Alex and Rory: Calicut

I arrived in Calicut at 6am- it was cool and I was glad to have my sweatshirt. I was picked up and brought to the apartment where they house the visiting faculty- it's in a building where the EM fellows also stay, a short walk from the hospital. It was nice. There was some confusion about my stay though, for some reason Dr Venu thought I was going to be in Calicut for only two days and scheduled me to start teaching RIGHT away (I mean an hour after I got to the apartment)- he planned to have me teach for 6-8 hours... I of course, was falling over from fatigue and sorted the whole thing out with him and was told to go and rest. Instead I walked around the city, exploring. I walked to the city beach after being told that the beach was only 10 minutes away and pointed in a general direction. (I think the EM fellows have given Faisel a LOT of flack over this) I walked along the life and limb threatening streets- sidewalks, streetlights and crosswalks do not exist, though there is an order to the madness. After sometime, I stopped for more directions and was told to keep going and it was maybe 10 minutes. Half an hour into the walk, I arrived at a large and busy fruit and vegetable market, anohter say 20 minutes later I found myself at a railroad crossing. People were ducking under the barrier and walking along the tracks- I decided to play it safe and wait for them to allow me through- a train came by, I continued along and maybe an hour and half after I started I arrived at the Calicut beach. It was pretty enough, city street drainage flowed out into the beach and Arabian Sea. Going back I decided to take an autorickshaw- 10 minutes.

Moon over river in Calicut

Calicut city beach

Dr Venu at the Ayurevedic Center lunch- we had to eat/drink everything in a specific order. Afterwards I had an Ayurevedic massage- oily

went back tot he city beach with one of the EM fellows- have no idea why there were camels there but we went on a ride along the beach

Making banana chips- I took a little video. There banana chips are DELICIOUS- fried in coconut oil...

MIMS hospital does not have a prehospital care system, they do have a mobile ICU for patient inter-hospital transport. I went on one trip- actually to Wayanad, on my last full day in Calicut.