Trip to India

Indians, and more singuarly The Ghurkas, have always been an integral part of the British Army.

The Ghurka, if he draws his knife, can only replace it with blood on it.

[WanderALot]

Originally Posted by ESRBob

Wandersalot,
Maybe you could put them online in some shared digital notebook space and then post the link? It would be a treat to see. thx,

We have about 350 pictures and I haven't put any captions on any of them. My goal is to finish this project soon (hey, it's only been 1 year since our trip! I'll revive this thread once I get that done.

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

I was on an assignment for a couple of months in northern India years ago. After I returned I was appalled to learn that I had been in an area that has drug-resistant malaria (fortunately, the mosquitos were not out at the time). In addition, our family practice clinic did not give me all the shots I needed before I left. The doctor who saw me was Indian, by the way.

Now, I check with the medics who run the blood bank (a very good source!) before we gell our travel plans. It was blood bank medics who told me upon my return that I couldn't give blood for a year after coming back from India so that they could see if I developed a tropical disease. It turns out that the medicines I was taking to prevent malaria (I thought) only supress the symptoms. Some university medical schools have a travel medicine service (for pay)--a much better source than your personal sawbones.

Do your own health homework!

The part of India I was at was incredible, by the way. It still pops up in my dreams these many years later. If I were to go again for pleasure, I would do more research beforehand and try to find a knowledgable local contact to spend time with when there. A local guide can enhance the experience quite a bit, I have found.

Cheers,

Gypsy

[eriter]

We spent about a month in India and Nepal back in the 70's.* It was a great trip but the main two things that bothered me were the cows and the lepers.* In those days the cows were on every street and you had to be extra careful where you stepped or you could get in a mess.

I think the Indian government was recently considering a project to move the cows out of the major cities but ran into a lot of opposition.

However, the main problem for me was the lepers.* They would come up to us and beg for money with what remained of their outstretched arms.* I was told that there were two types of lepers, wet and dry, and the dry ones were the only ones found in the streets because they weren't contagious.* Personally, I didn't care much about the distinction and just tried to keep them as far away as possible.

India is the most fascinating country I have visited but it definitely isn't for the faint-of-heart.

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

eriter,

India pegged my culture shock meter, too. I was on business and was not exposed personally to much street life, but I saw it. It is incredible that human beings have to live that way.

Leprosy is Hansen's Disease, a simple skin disease that is easily treatable with antibiotics. But, you saw what happens if left untreated. As I understand it, it attacks the nerves and people lose sensation in their skin. They do not notice when they have small injuries, which become infected and they eventually lose fingers and toes and limbs. There must be more to it than that, though.

Ed

[eriter]

Ed...

I heard a story that some people in India were waking up in the morning, after sleeping in the street all night, and that their toes were gnawed away.* The reason was that the rats would nibble on their toes when they were asleep and they couldn't feel anything due to the leprosy. (Not sure if that is true or not).

When we were in Nepal one of the lepers kept getting closer and closer to me so I took off running--I think I set the Nepalese-100 yard dash record.* My wife and the others with us were laughing themselves silly, but I wasn't taking any chances.

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

eriter,

Your story fills in the blanks. It has the ring of truth.

Ed