Kathmandu!

Thankfully I woke up on Saturday ache-free! I had a bad cold that eventually subsided over the next couple days, and I slowly regained my appetite (there's nothing scarier to me than not being able to eat).

I caught a flight to Kathmandu Saturday morning to meet my buddy from UBC, Shriya, who lives there. We had a wonderful time! Shriya showed me around the Old City areas of Kathmandu and neighboring Bhaktapur and Patan, with wonderfully preserved, classic Nepali architecture. Her friends joined in for the day as well as additional tour guides :) I got the chance to try all kinds of yummy Nepali food - including amazing momos - the momos I've had in Delhi do not even compare!
Sunday, we went to Swayambhunath, or the Monkey Temple, where you walk up maybe 200 stairs to a Buddhist temple, surrounded by monkeys who just happen to love hanging out here. Later that day, we visited the Boudha Buddhist 'stupa,' a unique shrine painted with the eyes of Buddha, surrounded by a circular village with strong Tibetan influences. The temples in Kathmandu are fascinating because there is this peaceful complementarity and amalgamation between Hinduism and Buddhism; whether you are at a Buddhist or Hindu temple, you will find shrines typical of the other.
Monday, with a few hours to kill before my flight, I wondered around Thamel, an area of the city very popular with tourists, filled with shops to buy Nepali art, souvenirs, and trekking gear. I just got lost in there for hours, wandering into every shop to stare at the super cheap trek equipment and look at all the beautiful Buddhist mandala paintings.
Though still a bustling city, like the Indian cities I have visited, Kathmandu has this comforting peacefulness about it that I really enjoyed. Could be those awesome Buddhist monks everywhere, or the clean mountain air, or maybe that Nepali people are just more peaceful and laid-back in general! In any case, though the monsoon clouds covered the Himalayas from my view, the green hills were lovely and it was a wonderful getaway from Delhi.

This weekend, I go north to Amritsar on the Pakistani border, which is the heart of the Sikh religion. If I can survive the heat, the Golden Temple is supposed to be spectacular, and 'changing of the guards' at the Indo-Pakistan border crossing is supposed to be quite a show. More to come later!

:)

First time for everything

So since I came back from Malaysia, I've gotten to see a lot of different sides of Delhi.

The day after I returned, I went to Connaught Place, in the northern part of the city, which is a set of buildings in three concentric circles that houses shops and restaurants, apparently originally supposed to look like Bath's Royal Crescent and recently refurbished for the Commonwealth Games last year. I also took the metro for the first time - which is so nice! Very cheap, new, air-conditioned, and fast! Women-only cars are a great bonus. Like most places (including the KFC that used metal scanners when we walked in to ask for directions), you have to go through metal detectors, get patted down, get your bags screened to enter the metro. At first, I thought all this security everywhere you go was kind of overkill, and although I still think it's not terribly effective, in light of everything that just happened in Mumbai and in India over the years, I understand all the precautions.
The next night, we lost power for 21 hours in the apartment - devastating. The worst part is trying to sleep in the heat without AC or fan. Ugh.
That same week I went to Nizamuddin with colleagues from work, which was a completely different side of Delhi than I had seen. In what seems like a tiny city in itself, a tight, dizzying maze of alleys lined with merchants leads you into an opening in the center of this district where Muslims gather around shrines for prayer (and exorcism, judging from the terrifying screams we would hear from time to time). When you reach the shrines, you must take off your shoes and cover your head. The wonderful thing about Thursday nights is that a group of Sufi men will sit on the floor in the middle with a harmonium and a drum for "Qawwali" (devotional singing) and perform these incredible, rhythmic songs while people sit and gather around - it sounds amazing. Afterward, we dined at the famous Karim's in Nizamuddin - delicious Mughlai non-veg curries!
That weekend, our CHAI global nutrition guru, Andrews, arrived from Malawi. He had the weekend in Delhi free to explore before he would take off for field visits on Monday. So I, with my scarcity of knowledge of India, was his tour guide :) On Saturday, we didn't make it too far since we were catching up with work-related stuff and then it started to really pour outside - we got stuck in it of course. So we shopped a bit and got some great Punjabi food. On Sunday afternoon, we made our way north to the old Delhi area. First we went to Rajghat, a big, lovely park, centered around a memorial that marks the spot where Mahatma Gandhi was cremated. We then went over to the outdated but free Gandhi museum across the street. We went into the heart of Old Delhi around the giant Jama Masjid (mosque) and wandered around in the chaos and bustle there. This is also another very different view of Delhi, with its loud, tight, congested, chaotic markets - that may sound like the rest of Delhi as well, but Old Delhi is definitely something of its own. We found our way to the hidden other location of Karim's (I've heard different stories as to which one was the original) for more delicious meats!

That night, I went with some colleagues to my first Indian movie! We saw "Delhi Belly" - the big summer blockbuster here, filled with crude humor and poo jokes of course. They made a "Hinglish" version, so that I could happily understand most of it (and when I don't understand - I imagine what I think they're saying and I think "ha! that would be funny!" and then I'm laughing with everybody else). This wasn't the traditional Bollywood flick with the sudden break-out of song and choreographed dance though - I still have to catch one of those.
The following Tuesday - the 19th - I set out for 3 days of field visits. I first caught a 5:30 am flight to the city of Nagpur where I caught up with Andrews, our country director Amita, and my buddy Anita from Hyderabad to visit a factory that is making therapeutic milk powder to treat severely malnourished children in hospitals. Later that night, we spent the night in Nagpur - had dinner in the hotel restaurant where the waiter kept looking at me and insisting that they also had Chinese options when we were trying to order Indian dishes.
The next morning, Andrews and I flew to Indore where we met Fabian and Caitlin who took us on a 3-hour drive to Barwani, one of the rural tribal districts where we are doing our nutrition pilot. Once we got there, we checked into the 'fanciest' of three hotels in Barwani. At first sight - 30 flies on the bed, bathroom floor covered with dead bugs and dirty water marks, and a toilet that was a terrifying, opaque, rust-colored abyss - my hotel room was a little unsettling. Oh, and no water or electricity. It was a major improvement when we came back that evening and they had cleaned up the bugs, turned the water and power on, and I had working AC! (But still no toilet paper or tissues in the hotel or at any store in the district it seemed - thank God for restaurant napkins)
We spent that afternoon and the next day reviewing, discussing, and debating our implementation plans, and going over our training materials with the local trainers and a practice group of community health workers.
Three days in the field starts to feel like a week. Especially when, after 7 weeks of trotting around blissfully unscathed by the everyday germ pools of Delhi, I got hit with the full fury of India's biggest weapon (other than soul-crushing bureaucracy) - Delhi Belly. Well, not quite. In defense of my warrior stomach, it wasn't the food, judging by my series of symptoms. Tuesday started with what seemed like my usual sinus allergies, followed by what started to look like an eye infection, then a full cold on Wednesday, then terrible flu-like aches all over by Thursday, and an intolerant stomach by Thursday night - which was of course when we had to get into a 3-hour bumpy ride in the van back to the Indore airport and get on a flight back to Delhi. Not comfortable. That was likely the peak of the illnesses, where when I thankfully got back in my bed in Delhi, I still spent most of the night writhing around in pain, and wanting that one thing that you need (other than Cipro - thank God for my stash of that) when you're sick - MOM. Friday I stayed home, and pretty much stayed in bed the entire day trying to sleep off the aches everywhere in my body and the chest pains. You know you're pretty sick when you start to forget what it was like to feel normal. To add to things, I had to get up early the next morning to go to Kathmandu for the weekend - so I had to recover as soon as possible. And for the most part - thankfully - the flu aches went away just in time Saturday morning :)
So everyone has to get sick at least once while here - another war story - I think (and hope) I've got it all out of my system for the summer.

To be continued... in Kathmandu!
:)

Malaysia truly Asia

As opposed to you other countries that are "doubtfully Asia" or "sort of Asia" or "wish you were Asia."

I took a 5-hour overnight flight to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday night, the 6th, from Delhi - what a joy to take my seat in a 300-person plane with less than 100 passengers, and to hear that "Selamat datang tuan-tuan dan puan-puan" (Welcome ladies & gentlemen) for the first time in 7 years! From KL, I took a quick flight over to Penang island. Already felt like a world away from India - no one was pushing me off the plane, no one in a rush, people were so nice, even at immigration! And once my aunt picked me up - no honking or trash in the streets, people driving in the lines! So on day 1, I had lunch with my aunt and my cousin, Jocelyn's soon-to-be husband, Adrian, then afterward went for a 3-hour mani-pedi with Jocelyn. This is a big milestone for me - I have never really let someone touch my feet my whole life without trying to break their nose. I don't like feet. But my cousin wanted me to tag along, so I thought - this could be my big breakthrough. Success! After some initial twitching, there was no kicking and I actually enjoyed it! Though I took a pass on that ancient torture device they use to peel skin off your feet, yikes.
On to more important things though - the food. I dream of Penang 'hawker food,' i.e. street/market food vendors. On day 2, I had hawker food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! The dinner was actually at my aunt and uncle's house, where caterers actually set up hawker stands in the driveway for relatives and guests who came over for a wedding's eve dinner.
On to the most important thing - my cousin's wedding! So I really didn't know what to expect before I arrived, having never been to a Siew wedding, or any Asian wedding ever. Once I arrived in Penang, my aunt and cousin gave me a rundown of the schedule of events, and they wanted me to be a part of everything so I could see how an Asian-style wedding works.
So Saturday - wedding day - I woke up at 6:30 am to get ready and get into a Malaysian school uniform. To explain... the morning of the wedding, there is a 'stealing of the bride' at the bride's family's house, orchestrated by the bride and her bridesmaids and friends, though the bride is not present for the event but is upstairs getting ready. Basically the bride's "hens" set up all of these embarrassing tasks for the groom and his groomsmen/friends so that they can earn their way to the bride. For this event, the couple decided to have a school theme, so us ladies dressed up in high school uniforms, and the boys arrived in a rented school bus, wearing their own uniforms. They then went through a series of chores - put on makeup, drink mystery vegetable juice, jump rope with another guy and weights on their back, give us money, eat licorice and chilis blindfolded off of skimpy lingerie that the groom has to wear - being punished with a mouthful of wasabi whenever the ladies saw fit. Finally the boys earn the right to steal the bride, and can go upstairs to fetch her, and we can all see the beautiful bride in her gown for the first time! At this point, I had to change out of my school uniform because we then all transition into the first tea ceremony for the bride's family. During the tea ceremony, the couple hand tea to their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles as a way to give thanks, and get little envelopes (angpaus) and jewelry in return. They also give angpaus to their younger, single relatives (like me!). I rode with the best man and maid of honor to follow the couple to two other houses for tea ceremonies on the groom's side of the family.
Once I got back to the house, I headed out with my my relatives to the Hard Rock Hotel for the ceremony and reception, and we would later spend the night as well. I learned quickly that I should have brought more clothes... I had my one beach dress for the day (originally think the wedding was just an evening affair), getting all sweaty in the Malaysian heat, while everyone else changes into at least 3 different dresses during the day. Alas, I will be better prepared for the next wedding!
Despite a bit of heat, the garden ceremony was so lovely - in between the hotel's pool and the beautiful beach. Chairs were set up in the sand, with a red carpet aisle leading to an arch decorated with flowers. My cousin looked stunning!

About an hour later, we all headed over to the ballroom inside, decorated with a masquerade theme - we were all given masks on our way in, and each table was named after a musician/band, to reflect the Hard Rock co-theme of course (the couple sat at the Lady Gaga table, and I was at Bon Jovi). As the first dishes came out, so did an Elvis impersonator with a team of ladies in wigs that made us all get up and do a dance at our tables :) There was no dance floor, but there was an awesome soul/jazz live band for the rest of the reception, I was a total groupie all night dancing in my chair and singing along. There were three video montages played on a big screen - one that Adrian had made telling the story of their lives through pictures (totally adorable), one from the videographer of the morning's 'stealing the bride' events (hilarious), and one by Jocelyn's brother, Wei Kee, of their childhood pics after his speech (the only time I let myself totally bawl all day!). The emcee who had been a sort of hype-man during the ceremony also led the events of the evening - which included a game in which the groom and a bunch of his friends get on stage, then the bride blindfolded has to touch all of them (the emcee specifically encouraged her to squeeze all of their bums) to guess which one was her husband. Then they switch, but the groom can only touch the girls' arms. The reception was lots of fun, then all of the young'uns headed over to a club down the street for the afterparty! I stayed for a giant margarita but then was soon ready to pass out and headed back, while most of the crowd partied until the wee hours.
The next day, after a Siew-Kung (my aunt's side of the family) banquet lunch, I spent the afternoon with Siew and Kung cousins, eating ice cream fondue and doing a bit of shopping :)
The evening was a relaxing recap at the house, hanging out with my aunt and uncle, the new couple, and their friends who came over for some karaoke. Oh, and of course, there was some durian involved. The notorious durian. Every time I have come to Malaysia, it's been hit or miss with the durian. I'm usually thrown off by the odor (I think it smells like garbage), appearance (looks downright inappropriate), and texture (on the inner fruits, it's a super thin skin covering creamy flesh). But this time, it was the taste - which I remember being milder in my childhood - that stopped me after one small bite. Tastes like rotting onions, I'm pretty sure.
The next morning, at 5 am, it was time to get on a flight back to the hustle and bustle of Delhi after a luxurious, both busy and relaxing island weekend. Despite missing my parents (I've never come to Malaysia without them before) and occasionally feeling a bit lost with the language barrier (especially when you know a huge table of people are all talking about you but you don't know what they're saying), it was so nice to see a lot of my aunts, uncles, and cousins, who I haven't seen in at least 7 and up to 18 years. It's just so great that I happened to be in Asia this summer so that I could finally go to my first Siew wedding.

:)

Hyderabad

So I actually just came back today from a few days in Malaysia, but I'll have to blog a bit in pieces to catch up! So this entry will be about my trip to Hyderabad July 2-4.
I flew to Hyderabad (2-hour flight south of Delhi) on Saturday morning (the 2nd) and caught a taxi into the city to meet my Tufts friend, Maggie, and her new husband, Mohit. We then took a bus (my first time on a bus in India! protected by the safety of male-female segregated seating!) and a rickshaw (fitting me, Maggie, Mohit, and their friend Sam in the back) for a snug, long ride to the other side of the city to have an amazingly delicious home-made lunch of specialties of the region, Andhra Pradesh, at Maggie's pastor's house. My first time eating Indian food with my hands (or hand rather, and only the right one to be proper, not that dirty left hand - the "personal" i.e. toilet hand) - curries, dal, rice, and all! Eating lunch in someone's home is an affair of a few hours, complete with a siesta - yes, they will offer up their couches and beds for you to take a good nap after eating! Maggie and Mohit then moved along to their B&B wedding gift at a fancy hotel in town and I headed to my own hotel. Night started to fall and the only exploring I did at that point was to buy some fun lip balm (I like to buy local flavors everywhere I go, who doesn't) and contact solution (which involves a lot of circling to different chemists [tiny drug counters] and finally an optician's office where a clerk needs to hop on his bike and go somewhere to find you some non-brand-name solution while you wait for 20 minutes and the little old man behind the counter tries to explain the mysteries of the retina). I'm still stuffed from lunch but have to order in some biryani - the specialty of the region - rice that is infused with the flavors of marinated meats that it is steamed with... really nice, though was way too much food for me after such a big lunch feast.
The next day, Maggie and I met up and had a hearty breakfast of naan, rice, and several different curries. We then went over to the old part of the city to get me some "jootis" (little flat leather shoes) and "chapals" (sandals made of camel leather). That Maggie is a hundred times better at bargaining than I am. We hopped into the tiniest little bicycle rickshaw - likely meant to hold one baby and not two adults - down to the Charminar, the big landmark in Hyderabad - a big structure with four minarets and arches all around. We climbed up to the top to get a great view of the hustle and bustle of old Hyderabad. I asked Maggie whether it was OK to take pictures inside, and she said "of course - people may even ask to take a picture of you!" Which one guy did - and Maggie scolded him in Hindi and told him we were not a tourist attraction. From there, we walked through alleys filled with bangle shops to Chowmahalla Palace, a beautiful 200-yr-old royal estate, and nice reprieve from the business of the bazaars and chaos of traffic and people.
On Day 3 in Hyderabad, I went with a CHAI colleague from our Hyderabad office, Anita, to visit a hospital in Nalgonda (2.5 hrs from Hyderabad by car) in which they'll be building a nutrition rehab center. It is always very interesting (and sometimes hopeful or sometimes alarming) to see the conditions and meet the staff of different hospitals in rural areas. Once we got back to Hyderabad in the afternoon, we honored the 4th of July at a restaurant that served us hot dogs, burgers (lamb - no beef of course), Hawaiian pizza, apple pie, and banana bread!
Soon afterward, I had to hop back on a flight back to Delhi. Overall, a great trip to Hyderabad with some sight-seeing, field visit, and good fun with Maggie and Anita! They also were great in giving me a refresher course in haggling and fending off weird men - just what I needed halfway through my summer in India.

I'll save my trip to Malaysia for the next entry!
:)

P.S.

Forgot to mention yesterday that my crazy auto driver was offering to let me drive the rickshaw. "Next time"...

:)

I survived the FRRO.

The Foreigner Regional Registration Office in Delhi. The stuff of nightmares.
So Monday morning I arrived at the office at 7:15 am (it opens at 9:30 am). A colleague, Michael, from a partner org needed to take care of some visa stuff as well and got there before me and fortunately put me on the magic list, so that we were #2 and 3! You then hang out in an outdoor waiting area until the office opens, getting eaten by mosquitoes (I got lit up), and watch the area fill up. The seats are split in half by Afghan Nationals (many refugees and immigrants coming to India) and Everyone Else. At 9:30, people frantically got into a line and amazingly a man goes down the crowd to make sure that you are in the order of the magic list. Things get tight in this line - like stacked spoons. I was lucky to have Michael guide me through - this process is a serious gauntlet of 6 or so stations/men that you have to get through. I got my way through #1 (magic list), #2 (security), and #3 (reception), but got the veto from #4 - the counter - the guy who actually stamps everything and makes it official. The letter I brought from John stating that I was staying at the apartment as a guest wouldn't work - the letter must come from the landlord. So after 3 hrs at the FRRO, I left empty-handed.
It took four days to get said letter from the landlord - seems like Indian bureaucracy loves lots of signed letters, but people don't actually like to sign them when you want them to.
I was actually looking forward to going to the FRRO with the letter in hand today, it's been that annoyance hanging over me since I got here and was hoping to finally get it over with. I showed up just before 7 am - number 5 on the magic list. No spooning today - they (faintly) called us up to stations #1-#2 one by one. This time, I couldn't get past reception. The letter from the landlord wasn't good enough for this brute (and calling the landlord's office and talking to his receptionist who knew nothing about this didn't help) - he wanted a copy of a utility bill and proof of ID from my landlord. It was difficult to hide my emotional defeat. I then whipped across town in rickshaws and sweaty heat to get home for the bill, to the landlord (spent 20 min walking around in the heat to find the house - so glad they were cool with me asking for more docs), and back to the FRRO. One of my auto drivers was a character - tried to teach me Hindi and was explaining how he did not feel Indian women were 'sexy' because they were fat (symbolized by puffing the cheeks out), and how Punjabi women were the greatest. I then sat in the waiting area, still worried that something wouldn't work and they'd send me away again (and wondering if Elaine Siew was capable of going postal in public?), and getting chatted up by a teenager from Afghanistan who seemed nice enough, until he started discussing the possibilities of me getting him a visa to the US or how difficult it is to not be able to touch women because he is an unmarried Muslim.
I finally got through to reception, where the same demanding, difficult man (to be polite) accepted my additional documents (phew!), which weren't even necessary for the next guy who actually stamps all my paperwork and approves my registration, i.e. the guy at reception had me running around town for extra documents for no reason. Not unusual for the FRRO. Anyway - #4 stamped all my paperwork, hallelujah! Then a quick trip to #5 -the cash counter - to pay my late registration fee (where the guy asked me when I got my passport photos taken - I said a couple weeks ago - and he said I looked [puffed cheeks] in the photos - what is it with men here today???) and #6 - the 'incharge' - who just takes your paperwork and maybe makes a parting joke.
I'm not sure if this description really captures the full stress and frustration that comes with the foreigner registration process in India, but it's something all expats dread, and I'm certain I could have had it a lot worse. It leaves you feeling defeated and exhausted - but now I am just relieved. Without this registration, I would not have been able to leave the country. Timing was key because I leave for Malaysia Wednesday night for my cousin's wedding - woohoo!
But before then, I am zipping off last-minute to Hyderabad, a 2-hour flight south of here, to catch my friend, Maggie, from Tufts who is there with her husband for a couple more weeks. I'll do some sight-seeing over the weekend and get a chance to meet part of the CHAI team in Hyderabad, where we have a whole other busy office and are doing some other exciting nutrition work, and hopefully get in a visit to one of our nutrition centers around there.

Hoorah for a successful registration and a weekend to explore!
:)