Hong kong welcome break. Starbucks did the trick. Picked up a mug for the collection.
Short stop then back on same plane for 3 hour ride to Singapore.
Singapore for 9 hour lay over. Sounds bad but free city tour
and an airport terminal transit hotel filled the time. Singapore is so smoothly run that the idea of totalitarianism takes on new appeal.
But one might just be able to live at the airport for ever - or that might seem to be the design intent. Lots and lots of authority figures abound. The city state is in mourning for the recent loss of the Minister Mentor's wife.
Board SilkAir (sub of SA) for Hyderabad. 4.5 hour ride gets done in 4 hours thanks to viscous tailwind with accompanying cabin turbulence.Sree and Buskar arrive to pick us up.
Check into Westin
Mindspace
and find that i have in fact prepaid the entire 2 night stay. Not as expensive as i had thought. Some how it is now early Friday morning I.e. 30.5hrs of travel. Ah, so that's why Lufthansa is the preferred airline/route.
6am Buskar pickup and transport to Sree and Anitha's apartment for breakfast. Excellent idli sambar chutneys and dosa. Youngest daughter ready for school bus. Elder daughter away on a school trip.
Head out at 7:30am for the wild drive from Hyderabad to Bhainsa. I had no idea what distance driving was like but now entirely understand why Sree has a driver. The two lane road experience to quite a shock but one gets used to it. (returning at night was to be a 10x thrill factor)
Bhainsa is central to the cotton industry with many "ginners" (cotton gins)
It slowly dawns that this junior college visit is a big deal.
We are treated like rock stars. "Go with the flow"becomes my mantra of the day. I unveil the dedication plaque and cut the ribbon. Lots of ceremony. Priest invokes the goddess of learning in song that is to bless the new computer room. He reminded me of a cantor in tone.
Down to the main floor under the colored tents we watch from our elevated dais
a cultural dance as the segregated girls and boys watch attentively. Theybare an impressive looking bunch. Introductions are done. Staff, supporting founders. Special guests (us).
The speeches start. English, especially mine, is not well understood, so my speech is translated into Telugu by Sree's dad who is really getting into it.
As we leave we are almost mobbed by kids wanting photos while our "handlers" aka Sree is trying to get us into Sree's car for the trip to the next event where I hear the kids have been waiting 3 hrs!!!! Jeepers. The Stones escape post-concert Altamont by helicopter, anyone?
Visit private primary school, also in Bhainsa, also funded by the same group of Sree's friends.
Created specifically with an emphasis on preserving the local language and culture (sanskrit is no longer being taught in government schools) The kids are sitting on the floor, immaculately dressed, especially the girls.
The event starts with the kids singing an Hindu hymn that is chillingly beautiful. Quite quite moving. I had no wish for it to stop even though it was quite lengthy.
Less formal atmosphere. Less formal speeches. All we, as Dyane spoke as well,
had to emphasize was that success was linked tom hard work and keep up the good work.
All quite an amazing experience. We could have been anybody. They just needed some one to carry the message and create and excuse for a celebration. Sree obviously terrified that I would freakout at the fuss. He had requested that nothing elaborate be put on the program but his wishes were ignored. All in all no problem and everyone seemed to think the event was just what they needed. Phew.
Next into central Bhainsa to visit Dr. Reddy's clinic run by him and Sree's mom. Lots of debates as to whether Dyane and I would be able to handle the difference in approach from 'western medicine'. Three floor building. Outpatients and dentistry on ground floor - packed with people, mainly women.
The young dentist was also at the school events as he too is a co-funder. OR on second floor with recovery rooms adjacent - packed with patients and their helpers (relatives). One room next to OR was the incoming. A C-section underway during our visit. The baby calm and being cared for outside the OR on the floor.
Next woman in line to have a large fibroid and uterus removed.
Yikes we are talking primitive care here. But apparently effective and cost efficient. The alternatives are grim as official care would so burden the families with debt that it would be essentially a death sentence they would never survive.
Dr.Reddy is the only Hindu doctor who Muslim women will come to see. The guy is quite outstanding in his dedication to providing care for the very poor.
Third floor is Sree's parents living quarters which is modest by any measure. Full of young people who are medical helpers being trained as medical technicians, but also being fed and directed by Sree's mom who runs a tight ship.
Lunch on the third floor complete with chicken for the special guests cooked by Sree's mom with no helpers - she refuses. The lunchtime rice actually came from the family rice paddy.
Dr.Reddy is usual called four times during the night. He has recruited two other MDs to help at the clinic. Sree's brother is a cardiologist/surgeon in Hyderabad
There is a pharmacy on ground run by someone's father and in a separate doorway an Xray machine.
Next it was off in an easterly direction through a bigger town (where Sree's dad practiced first) and on to the Uncle's
farm where he lives with Sree's grandmother
and his wife (Sree's aunt) - both most gracious.
The farm house is fabulous and brings Sree very happy memories of staying with there with his cousins.
Sree's dad and and uncle married sisters but the uncle seconded to his wife's family as they had no sons. Why did Sree's uncle move to the wives house rather than his dad.
Linked courtyards built 70 years ago
adjacent to the granite buildings of 300 or so years. Granite building has fabulous wooden doors complete with steel spikes
to defend against elephant attack (no kidding). Lots of cobras looking for rats in the corn storage area.
More food, corn donuts, and classic milk based vermicelli dish - very full still from breakfast and lunch
Then off again in an easterly direction a few kilometers, past the family rice paddy, and out of the car to visit the 14 acres of mango trees. Wistful recollections of when the teak forest reached all the way to the mango orchard
- now receding thinking that this due to either changes in the water table or human action.
Many cobra stories - too many cobra stories. Dr.Reddy's most successful medical "camp" was raising community awareness regarding handling cobra bites and getting victims to the clinic quickly following bites. He keeps large quantities of anti-cobra venom at the clinic. Vipers are endemic as well but not quite as fatal. Difficulty identifying species of snake when bitten at night. Cobra bites result in death in 2 hours.
Back in the car and heading just 4km west towards the paternal grandfather's village where the family house has failed to be maintained since the grand father's death. Beautiful, tranquil, rural area - quite lovely as the sun is setting. We stop on the way to check out the fields of turmeric
on one side of the road and rice
on the other with a tamarin tree and custard apple(?) at the roadside. Rags tied on tree branches signify they have been rented out for the season. We turned south before entering the village. Took the classic ox cart picture and ox car driver immediately pulled the cart to a halt
and posed for the next head shot.
Buskar raced ox carts! Who knew?
Then the sunset and the driving got seriously dangerous. If one ever does this again make sure to at least get on NS7 before dark. The two lane windy road leading to NS7 is crazy scary epitomized by the time we were in line behind slower moving trucks in convoy. Finally a break in oncoming traffic and the car in front of us pulls out to over take. We then overtake the overtaking car and we are now three vehicles wide on a two lane road with oncoming traffic approaching and the slower lane is bumper to bumper with no where to pull in. Some how it all turned out ok.
Then there was the case of the overloaded turn signal which indicates a right turn but actually means "please go ahead and over take me on the right". This resulted in the Buskar piloted Toyota advancing between the slower vehicles on our left and right. Straight up the middle on a two lane road.
Winner of most dangerous moment was a tie between the woman strolling across NS7 and impossible to see (not looking, not running - nearly not living) and the slow motor bike with no lights stopped in the middle of NS7.
Racing ox carts should be a pre-
Back at the Westin by 8:30pm
Oct 9th
Alarm call at 5:15am Sat 9th and Buskar in the lobby at 5:55am ready to whisk us to the airport for flight to Kolcutta and on to Bagdogra.
Hyderabad airport seems even more stunning after 3 hours waiting at Kolcutta airport. Great food stalls at HYD. Kolcutta is more of the India we remember from 28 years ago. How did we end up on Kingfisher business class?
Talked to Sree on the loaner phone. He reports expanded coverage of yesterdays events in the Bhainsa area newspapers. Apparently there had been a request for a sit down interview but this celebrity had no time!
Kolcutta to Bagdogra in a turbo prop. Uneventful. Bagdogra quite tiny and the India we remember.
Marinas Motel had a taxi waiting per my request, for the 10min drive through the tea plantations to downtown and the Marinas. Quite a little sanctuary but right on the chaotic main drag.
Didn't feel hungry enough for dinner so had a Kingfisher "strong" and hit the sack for our first non hurried hotel stay. Talked to Sree (we have his daughters mobile) and he is headed back up to the village for a party tonight. I'm not sure I could do a repeat of the nighttime drive without first time to emotionally recover from Friday nights wild ride.
Sunday 10th
Torrential rain during the night. About 5 storms went through sounding like an express train on the steel roof of the hotel.
Included breakfast at 7am, eggs bhuyija and paratha, then taxi back to airport. Much beaucracy and document stamping. But it looks as though the flight is on - nothing guaranteed with this changing weather as we think it's VFR at Paro airport.
Nice Bhutanese kids in the waiting room who loved the iPad. Eventually we had three kids playing angry birds on the two iPhones and the iPad.
In good company of the Bhutanese foreign minister. Entering bhutanese are very deferential.
Airbus 319 for the short ascent
then crazy descent down the valley winding along below the houses on each side. Weather got better as soon as were in Bhutan
Met by our guide, Tsetim, and driver, Ramm. Immediately headed into and through Paro to our hotel, Tenzinling Resort. Great suite,
very spacious and views too.
Rice harvest is underway
But best of all wi-fi in the dining room.
Lunch before heading to the 8th century monastery, Kyichu Lhakhang,
wandered around and picked up general Dzong protocol.
A quick stop at the downtown archery range
to watch a league match. Compound bows very impressive.
On then across the cantilevered unnailed bridge
to Paro Rinpung Dzong,
(fortress on a heap of jewels) finest example of Bhutanese architecture.
Monastic body and district admin offices. As we left we saw Ugwen Pelri Thang,
(residence of the queen mother) another example of beautiful architecture.
Then it's late afternoon and a stroll through the main Paro market.
Back at the hotel for dinner at 7pm. Buffet style. Other folks, 10?, are eating dinner.
Sleep.
- from my iPad
Location:Paro, Bhutan
