Posted by Frenya
Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:24:00 GMT
It has been a long time since my last post and quite a few things happened. In particular, Eric and I went to Iceland for a few days in last June for our Honeymoon. Despite the fact that the trip was short, we were lucky with the weather and had a blast.
We had a rental car and followed a pre-established itinerary that allowed us to see a lot of the southwest region of the island.
In 3 days, we saw more different landscapes than pretty much anywhere else: rugged sea coasts; volcanoes, volcanic landscapes and geysers; glaciers; waterfalls (lots and lots of them!); mountains, etc…
We also met the famous Iceland horses, the horses that the vikings brought with them during the settlement. They have never been mixed with other kinds of horses and are still the same than a thousand years ago!
There were lots of sheep, some cattle and lots and lots of sea birds.
But we also nourished our brain cells with lots of history and especially the viking history told by the sagas… these stories written several hundreds years after the viking settlement of Iceland and Greenland.
Our stomach cells had nothing to be jealous of either!
Cela fait bien longtemps que je n’ai rien posté sur ce blog et bien des évènements ont eu lieu. En particulier, Eric et moi sommes allés en Islande pour quelques jours en juin dernier pour notre Lune de Miel. Malgré la courte durée du voyage, la météo était de notre côté et nous avons adoré le séjour.
Nous avions une voiture de location et avons suivi un itinéraire pré-établi qui nous a permis de voir une bonne partie de la région sud-ouest de l’île.
En 3 jours, nous avons vu plus de paysages différents que nul part ailleurs: des côtes sauvages; volcans, paysages volcaniques et geysers; glaciers; chutes (en fait, beaucoup!); montagnes, etc…
Nous avons aussi rencontré les fameux chevaux islandais. Les chevaux que les vikings ont amené avec eux lors de leur installation avant l’An mil. Ces chevaux n’ont jamais été mélangés avec d’autres races et sont les mêmes qu’il y a mille ans!
Il y avait aussi beaucoup de moutons, quelques bovins et beaucoup, beaucoup d’oiseaux de mer.
Mais, fort heureusement, nous avons aussi nourri nos cellules cérébrales avec beaucoup d’histoire et en particulier l’histoire viking racontée à travers les sagas… ces histoires écrites plusieurs siècles après l’installation des vikings en Islande et Groenland.
Et nos cellules de l’estomac n’avaient rien à envier¡
Tags Voyages | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Fri, 28 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT
July 21st
Last day in India… and what a day! It started at 6:30 am to say good bye to our main host, Dr Srinivasan, who had to go to Tirunelveli. The rest of the morning was dedicated to work at the hospital.
After lunch, I went to explore the other side of the street from the guest house. It is a lot different from the hospital site. First there is the cows area, of course in India, cows are sacred and they freely live in the street. I saw a couple of cows walking nonchalantly on the road despite all the traffic.
The traffic in southern India:
I just realized that I have not spoken of the traffic yet. It is simply a mix between amazement and fear! Bicycles, scooters, motorbikes, autorickshaws , cars and trucks share the road in the same time and in a very noisy way. It seems and sounds (for that matter!) that the street language is the horn. Everybody uses it and it is the custom way to tell a vehicle in front of you that you intend on passing it. Moreover, on the lot of trucks, the quote “Sounds Horn” is written! People pass everywhere and at anytime either in the country or downtown. It really looks like the only rule to pass is to use the horn right before. This technique lead to a lot of scary moments, especially in autorickshaws where we saw the moment we would meet a car, bicycle or other rickshaw in a very unfriendly manner.
Tags Voyages | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:56:00 GMT
July 20th
One more day of work but today the decision is taken, we do our work for the day and go downtown! Shopping and visit of the Meenakshi (goddess, wife or consort of Shiva, if I remember well) temple are on the program.
We have been in the country for 4 days and the only view of downtown and the temple that I have had so far was from the rooftop restaurant on Monday.
The Meenakshi temple is extremely important to Hindus of south india. I used to be a major pilgrimage site. In this part of the country, pre-aryan beliefs are still really strong. That translates into a more matriarchal society, the woman and especially the mother is essential to the familial structure. This phenomenon is also quite striking when we do some shopping (and I say some, since I had about 1,5 hrs to look at everything that I was supposed to look at), it is more than easy to find gifts and items for women but extremely hard to find anything for men.
The Meenakshi temple:
To come back to the temple - like for every house, you have to remove your shoes at the entrance. Few feet away, we found the first surprise of the visit: an adult elephant ready to bless people on the head with its trunk in exchange of a coin. By lack of coin, I could not do it but a couple of people from the team did and that was fun.
We then proceeded on visiting the temple per se, first the side of Shiva and then of Meenakshi. There are statues (usually painted) everywhere, small altars where the faithfuls can make their devotions as well as pools for the ritual baths.
Hinduism is really complicated and I am sorry I could not fully appreciate the meaning of all the statues. Nevertheless, the style was different compare to any other religious style I have seen so far. We went there at night and some of the corridors and altars were not illuminated which gave a somewhat scary vision of the statues. But maybe the most impressive aspect of the temple is the number of 20 to 30 meters high towers completely covered with painted statues. This temple was mostly built during the 16th century but there is a portion that dates back 3000 years. Of course, this part is the most sacred and can only be seen by true hindus, with their hinduism certificate in hand!… quite serious!
Tags Voyages | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:53:00 GMT
July 19th
My colleague, Salena, from San Francisco and I went on a little adventure yesterday evening. We traveled to the Aravind Eye hospital in Tirunelveli. Tirunelveli is about 150 kms south of Madurai, very close to the south point of the indian subcontinent.
The clinic there will also enroll patients for the study, so we had to see the site and talk more to the different people involved (they actually worked with us on Monday and Tuesday in Madurai). We worked all day long with all our Indian colleagues and I have to say that I had a blast. I interacted a lot with the chief of the cornea section, Dr Meenakshi, and she is great! She is not only on top of things despite her “ginormous” load of work but she is also funny and relax. Salena and I had the warmest welcome I have seen in ages. I believe this welcome reflected the “famous” indian tradition of friendship and sharing.
Hospitality and coffee tradition:
People at both Tirunelveli and Madurai hospitals are just wonderful. They treated us as if we were family, extremely friendly. The funny thing, and my French friends would love that, is that every morning around 10 am, as much as possible, we would get a cup of coffee or tea as well as a samosa. Everything is prepared by the canteen of the hospital and the samosas are amazingly good! Their teas and coffees are very sweet and contain a lot of milk… not so good for a “loose weight” diet. Of course, most indians do not use silverware and eat with their right hand. In case you are not already aware, there is a golden rule in India: never use your left hand to touch food… this hand is reserved for “non-pure” activities. When you see their traditional restrooms, you understand why!
I have tried to eat their way for several meals and I have to acknowledge that I am not that gifted. Also, I try to say Thank you and Good morning/Welcome in Tamil (“Nanri” and “Vanakam” respectively) as much as possible. People usually kindly smile but I think they appreciate that I try.
Tags Voyages | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:51:00 GMT
July 17th, 1st day at work.
The night was not so peaceful but I nevertheless ended up sleeping a bit. Breakfast was yummy… typical south indian food.
The day went on. A long meeting in the morning with everybody involved in the study, then I went on delivering the study medicines and discovered that this task apparently completely brainless was not because a lot of details were not thought through… Happy me since I had not idea a week ago that I would be responsible for that! Anyhow, eventually things went fine.
We had lunch at the guest house and dinner downtown, at the Supreme hotel’s rooftop restaurant with view of the towers of the Meenakshi temple.
The clash of societies:
The clash of the different levels of society is amazing around the guest house in Madurai. The house is comfortable, the rooms are simple but air-conditioned and we each have our own “occidental” bathroom. On the other side of the street though, there is a slum, animals hang out on the sidewalk, around the trash (which is everywhere!), kids follow you and offer you to take their pictures - apparently simply because they like to see themselves on pictures! People have roofs over their heads but I do not think these roofs would resist strong winds.
In Chennai, the clash is even stronger… logical since it is a larger city… there are very rich people and there are people with nothing else than just a little rug used as mattress to sleep on the sidewalk every night.
Nevertheless, from what I could see in Madurai, people are happy. They play music and organize expensive festivals regularly.
Tags Voyages | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:49:00 GMT
July 16th, 10pm.
Well I made it safely to Madurai after one more flight delay but my suitcase did not. It got blocked in Chennai and it actually is partially my fault. I was supposed to pick up the suitcase when i arrived in Chennai and go through customs with it. The hick is that the suitcase was checked until Madurai so I did not think I had to do something with it before that. It is not a nice surprise to discover that you can not have fresh clothes after a 24 hrs + long trip. At least I know now (and you too!) and I am supposed to get it tomorrow Monday (we will see).
I am staying at the guest house of the hospital. A very nice, simple but comfortable place.
Tonight, I went to a remembrance service for Dr V., founder of Aravind Eye Hospital who passed away few days ago. It was an evening for the family (quite extensive!) and guests staying at the guest house.
I was a great way to first experience indian hospitality, everybody was so nice, they did most of the speeches in english to allow us (foreigners) to understand and then they served food, a little spicy but not so much that we could not enjoy the food.
Tags Voyages | no comments
Posted by Frenya
Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:47:00 GMT
July 16th, airport of Chennai, 5am.
Well, the adventure continues.
The trip to Mumbai was quite pleasant (I had a window seat on an exit row, really who could ask for more!) and the food was taste of what is to come… thanks to Air India! The really neat detail was that all female flight attendants wore saris. My arrival in Mumbai gave me another taste of what is to come: paperwork, lines and people who hate staying in line!
The “line” story:
I thought that southern italians were pretty bad about cutting people in line, but I see now that I just had not seen the world!
Already in London, so not even in India, I noticed that most indians have a particular relationship with line making (or queue making as they say in India). I took Air India from London to Chennai and most passengers were indians. As soon as the boarding of the flight was announced, everybody rushed to the gate whether or not their row number was announced, of course that lead to a major traffic jam at the gate and a much slower boarding… not quite efficient!
In Mumbai, we had to spend a good 45 minutes in lines in order to get a new boarding pass and go through security (quite enhanced since the train bombings of a couple of days ago), all of that to get back on the same flight… all right different plane but still all these steps look useless and complicated. The fact that a lot of people, males and females systematically cut every line really did not help the efficiency of the process. Days will show that it really is part of their normal behavior… quite frustrating when not used to it.
Nevertheless, the second part of the flight went fine. We crossed the country west to east (about 1000 kms) in 1h30. Once in Chennai, we had to go through immigration: means one more line! But it went a lot easier that I could expect.
“Love of stamps”:
Since I am in the paperwork section of my thoughts, I have to mention that indeed India loves paperwork but maybe even more so the official stamps! Each time we go through X rays machines in the security checkpoints, we can be sure to get our bad tags or boarding passes stamped by the lady who checks you (apart in a little corner protected from Men’s view by curtains) to make sure that you do not carry anything dangerous on you, and by the security guard on the other side of the X ray machine. Fortunately, it is more amusing than annoying.
One thing that I noticed both in Mumbai and Chennai is that the airports are quite clean. The decoration is simple but for the most part tasteful and seem to be using a lot of natural materials such as stone, marble and wood.
Before I close this page, last but not least thing for the moment: I had my first experience with the traditional indian restrooms… not that bad if you are prepared and adequately equipped. For those of you unfamiliar with this system: restrooms in India are a hole covered by ceramic (like the “turkish” ones) and a faucet beside. There is a very good reason why people only eat with their right hand!
Tags Voyages | no comments
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.
Tags Voyages | no comments
