Peaceful Pokhara

Hát a végén nem lett Holi fesztivál, mert azt a napot (is) a wc-n töltöttem. Azóta leszoktam a fött krumpli - banán kombinációról, új esélyt adva a baktériumoknak újabb nepáli kaják által. Idöközben átbuszoztam röpke 8 óra alatt (200 km) a “VIP deluxe” busszal Kathmanduból Pokharába, ami sokkal nyugisabb és kicsit nyugatiasabb hely mint Kathmandu. Itt egy újabb, föleg rehabilitációra specializálódott kórházban vagyok. Eddig valahogy egy plasztikai sebészt sikerült követnem valami oknál fogva. Eléggé kaotikus minden és nem úgy tünik, hogy bármilyen beosztás szerint dolgoznának, de maga a kórház sokkal modernebb, mint az elözö. Legalább a szállás totál nyugis helyen van. Néha már-már félelmetesen is. A reggeli mindig omlett és toast kenyér, rttentö izgis. Lentebb látható a teljes utiterv.

So at the end it was no Holi festival for me at all as I underestimated the stomach problem a little so just when I thought it’s over, I just couldn’t leave the room and got weak even to go up to the rooftop terasse. So for several days I was living on potato and banana, but now I give new possibility to new bacterias again so started to eat some nepali food. The whole thing got a bit scary when even my eyes got swollen, first the right one, then when it disappeared, it went to the left one. So I started to google symptoms (shouldn’t have) and found out it is either cancer or some worm. Thank God google was wrong and eventually it disappeared. So the day after (friday) I was circulating around the area in Patan just to gain some energy, didn’t do too much otherwise.

On saturday I took the bus to Pokhara from Kathmandu which is about 200 km, took 8 hours. I booked the bus after Marie recommended one which I had to book via a whatsup message to an unknown person. I could choose between “deluxe” and “VIP deluxe”. As the price difference was about 25 svenska kronor I went for VIP. And this time it was for sure VIP. Never seen such seats in bus before. Although it couldn’t take away the constant bumps on the road. It was quite a unique experience, but somehow relaxing. The whole bus ride costed almost the same (around 100 SEK) as the taxi from my hostel to the bus stop, interesting.

So we got to Pokhara, the next stop on my hospital holiday where I will spend about 2 weeks again in a hospital which is called Green Pastures (which is not equal with “green pasthors” as I previously misinterpreted). The first night I spent in Pokhara city, the area called Lake side, here you can see why.

I think I like Pokhara better than Kathmandu. Much calmer and less noisy and the mountains are very near. Though the whole city is built on turists going trekking so there are only trekking shops and companies, souvenirshops and a lot of western restaurants. One more plus is that the tap water is never brown! Also the weather is much warmer, nearly 30 degrees. On sunday I moved in to the hospitals guest house which is a bit outside of the city but the whole area is incredibly peaceful. The breakfast is always an omlette with toast bread, sometimes with spoon and knife or spoon and fork but never with a fork and knife.. I don’t think I will ever eat omlette again after I get back home.

This hospital mostly takes care of rehab of patients with spinal chord injuries and stroke. They also do some spinal surgeries and some hand, reconstructive surgeries, again partly for leprosy patients. The hospital itself is much more modern than the previous one with better facilities and equipment but somehow for me it is hard to understand the structure. Probably because they didn’t really take time to explain it. Somehow I ended up following a plastic surgeon who actually does all kind of surgeries. I don’t really understand what ortho does and who are they despite I asked a couple of times. Even hand surgery and various wound surgeries are done by this plastic surgeon who is just running around the whole time without any schedule (what I can see). So when he decides he wants to operate something then the patient is there in 10 mins (which means they are really not that busy at op). Verrry chaotic to me. I am just trying to run after him without knowing any plans for the day. Sometimes he forgets to collect me after he leaves me somewhere... My contact person here is Josh, a rehab doctor from the US. Yesterday we went together to have a dinner in a nearby restaurant with his family, for which they collected even a swedish person exclusively for me “as I am coming from Sweden”.  They were a bit disappointed when I said it is not entirely true.. Otherwise it was a nice evening despite of that we couldn’t hear each other because of the constant loud raining on the plexi roof, which made the whole thing kind of funny.

Finally a little bit about the whole grandious plan. I will visit 4 different hospitals, all of them at least 5 hours from each other, as the roads are very shitty.. So on map it is like this. Let’s hope for the best. :)