No Rest for the Weary

Monday morning we were supposed to be heading to Trichy and Tanjoor for a 3 day side trip, but while on top of the mountain having lunch on Sunday Dr. Subbiah asked us if we would prefer Monday to be a rest day since we had done such a big hike. We thought that would be a good idea since we really get no weekends or time off here. Dr. Subbiah proceeded to talk to the dean in Tamil for a bit and then told us that our new Monday plan was to attend clinics in the morning and then tour farms in the afternoon…somehow this was considered a “rest day”…

Monday: The clinic in Namakkal is much smaller than the one in Chennai as this is a much smaller town. They see mostly large animals, although we saw a decent number of dogs being treated as well (3 in a row had suspected Parvo). Most of the patients are seen outside, even the dogs with metal tables set up under trees. We got to see 2 beautiful white horses dance – although they were still in the process of being trained so they mostly just fluttered their feet around, but it was still fun to see. At 11am we were brought into the doctors office, served tea, and shown slides of interesting cases they have seen. I hope we didn’t offend them too badly as many of us (myself included) could barely keep our eyes open after the previous day. When we returned for a midday break I took a small nap before having lunch.

After lunch we were taken on a tour of the farms on the vet school property. Having the small farms right on the campus is another thing that reminds me of Blacksburg when I look around Namakkal. We again got to see and hold baby bunnies (it really is too bad someone is just going to eat them), got our fingers suckled on by small calves, and went in and out of many avian houses. Most of these avian houses were about 15 feet off the ground and the staircase leading up to them had a 2 foot gap at the end (in between the last step and the doorway in). So at the top there was a nice little hole for you to fall into (not really a fall to the death, but definitely a fall to pain). It turns out this is to keep the rats out…

We got back to the hostel by about 5:30pm and a few of us went out to Namakkal to see some Hindu temples, mainly just to get out and see the city. Some locals we briefly talked to at one temple had a fun time trying to pronounce “Virginia”. (The first question from locals is almost always where we are from. Students usually want to know our age and marital status. And the standard conversation started question here is “How was breakfast?” It’s kind of like the Indian version of talking about the weather.)

Tuesday: The day started badly, and luckily went uphill from there. Dr. Subbiah had told us the night before that we were leaving at 6am. Starting at about 4:15am (and continuing multiple times after that…) we had knocks on our door from various staff members wondering if we wanted tea and then later knocks from the driver making sure we were getting ready. In case you were wondering, this is not a good way to be woken up. Various members of our group were upset for various reasons and we all took the 2 hour van ride to Trichy to relax and reset.

When we got to Trichy we immediately checked into our hotel, dumped our bags, and went out to breakfast. I started with a “donut” (looks like a donut, but it is a savory ring of fried dough with onions and spices inside) that I dipped in samba (sp?) and pongol (sp? It is kind of like a rice oatmeal with leaves and peppercorns in it). After I had eaten that Dr. Subbiah ordered me a ghee roast or butter dosa to try. It was enormous, but also delicious, and I ate most of that as well. It looks like a crepe, but is savory, and can be made in many different ways (obviously the butter one is just brushed with butter, but you can also have it with masala potatoes or onions or chile powder, etc.).

After breakfast we got back on the van and continued driving another hour to Tanjoor where we first went to an ancient Hindu temple carved into the side of a rocky mountain. The ceiling was well preserved and had been painted to be a pond filled with lotus flowers and various animals. There was an inner square room that had a special acoustic quality so that when the temple guardian made a certain type of humming (that you could not hear) it reverberated loudly off of the walls. It was pretty cool to stand in the middle of the room and feel the sound vibrating on your skin. From there we went to an emu farm. By the time we got there the sun had come out in full force and it was almost unbearable just to stand outside. While touring the emu pens the showers were turned on for the birds and we forgot about our own overheating as we watched the birds enjoy being soaked. Many of the birds claimed a spot and camped out right underneath the showerhead.

We had a very spicy lunch and continued into the main part of the city. By this time it was almost 5pm and our driver raced to get to the museums before they closed (which was very frightening as this new driver is a maniac on the road even when not rushing). We had a whirlwind tour of an ancient library and an old temple filled with art and artifacts. We arrived at both places only about 15 minutes before they closed so literally ran around the rooms seeing as many things as possible and avoiding the employees who told us it was closing time in a language understood around the world – blowing whistles. It was like tourism Amazing Race style.

We ended the day at Big Temple (yes, that is its real name), which is exactly what it sounds like. There was a giant statue of a bull lying down and a very tall part of the temple that we could unfortunately not find any way to climb up. While waiting for the others to finish looking around I bought a pack of snacks (some sort of overly fried dough) and fed it to a skinny, stray puppy wandering around the grounds. As it is in many places in India you could not wear your shoes inside the temple (this is true of temples, peoples homes, operation rooms, and labs) and I am really starting to like being barefoot. There is something freeing in the sensation of cool stone against bare feet.

Wednesday: We were to meet outside the hotel at 8am, but somehow I slept through my 7am alarm. I woke up in a panic at 7:48 and Carrie and I rushed around getting ready and packing and managed to make it to the lobby right at 8. We went to the same restaurant for breakfast (Hotel Guru – restaurants here are called hotels) and I got a ghee roast again as I had enjoyed it so much the day before. Dr. Subbiah told them to bring it out shaped as a big cone, kind of like a party hat (it is a giant circle, and normally is just folded into fourths like a crepe. We drove back towards Trichy and stopped at a mixed farm along the way (mixed meaning they have multiple types of animals and do other kinds of farming all on the same land). The tour of the farm was rather boring as we’ve done several similar farm tours during our stay here, but we had a nice break drinking slice (a mango juice drink) on an outdoor patio surrounded by a lotus-filled pond.

From there we got dropped off in the main part of Trichy and climbed up many flights of stairs to another Hindu temple. It was on top of a small mountain/large hill in the middle of town and from on top you could see a beautiful 360 degree panorama of the city. It reminded me of being atop the Notre Dame Cathedral and looking down on Paris; just replace gargoyles with Hindu gods. The climb had made me pretty hungry and after a brief stop at an old dam we went to a nice restaurant for lunch. I easily polished off my meal…and then almost everyone else’s! The naan was straight from the oven and incredibly delicious. It was a very late lunch (we got to the restaurant around 3:30pm) so we took an easy afternoon of some shopping in Trichy before the 2 hour ride back to Namakkal. Jennifer and I looked at some very expensive jewelry just for the fun of it; one bracelet we looked at cost 47,000 rupees (about $1,000). When we got back to the van we had to wait a few minutes as the driver was off on an errand for Ruby. We later found out she had gotten back to the van first where she met a little boy trying to sell her Q-tips in the parking lot. Since giving them money usually means the money will just go to an adult she asked him what he needed and he said a new school uniform (almost all the schools here have uniforms). When the driver returned with the clothes the boy got onto the van and showed off his new button down white shirt and blue slacks. The day ended with a long and bumpy ride back to Namakkal.