General thoughts / Thamel Square

Life has certainly been busy! Detailed reflections on clinical experiences here to come. For now a few random points:

- TU Teaching Hospital officially works in English but in practice is Nepali - unfortunately this means I can only follow patient care based on written notes or when someone translates for me

- international elective students are quite common here: I met two from Sweden today who were just finishing 2 months of clinical / research

- shops are of all varieties here. Today I was introduced to a store that easily could pass for a small Walmart with groceries, hardware, households items, and alcohol. There are many other stores at the side of the road with all sorts of items

- Nepali roads are extremely dusty and noisy. The worst dust is on the main road from the teaching hospital into town. Apparently it's under construction and has been "almost done" for at least 3 years

I had time to walk around a bit yesterday. Walk into town dusty and very uneven. Also dangerous with traffic and random fallen wires. Seems to be fairly typical here though. I eventually reaches Thamel square which is a touristy area. Some very cute quieter streets to walk down but in the heart of it there were also some fairly aggressive salespeople. I'm off to see the squares in more detail come Saturday. Per Nipesh's suggestion (my host / contact with NCCDF), I'm doing so with private guide and car for around $70. A bit pricey but promises to be an experience :)

Main road to town

One of the streets by Thamel square

Roundabout

View from a hill

And back up the hill. Unfortunately this is fairly typical: people just don't care about litter in public places.

It for now. To come: clinical reflections, experiences at a Nepalese conference.

Oh, and for MD 2014 people: anyone else heard on interviews yet? I received an invite to Dal Cardiac Surgery this morning!

Arrival and Registration

After a 3.5 hr delay in Istanbul and subsequent uneventful flight, I landed in Kathmandu. Airport is smallish. I was able to exchange money and acquire Nepalese rupees, as well as a Nepali sim card. Customs was straight forward, expedited by having obtained a visa in advance.

Once outside the airport it was a cacophony of cars, horns, and people waiting to greet the new arrivals. Fortunately my contact Nipesh with NCCDF was there to pick me up. He identified me immediately and we got in the hired car. Kathmandu roads are crazy. Nominally it's drive on the left, as in Britain. In practice it's drive where there's room available, honking when you speed up to pass. Traffic is about 50% vehicles and 50% motorbikes. I'm still not sure who's crazier but am glad I'm not driving.

After the harrowing ride we arrived at the NCCDF office / guestrooms. It's actually quite luxurious and far more comfortable than I anticipated. Photos / details to come.

Having arrived, it was time to obtain an ID badge and pay the $200 tuition.  ID badge is below. For me who is used to the digitally printed ID badges, I'm quite impressed with how official a piece of paper with handwriting, a stamp. ,and a pasted photo can appear. Curiously they documented the serial number of each bill I used to pay tuition.

Rest of Monday was uneventful - I actually ended up sleeping 13hrs as I caught up from poor sleep while travelling.

Istanbul

And I'm underway.

Hard to believe how time flew. I intended to update regularly in the lead up to departure. Finishing my Canadian electives, finishing residency applications and prepping for departure ended up consuming most of my time so updates didn't happen. They should hopefully be more or less regular from this point on, depending on the Internet / power availability in Kathmandu.

Last post was related to the visas - I ended up obtaining Nepalese, Indian, and Turkish visas prior to departure. Nepal and Turkey were easy, India more work. I may add more detailed steps in the future.

Saturday was I harried day of packing but I still had time to fit in a walk at home

As part of packing I included a bunch of food (due to allergies) and medical supplies to donate to NCCDF.

The supplies pictured above were then supplemented with others from one of my friends who works in Hamilton.

In addition to the above your partnership has allowed me to raise over $5000CAD in support for NCCDF! Thank you! Since this is well in excess of the $2000 max I can bring into the country, I will deliver the donation either through withdrawals from ATMs in Kathmandu or in one lump sum via wire transfer when I return (whichever is cheaper). If you wish to support just comment below or email me and I'll ensure the amount is added.

After everything was done it was off to the airport... and it was snowing. go figure. Added a short delay as we waited for de icing. It was then off in the air and asleep for the night, taking advantage of the complimentary ear plugs, eye shield, blanket, and pillow. Also a cool in flight entertainment system which I did not really use.

Landed in Istanbul at 4pm local. Will be leaving for Kathmandu 9pm. There may be simultaneous blog updates depending upon when I find Internet.