Carnet de Voyage: Inde, 1ère partie
Posted by Frenya Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:33:00 GMT
Malgré le titre en français, le reste de ce carnet de voyage va être en anglais afin de permettre la lecture à un nombre maximum de personnes. Je suis allée en Inde (Madurai pour être précise) pendant 5 jours pour le travail. Ce qui suit est le récit de mes aventures et de mes découvertes dans ce pays fascinant et troublant.
By lack of Internet access, all posts are made in the same time, but they were written all throughout the trip.
July 14th and 15th. 2006
London Heathrow, 7:30am (July 15th) In this fine Bastille day, I am not attacking a tower-jail, but a new adventure… India. Because and thanks to the clinical study that I coordinate at Dartmouth, I get the visit our collaborators at the Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai , India . Until about 10 months ago, I would not have dreamt to be lucky enough to go to or at least stop by such exotic and famous places such as Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras) and Madurai, but thanks to the meanders of travel, I will get to see them a little bit. Once in Madurai, I will meet with the rest of this trip’s team who comes from San Francisco through Asia. For 5 days, we will work with our collaborators at Aravind to make sure that the study starts soon and on the right foot. In the same time, I hope to be able to visit the city of Madurai, famous not only for its fabrics like Chennai (Madras) but also because of its temple: the Sri Meenakshi temple, apparently spectacular example of the Dravidian architecture . Madurai was once a cultural center for Tamil people and their language. Of course there is a price to visit these wonderful places… the time needed to get there! Indeed, it will take me 2 calendar days (but less than 48 hrs) to arrive there. In addition to come 20 hrs of plane rides, I have 3 layovers in London and Mumbai (Bombay) and Chennai (Madras).
NB: My boss who went to Madurai few years ago gave me a book to read during the trip simply called “India” , it is by Stanley Wolpert (professor of Asian studies at UCLA). This book is a wonderful help to learn about the country, its complicated history and culture. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who plans on travelling to India.
