Blogs from Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India, Asia - page 4

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie June 15th 2006

Queen of the Hills, Mussoorie, 2,003 m (~6,600 ft) high. Beautiful, a bit touristy, great views, but most importantly to me right now, the weather here is actually COOL! Believe it or not, I actually need BLANKETS at night!! It's amazing, and such an great, great relief from the incredible humidity and sweat-drenching heat of DehraDun. Here we're working at Landour Community Hospital, part of the Emmanuel Hospital Association (and is therefore Christian). It's a 35 bed hospital situated pretty high up on the mountain, and treats people from the city as well as a good 200 or so of the surrounding villages! It's not very big - right now there are only 3 full-time doctors, one 1/2 time (she's recovering from some intensive chemo and radiation therapy), a physiotherapist, and maybe 10 nurses. The doctors ... read more

A billion and one

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie June 13th 2006

The Waker

The population of India is estimated to be around one billion. As of 11:45pm India Standard time last night that number increased by one. At 7,500 feet in Landoore Comunity Hospital in the hillstation of Mussoorie I observed my first c-section. Landoorie hospital is a christian missionary operation staffed with international doctors built right into the side of the mountain. Its a self descirbed "hospital within a hospital," providing low cost sometimes free care the the rural population in the surrounding hills, and pay-for-service care the the large tourist population that visits during the summer months. We arrived yesterday moring via jeep from Dehradun. Athough describing the vehicle we rode in as a "jeep" is about as appropriate as describing a wad newspaper as a "kleenex". It gets the job done but you're bound to be ... read more

time flies

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie June 15th 2005

We met Magenta DeVine

David and Tanuja

Our time at language school has nearly come to an end. we've completed 108 lessons and have just 8 more until we leave for Delhi on Friday. We have both learnt a huge amount over the past 6 weeks but strangely seem to have learnt completely different things. I can tell you in minute detail about hindi grammar and sentance constuction (no use at all) while Tanuja can happily chat with shopkeepers and the indian friends we have made here (very useful). I suppose we make a good team. Our progress hasn't stopped the constant flow of huge language clangers. We stopped talking long ago about 'what was on the table' or 'what colour the book is' and in class tend to chat about much more interesting stuff, like current affairs. In a class only an ... read more

almost adventurous

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie May 30th 2005

tanuja in a nice new dress

David and Tanuja

So, whats been happening in India. Well the pass the pigs contest is getting firey, mainly because I (tanuja) keep winning. The score is now 154 to 128. David is convinced I have some kind of magical sway over the pigs as he can't, based on the scientific principles of probability, work out why I keep winning. The simple answer is that Carl and Brett (the pigs that is) like me more, and don't take kindly to David bouncing them across the room whenever he loses. Second story of last week was yet another enormous faux pas by me. Important exam results are being announced across India at the moment (sort of GCSE and A level equivalents). Very cleverly all of the results are announced on the internet. The candidate plugs in their number and the ... read more

donkey news

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie May 25th 2005

one stop egg shop

David and Tanuja

Today we accidentally stole a donkey. There is a system here where donkeys, followed closely by their owners, make the long trek up the side of our mountain, carrying whatever goods need delivering. It seems people can put stuff on and take stuff off at any point along the way. It's a good system. Anyway, we didn't realise how this worked, and inadvertantly joined a path between a resting donkey and it's resting owner. When the donkey senses someone behind him, he walks, presuming the person behind is the owner and rest time is over. The donkey walked ahead, we followed, the donkey stopped, and when we caught up he continued. This continued all the way up the hill, leaving the real owner oblivious to this far down the hill. the end. Hindi continues to be ... read more

newsy news

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie May 15th 2005

monkeys - young and old

David and Tanuja

right first things first. ...pass the pigs score is tanuja 64 david 54. Tanuja continues to cheat. A few things about the hindi language. After one week Tanuja and I are in no doubt that 'there is a black pen on the big book' or indeed that 'my small bag is red'. The word for food is the same as the word for 'man with one eye' and 'she has gone' is similar to 'those are cows'. it's such fun! i've realised that constant updates about what we have learnt at language school will be pretty tedious, so i'll stop. suffice to say we're having almost 4 hours of lessons a day, with another 4 hours of work at home. When you add this up with eating, washing, a bit of reading and 11 hours a ... read more

Mussoorie: The Queen of the Hills

Asia » India » Uttarakhand » Mussoorie August 15th 2004

View of the town

Lonely Wanderer

As the mercury begins to shoot up in the plains of the north India, Paharon Ki Rani (Queen of the hills) Mussoorie becomes the favorite cooling place for the people who want a break from the scorching heat. This popular hill station was established by an Irishman by the name of Captain Young little over 169 years ago. This growing town has changed over the last decade due to the overload of ‘tourism’ but it still has some of it’s old charm if you are ready to look beyond the Mall Road, the Gun Hill and the Kempty Fall – the three most famous and commercialized places here. The resort, situated at a height of more than 7,000 feet from sea level, has been immortalized by its most famous resident -- Ruskin Bond in his various ... read more

Brief history of India

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded about 1500 B.C.; their merger with the earlier Dravidian inhabitants created the classical Indian culture. Arab in...more history

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