Into India

Flying to this part of the world takes time.  There is just no getting around the travel time.  But Singapore Airlines made it fairly comfortable, so ultimately, it wasn't that bad of a flight, all things considered.  Really, we're just lucky we can travel here as quickly as we can now, when only a hundred years ago it would have been a much more complicated journey.  Instead I sat and watched movies, they brought me socks and a toothbrush, and that was that.  Even security was a breeze in Singapore, and I have some new passport stamps to show for it!  

My flight landed around 3:30am, so I waited at the airport for Auntie Leslie there.  Everything there is clean.  In the bathrooms there is a touch screen board to rate the cleanliness of the bathroom.  They clean this board twice an hour for sanitation.   Once Leslie arrived though, we realized we were in different terminals.  My internet cut out right after we figured this out, so I headed to where she was.  When I got there, I connected to the internet there, only to find out she was not where I had been.  Whoops!  This time I just waited while they came to me.

As soon as you walk out the door in Singapore, you can tell this is a different part of the world.  The heavy, humid heat hits you immediately.  I have never been in a climate like that before.  Quite exhilarating to have that instant confirmation of newness.  It was still dark as we went to our hotel, so we didn't get to see too much at this point in time, but you could see our hotel from a distance off.  Three large towers, topped with what looks like a giant ship stretching across them makes the Marina Bay Sands.  I hadn't realized this is where we would be staying!

Our hotel room was halfway up and looked out on the harbor and one of the botanical gardens.  An incredible view.  Oddly, neither of us felt particularly tired, so we decided to dive right into the day.  First thing was the botanical garden just below us.  While quite nice, it wasn't anything spectacular, particularly for the price.  A little disappointed, food was decided to be next on the list.

 We took the MRT to get to Newton Circus, which is where there are many stalls of food.  As we walked into the area, we were surprised to see that most of them were closed. So we asked an stall worker, and he said it was too early to be open.  Confused at this, since we thought it was a little into the afternoon, we looked at the time and realized it wasn't even 10am.  This was when we realized out bodies were indeed more off then we had thought.

We found a couple of stands that were open though and got something to eat.  Haonese  Chicken Rice, Rice with vegetables and curry, and a local beer.  All delicious!  Somewhat sated, it was fun to look at all the different types of food they had there.  Chili Crabs, Fried Stingray, Fish Balls.  I definitely wasn't familiar with most things on the menus, but it was also a mixture of Malayan, Chinese, Indian, and several other regional foods.  Singapore is such a mixing pot of cultures that it was an interesting blend in the food too.  

Once we were done eating, we headed for Orchard Street, their main shopping avenue.   It was so hot in this area.  I couldn't believe how people were wandering around in full, black business suits or sweaters.  It was oppressive to me in my linen pants.  By this point  we were also feeling the day catch up with us, so we turned our feet towards our hotel.  

On the way, we saw all kinds of amazing buildings and people.  Especially when we got down by the river walk.  When we walked by an alleyway, it was fun to see the sheer number of air conditioning units hanging off the side of the building.  There were a large number of restaurants here too, and I couldn't believe the size of the lobsters and crabs they had in tanks here.  Some were the size of my torso.  We wandered amongst this area until we came to the harbor, right next to the merlion.  Of course I couldn't help wanted to take some pictures, and it felt good with the spray from the fountain hitting us.  

Eventually though, we made it all the way back to the hotel.  Here we made the mistake of sitting on our beds, and ended up with a short nap.  Really, we were lucky it stayed so short considering how tired we were at this point.  We decided to go up to the roof after this.  The large ship on top is actually where their famous infinity pool is.  Quite beautiful.  It was fun to go swimming here while looking at the water seem to drop off the edge to nothing.  There was also a hot tub right at the edge that was nice to soak in.   After all this though, we were about done for the night.  We grabbed a quick bite in the hotel and called it a night.  

The next day we got a much later start.  It felt like the opposite of the day before.  We thought it was still 9, but was actually noon.  Partially because we had coffee with Leslie's friend, and partially because our bodies were all out of sorts. Eventually we got ourselves moving though, and decided to head to the botanical garden on the other side of the city.  This is the one with the famous orchid garden.  On a whole, this was what we had been expecting the day before.  Beautiful, and much more interesting sets of plants.  We looked for Elton John's orchid, which was just named for him, but it wasn't out in the area at the moment.  

After the orchid garden, we headed back to the hotel.  Stopping at a 7/11 for some water, where I found some pocky.  Leslie had never had pocky before, so we got some to nibble on.  As we stood, waiting for the MRT, a young gal came up to inform us, there is no eating or drinking here.  Then she watched us until we put it away.  She did not work there, but was merely sitting nearby with her parents.  Needless to say, this is definitely not a culture of rule breakers.  

After we got back to the hotel, we went down to look for some food in the shopping center/casino that is associated with the hotel.  Looking at all the different places was a lot of fun, and we decided on a noodle restaurant where they were making the dumplings right in the front window.  This turned out to be an excellent decision.  The wonton soup was delicious, not to mention the pork and vegetable dumpling.   Best of all though was my tea.  Just a simple lemon and earl grey, it was perfectly sweetened.  And it had one GIANT round ice cube that was made of the tea itself.  What a great idea!  It was like having an earl grey popsicle after I was done.  

Feeling full and happy, we angled upstairs to the lotus like building outside.   We had a couple of tickets to the art exhibits here, which included a photography set, historical fujian artifacts, and a lego exhibit.  The lego one was the best by far, though this could have been because it was interactive.   Not feeling hungry yet, we called it a night knowing we would be getting up early the next morning. 

Our flight for India left a little after 7, so we were up and going by 4am.  An easy drive at this time of day, there was enough time for us to grab a bite to eat and some coffee before heading to our gate.  Once there though, we found Dr. Jay and the rest of the group.  Auntie Leslie knows two of them from classes and working at the clinic, Linda and Connie, but Betty was unfamiliar, as she is a patient of Dr. Jay.  We all got settled on the plane and off we went to India.  

It is very nice to have Dr. Jay here with us.  From Bangelore, he has been helpful in everything from food, to information, to what brands of water to drink.  He quickly got us through customs at the airport, and before we knew it we were in the van and heading for Mysore, where we are staying at the Ayurveda Clinic.  On the way we stopped for food twice, and saw the beginning of the world that is India.  Talk about a complete opposite from Singapore!  Leslie and I have gone from absolutely clean, don't break any rules, comfort to dirty, smelly streets, covered in animals, with people peeing off the side of the road.   It truly is overwhelming, just as I had heard.  Though I have to admit I find it rather fascinating.  

Eventually we made it to IVAC and got settled in.  We were greeted with a welcoming ceremony and all received bindi.   Dr. Jay is leaving until Tuesday for some presentations in Bangelore.  He got our schedules all set up before he left though, and we all started the evening with a tour and then a treatment.  It was a full body massage, complete with a sanskrit prayer and medicinal oils.  Quite the experience.  After this we just had some dinner and called it a night.  Most the group was pretty jet-lagged and it seemed good to turn in early.  

We all began the next morning early with 6:30 yoga.  Auntie Leslie and I had both woke up around 4 am, so this wasn't such a big deal to us.  Many of the towns people come to the clinic for this session too, so it was fun to see the range of people.  

After an hour of yoga, I was called to my next treatment.  This one seemed particularly different.  They take a dough and build a "dam" around your eyes.  Then they pour in ghee, a type of warm butter, and have you open your eyes.  It didn't feel like anything, but after the procedure my eyes felt a little blurry.  They said this was normal though, and not long later it went away.   I have noticed that my eyes don't feel dry at all anymore, even later in the evening when I get tired.  That is quite nice.  

As the afternoon came, I had my consultation with the doctor. She said I was a pitta-vata, which no one else seems to see me as, including Dr. Jay.  Nor do it's characteristics really seem to match me.  We think she may be wrong, but she does look exhausted every time we see her too.  Still, she gave me something for the rash I had developed and was itching.  I think I may be allergic to something, probably a food.  

Later on, we went on our first outing.  Suneil has become our "keeper" as Auntie Leslie has dubbed him, and he is hilarious.  He took us first to the king's palace.  Once we got there though, we realized none of us had yet had opportunities to change our money to rupees.  Luckily, Betty had some, so we could go inside.  

Unfortunately, at this point we realized not only do they not allow you to take pictures, they won't even allow you to bring in cameras.  I was the only one with one.  There was a place you could leave it for a dollar and pick it back up on the way out, but I wasn't comfortable with that.  Suneil said to hide it, and we would see what happened.  Well, they put all bags through a detector and it was found.  Seconds later Suneil says something to the guard hands him a bill, and ushers us in.  We are truly in India now!  Bribing illegal items into temples.  I didn't take any pictures despite this though, mostly because there were guards in every room and I didn't want to bribe them too.  

Still, the palace was beautiful.  Huge windows in the ceiling with peacock images, columns in pale blue and gold with pink and yellow floral designs on the ceilings.  We even saw some people riding a camel.  A couple of us got our faster too, since Betty couldn't walk very fast, and Leslie stayed with her.  A tour guide let them join his group instead.  So once the other three of us reached the end, we sat and waited.  Now this was another experience.  People were coming up and asking to take their pictures with us, shaking our hands, asking what country we were from.  Parents would force their kids to set with us and pose for pictures.  And everyone who walked by just stared at us.  Needless to say, there will be no blending in here.  We stick out like sore thumbs.  

Eventually we got away from the groups of people though, and made our way back to Valla and his van.  They found us a place to change our money, and then a grocery store where we could get some different oils and soaps.  We were supposed to go back to the palace after this, to see it lit up, but it was an hour wait.  So instead, we decided to go back and have dinner.

The next morning, there was no yoga, as many of the instructors climbed a nearby hill to go to temple instead.  We will be doing this on Tuesday.  Instead, we slept in a little, before I went and had Kati Basti.  This treatment builds a dam on your lower back and then uses hot oil and massage.  We then had a couple hours free in the afternoon, and decided to go to the Queen's Palace, which we can see from the center.  It has been turned into a hotel, so we went for lunch and tea.  

It was so wonderful to eat another type of food!  While the food here isn't bad, it is very bland.  Even the stuff that is hot doesn't seem to have any flavor.  I am missing foods from  back home, and would kill for penne arrabiata, pizza,  steak, or tomato cucumber salad.  It was a good meal though.   Two of us had sandwiches, we all had several cups of tea, and then we had cookies.  For four of us this came to 900 rupees, or $18.  Not bad for a four person meal!  The prices are definitely my favorite part of being here.  

We went back to IVAC to grab Betty, but she wasn't feeling well and sent us on without her.  This time Suneil took us to Srirangapatna.  This was an old fortress set up, where they fought against the English.   We saw the old palace there, as well as where the found the bodies of the important people who had fought.  After this , we went to the local temple.  It was amazing!  We got to see all the different statues of different reincarnations, received bindi and herbs.  They gave us holy water to drink, but I just pretended too.  I'm not sure I want to know the quality of the water and pay the price for that one later.  Leslie learned the hard part of telling the sales people maybe here too.  When we came back out, they swarmed her and would not go away.  Still, it was an experience!

After all this, it was hard to go back to eat dinner at the clinic again.  They had a different dosa this time which was good, with a mild curry.  So at least I enjoyed part of it.  We chatted in there until the dining room was closed, looking at pictures of Suneil's wife and daughter.  Not a bad way to end another day.