Spring Break Bangkok

We've had a few crazy weeks at school and I was soooo ready for spring break!!  I left on the Friday we got out of school - my flight left at 1:30 am.  I saw several students and teachers at the airport - everyone was trying to escape Mumbai!

The flight was uneventful, but since I had a seat in the row in front of an exit row it didn't recline and I was exhausted.  Bangkok was HOT!  It was only high 90s/low 100s which is what it is in Mumbai, but it felt so much hotter!!!  The pollution and buildings in Mumbai keep the sun from beating straight down.  I was going to visit Nancy and Zach!!  They were at ASB last year, and I miss them!!  My cab dropped me off at the Starbucks in their neighborhood. I was welcomed with a big hug from Zach and he took me to the house and I got a big hug from Nancy too!  Their house is HUGE!!!  and is in the cutest neighborhood.  That night we went to a market along the river and I ran into two of my students and his parents :)  We had a nice meal and walked around and it was pretty cool by the water.  On Sunday we went to Chatuchak market.  It's Thailand's biggest market - it has 6,000 stalls and is the size of 5 American football fields.  You could spend DAYS there and never see everything.  It was hot and crowded, but still a lot better than Indian markets.  No one was pushing or shoving, no one was haggling us to buy anything.  There is no honking in Bangkok.  NONE!!  We bought some fresh squeezed orange juice on the street :)  best part of Bangkok - you can eat street food!!  We ran into two of my co-workers.  Bangkok is a busy place for my school :)

On Monday, I slept in, took a walk with Zach and did some work.  We went to an actual grocery store and they had string cheese!!  It was Nancy's birthday so we went out that night for dinner with some of their friends. We went to Tuba - during the day it is an antique store and at night it is a restaurant. There were old toys staring at us everywhere.  I left to go spend the night in a hotel so I could go to the floating markets in the morning.  I am staying in Tara Place which is very near Khaosan Rd which is the epicenter for all the backpackers.  It is an awesome hotel for $45 a night!!  It is a few blocks from Khaosan Rd so it is a little quieter, but close to all the action.  I had planned a tour to go to the floating markets and they were to pick me up at 6:10am at a nearby hotel.  I called a couple times and they said I was in the right place and they were coming.  At 7:30 I called for the third time and they said they had left without me because I wasn't there!!  augh!!  I was so disappointed.  I took a nap, then walked around for a few hours.  I took a cruise through the canals on a rice barge.  We left from Sheridan River shops.  Nice area.  We got to see a snippet of Thai life on the river.  At the end of the two hour trip they served a fruit buffet - dragon fruit, mangoes, pineapples, jackfruit, mangosteens, coconuts and guavas.  They also served free Mai Tais :)

Tomorrow I was supposed to take a tour of the Grand Palace, but I switched it to go see the floating markets. Hopefully I will make it tomorrow!!  I will have to see the Grand Palace the next time I come to Bangkok.  After the markets tomorrow I am going back to Zach's and Nancy's Wednesday and Thursday.  It will include walks, naps, string cheese eating, and me dodging him shooting me with toy arrows.  On Thursday night we are all going to Chaing Mai :)

Pakistani border crossing ceremony

We had a three day weekend so we went to Amritsar - I wrote about the rest of our experiences in another post - this one is dedicated solely to the border crossing.

After lunch on the first day, we rested for a little bit then met the Turkish woman in the lobby at 2:30.  The hotel arranged a car for us.  It cost 750 rupees (about 15$) for him to drive us to the border, wait for us, then drive us back.  It took 4 hours. Good wage for him, cheap for us. 

The drive was nice- there is lot of wide open space here and we were on the best road we've ever been on in India. There was a huge line of trucks trying to get through the trade border.  They had makeshift tents set up so I think they were going to be there awhile.

trade line- it stretched for over a km

this is a school bus full of boys - they kept waving and one blew a kiss at me

I never thought i'd be here

boar feeding on garbage on the side of the road

we got Indian flags for 20 cents.

Pakistani side

The border crossing was unreal.  We laughed so hard.  There were tons of people there.  They have a separate line for foreigners and they let us and women in first.  Even though we were foreigners we had to get in the women’s line – they had guards on horses keeping us in a very tight line – hundreds of women being forced to walk in a very tiny area.  Jordan and the other foreign men were wandering in wide open road doing whatever they please!  We stood by a separate gate and watched the women come in, the watched the men run in from behind and pass them.  So polite.  We sat in stadium chairs and had Indian flags to cheer with.  The Pakistani side had far less participants but they were very enthusiastic. 

Indian side- crazy outfits

men's line waiting to get in

Before it started they had indian women run the flag back and forth, the women were dancing down front.  It was a lot of fun.  When the ceremony started the men kicked their legs up really high and looked ridiculous. 
Information on the ceremony
border closing video - upclose you can see how aggressive it is

I have some of my own videos, but blogspot and I are having a disagreement.  Hopefully I can get them up soon.

Amritsar, India

The other math teacher, Jordan is moving this year so he’s trying to see as much of India as he can so we headed off to Amritsar this weekend.  The school driver picked us up at 4am for the airport. We flew to Delhi and stayed on the plane while new people boarded.  OMG.  Indians boarding a plane is a nightmare – pushing shoving etc.  but Mumbai is a little more civilized so it isn’t too bad.  Those people getting on in Delhi – horrible.  Getting off was just as bad – this guy kept laying on me to get his luggage instead of just waiting until he could get in the isle.

Amritsar is a small town – 1.3 mil near the Pakistani border.  The pollution is better, the weather is cooler – we got to wear jackets!  We both got rooms in a  hotel  called Hong Kong Inn – Jordan thought it had good vibes since that is where he is moving to next year.  It’s kind of loud, but it has hot water 24 hours a day and the people are nice. 

We got in around 10am on Friday so our rooms weren’t ready. While we waited in the lobby, we met a Turkish woman who was traveling northern India on her own and she wanted to share a ride to the border ceremony that night.  She went off to see things and we went for lunch.  I had garlic naan and garlic chicken so you can probably smell me from where you are and Jordan had butter chicken and butter naan so you can probably see a greasy sheen on his skin in pictures :) We took a nap and then met the woman to go to the border - I will write a separate post on that because it was such an event :) 

When we got back, we went to visit the Golden Temple - the most holy place for Sikhs.  Here is some info on it. Golden temple info It is lit up at night.  You have to walk through some crazy streets to get there and it was dark and we didn't know where we were going.  We live in Mumbai so we have a lot of tolerance for dangerous roads, but this scared us a little so we did something we thought we'd never do - took a bicycle rickshaw.  Poor guy had his work cut out for him try to pedal two big North Americans through the streets!!  We got to the temple and there were tons of people there, but it still felt peaceful and religious.  Not all religious sites do.  You have to take your shoes off and walk pretty far through streets to get into the temple area.  It was cold and lots of puddles from when it rained this morning.  There are some mats laid down to help people keep from slipping on the tiles and mats on the roads so you don't hurt your feet too bad.  It was cold and uncomfortable and we kept making jokes about athlete's foot.  Once we got into the temple area we didn't have to walk through freezing water so  my feet were a little warmer.  The view was amazing.

My friend Paula said I looked good in scarves :)
Good because I wear this a lot in rickshaws

Even the men had to cover their heads

It is pretty spectacular

We got some pizza on our way home and called it a night - after we scrubbed our feet!!

The next day it rained.  and rained.  Now that we knew where were going and it was light out, we walked to the temple.  We stopped at a coffee shop on our way there and ran into some Americans who worked in Delhi.  The temple looks different in the day and there were a lot more people there.  I am glad we went the night before so we could actually go in it.  I didn't take a lot of pictures today because it was so cold and miserable.  The barefoot walk to the temple was miserable.  It was so cold we could see our breath and we were walking in ankle deep water at some points.  We went to see where they feed all the people daily - that is in the link I put above.

Next we went to the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre site. It was a short walk, but by this time, I was soaking wet and freezing cold.  I took very few pictures today because it was too wet to take my phone out.  My shoes were soaked through - my only pair! so I will have a wet ride home tomorrow. My jeans were soaked to the skin.  We decided to take an autorickshaw to the hotel.  I got some video of the flooded roads, but am having trouble uploading them :(

I took a nap and did some school work.  We went to dinner at the same place we had lunch yesterday  - crystals. I had tomato soup and a cheese omelet.  Yummy. and warm!

I usually travel with a poncho - extra shoes etc. but it never occurred to me that it would rain in India in February.  It was good to be out of Mumbai for awhile, but I have a lot of work to do when I get home tomorrow.

Back to running

Most of you know that once I was in remission and my doctor gave the ok - I started running.  Thanks to TNT in 3 years I ran 5 full marathons and about 15 half marathons.  I ran very slow, but got the same medal the first place finishers did!  I have only run one half marathon since moving to Mumbai and I didn't train for it at all, it is very hard to run here.  There are no trails, you can't run on grass on teh side of the road - there is no grass!  There isn't even asphalt.  My running surface choices are bricks, tile, and cement.  Makes my back and knees hurt :(

This has been a very stressful teaching year so I felt I needed to get back to running.  I don't know how far I'll get to take it - depends on how my back and knees go.  I haven't done any cardio but walk since August.  9 days ago I tried to jog and lasted 10 minutes.  I jogged twice this week for 35 minutes each.  Today I decided to try for 45 min.  I lasted an hour!!!!  not bad for 9 days!  Now I'm a slow runner to begin with, but even slower in Mumbai - I had to swivel my head every nano second to avoid obstacles and had to frogger waddle across intersections.  So in 60 min I made it 4.4 miles - please don't do the math!!  it is really slow!  but I am going to try that same route for the next few weeks and see if I can improve my time :)  People always say "I could never run that long"  blah blah blah.  If you can jog 5 minutes you can eventually jog 5 hours.  You just keep going.  That's it.  The refusal to quit has gotten me a lot of medals and I have finished every race I've ever started.
 - I finished a half in Chicago even though I was vomiting so much they had to call a medical team.
- I finished races with blisters the size of huge jelly beans.
- I have ran races in sweltering heat and freezing temperatures - had the beginnings of frostbite once.
- I have ran three half marathons with bronchitis.  luckily I don't run fast enough to strain my lungs too
   much. :)
- I have run up gigantic hills cussing the whole way.
- I have finished countless races crying.
 - I have been miserable for entire races and only finished because I chanted "I will not quit" about
   10,000 times in my head.
I have also enjoyed many runs and finished with a great sense of accomplishment.

I hope to feel that again.

Now if only I could put that steely willpower into my food choices  :)  I'd be a skinny mini instead of a chunky monkey. 

Animals in Mumbai

Mumbai is such an urban place, you wouldn't think there would be many animals around, but there are :)


Cows - I come across a lot of cows during my walk/runs.  Usually they are just sitting on the side of the street or wandering in between cars.

Ox Carts - The streets are loud and crazy with a lot of traffic - buses, cars, trucks, rickshaws. Among all that  - you will see a cart loaded down with stuff being pulled by two oxen

Goats - In other cities of India, I've seen goats wandering around the streets.  In Mumbai, I just see them near Mutton shops.  Then a few hours later, I don't see them  :)  dinner!

Roosters - They aren't too common, but you do see them on the streets sometimes.  I was walking the other day and I heard a little boy scream - I looked up and saw a rooster biting a chunk out of his thigh! by the time I got there, adults had run out of shops to help him.  poor thing.  I walked a very wide arc around those roosters!!!

Dogs - I used to be terrified of dogs, but that has abated a lot.  There are a lot of wealthy people in my neighborhood that have cute little pure breed dogs they walk around on leashes.  There are a ton of street dogs everywhere!!    I also work at a dog shelter with the 6th graders as our Community Service.  Can you believe I help at a dog shelter??  Washing and walking dogs.  ME!!  

Cats - Cats are much rarer than dogs on the street.  Mostly just abandoned kittens. Except for "cat lady".  This street lady a few blocks from my house that always has about 5 cats with her when she is lighting fires on the street to cook - hopefully not the cats!!  Her corner always smells like cat pee!

Rats - Sometimes I have to dodge a rate that jumps out while I'm running.  Or jump over dead rats in the street.

Crows - In my mathematical estimation, 99% of the world's crow population lives in Mumbai.  They are everywhere.  I think I had been pooped on by a bird a total of 2 times in my whole life.  I moved to Mumbai and I think I have been pooped on 6 or 7 times - in 18 months!!!

Horses - I don't know why I start laughing every time I see someone riding a horse in the streets of Mumbai!  I've seen elephants in the streets, but that is rare.  Horses are more common, but for some reason, elephants don't phase me, but seeing a horse cracks me up.  I guess because it just seems so NORMAL.  and I am not used to seeing normal here.

Miserable but counting my blessings :)

I woke up and felt really tired today.  I finally got out of bed, showered, got dressed and felt fine.  I cut up strawberries to put in my dahi and sat down to eat it.  I couldn't even get it to my mouth - the thought of eating it was repulsive.  But I still didn't feel sick.  I didn't have a first block class so I decided to wait a bit before I left for school.  10 minutes later I was throwing up!  I still didn't feel sick until that moment. So weird.

So even though I was miserably sick all day - here are some positives.

1) All my kids have computers so it is really easy to email to tell them what I wanted them to do today.
The substitute emailed me to tell me the kids were good for her and several students emailed me to wish me well and to tell me how they did today.

2) I TEXTED my doctor to and he replied in 5 minutes.  Last year I had 4 vomiting incidents.  This is my 7th one this school year.  In December I was sick and the doctor came over - it was the 5th day in two months that I had vomited.  Sometimes it is so bad, a doctor has to come over and give me a shot to get it to stop. It is so easy for people to chalk it up to food poisoning because, well, we are in India.   :) But it was happening so often, I was convinced there was another cause.  He said I could be producing too much stomach acid so he told me to limit my intake of tea, coffee, and alcohol.  EASY.  I never ever drink alcohol or coffee and I have green tea maybe two or three times a month.  He also gave me meds to take each night to see if that helped.  I haven't been sick for 6 weeks - until today :(  So I texted him to see if I should continue the meds or if we should look into another cause.  He said to give it 3 more weeks.  BAM.  Got my answer - Didn't have to go to a doctor's office or pay a single rupee!!

3) The school office told the school nurse I was sick so she called!  and asked how I was feeling and if I'd seen a doctor. etc.  Told me to call her if I got sicker or needed anything. awesome!

4) in the US If I was sick I couldn't drive to go get medicine and the thought of leaving home to go see a doctor was horrible.  Here, the doctor will come to me.  You can get medicine delivered.  If I choose to walk to the chemist and I get tired or need to throw up - I can just rest on the curb and no one cares :)

I was wondering how long I can be on these meds so I looked up side effects.  It is likely I would get a false positive for TCH!!  HA!  luckily my school doesn't do drug testing otherwise I'd be labeled a pot head even though I have never touch the stuff!   It also says that using the medicine can make you more likely to develop food and drug allergies.  great!!  that is another possibility of why I get sick.  The doctor says it could be something they cook with here.  so even if I wasn't allergic to something before, I might become allergic with this medicine.  Nice.

I was thankful for all the positive things in the midst of a day of illness.  Hopefully I will be better tomorrow :)

People Always ask me....

Since I moved to Mumbai, many people ask if I feel safe here.  The gang rape case in Delhi has been international news and more people have been asking me about my safety.  I generally feel safe in Mumbai and many parts of India. The only place I didn't feel as safe was in Delhi - I've been there twice and I didn't like it much either time.

In the US, I felt like I always had to have my guard up - if a car was following me when I was walking,  if I was in an elevator alone with several men, at crowded movies theaters, dark parking lots - always the possibility someone is dangerous. I don't feel that way here.  I walk on the street even at night without a second thought.  

But, feeling safe doesn't mean I'm always comfortable.  Beggars harass me on the street and they reach inside rickshaws to grab at me.  I get stared at so much I think I have holes bored into me!  I get harassed, grabbed, yelled at when I don't talk to men who think it is my duty to speak to them.  

Other kinds of safety are a different story!!  In the states, I wear a seatbelt - ALWAYS.  I have never had a traffic ticket or accident (besides sliding on ice when I was 16 and taking out a fence).  I follow basic safety precautions in every area of life.  Here, there aren't a lot of rules and regulations.  Most vehicles don't have seat belts - rickshaws don't even have doors or sides!!  It unnerved me when I got here.  Traffic laws are loosely held here so driving in general is scary and it  felt so dangerous to sit in that thing with nothing holding me in!!  But you can't be anxious and scared all the time.  It is amazing to me how calm I can be now.  There will be three lanes of traffic painted on a road, but cars, rickshaws, busses, and motorcycles will form SEVEN lanes across!  they go whichever way they want, at whatever speed they want etc.  I have to just put my mind somewhere else and pretend it isn't happening - It helps to have someone in the rickshaw with you to talk to!  Crossing the street is a exercise in agility and speed :)  You can't ever take a leisurely walk here.  You have to be "ON" constantly looking for bicycles, rickshaws, motorcycles, cars, busses, ox carts, people pulled carts, dogs, goats, cows, roosters, crows, people,  garbage in the street, holes in the sidewalk - the list goes on :) 

At school I always feel safe!  We have amazing guards and security precautions.  I feel far safer there than than in crowded US schools with kids who are a little nuts.  My kids here are basically sweet and fun :) 

So don't worry about me - I'm safe in India :)