Blogs from Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, Asia - page 6

So we finished up our first week of rotations today and in the spirit of a good recap (not to mention some email inquiries) I figured I'd try and sum up a "typical" day....if there is such a thing here....note...this gets long...feel free to skim.....some medical stuff in here too..let me know if you need clarification... I've been having trouble sleeping past 5:30 each morning...maybe its the jet lag..but breakfast isn't served until around 7:30 so I read for about two hours every moring...making good progress too...three books down since I've been here (Da vinci Code, The Rum Diary...finally I only started that one at Dead Week last year, The Sun Also Rises)...better pace myself...then breakfast comes...our host mother makes us these potatoe sandwhiches with chili sauce and as much Chai as we can drink. Its ... read more

Dehradun is like a carnival on acid, where amazement mingles with nausea right up to the point where you almost can't take it then backs off to give youa break. Smells cycle recklessly from "barnyard" to "fried food" to "garbage" and back. The bumper cars have no enclosure and no rules, and for 4 rupees (10 cents) you can go along for the ride. The rickshaw drivers play indian hip-hop which is the most annoying sound in the world until you realize you've been bobbing your head with the beat for 10 minutes. The women wrap themselves in the most brilliant colors and shiny jewelrey then squat barefoot in a pile of trash and play with their half naked children. Our rotations have fallen into step in this parade of contrast known as Dehradun. This morning ... read more

I wasn't too full of beans when I got up at 10AM, but there was admin to be done which brooked no laziness. I drew a skeleton map of the area, showing just the bus station and the hotel, and asked the reception guy (who spoke good English) to fill in i) the railway station, ii) an Internet cafe, and iii) an optician. His initial response was to tell me where the tourist information office was, but that seemed an unnecessary detour so I pressed him again. Unfortunately that proved to be a mistake. He positioned the railway station on the right hand side of a crossroads, whereas in fact it was a good quarter of a mile away on the left hand side, he said there was an Internet cafe next door but I couldn't ... read more

Took the auto-rickshaw to the Forest Research Institute Museum, set in a 500 hectare park and is housed in a very grand Raj era building - according to Lonely planet its bigger than Buckingham Palace, stat’o. It was a fabulous building and the grounds were beautiful, lots of trees and monkeys. Museum was interesting but it had seen better days. Took a vickram (shared autorickshaw) back to the hotel. Dropped off at the clock tower. A young Indian man introduced himself as I was walking to the hotel and asked if he could spend the day with me. He said he liked to spend time with foreigners. Couldn’t really say no so we went for tea, talked politics. Strolled around the park and an old man lectured us on literature and philosophy, he wrote a quote ... read more

In May this year I decided to visit Kedarnath and Badrinath. On the way, I had to stay for a day in Dehradun because a friend who had promised to give me ride up to Rudraprayag – the place from where one gets vehicles for Kedarnath -- had some work there. Since I had a full day to roam around I decided to visit Sahastradhara, a popular picnic spot some six kilometers away from the city. Dehradun is capital of the newly-created hill state Uttaranchal. The city is known for its education institutes especially Doon School and Indian Military Academy. It used to be a cool city a few years ago. But since it became capital, its lungs seems to have got choked. The area around Ghanta Ghar (Clock Tower) is full of pollution created by ... read more