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Published: April 9th 2008
At the Eye Doctor
Prem waiting to see the eye doctor. Her left eye swollen and very red.Prem is quite sick today, her hacking dry cough is still there if not worse. Her eyes are swollen and the left eye, tomato red! She had difficulty opening her left eyelids this morning, and it took about a minute before she could open her left eye, they were stuck.
We had woken up early today, 5:30am, to go to Kollam for a backwater tour on a house boat starting at about 9:00am. Kollam is a 2 hour drive north of Trivandrum. We decided to postpone the trip for today instead to take it easy as we were both very tired and we wanted to possibly see a doctor about Prem's cough and eye infection.
We went to see 2 doctors today. The first an eye doctor in a clinic - the Chakrabarti Eye Care Center, the other a general practitioner at a local hospital - the Cosmopolitan Hospital. True enough, Prem has a viral infection in her eyes brought on by the severe cough she has had for the last week or so. This viral infection could get worse and turn into keratitis of the cornea (corneal ulcer) which will requires further in-hospital procedures to fix. She received
Waiting for Meds
Prem waiting for her meds at the pharmacist in the hospital. Not a very organized system but it did not take too long to get her prescription filled. a cocktail of drugs both for the eye and cough and was told to monitor for 1 week and to see another doctor for a checkup wherever we are, we may be in Goa then. Meantime, Prem was crushed to hear it will take at least 2 weeks for the swelling and rdness to subside. There goes the partying!! Just not fair - first the temple event, now this, says her! We got the meds for both eye and antibiotics for the respiratory infection, eyecream & eye solution - all from the pharmacist at the hospital. I am also coughing slightly now although I feel ok so far. The visits at the doctors were fast and cheap. Prem was in and out of both the eye doctor and the GP in under an hour. The clinic and hospital was clean and operated efficiently even though it seemed like half the city was there to be tended to. We were quite impressed. It cost about Rs. 120 ($3) to see the doctors and about Rs. 700 ($18) for the antibiotics, cream, eye drops, cough mixture, etc.
All of this took place in the morning and its already lunch time now.
Cute Girl
This cute girl was very smitten by Prem and could not take her eyes off of her. Taken at the Cosmopolitan Hospital pharmacist. She's very cute! Off we went on our hunt for an authentic Kerala restaurant... Lunch was decent, we ate in a restaurant in a local hotel (yikes - another multi cuisine place!). This time it wasn't too bad, they had some authentic dishes; fish fry, mutton curry, stir fried plantains with spices. It was a buffett so we got to try a number of dishes - all was good and we were quite satisfied. We proceeded to a local grocery store, Spencer's, next to the restaurant, picked up a couple of mangoes to eat in the hotel tonight. It's not quite mango season yet but some are available although not the ones I was looking for - the Alphonso mango. I'll keep looking...
Monsoon like rain hit us this afternoon, its not monsoon season yet though. Loud thunder and heavy downpour - really, really heavy!! I loved it while Prem was not terribly keen on being soaked. Once the sky cleared up, we headed to a local jewelery store, a huge one which spans 2 floors. While the prices were no different from anywhere else, they had some very unique designs.
Headed back to the hotel late evening, passed by a
Syrian Orthodox Church
This is the St. George's Syrian Orthodox Church. There is a large community of orthodox Syrians here and they have a number of cathedrals in Trivandrum. number of street stalls selling deep fried banana, will try some tomorrow maybe get some for the 2 hr car ride to Kollam. We had a light dinner in the hotel (for $2.5 for two!!) and of course desert was the 2 mangoes I bought earlier in the day. It was really good, sweet and taste nothing like the one or two varieties that we get back in Canada.
Tomorrow, we head to Kollam for the backwater tour, our ride picks us up at 11:30am for the 2hr ride there and we will be doing a 3-4 hr boat ride with late lunch served on board. We will have to drop the day trip to Kanyakumari which was originally scheduled for tomorrow (the backwater tour for today) now as we leave for Kochi (Cochin) the next day, on Thursday.
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Ket
non-member comment
Do I still miss India?
Hope you feel and get better soon.. you're getting the full experience here! But, did you catch something there or was it from already being a bit under the weather before you left for the trip?