Trivandrum Feb 09

I know, I know, these are not pictures of Alex and Rory... I hope you enjoy these regardless! Tues morning I went off to see the Shri Padmanabhaswamy temple and Puttam Malika palace before going into work. The palace didn't open until 830 and I was worried about being late, so I did not get to go to the palace museum- I'll try to go there tomorrow afternoon perhaps, or maybe wait until May. Anyway, there were busloads of people at the temple, the temple was really striking- Dravidian style architecture of the neighboring Tamil Nadu. The palace is built in classic Keralan style architecture. (BTW- the info I have is mostly from The Rough Guide and Footprints)

Temple- seven tiered, high-walled, non-hindu are not permitted within

I believe this is a puttan malika or horse palace that supports the eaves

Palace in Keralan style

Weds, I was done on the early side, so I went off exploring a little more, palace, museum, zoo, market and ahhhh.... bookstore. Picked up a couple of books and am currently enjoying The Ramayana.

The Napier Art Museum was an interesting structure- built in the experimental "Indo-Sacacenic" style. Photography was not permitted inside- it was such an interestingly bizarre and oddly beautiful building. The artifacts within were interesting though there is almost no information provided.

The zoo was a restful area- though somewhat distressing because it was so poorly maintained. The walk was nice enough, there was quite a variety of animals and overall, a pleasant afternoon.

Bird enclosure area- not unlike the one at the National Zoo in theory- just poorly maintained

There were an amazing number of bats in the trees overhead by the rhino enclosure. Lots of activity and they kept flying around, making these sounds and then flying back to where they came from. No idea what they were doing, tried to get a video with sound- we'll see how that turned out.

Hippos

Rhino!

Reptile House- really really hot inside

Kannaka Kanna Palace

Kovalam Beach

I have one full day free in Trivandrum- I had to switch rooms a the place I was staying in (toilet didn't function, it was filthy and no internet) after that was all done it was almost 10am- I took an autorickshaw to Kovalam beach which is about 17km away. I was dropped off at the fancy 5 star resort -Leela where I had an outrageously expensive burger and fries but in the oh so relaxing environment of their terraced area brrezy, overlooking the ocean by the pool. Afterwards I walked into the town of Kovalam and walked along the beaches, hung out on the beach for a little while, climbed up the lighthouse, wandered through the town, had dinner at the Leela and watched the sunet (I was craving salad and they have ok to eat salad there- they grow stuff there) then came back to my room and skyped with Peter (hooray! hooray! internet in the room!! I've skyped with Peter and the kids a bunch of times already- so nice to feel connected again!)
Anyway, here are pics.

elephant at the Leela

the relaxing pool

a palace (what I was told)

people enjoying the surf

fishing boats on the beach- they go out in the morning and evening

fishing boat, lighthouse

view from lighthouse

mosque

looking down outside

climbing the stairwell

Enjoying the beach

sunset over the Arabian Sea, fishing boats heading out

Wayanad in Kerala

Turned out that I had only one free day while in Calicut- the first Sunday was there. One of the EM fellows, Pradeep, took me to Wayanad along with one of the EMS fellows (I'm a jerk and have forgotten his name). The Wayanad is a wildlife preserve with wild elephants, tigers, bears, monkeys, deer and lots of birds. To enter the wildlife preserve area to go on a "safari" you MUST rent a jeep and a guide (The guides are all native to the area- they call them "tribal people" and their work in the reserve is part of the compensation the governement has made with them since this land is all area where they ave hunted/gathered and fished). The drive to Wayanad took us three hours, through coffee, tea and pepper plantations, up hills/mountains along a road with 9 "hairpin" turns. We passed a gigantic statue of Jesus with a busload of muslims men standing in front of it getting their picture taken with the giant Jesus. The land for the church was donated by a large Muslim organization.
We arrived just after they closed the morning session but they let us go on the safari because we had driven from Calicut and I think someone in his family is a patient at MIMS... anyway, it was getting hot so we didn't get a ton of animal sightings. I wasn't exactly sure what we were doing for the day- I was hoping to do a little hiking and see some prehistoric cave paintings but I think we were unable to fit everything in due to travel time- the roads were tough. So, what we did get to do was to go to the preserve and to an island area where there is some hiking and lots of islands and rivers to wade through. Very pretty- we tried to get to some lake but it was closed when we arrived- looked like someplace to just relax and go paddle-boating. Okay enough blah blah blah, here are pics.

tea plantation

mama monkey and baby- kind of blurry

fresh tiger print on the path! I'm told there are only 6 left on last census

elephants bathing

bamboo jungle

"tribal people" on their way fishing- she has the woven fishing basket on her head- they make a little dam, then create a little opening and place the woven net in front catching fish as they come throug the opening

The toll gate/barrier thing - pic for Alex

haystacks with these things on top of them- meant to keep birds from eating the hay

paddy fields

pradeep

EMS fellow

river we needed to cross to get to the main island

A treehouse lookout

"tribal people" looking for shellfish

From the top of the 9 hairpin turns

monkeys are fed by tourists- the monkeys are pretty aggressive!

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.

Two EMS fellows and one of the EM fellows.

Last day- breakfast- ghee-roast (sp??) then spent the rest of the day helping fellows with their reserach projects.

With a few fellows in the resuscitation room

In front of the hosptial