Career Break Central

So it’s an understatement to say that it’s been a while since I’ve posted.  I’m sure all nine of my loyal fans have given up and found another blog to follow.   We’ve spent the past year getting settled into our new home in Quebec and I’ve been working hard to get my pharmacist’s license here.  Unfortunately, it’s been a bit of a saga (I’ve been relying on the lessons I learned at the Indian Embassy in Katmandu - namely that patience is a virtue) and between taking a mind-numbingly boring online university course and travelling to work in another province, I haven’t had any time to continue blogging.  However, now that my course is finished and I’m in the home stretch (only 11 weeks of internship to go), I finally have the time and energy to pick up where I left off.  Stay tuned for the saga to continue in the coming days…

April 20-21, 2007

After our early getaway from Jodhpur, we made good time to Pushkar which is well-known for its famous camel fair. Each October, the town is inundated with thousands of buyers and sellers of over 50,000 camels causing this quiet town of 15,000 to explode with excitement and activity. It has also become a bit of a tourist attraction and we had mixed feelings about having missed it. In the end, though, like most other places we had been, we were glad to be able to see the quieter side of Pushkar on our own terms without having to deal with throngs of people – especially tourists (as opposed to seasoned “travelers” like us). After we settled into our charming hotel on the outskirts of town, Claude decided he needed to stretch his legs and decided to climb up to Gayatri’s temple which sat atop a nearby cliff overlooking Pushkar. The kids had no interest in hiking in the intense heat so I stayed behind with them and we did lessons until they were climbing the walls. Finally, we decided to take a break and go explore the marketplace. This was one of the first times I had ventured forth into an Indian market with the kids without Claude by my side and the dynamic was very interesting. Without Claude’s intimidating male presence, everyone seemed to feel at ease approaching us and calling out as we passed. Children scampered along behind us and shyly asked for candy while women and teenage girls and boys called “Hi, Mommy!” and “Hi, Boy!” and “Hi, Girl!” as we passed. They seemed to be enthralled by the sight a single Western woman traveling alone with two children. Their gentle smiling faces lit up when we responded and called “Hello!” and “Namaste” back to them and some actually followed us for a while, asking questions in broken English as we wandered through the colourful marketplace admiring the beautiful fabrics, spices and exotic smelling food for sale. The kids were delighted by the many monkeys that scurried along the rooftops and hung around the market hoping for a handout from a sympathetic food vendor.

As we finally made our way back to our hotel, all of our new friends waved and called out to us from their doorways as we passed, making us feel like visiting dignitaries. Read the rest of this entry »

April 19-20,2007

The next town on our itinerary was Jodhpur, the Blue City, where all the buildings are painted blue, apparently because the colour blue absorbs very little of the sun’s heat and this keeps the houses cool (you’ve got to wonder why only Jodhpur seems to be in on this secret). On the way to Jodhpur, we had a near miss with a crazy cyclist who attempted to cross traffic in front of us while we were doing about 80 km/h. Sanjay demonstrated his proficiency as a driver by managing to swerve around the wobbling bike while simultaneously avoiding a head-on collision with an oncoming truck. I will never forget the wide-eyed terror in the eyes of the cyclist as he passed within inches of my window. As soon as he regained control, Sanjay slammed on the brakes and looked over at Claude. “May I teach him a lesson, sir?” he asked.

“By all means,” replied Claude and Sanjay rolled up his sleeves and jumped out of the car to confront the cyclist whose life he had just saved. The cyclist, however, seeing the fury in Sanjay’s eyes, wisely gave him a wide berth and quickly pedaled away without an apology. Read the rest of this entry »

April 16-19

We returned to our hotel in Bikaner dusty and happy after our wonderful visit with Hansu and her family. Despite the lack of air-conditioning, we hadn’t been bothered by the 45+ temperatures and the kids had been remarkably well-behaved. As a reward, we decided to take them to the Russian Circus which was performing in Bikaner that evening. I feared for the safety of the performers when I saw the state of the tent (more holes than canvas) and the frayed ropes used to support the safety nets.

There were only four performers who looked even remotely Russian while the rest looked like recruits from local high schools who half-heartedly went through the motions of performing with bored expressions on their faces. It felt like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. The Russian acrobats, who looked like ex-gymnasts, did their best to carry the show, but the end result was a tragic comedy and we bailed at the first intermission. Cirque du Soleil has nothing to fear from the IndoRussian Circus. Read the rest of this entry »

I received the link to this video the other day and it really hit home for me. What do you think?

To act or not to act

Pretty convincing, huh?

Just in case anyone is wondering what has happened to us, we are still alive and well. Unfortunately, I fell seriously behind on blogging once when we were travelling around Europe and Africa and never managed to catch up. The good news is that I kept a written journal and will be converting it to blog material very soon. Some of the most exciting times on our trip happened in Europe and Africa so there is much more exciting stuff to come. If you want a sneak preview, just go to our web album and check out our photos. Read the rest of this entry »

April 15

After leaving Jaipur, we headed to Bikaner where, after a quick side-trip to visit the rat temple (ick!),

we checked into the Hotel Harasar Haveli and enjoyed a lovely sunset meal at their rooftop restaurant while watching the locals fly hundreds of kites from their roofs.

We had finally reached another milestone on our trip and were about to accomplish another of the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of our trip – we were going to meet our foster child, twelve year old Hansu, and her family in a tiny desert village 75km from Bikaner. Before our trip, I had contacted Plan Canada (formerly Foster Parents Plan) to set up the visit and we had gotten police checks and signed the necessary paperwork before leaving Canada. In actual fact, when you sponsor a child through Plan Canada, you are essentially contributing to an entire community by supporting programs which help to make the community more self-sustainable. You are assigned a child to help to put a face to the project and give you a personal connection. Regardless, we had watched Hansu grow up in pictures for the past four years while Alexa and Simon had grown up hearing stories about Hansu (especially when they wouldn’t eat their vegetables) and we were all excited to meet her. Read the rest of this entry »

April 10-14

After leaving Nepal, our favourite destination of the trip thus far, we had mixed emotions about visiting India. Since our primary reason for visiting India was to visit our foster child, Hansu, near Bikaner, we had decided to limit our visit to Rajasthan and stay only 12 days. Everything we had heard from fellow travelers was that India was a beautiful, but often difficult, country to travel in and to expect to have a love/hate relationship with the country. They were not far off the mark. Read the rest of this entry »

Why, you might ask, would I devote an entire blog entry to the Indian Embassy? Well, considering the amount of time, energy and patience I expended there, it deserves an entire chapter. Let this be a lesson to those of you who wish to obtain an Indian visa at the embassy in Katmandu (or, I have a sneaking suspicion, any Indian embassy) – do not underestimate the power of mindless bureaucracy to reduce even the most even-tempered individuals to raging lunatics. After our experience at the embassy in Katmandu, I’m starting to believe that the Indian government has a secret conspiracy to keep tourists out of their country by making it next to impossible and utterly distasteful to get a visa. A few words of advice:

1. Before attempting to obtain your Indian visa, take a large dose of Prozac for at least two weeks (it’s widely available over-the-counter at most pharmacies in Nepal);
2. Plan to do nothing else for at least two of the next three days;
3. Paste a bland smile on your face and resolve to keep it there no matter what;
4. Bring along a good book (preferably a joke book);
5. Set your expectations low so you won’t be disappointed – plan for anything and everything to go wrong;
6. Set aside any preconceived notions you may have about customer service and remember that these are government officials you are dealing with – it’s not their job to serve you; they are there to confuse, frustrate and exasperate you while acting as if they are doing you a favour. Read the rest of this entry »

Reflections on Nepal
April 7-10, 2007

Before going back to our hotel in Katmandu, we had two more places to visit. First, our driver took us to Nagarkot, a little town perched on a small peak about half an hour from Katmandu that is famous for its panoramic views of the Himalayas. Bishnu told us that on a clear day, you can see Everest. Unfortunately for us, the smog in the Katmandu Valley is so heavy in April that we could barely see to the bottom of the hill, let alone any distant peaks. When we arrived at our hotel, the Country Villa, I took a picture of our splendid “view.”

Shortly after we arrived, it started raining and soon it was a full-blown thunder and lightening storm. When we discovered how expensive the restaurant was in our hotel, we decided to brave the elements and walk down the hill into the town to find cheaper food. As we stumbled along in the dark, getting drenched and cringing when the lightening struck, I wondered aloud if it was worth it to save a few dollars. Then Claude reminded me that one of the purposes of this trip was to challenge ourselves to learn to live on a budget and do with less – the harder we worked for our meals, the better they would taste. In the end, we found a nice little place where we enjoyed great food for half what it would have cost us to eat at the hotel. We even got to eat by candlelight when the power went out halfway through the meal. Read the rest of this entry »