my fifth semester

today is 31st of march, 2008. my fist posting will be start on 1st of april. the only i want to share here is my feeling of posting.
my fist posting will be to karkala, i can't imagine what is the funny thing i will do on the patient. my mind is empty now, sort of unconscious, like an empty tin. i am actually excited now, because i'm gonna expose to patient in the ward.
unbreathable.
have to gain back my study mood, holiday is happy and now should come to an end! i'm heading towards my carrier, my ambition. .....

hope it won't be as bad as i imagine now.

where am i in last holiday?

today is 30th march 2008. i have been in manipal for 1 week after my north trip in my last vacation.

north trip of India, a trip which we have planned for at least four months before we start, a trip which involve 11 strangers initially, but becoming brother sister after the trip. a trip which i would never forget and i would share with everyone proudly. a trip which might prepare me for any bag pack activity to other country in the future.

11 of us in front of the gateway of India, mumbai

so, this time my trip start from udupi train station, passing by mumbai, changing train to ahmedabhad, to rajasthan, punjab, himachal pradesh, uttar pradesh, to west bengal. (above names are the names of the states in india where i have been).

Rajasthan,

situated at the north west part of india. we went 3 places in rajasthan - udaiphur, jodphur and jaiselmer. rajasthan is a state rich with interesting history and unique culture. each places has it's own history and culture. these 3 places are famous with fort and palaces.

the night view of city palace, udaiphur

in udaiphur,
we also have chance to visit chittograh, where there are a fort belongs to maharana udai singh, the ruler of udaiphur. maharana shift to udaiphur after chittograh fort defeat to mughals. now it left only ruins and jain temples.

chittograh fortthe battle field behind chittograh fort

on the way to chittograh, we passed by several opium plantation. these are approved by government.

opium

jodphur,

famous with Meherangarh, another famous fort, which i like the most. the fort looks very strong and great strength. beside that, jodphur also famous with Jaswant Thada, a marble memorial.

maharangah fort

jaiselmer,

a giant sandcastle, situated in the desert of rajasthan. here, we went to jaiselmer fort. the interesting i did here is camel safari! finally, i have a chance to step in desert. even though the desert is not fully covered by sand, i still have a very good memory in the desert with the desert people.jaiselmer fort

jaiselmer fort from far

camel safari

camp fire in desert
camel ride

our new album photo

next station is amritsa, a city in punjab. we visit golden temple, the singh's temple, and also waghal border. i have fever in amritsa. so, i din really enjoy my one day stay here. amritsa is a city which is mainly stayed by the singh. so, the culture here is very much different compare to other part of india. people here are more friendly, and there are less beggar, because the golden temple provide free food for those we come here.

golden temple

the thing which i found interesting in Amritsar is waghal border, the gate which separate india with pakistan. in history, Pakistan and India is considered as one family. they got separated because of some factor which I'm not really sure. what i know is Pakistan is lived by Indian Muslim and India is mainly stayed by Hindu. so, there are always so conflict between india and Pakistan. and, the Indian here are that emotional when they are showing their patriotic to their country. there are as if a competition held here to compete their patriotic. a lot of funny view can be seen here.

the gate closing ceremony at waghal border

from amritsar, we hired an expensive van to dharamsala. here, we stay in mcleod ganj, a place where dalai lama stay now. dharamsala is the land where all the tibetian refugee stayed after they have been chased out from tibet by the chinese government.

this is the wish of tibtian, will this really happen?(china free tibet)

i can tell that dharamsala is the best place i went in the trip. the peaceful environment and the friendly people here made me feel quiet and relax in my heart, a feeling which suit me after my second year university exam. i trek around in mcleod ganj, to nearby village, like dharamcott and bangsu waterfall. mcleod ganj also a place for the monks from all over the world to do their meditation for the Buddhism teaching.

mcleod ganj

manali, the only purpose to come here is skiing. although i dun have sufficient finance to travel all the way to Switzerland, at least i have chance to ski and play with the snow.skiing in solang valley, manali

too bad, when i reach manali, my wallet start becoming dry. have to safe money. so, i decide to reduce all my expanses for the next few stations onwards. in manali, i went to old manali where i can find the Nepali. at here, i am exposed to their different type of houses. i did not stay long in old manali, what i know is they look like Mongolian, their look, their house, and their handicraft.

one of my photo taken in manali

together with the memory of skiing, i leave manali to shimla. shimla, previously is the temporary capital for the British government in India during the summer. so there are few British buildings left here. in shimla, we went to kurfi, a place which is 16 km away from shimla, where we did our horse riding.

shimla

Agra.... the most important station of this trip. we took a van from dehli at 2 o'clock in the morning to Agra. Agra, where the taj mahal allocated, 5 hours journey from dehli, was a city with cheating and is dirty. i don't really want to tell this, but this is the impression that the place gave me. because of taj mahal, the local people are trying to cheat as much as possible from the foreigner. even the kids can communicate well in english, to sell the things to the foreigner with unexpected high price. we bought foreigner ticket with Rs750 to enter taj. for me, even though it is quite expensive, i have a satisfied moment inside there, enjoying photography, and also appreciate the architecture. i keep on comforting myself by telling myself that i have collect one seven wonders, to cover my pain of spending so much for this building. actually the ticket include a small part of money for the tickets of other monument. but, we could only make ourself to taj and Agra fort. because of the tiredness, we decide to leave Agra earlier than planned.

taj mahal

we didn't go around dehli, instead of the India gate, and a famous shopping area in dehli - cannought area.

India gate, Delhi

with our tired body, we leave Delhi to Varanasi. Varanasi, a very important place for Hindus, where their holy river is situated. what i know from senior is Varanasi is a dirty city. so, we decide to stay only one morning here, to drop by Ghanga river, before we leave to Darjeeling. we get a boat ride in Varanasi in the early morning, appreciating the different ghat along the river band, the unique culture of Hindus religion, and all the activities i never seen before. (sorry, i forgot the word i should use to describe these activities, will find it and re edit this part.) the moment of Ghanges river in the morning is so beautiful which make me almost forget how dirty the city is. Varanasi's view

our last station, Darjeeling, a place in west Bengal, where it is famous with it tea plantation, and also its wonderful point to appreciate those famous tallest mountain on Himalaya. unfortunately, before we reached Darjeeling, there are few days of heavy rain. therefore, on Tiger Hill, we could only blurry appreciate the world tallest mountain, Kanchenjunga. i also went to their tea garden - Happy Valley tea garden.

sunrise on tiger hill, Darjeeling
Vincent at the tea garden
toy train that we took down from Darjeeling

before heading back to Bangalore in Indigo flight, we have a four hours stay in Calcutta. we went to Victoria Memorial and Mother Teresa's home.Victoria memorial

actually there are a lot more to write about this block, what i give here is a short summary of my journey. maybe sometimes in the future, i will write my feeling of each places. really a good experience and i will be always recall every moment i spent with the other 10 people throughout the trip, the happiness, the emo moment and every L joke.hahaha... thanks to all my "teammates" for making the trip success.