Pics of the week

All of the five-star hotels in Delhi are known for their fancy buffets. This week a family friend of the landlords' took us out to the dinner buffet at the Eros Hotel. They had Indian food, American, Japanese, Italian, Greek...

Dessert bar

Salad bar

This made me laugh sooo hard....so Friday was my roommate Sue's last day at work. She's leaving soon to move back to the U.S. I ordered this cake and asked them to write "Good luck, Sue" but a little got lost in translation...

Even hotter!

Couldn't resist the temptation to one-up my last post. Check out this HEAT!

In other news, I had my first experience receiving medical care here. It was just a sore throat, so probably the least threatening thing I could possibly go in for, but all went well. It's interesting the way that insurance plans work here--from what I understand, they almost all only cover hospitalizations, so any outpatient visits and prescriptions are all paid out-of-pocket. By US standards, those things are very cheap. My office visit was $18 and my prescriptions were about $1.50. I went to one of the nice private hospitals, but one of the big problems with health care here is that "doctors" will open clinics without actually having any qualifications. I think the problem is worse in rural areas than in big cities like Delhi. But, still, it's best to go to a hospital or follow a recommendation from a friend, because not every sign that says "doctor" means there is someone who has actually gone to medical school! This unregulated private sector is definitely one of the big challenges with the health system in India that needs to be addressed.

The Forecast

I am feeling quite pleased with myself for staying alive in this weather. I will blame my lack of blog posting on the heat sapping all my energy. See below for this week's forecast. The one redeeming feature is that it is not at all humid right now. That will come later in the summer and then it will be even more awesome. 

The woman who lives in the apartment below us moved out this weekend. She has lived there for almost 20 years and as you can see from the picture, she has a lot of stuff! We had a going away party for her on Friday night at the landlords' and they got out a bunch of old photos that we had fun looking through. Uncle brought out a list of all his previous tenants and was reading through all the names and reminiscing about each of them. It really made me realize how lucky I am to have a family here. I have been whining about the length of my commute to work for months and been planning to move once Sue leaves at the end of July, but now I think I've decided to stay. It's been a difficult month for me--been feeling really homesick, and sad that a lot of my friends here are moving away this summer--and I don't want to change my home, too. I'm a part of a family here and the prospect of moving out has made me finally realize what a wonderful part of my experience this home is. 

Nepal

I promise I am actually in India for work and that I do go to a job, but I have done a pretty good job of going on vacations lately :) I went to Nepal for 5 days last week--it was for a friend's wedding, but they ended up needing to have the events earlier at the last minute, so I didn't actually get to attend any of the ceremonies. Still had a great trip, though. People are really nice there and it's very traveler-friendly--I found it instantly more navigable than India is when you first arrive.
This is it for me for a while, though. No trips planned for a bit....I've finally signed up for a Hindi class which will meet twice a week and have found a yoga class I really like, so clearly I'm trying my best to get into stereotypical expat-in-India activities :) Next up--Indian cooking class.

Kathmandu

Not sure what these people are protesting about

Bhaktapur, an ancient walled city, no cars are allowed inside and people still live there. The buildings and temples are 300-500+ years old.

We spent two days hanging out by the river and going white-water rafting.

Sikkim

Last week I went to Sikkim, in northeast India. It looks very different from Delhi and the typical images you see of India. There are beautiful mountains (it's on the edge of the Himalayas), with small towns and villages scattered throughout the valleys, and lots of monasteries. The air felt so fresh and cool compared to hot, polluted Delhi!

Quitab Minar and Jama Masjid

It's taken me nearly six months in Delhi to see some sights that I'm pretty sure most tourists who are here  even two days manage to get to, but better late than never. A couple of weeks ago, I went to Quitab Minar - a very large minaret and surrounding Islamic architecture from the about the 1300s. And just last weekend, I finally went to Old Delhi. It's the most hectic and crowded part of the city, so I think it was actually good I waited a while to go; it would have been overwhelming when I first arrived. One of the most famous sites in Old Delhi is Jama Masjid - the largest mosque in India.

Quitab Minar surrounding area

The minaret. It's so tall, this picture doesn't do it justice. 

The colors of the stone and the designs carved into these arches are so beautiful. 

Me in front of the Jama Masjid. Nice outfit, huh? If you're showing much more than your wrists and ankles, they give you this mumu thing to put on. And of course, you can't wear your shoes. 

Jama Masjid

Old Delhi

Andaman Islands

I didn't end up going skiing this weekend after all, but I did finally get my pictures together from my trip to the Andaman Islands a couple of weeks ago. The islands are part of India, way off the southeast coast, in the Bay of Bengal.

The only flights to the Andamans are in and out of Port Blair, but we immediately took a ferry over to Havelock Island.

The beaches on Havelock are pretty amazing...jungle goes right up to the sand. Sand is so white and clean. Water so clear. No seaweed. No trash. Not even very many people. Sigh...

There are about six elephants that live on Havelock Island. Apparently they are left to roam around the island, but the tourist companies go get them whenever they need them for elephant rides, etc. If you shell out $200, you can go snorkeling with one! It would be pretty amazing to see an elephant swim, but that was a little outside my budget and I think there might be some animal exploitation issues that I'm not too comfortable with as well. 

Swinging on a vine.

Next we went to Little Andaman, another island which is even less touristed.

Traditional boats being built on the beach.

We bought coconuts from these women. Sooo good. 

Back in Port Blair, before flying out, I visited this old jail, which housed a lot of the political prisoners who were active in the movement for India's independence from Britain.

Sunset from one of the ferries.