http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kuki/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Kuki en-us Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:27:05 +0000 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 04:27:05 +0000 Dedicated to Jaspreet Singh Laly RIPMy placement finally ended after 4 weeks of invaluable experience at the Sri Ramachandra Hospital. During my rotation on General Medicine i met some great people whom i will surely maintain contact with. Special thanks must go to Dr Sujatha Dr Rupesh and Dr Bala. Dr Sujatha the assistant chief was always willing to teach and she made sure i viewed the wi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-143026.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPAfter the busy days at Sri Ramachandra hospital...the night time activities never disappoint http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-142100.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPDaytime on Saturday meant that Chennai sightseeing was the order of call. The places of visit included the Chennai Gurudwara Beach and Memorial Plaza. All of the respective destinations provided some immense photo opportunites http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-139902.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPThe arrival of Navtej from the UK implemented for many nights out during the week. This galvanised us to increase the pace further into the weekend.Friday provided a night out in Zara Tapas. A familiar surrounding which has now become accustomed as our local. The crowd was vibrant as always and everyone seemed to be easing into the weekend mode.The unfortunate http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-139898.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPMamallapuram is 60 km south of Chennai and offers tourist attractions with exotic beaches as well as the famous historic temples. Navtej's increasing knowledge of Chennai ensures that no attractions will be missed out. The journey on East Coast Road had an aire of tranquility personified throughout. The Bay of Bengal was on our left thus providing exceptional s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Mamallapuram/blog-140217.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPBollywood manages to churn out many movies per annum with audiences around the world massing to billions. The cinema experience in India therefore becomes a logical outing to pursue. Navtej had booked the tickets through two work colleagues who also joined us to watch the film Hatrick. This basically has a cricketing themed storyline thus guaranteeing it box http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-140886.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPWell March 15th is the date of all dates in the calendar year. My humble existence began on this planet 23 years ago. Maturity is setting in hopefully but the fun and frolicks will never endI was not granted the presence of Balaji because of wifee commitments yet this setback didn't deter both Navtej and I. Chola Sheraton was our destination.On entering this m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-138851.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPOnly 2 weeks previous both Matt and I were partying in Sway Bar Central London after passing our Final Medical Exams. Now our pathways met in Bangalore where we had arranged to meet when in the UK. All was not easy when contacting Matt. He was based in a remote village 1 hours drive from Mysore and had limited facilities with regards to internet access. The ev http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-137864.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPAfter the touring the Bangalore sights a night out in the vibrant city was overdue. Balaji had arrived in a rescheduled morning flight from Chennai. His wife had given permission for leave and now the city life was upon usThis was Balaji's place of study during university so he knew all the places to explore with regards to having an enoyable evening. We firs http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-137766.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPMy arrival at Shamashree Hotel was a pleasant journey from Bangalore airport. The general infrastructure could instantaneously be seen as an improvement upon Chennai. The roads are wider with less traffic attributable to the system. The buildings also have more promise providing familiarity to a rather western city..The saturday provided me with sightseeing oppo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-137473.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPOnce Balaji said he was visiting his inlaws at Bangalore for the weekend i decided to join him on this small escapade. The booking for flights was all in the hands of Balaji himself who reserved my tickets under indian resident status. This ensured a great reduction in price for the flight ticket comparable to the extortionate prices accountable to NRI's non http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Karnataka/Bangalore/blog-137387.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPOn Wednesday i met a final year Harvard medical student. This teaching hospital has a link with Harvard university thus allowing for the Harvard students to gain credits through an elective visit here. The californian was called Moses and he seemed relieved to see a UK based student at the same hospital. Moses is staying at the onsight lodgings which appear to http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-136191.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPDay 2 didn't live up to its ideal expectations as the morning became another waiting game. I had to see my supervising Registrar who would be coordinating my elective experience at the hospital. After being sent to a few varied locations around the Ramachandra Campus with copius time available to review my inner sanctum i finally got to meet the tutor Her nam http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-136179.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPNot much actually happened here. I met the dean and just seemed to wait everywhere for hours. Eventually things started to flow...and then it stopped. Bureaucracy seems to halt everything in India People take in information and overexaggerate it for no logical reason...just chill and use some common senseI feel that Tuesday may be more prosperous. Fingers cr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-135595.html Dedicated to Jaspreet Laly RIPI was ready. All suited and booted with my hair slickly combed in a boffinesque type method ready to tackle the high flying Indian doctors........However the hair soon went fuzzy and lost its zest and impetus only 5 minutes into the rickshaw journey. It took 45 mins to reach Sri Ramachandra Hospital. The journey itself was quite pleasant. The only problem was m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-135594.html The first day of hospital began with a 0630 wake up and a visit to the gym with Balaji. Gyms in India are no different to gyms in the UK. There are the same stereotypical muscle flexor performers who constantly idolise about themselves in the mirrors. There are also the usual cardio freaks i'm moderate who run for an eternal something. I remained on my usual treadmill regime which is just run http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-135590.html Navtej left on Saturday morning for his flight to UK so this left the apartment all to myself. The jet lag finally set in however which meant that most of Saturday was reserved for some heavy sleeping. The wonders of satellite TV also brought me the usual Saturday Premiership football which i could watch live on ESPN.Sunday was a day out with Balaji and his wife Kiran to the local shopping ma http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-135589.html After 8 months of work in Chennai Navtej has become familiar with most of his surroundings. He has to leave for UK on the 3rd for a weeks stay where he will update the UK Aveva base on his Chennai Aveva set up Navtej has a 23 year programme where he will direct a major office set up in India.Navtej's absence in the forthcoming week meant that he had to be my guide for the morning. The superm http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-134229.html The first night in Chennai brought us firstly to a modern Spanish Tapas bar. The decor could easily have been mistaken for a bar in London Mayfair. There was a vibrancy which would also suit most modern cities around the world. A DJ was everpresent to mix some dubious songs however. These consisted of 70's pop music mixed into mellow funky house random i know However the people around the bar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-134212.html Today i arrived in Chennai at 5pm after flying from London Heathrowvia Mumbai. I was greated in Chennai by Navtej whom i will be staying with for the next four weeks. His work colleague Balaji was also present upon my arrival and drove us through the busy streets of Madras.We arrived in Navtej's apartment which could easily be mistaken for a modern built 3bed london apartment The heavenly http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/Chennai/blog-134021.html