A thought

Adventures can be found in your own backyard. Yes, this thought is cliche, but for those of us plagued by wanderlust, it's an important thought to remember. Often when I dream of faraway green hills I've never seen before, I have to remind myself that unseen beauties exist within 5 miles of where I'm sitting, and they're aching to be seen.

What dreams may come

This blog was created with the intention of detailing my tour of Europe in 2009, however it seems the wanderlust has taken hold of me again. From my adventures through India and Eastern Asia to road-tripping down to Disneyland, there is a lot of traveling that has the potential to be detailed here.

Given my current status as a semi-employed recent college graduate, my travel opportunities have dwindled significantly. Hopefully this will be remedied upon getting a full-time job that pays enough to have some disposable income for traveling, but considering how many rejections I get on a daily basis, that could take a while. Even so, it does no one any good to give up on the things we strive to obtain, so I'm going to put together some Fantasy Travel Itineraries and hope that one day I will be able enough, both physically and financially, to carry them out. In addition to my dream getaways, I will go over some past adventures that went unrecorded to make sure the details aren't lost forever.

Animal Shelter - Graphic

We have been volunteering our time at the Sanjay Gandhi animal shelter where they think we are vets. To warn you, people in India don't really like the strays, they find them a nuisance, so a lot of what I have seen is the result of humans. One guy donated a ton of food to the shelter as charity, but it turns out he had poisoned it so he could kill as many strays as possible, and many did die.
Here are some pictures.

This little bull calf likes dog cookies


Exam tables in the small animal ICU. Dog on the left was abandoned by owners, dog on the right is malnourished with skin condition


This dog has lot most of its face to a maggot wound



Someone wrapped a rubber band around this dog's neck, and it rubbed it open. You can see into the trachea of the animal, like when smoker's get those weird holes

Manila...envelopes

Hello,

quick update, I am safe and sound in Manila. I spent the day getting settled in and taking a tour of the city, then finished off with a traditional Filipino dinner. While I'm here I will be visiting the historic area of Intramuros and doing some more shopping!! On Friday Usher and Justin Bieber will be playing a concert and then they will be having a party, to which I will be going! Maybe I will get to meet them. Very exciting.

That's all for now, sorry!

Singapore

I have to start with 2 apologies, for not updating and for not having pictures. My computer isn't working in this hostel so I am updating by phone, generously posted by Michael.

I arrived in Singapore at 2 am on July 2nd, and it was love at first sight. The clean roads, polite people, and organised lifestyle were evident the moment I left the plane. I arrived at my hostel, a nice little place in a good neighborhood. After I woke up I spent the day wandering the city, and ended up at the Suntec Mall where I did a little shopping and caught a movie. I had plans to meet with my friend's sister and cousin that night, but when I left the hostel it was pouring!! I took the train to the closest station to my hostel but I still had to walk a block.

Standing umbrella-less in the rain, waiting to cross the street, a woman came up to me and put her umbrella over my head so I wouldn't get any more soaked than I was. It was so sweet! I felt very thankful.

After showering and changing I took a taxi to the St. Regis hotel, a beautiful place that makes me think the next time I visit Singapore I should stay at a nice hotel, because this city is full of them. I met my friend's sister Charlotte and their cousin Rachel for Rachel's grandpa's 97th birthday party, an event featuring Chinese lions and Chinese acrobats.

I had a great evening and met some wonderful people. Today I met up with Charlotte and Rachel and we went shopping. The shopping is so great here. America is embarrassing in comparison. The clothes and shoes and accessories are so amazing and cheap and unique. Everyone in this country puts effort into the way they look every day, and I love it. The country itself values presentation and I think that is something every country should strive for.

After shopping we met Rachels parents and went to an authentic Japanese restaurant where I ate fish for the first time! And as it turns out, I really like fish. At the birthday party last night I had sharks fin soup and frogs legs! I am really branching out as far as food goes :)

Anyway Im having a great time and I never want to leave. This is an incredible place full of incredible people and I am so happy that I am here.

Slumdog

As I end my time here in India I sit with my hosts watching the Oscar-winning movie, "Slumdog Millionaire," and I am told that what I am seeing is this movie is true. If you haven't seen it, you should, because even my own experience in India reflects what this movie shows. Young, poor kids digging through trash heaps and being used to beg on the roads. Unfortunately the stories in this movie are constant parts of living in India, and it makes me thankful that 1) I was born and raised in the US and 2) my family is so wonderful. It's easy to forget with everything that my life could have turned out very differently, and I am blessed with how I was born.

In any case, this movie does not change how I feel about India. I have grown to adore this country, despite its rough edges. The trash and rubble hide an amazing place that has its own problems. It is a country of paradox, with slums leaning against brand new skyscrapers and 3 wheeled rickshaws cutting off BMWs and Mercedes. But I have come to like it, and I hope to return one day to see the tigers and Dharamsala.

So as I say goodbye, I do so hoping I will get to say hello again someday.

Olde India

Having seen elephants, camels, and monkeys going about as they please in urban Delhi, I have begun to wonder what India was like prior to industrialization. Of all the countries I have visited it is possible that India has the richest and most interesting history, being the place of wild tales of savages and beasts unlike anywhere in the world. It also boasts the creation of Hinduism and Buddhism, two of the largest religions on Earth. India (I assume) has a complex and far-reaching history about which I know almost nothing, except that it was a commonwealth country imperialized by England. That is why polo and cricket are so popular here.

In any case I have done a bit of research on the land I stand upon, and I am upset that I didn't do this earlier because India truly is a land of history. It has been connected with every major civilization since the dawn of humans, and its existence is the very reason that The New World, America, was discovered by the Europeans. Trade with India began in the late 1400's, and to this day India is still an important country in international trade. In movies and books depicting the last few centuries there is always some reference to an "East India Trading Company." The Wikipedia page of India's history is a dense collection of subjects that require their own encyclopedia entries, and even going over these accounts provide minimal insight into India before British occupation (1700s onward). I intend to do more in depth research when I have the time, but for now I can say I am very intrigued!

What interests me the most is the India's natural history. Obviously naturalists like Darwin that came from the UK had a field day when they arrived what with all the tigers, lions, leopards, monkeys, elephants and whatnot. The animals don't seem to different than what Africa has to offer, but remember there are no tigers in Africa, and any comparable animal, like the lions, are different species in the different areas. I like to imagine India with no buildings, no litter, no pollution, nothing that characterizes contemporary life. I imagine the jungles and plains full of the native flora and fauna living as they did before the arrival of industrial people. I make no judgment on human influence (well maybe a little), because I appreciate a lot of the urban areas I have visited and that I will visit. But it is kind of an escape for me to imagine where I am as it was in all of its original and natural glory. The elephants don't pass under a bridge, they pass under a jungle canopy where monkeys swing from the branches above. Tigers don't stalk you from behind bars and fear the guns of poachers, they hunt to feed themselves without worrying about becoming a rug. Again I'm not upset by how the world is now, it's just for a moment that I like to pretend I am in the past. I bet it was beautiful here.

Temple Time!

As I'm still in my tourist phase, I visited the Akshardham temple today. They don't allow cameras (and as I found out, shorts) so I wasn't able to get any pictures, but it was a glorious and beautiful place so I got some pictures from online so you can all enjoy what I saw.


This is the Mandir, the main building of the complex but unfortunately it was closed for maintenance. The whole building has intricate carvings on every surface, and there is a story around the base of the Mandir that tells various tales of Hindu and Indian history.


You can click on the photos for bigger, clearer images.

It was free to go in but they had a lot of security to make sure you didn't bring any electronics like cell phones or cameras. It was a beautiful place that I never expected to see, and it showed me just how much there is to appreciate right here in Delhi.

On that note, on my way home from the temple I saw elephants!! The way home included going over a river, and there were elephants at the bank of the river slowly moving around. It was so cool!! It's like how in the US we see a skunk or a deer, but instead it was a full Indian elephant!!

Tourism Day!

Today my friend left for Bali, but her parents have generously offered to let me stay in their home until I leave for Singapore. As such I took a break from healing the wounded canines to visit some of the tourist locations in Delhi so I could take badly-angled self portraits of myself. Enjoy!

Here I am squinting in front of the President's House




Here I am squinting in front of the Baha'i temple, a lotus shaped place of worship for all faiths

Such an amazing piece of architecture. Unfortunately they don't let you take photos inside, but they did make me take my shoes off!
Perfect, beautiful curves.

A nice English girl took a picture of me in front of Humayun's Tomb


And finally I squinted in front of India Gate, which is under construction :(


When I went to the Baha'i temple many people approached me asking to shake my hand and/or take pictures with me. It was really weird? I guess this is what celebrities must feel like, except celebrities know why people want to talk to them. I figure it's because I'm a foreign white person that people seem interested in me, but there is a difference between privately staring and asking for a picture! Maybe my squinting is just too irresistible. In any case I had a great day being a tourist, it was nice to get to see the archaeological and architectural wonders of this city.


The best part of my day was on my way to the temple when I saw a guy riding a camel, with a camel in tow!! On the street!! It was great. My driver thought I was nuts.

Hidden India

Today we managed to get back out into the field to help some animals. When we returned to the Shelter we found that our little darling Fresca was gone :( We worried that the shelter had euthanized her since her back legs don't work, but we were assured by the vet on duty that the people who dropped her off came back for her. Here's to hoping they choose to take good care of her! Our other "projects" are doing well: the pelvic fracture puppy has begun to walk, but then it bit me today so I am bitter with it. Don't worry, my skin was not broken so I will be okay.The guilty party

Since we couldn't spend a huge amount of time outdoors today, given our weakened conditions, we met some of Anjolie's friends for lunch at a restaurant called TLR (the living room? truth love respect? i can't remember) in a place called Haus Khas village. The restaurant was on a beautiful little street peppered with art galleries and clothing shops. On the surface India looks half-built with broken concrete, piles of trash, and slums all over the place. If you take the time to look past the ragged exterior of pretty much all of Delhi you will find an intricate dedication to presentation. Every restaurant I have visited in Delhi (Mamagoto, TLR, Lodi Garden, etc) has been beautifully and originally designed. I would have expected to find every one of these restaurants on Union Street in San Francisco or in a loft in London. Being a guest of a family in India has allowed me to find these hidden beauties among the rubble, and I greatly appreciate this opportunity.

Shona - GRAPHIC

The biggest problem with the stray dogs in India is that there are too many of them. Dogs are pack-forming and territorial by nature (as they are descended from wolves), so there are dog gangs all over the city that get into fights with each other which creates health issues for the dogs.
The best way to treat this problem is by spaying and neutering as many of the strays as possible. If you can curb the population you will decrease the amount of health problems that arise from territorial disputes. As such we brought this one stray, Shona, to Anjolie's vet friend so he could teach us the spay procedure while simultaneously doing something about the stray population, considering she has had almost 40 puppies now (many of which have been hit by cars and killed).

There was a lot of blood loss but the dog survived and is recovering nicely. Hopefully we will get the opportunity to spay and neuter some more animals because it could greatly help reduce the stray population. This is especially important because if people here want a dog they buy a purebred animal, it is not like in the US where people pick up a mutt at the shelter.

Bella Surgery - Graphic

Among my health issues I thought it would be nice to update you with one of the cases we worked with, since that is why you're all here anyway.

This is a dog named Bella. As a puppy she was beaten and eventually hit with a car and has little function of her front left leg. That is fine until she developed a large mass in her front right paw, making walking very difficult for her. Upon palpation she reacted very strongly, indicating that the mass was painful for her (imagine having a big mass on the bottom of your foot!). We were able to sedate her and investigate the mass, making a small incision on the top and using forceps to feel around inside for pus, a foreign body, or a tumor. No pus came out, which was too bad because that is the easiest to treat of the options we had. We concluded that it was a tumor (probably not cancerous) but the whole thing would need to be excised, and we had neither the sedative nor the skill to do such a thing. On top of that she had a pretty slow heartbeat and a weak pulse so we didn't want to subject her to more sedation than was necessary.

Overall it went well and it was a great learning experience! This was definitely a case of finding a dog, tackling it, and doing vet stuff to it.

Delhi Belly

Based on the number of calls and emails I got within 5 minutes of talking to my mom, I am assuming she has spread the news that I have become ill here in Delhi, and I am sure you are all eagerly awaiting my recap of my sickness. I am taking a short break from the France v. South Africa game to fill you all in!!

I woke up at around 4 in the morning with violent abdominal pain, and I made the sort of faces women make in movies when they are "having babies." It was the kind of pain that induced uncontrollable yelling and crying, two things I try very hard to avoid when I experience pain. There was nothing I could do to relieve the pain: I tried yoga positions, breathing exercises, distracting myself, and whatever else people told me to do. Sleeping was difficult because I would be awoken every 3-5 minutes with a terrible wrenching of my guts. I ended up vomiting twice and I developed a fever.

After about 5 hours the cramps were still as frequent as always, but half of them were more mild, instead of every cramp being really intense. Once my friend's family awoke they diagnosed me as having Delhi Belly, a common GI disease people like me (white) usually experience when they visit India. I don't know what has caused it, considering I am careful with water and I haven't even eaten Indian food yet, but to be safe they put me on antibiotics.

Anjolie has also not been feeling well, so we took a break from helping animals to spend 10 hours lying on the couch watching the sixth season of Desperate Housewives. This helped to distract me from the pain, and my cramps have slowed down considerably, and I am having about one every half hour.

It's no fun being sick abroad, but I am thankful that I am with a family who can care for me instead of me being alone and in a hotel. This morning I felt like one of the dogs that I care for, in so much pain and feeling so helpless that there is nothing to do but lie down and let the pain overcome me, and hope to God that it will end soon. I am thankful for everyone who took the time to contact me and make sure that I am okay, and even though I hate being sick it is nice to see how many people care about me.