project and us as well. It was a bummer that we couldn’t have spent more time there with them, as they were far more interested in us than the CEPT students. They wanted to show us around Delhi, party with us, and give us advise on where to go. Unfortunately we left the next day at noon, so we regrettably had to decline all of their offers.

After the presentations, Patrick, Tad and I took the metro to Parharganj, a big shopping area in Delhi. Unlike the other fairly uncrowded times that we had ridden the metro, we were there during rush hour; the number of people flooding on and off the train was unreal. Quite ineffectively, everyone rushes onto the train and the same time that everyone rushes off of it, resulting in a lot of unnecessary pushing and shoving. We actually ran into one of the SPA students on the train and were chatting with him as I realized that we were approaching our stop. We tried desperately to make our way to the door, and as the doors slid open, I threw myself against the crowd in front of me to push my way through. The people didn’t budge, and I found myself sandwiched in between two Indian strangers as the doors slammed in front of my face.

Agra Fort

Since we missed the only stop for which our tickets were good for, we had to wait for the other train going in the opposite direction to reach our actual destination. I would have loved to take a picture of a video of it, but 1.) It’s already pretty clear that I don’t belong there; I try not to draw even more tourist attention from the locals. 2.) I was using all of my energy and force to push through the solid, stationary wall of people. 3.) My camera would have probably been smashed or snatched, neither or which I was interested in dealing with.

Paraharganj was awesome. We got there kind of late due to the presentations and the whole train incident, but we had plenty of time to catch up on some much needed shopping (Ahmedabad has pretty much no touristy shopping because there’s very little tourism in the city, besides us that is) and to grab some dinner.

A Note on Air Quality

Have a mentioned how unbelievable wretched the air quality in Southeast Asian cities is? Absolutely awful. I though Ahmedabad was bad, then I went to Delhi, and was sick within two days. I went to the presentation that morning feeling fine, and left with a nasty cold. I’m hoping the air in Kathmandu will be somewhat cleaner so I can at least recover.

Day 4: Departure

The only photo I took in Delhi...ha

I absolutely despise airports; I instantly become stressed when I’m making my way to a flight, and the experience preparing for the flight from Delhi to Kathmandu is precisely the reason why (this experience even rivaled with my ninja star/Haiti incident).

Essentially, our entire group almost missed our flight due to a massive miscommunication, along with several occurrences that were out of everyone’s control. The first issue occurred since Nihal was staying at a hotel somewhere else, while the whole group was still at the hostel. Somehow our plans to meet Nihal at the connecting metro station and take the airport express to the airport evolved into us all being on our own and having to call cabs. I’m still not quite sure how this happened, but the important part was that Nihal still thought that we were all going to meet him at the metro station, and we were somewhat panicked and confused as we waited for taxis, thinking we were supposed to meet Nihal at the airport. Anyways, the taxis came, and one sped off before we could ‘prepay’ for it, so the other taxi drivers demanded that we pay for that one as well. I’m still not really sure how that dispute was settled, but it took about 45 minutes until we were actually on the road. Keep in mind that our flight wasn’t until 12:55 and we were all dressed, packed, and ready to go at 9:00 am.

So we’re on our way to the airport, running pretty late already. Something unique to Indian airports (at least I haven’t experienced this anywhere else) is that in order to even enter the airport, you have to show a printed itinerary with your name on it. Some of the itineraries that were distributed had multiple names on them, while mine just had me. Tad’s itinerary though, had several people on it, and he didn’t have the copy of it. As all the taxis arrived at different times, no one decided to meet at a common place, and everyone proceeded to check in on their own, so Tad was not able to get the itinerary. As a result, we had to go through a whole process to get a printed version of Tad’s itinerary. By the time that whole mess was settled, it was about noon, and we still had yet to go through emigration and security. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it was about this time that they announced that our plane was boarding.

We waited in the huge emigration line, and twenty or thirty minutes later, the airport attendants rushed us to an empty line so that we could get through and not miss our flight. After we made it through emigration and security, we began the run for the plane around 12:40 when they were announcing the last calls for Kathmandu. It turned out that it was one of the farthest gates, and I was actually sweating when we finally reached it. Despite all the obstacles and disorganization though, we all amazingly made it on the plane and set off for Kathmandu.