Tansen - the place to be

Több mint egy hete nem írtam. Ez azért van, mert miòta Tansen-be érkeztem, mindig történt valami érdekes. Elöször is Pokharából kellett Tansenbe jutnom egy minibusszal, amin én boltam az egyetlen nem-nepáli, kb 5-6 órás kanyargós út volt, remek nepáli zenével (link lejjebb). A busz az út szélèn tett ki valahol, de kb. 5 percet vártam, mire egy önkéntes taxi jelölt felajánlotta, hogy elvisz a kórházhoz. Itt rögtön befészkeltem a kórház vendégházába, ahonnan ugyan félidöben költöznöm kellett. Mint kiderült, feleslegesen, úgyhogy 3 nap után visszaköltöztem. Itt is találkoztam egérrel, meg bazi nagy pókokkal, valamint tudomásomra jutott, hogy egy óriás patkány lakik a tetön. De mégis inkább ez, mint a folyton bulizó hotel. Tansen egy elég kis város, 1350 m magasban, a hegyoldalba épülve, amúgy nagyon aranyos. Kedves emberek, 0 turista, rengeteg külföldi, akik a kórházban vagy az iskolában dolgoznak, 3 svéd család. Úgyhogy végre találkoztam itt Amandával, a svéd ortop orvossal, aki ezt az egész kórházasdit leszervezte nekem. Ahhoz képest, hogy milyen kisváros, mindig történt valami (köszönhetöen a külföldieknek). Egyik nap lekirándultunk a Rani Mahal nevü templomhoz, 700 m le meg ugyanannyi fel a tüzö napon, hát nem volt egyszerü. Vissza Kathmanduba a kórház jeep-jével jöttem még 4 másik emberrel, 12 órás út, aminek az elsö 6 órája kizárólag borzasztó kátyús földút volt. Este 6-ra értünk a városba, reggel 4-kor pedig már indultam a következö helyre. Ja és most van nepáli új év, úgyhogy boldog 2079-et!

Oh, more than a week passed and I haven’t posted anything. This is because all the time something was happening since I arrived to Tansen. And now I have already left it and I am back to Kathmandu. 

Hospital in Tansen with ambulance cars

So we go back a little bit in time. The bus trip was ok from Pokhara to Tansen, but not as comfortable as the “VIP deluxe” bus from Kathmandu. Here I was the only non-nepali person and the mini bus was really mini with not so spacious seats. Interestingly in Nepal somehow all the buses are always full. If not in the beginning, they pick up people on the way on every possible locations. So first I was sitting beside an elderly lady, and after that she was changed to a younger girl. During the whole journey we had the privilege to listen to high tuned nepali/indian music. For example (if you want to get in the moods): https://youtu.be/P4x2C6z80bQ

Maybe understandable that after a half an hour I switched to Spotify. The road was very wavy but maybe less bumpy than the one from Kathmandu to Pokhara. As the bus was not going directly to Tansen but somewhere else, it dropped me in some village on the way, some km away from Tansen. I just needed to wait 5 mins until a local guide offered himself as taxi service (although for sure not official taxi) and took me up to the mountain. 

A part of Tansen from above

Tansen has a great location at 1350 m altitude, built on the side of a mountain which makes the town and streets quite interesting. There are not so many flat parts, even the hospital is built on several floors, adjusted to the steep mountain wall. According to wikipedia, 30.000 people live here but there are many who comes to the hospital from other places. So far I liked Tansen the best of all the places I have seen. The whole town and the surrounding mountains have a real beauty but also the people are very kind and as this is not a touristic place at all, they don’t want to sell constantly something to you. Interestingly there are many foreigner expats who serves at the hospital or in the school nearby, currently about 30 people, and 3 swedish families. 

I landed finally at the hospitals guest house where I have been the only guest in the beginning. In the afternoon already there was an English service held by Dr Rachel, the hospital director (from the UK). So here I met almost all the foreigners and finally also with Amanada and her family (the swedish ortho doctor who organised for me the whole visit in all the hospitals). Tansen felt like home from the first day. 

Guest house area

The day after we had lunch in a restaurant with Amandas family and she also showed me around, we climbed the Shreenagar mountain and I bought my first kurta, a nepali dress which is worn by the women here. Was a good fit for the church which was fully in nepali for 2 hours, but still interesting. Unfortunately it shrank quite a lot after I washed out so now it is a bit difficult to breath while wearing.. Of course the second time I wanted to walk to the city, took me double the time as I didn’t find my way because half of the streets were not on google maps.

Tansen when a little bit of more mountains were visible

The hospital is much bigger than what I expected, I think they have 160 beds and every day a lot of outpatients which makes the waiting area look like a train station. There are 5 ortho surgeons whom I was following. Every morning we all went round and visited the admitted patients (around 25 patients usually + children) and then mostly I was at the surgery. They are really effective, operating around 6 cases in one OR daily, almost no waiting time between the operations. Mostly fractures and trauma cases with a little old school instruments but almost the same technic as we do. Interestingly all the doors are always opened and sometimes there are flies but it looks like it doesn’t bother anyone. At the outpatient clinic we have seen around 60 patients in one day (starting from 10 am with a lunch break). Talking about lunch, I usually ate at the canteen, a full meal costed about 0,5 euros.

Canteen

One day we (me, Amanda, an Australian couple and a swiss lady) took a trip down to the river where there is an old hindu church which is now a museum, called Rani Mahal. We had to first walk down 700 m altitude, then walk up again. During the time it became midday which means it was verrrry hot. In the group I was the youngest but was close to give the whole thing up. We started walking at 7 am and came back around 5.30 pm, the last 5 km finally we did with a help of a car (shame on us..?). Was a nice trip but more demanding than my multiple day trip the week before.

In the middle of my stay I had to move to the Annapurna Hotel nearby because the guest house was fully booked but the day after it turned out that it was some misunderstanding so after 3 nights in the hotel I moved back again. During that time new guests moved in, 2 dutch guys who were making a movie about the hospital and a swiss medical student. The hotel was quite fancy but really noise by having some party in the evenings. Of course I had some encounters with different animals even here. In the hotel I was hunting down a lot of moths and in the guest house I found my second mouse in the dust bin which I set free. Also met with some huge spiders which I haven’t set free... Good that I got to know only on the last day that the noise that is coming from the roof in the mornings belongs to a huge rat which was running up and down and sounded like a size of a dog.

Otherwise food was always prepared at the guest house by the “didi”s, the housekeeper ladies. In Nepal didi is a general term for women, older than you, used very widely, mostly instead of names. Sometimes though I was invited for the dinner, first at an Australian lady’s house called Paula, then also at the head of ortho, Dr Tul, along with other nepali people where I managed to forget about all the important rules of course... For example taking the shoes off before entering the house, washing hands before meal, taking everything with the right hand (as the left one in considered dirty). Yeah, really many rules... On the last evening I was invited for the dinner at Amandas, was a really nice closure of the whole stay.

I got back to Kathmandu by the hospital jeep along with Dr Paula and Dr Abishek, a nepali ortho doctor, 12 hours/ 300 km (including breaks), of which the first 6 hours was only dirt road, not even a minute without huge bumps. Thanks to that my watch gratulated me that I did 10.000 steps that day only by sitting in the car... Anyway, at the end I really felt like I did some exercise as I had muscle pain everywhere. Got back to the world’s most polluted city again at 6 pm and I realised I really didn’t miss Kathmandu. Although I haven’t spent too much time there as the day after I was on the road again at 4 am with an other jeep on the way to Okhaldhunga, which is on the other side (East) of Nepal. Between 4 and 6 am we were just picking up people at different points of the city until the jeep was totally full again (luckily I got the privilage to sit front) and we were off with the already known nepali music vibes. This time 10 hours trip - 125 km. I can say I am a bit tired. 

But today (*yesterday) is the celebration of nepali New Year!

So 🥳 HAPPY 2079!🥳 to everyone!

Finally a harmonic pic of a chicken

Mardi Himal in the clouds

Viszonylag règen írtam, mert mindig törtènt valami. Közben mèg pàr napot operàltam a plasztikai sebèsszel, nèha berepült egy lègy is, így mèg jó, hogy a mütö tartozèka volt az elektromos lègycsapó is. Közben talàlkoztam itt pàr amerikaival, akikkel pàrszor elmentünk vacsoràzni, így nem voltam annyira egyedül. Meglàtogattam a Nemzetközi Hegy Múzeumot, ami a 80-as èveket idèzte vissza, volt benne pl. kitömött jeti. Felmàsztam a Vilàgbèke pagodàhoz, amihez àt kellett evezni a tó túloldalàra egy csónakos ember segítsègèvel, aztàn csak felfelè 1 óràs kiràndulàs 30 fokban. Hàt, ezek utàn mèrsèkelten volt èrdekes. Kipróbàltam a siklóernyözèst is 1600 m magasból (túl olcsó volt, hogy kihagyjam), ez volt az egyik legjobb döntèsem eddig. Kiràndultam is sajàt túravezetövel meg sherpàval így hàrmasban a Mardi Himal nevü úton, 4 napig. ELvileg innen nagyon szèp az Annapurna hegyvonulat. Ezt a túra soràn kb 1 óràt sikerült làtni, amúgy felhöben meneteltünk, de vègül 3500 m magasra èrtünk fel. Elsö èjszaka a szobàt egy egèrrel osztottam meg, de aztàn kiküldtem az ajtón ès remènykedtem, hogy nem jön vissza. A szàllàst ès kajàt teahàzakban oldottuk meg, elèg pórias körülmènyek között, de legalàbb nem kellett sàtrazni. A következö àllomàs Tansen.

It’s been a while since I wrote so I will try to remember what has happened so far. My days at Green Pastures Hospital became better and better towards the end (it is always like this...). I continued to assist to Dr Suraj the plastic surgeon on different plastic and hand surgical cases.He told me he is trying to collect cases for this week for me. Ok, so otherwise he is not doing that..? :-) Sometimes a fly came in to the OR so the electrical fly swatter came handy.

Here is the proof that I have really been inside a hospital :-D

Here I also met with a group of Americans who were doing some research on different prosthetics. A couple of times I went to have dinner with them in Pokhara which was nice. One evening I was invited by the expats to play ultimate frisbee at the hospitals football field. Was quite an experience in the heat and humidity and considering that I didn’t do too much sports in the last weeks. 

On an other afternoon I visited the International Mountain Museum which was nearby the Hospital which was a huge museum but stucked a little bit in the 80’s design. 

Yeti and yak, contemporary from the 80s

One day I climbed up to World Peace Pagoda so now it is not on me if it’s not gonna be world peace. For this I had to get to the other side of the lake by boat which could be rented only with a driver. Was really romantic just me and a nepali guy in a boat. He even waited for me 2 hours to return as it took really at least an hour to climb up to the mountain top to see the stupa in about 30 degrees heat. From there you were supposed to see the Himalaya mountain range. I did not (clouds, pollution, who knows).

This is a hindu temple on an island on the lake. If you are interested how the Peace Stupa looks like, I recommend google, my pictures are not better than that and you might even see how it is when you can see mountains from there (I did not..)

I even tried paragliding here as it was too cheap to not to. We went up to 1600 m (from 900 m) by a jeep in which we were 13 people (on max 9 seats). I have to say it was an even better experience than I expected. The whole ride was about 20 mins with great views from above and wasn’t scary at all.

Then as the Annapurna range was so close I couldn’t stand not to do some hike nearby. I got some recommendation earlier from the french girl in Kathmandu about the Mardi Himal trek which is a relative new route with spectacular views. Can be done in 3-8 days, I opted for the shorter version as I didn’t have too much time. Here for almost all the treks you need to have a guide and often a porter and the treks are organised by a trekking agency. It is not very adviseable to trek alone. First I wanted to join some group but it turned out there are only a few tourists now and everyone wants to do different treks in different times. So after I checked 4-5 trekking agencies I ended up with one I found nice and also because they put a part of money in an orphanage which is run by the boss of the agency. So I started my journey with a guide called Sanjeeb and a porter called Arjun who was carrying my stuff in a blue Ikea bag (what else) that I got from home. 

Rhododendron in the forest (there were many of them)

The first yak (hope not the last) I have seen. Turned out they like to hide in the forest.

We started from about 1600 m in a village called Kande and on the first day walked up to about 2500 m to Forest camp (not Forest Gump). On the way we met a dutch couple whom we were trekking together about 2 days. Was nice to have some Europeans also, although I had really nice conversations with Sanjeeb about almost everything. On the first night it turned out I shared a room with a mouse but after I discovered that I opened the door and showed him out which was working but of course I didn’t sleep anything after. The second day we went up to 3500 m, there we have seeen a bit of snow also so the temperature must have been below zero. Of the famous view we couldn’t see anything as it was covered by clouds, but still it was beautiful.

At the accomodation there was no running water (but at least no mouse either) as the pipes were frozen but they had some reserve so I still managed to take my evening “shower” with one liter of water (at least not wasting). Surprisingly I didn’t freeze at night, my sleeping bag turns out to be very warm. What did we eat? On the whole way there are a lot of tea houses for food and accomodation,  most of them were empty because of only a few tourists. All of them had the same menu, the prices went up as the altitude raise. So mostly dal bhat (rice with lentils), pasta with veg, spring rolls with the same veg and momo. 

On the morning of the third day we finally saw the Annapurna mountains at sunrise! Was great! we went up a little bit more from High camp to take the photos and an hour later everything was gone again. 

Annapurna South (on the left) 

My guide (on the left) and porter 

On the last day we descended from 3500 m down to 1500 m, after which I almost couldn’t walk for 3 days. Even went for a massage the next day which was almost even more painful. Anyway I have to say I didn’t think trekking alone only with a guide and a porter can be that much fun! On my last day in Pokhara I gave a last chance for the mountains to be visible and took a taxi at 5 am to Sarangkot hill where you are supposed to see the sunrise with the Himalayan. Not a good idea, clouds as always, maybe more than any other days. No more waking up early for me. I will wait tills the mountains come to me instead. :-)

Next stop is Tansen, 111 km from Pokhara, 4-5 hours by bus.

The way of transportation, the jeep is never full.. (I haven’t tried it yet)

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. :)

Dal bhat & Holi

Az elsö kórházas èlményem véget ért Anandabanban és ismét Kathamanduban vagyok a norvég házban. Holnap Nemzeti ünnep itt, ami a Holi névre hallgat és abból áll h emberek színes porokat dobálnak egymásra. Közben az itteni orvosok rájöttek, hogy lehet feladatokat delegálni nekem, így beadtam rengeteg (az indikáción túlmutató) szteroid injekciót, visszaraktam egy könyökficamot és összevartam mindenfélét a mütöben. A múlt hétvégén visszamentem a városba és foglaltam egy hostelt, amit csak sokadszorra sikerült megtalálni, igénybe vettem a helyi motoros-taxit (nyilván bukósisak nélkül) és megnéztem egy marha nagy sztúpát, amit csak egy irányból szabad körbejárni. Sajnos a végzetemet nem kerülhettem el, így pár napot a wc társaságában élveztem leginkább, amíg nem kezdtem el egy antibiotikum kúrát, ami hatásosnak bizonyult. A kaja a képen az egyik gyanusitott, amit egy helyi mama készít minden nap a kórházban.

Days are passing by and soon I am leaving Anandaban Hospital (wow, it’s a rhyme). During this time I have also visited the daycare facility for leprosy patients where they get educated about the disease, for example how to take care of chronic wounds. When they had a session I have been put  in the center of attention (like a show item) and they found it really interesting (a little bit too much interesting) that someone from the western world is visiting them.

Last Friday we had outpatient clinic again (this time without the dog), where I got to relocate an elbow only in local anesthesia (patient was totally silent the whole time) and Dr Ashim realized that he can delegate all the steroid injections in the knee to me and he was really generous with prescribing them..

The area around, hospital is on the right side

For the weekend I went back to the city and booked a hostel which was recommended by my new french friend. The only problem was that there are two hostels with the same name and of course I went to the wrong one. It was already dark and I started to panic a little bit but finally I found the right one after 2-3 circles because the location was not exactly where google maps put it so finally some local man helped me out and called them. During the day I was walking around Thamel the tourist area with the bazaar but after a while I got just too tired of the constant  “hello madam where are you from” and “taxi, madam?” so I had to rest some hours before I could continue. Have also visited one of the biggest stupas in the world, the Boudha Stupa where you can go around only in one direction so every time I found something interesting on the map, I had to go one more circle to not to mess the direction. 

Then I also tried the new transportation method which was also recommended by Marie and is similar to Uber. So there is an app where you give the destination and the car (or the motorbike) picks you up. The only problem that the drivers always ring you immediately for some reason despite they don’t really speak English which makes it a bit complicated. With this system  I also tried riding the motorbike (on the back seat) which was quite an experience (of course without the helmet). In the evening I thought to try out some (in local standards) fancy western pizzeria called Fire and Ice (thank you Alison for the recommendation). The only problem was that after 2 bites I felt so sick that I had to leave so my most expensive food so far went to the waste. Not the food’s fail though, I didn’t feel well before either..

On Sunday I found a local church where probably all the western expats are hiding, there were at least 80 ppl, was a nice experience. After that I was just resting the whole day as I couldn’t escape destiny and stomach problems became worse and lasted a few days until I started to take some antibiotics. Surprisingly this time I succeeded with my empiric therapy. Yeah maybe shouldn’t eat everywhere on the street... or maybe it was the “dal bhat” (rice and lentils which they eat every day here) which I ate always at the hospital prepared by a local old lady whom everybody just calls “mamma”. Unclear hygienic status of the cutlery...

Dal bhat a la mamma (now only by looking at it I am feeling sick...)

This week we had a couple of surgeries partly reconstructive procedures for leprosy patients but also simple things like trigger finger, which I got to perform and also sutured a couple of other things. So much about not being allowed “to touch patients” without nepali work permit.

Today I am back to Kathmandu again as tomorrow is a national holiday here called Holi where people are throwing colourful powders on each other and party all day. Will se how much I will be a part of this.

The rhododendrons and me in front of the hospital

Anandaban Hospital

Megérkeztem az elsö kórházba, ami Anandaban névre hallgat és fent van a hegyen, egy órás kátyús útra a várostól. Ez egy föleg leprásokra szakosodott kórház, de sima traumát is el tudnak látni. Itt egy Marie nevü francia építész lánnyal lettem elszállásolva egy házban, aki itt egy építkezési projekten dolgozik már 2 éve. Névjegykártyát meg sípot is kaptam, ha netán bajba kerülnék (?), meg tanácsot, hogy sötétedés után ne nagyon járkáljak kint, mert vannak pl. tigrisek. Elsö nap rendelésen voltam, ahol 3 óra alatt kb 45 bteggel találkoztunk, egy kutya konstans társaságában. Aztán következö nap a mütöben voltam (talán a felszerelés nem sokkal rosszabb,  mint Pesten), viszont vannak érdekes megoldásaik, pl. a fütötest az oxigén mellett. Ma egyedül vagyok, mert Marie házon kívül van, remélem, nem jönnek a tigrisek...

On monday morning I was picked up by a local guy and been transported to the first hospital I should be at, called Anandaban. Took about one hour to get there, mostly because the road is so bad, there are more holes than road. If I ever had kidney stone it is gone now. The place is higher up, around 1600 m, in the mountains. 

It is a hospital mostly for patients with leprosy, there they between other things do reconstructive surgery. Totally they have around 150 beds (80 out of that is for leprosy patients) and they carry out a lot of research work for what they are quite famous in other parts of the world as well. There is an emergency unit too so they do some general trauma surgery also. I have met already with the director of the hospital and Dr Indra (an orthopaedic surgeon) who is friend with some nice people I know from Örebro. I have been given a tour around and introduced me to a french girl Marie whom I will be living together with in a guest house (called Rose Garden). Looks like this:

She is an architect and been here for 2 years now, working on a new emergency building. I even got a welcome flower and a card and a whistle which I should use in case of “I am in trouble”.... hm...

Also I have been informed that I shouldn’t wander around after dark because of animals, for example tigers. First I thought he was joking but no. Otherwise there are even some eagles (which are hard to take a photo of unfortunately..).

I had my first clinic day now which I spent with Dr Ashim who is one of the 3 orthopaedic surgeons here. The mornings start at 08.30 with a devotion. The first day they even introduced me as “the orthopaedic surgeon from Sweden”. Thought it is a bit overkill one week after I became a specialist but what can I say. After the morning session we visited the admitted patients (around 7-8 patients) then we had fika with something which was somewhere between tea and coffee (hard to know) then the outpatient clinic started around 10 am. Between that and 2 pm we have seen around 45 patients (including a one hour lunch break). 80 % of them with knee or back pain. And almost all of them got Arcoxia, Gabapentin, Omeprazol and vitamins prescribed regardless the reason of visit. There is an x-ray in the next room so it took about 5 mins to get the pictures (not like in Örebro...). During the examinations we enjoyed the company of a dog who was present almost the whole time in the room. 

The next day (today) I was in the OR, there was 3 surgeries. The first one was a guy who partially amputated his little finger (sorry non-doctors) which actually could have been done outside the OR, then a leprosy patient with a wound that is not healing and then the last one with a fracture in the knee. The OR from inside:

Not much worse than some hospitals in Hungary... they have some interesting solutions though, using a drill machine from like Media Markt and the little heater on the right with a little open fire in it, just next to the oxigen tanks. Thankfully most of the patients got spinal anestesia (in which the person who does it is quite good and fast at). No ventillation at all. I have seen an AC but probably it was out of order. The C-arm on the right comes from Sweden and has been functioning almost 10 years. Otherwise their operation technics are quite similar to ours just with a bit more simple tools and solutions. The surgeons are also quite skilled I think.

Today I am without Marie and alone in the whole house, hope no tiger comes... otherwise I am happy if you give some feedback sometimes in any form, so I know that someone reads this. :)

Kathmandu my new home

English below! Bocs mindenkitöl, de most csak összefoglaló lesz magyarul, mivel az olvasóközönség összetetéle idöközben megváltozott. De ajánlom a google translatort, ha a teljes szövegre éheznétek. :) Szóval Nepálba mégse mehetek el blogírás nélkül, és egyelöre még az internet is megoldott. Már 3napja vagyok itt, egyelöre még hasmenés nélkül (!!!). Kathmandu külsö részén lakom, ami kicsit nyugisabb és kevésbé gettós mint ahol szoktam lenni ilyen helyeken... Idö közben megnéztem a helyi föteret (a belvárosét is meg annak a résznek is, ahol lakom). Mint látható a közlekedési lámpa és az áramellátás elég egyszerüen megoldott. A majom és a Buddhák a Majom templomnál voltak, ahol rengeteg majom szabadon garázdálkodik, mert szenteknek vannak nyilvánítva. Holnap elvileg valaki felvesz és elvisz az elsö kórházhoz, ami még itt van a környéken kb 40 percre, Anandaban névre hallgat és elvileg oda is költözök most egy ideig..

Yes. Nepal. A long term dream coming true. A bit difficult to know where to start as last time I wrote in this blog was more than 2 years ago, and in Hungarian. But I am trying to suit it to the audience’s needs which has become more international (or we will see who reads this at all :). 

Ok, so let’s start it from the beginning which was trying to find out how to pack a bag for 2 months when you need everything from everyday clothes to trekking gears and you still need to be able to bear that bag throughout whole Nepal. (Not to mention my survival kit with solar cells, a lot of antibiotics and sutures just in case..) The result:

Big bag weighed “only” 20 kilos so I could have packed 5 kg more.. Whatever, there will be 5 kg souvenirs on the way back. :) . So the whole journey took about 26 hours from door to door. Örebro - Arlanda - Dubai - Kathmandu. Here you can see the Himalaya mountain range from the flight (don’t ask me which mountain is which).

I have been at some airports in my life but I can almost say that Kathmandu was the most chaotic (or I just forgot how was it in India...). I think it was just poor luck I found my luggage just thrown between thousands of others on the ground. Had to go through at least 4 security control where the key of success was to push yourself forward to the front, through other people, otherwise you spend there the whole day. No corona distancing really and no system at all... coming out of the airport as usual I was immediately attacked of taxi drivers who wanted to know all about me and offered “the best price”. At the end I managed to bargain a price which was still twice as much as recommended by google but I just got tired. Surprisingly we reached the goal despite that I almost sit at the drivers seat as I forgot that here they drive on the other side of the road. Now I am at a guest house called Norwegian House (it can only be the best with this name) which Amanda (the swedish doctor who works in Nepal) recommended. It is nice and comfortable, especially if I compare to the places I slept before, for example in (almost the getto of) Delhi. It has a nice cafe attached and a garden and mostly warm shower.

An interesting thing is the time difference which is 4 hours and 45 minutes more compared to Stockholm/Budapest. Don’t know how they figured out this... 

In the evening I had my first nepali meal which is called momo (you can find it in India as well). Dumplings filled with pork (in this case). I managed to choose a restaurant where I was the only guest ( you couldn’t see it from the outside). Thanks to that 3 people from the staff was watching me closely from 2 meters how I eat. I almost felt like in a tasting show. And as the food was so damn spicey I had it difficult to not to cry during the whole time. 

The day after I headed to Patan Durbar Square which is in my area, not exactly downtown Kathmandu, a bit outside. A lot of construction on the way, the square itself as well (maybe bc of the earth quake some years ago?) 

As usual crossing the road is almost equal with a suicide attempt (regardless if there is a zebra). Maybe this traffic “lamp” decribes why. Also an other statement, in Kathmandu electricity cuts are common. Wonder why...

So far I was thinking Kathmandu is not that dirty and chaotic as Delhi but it turned it is only because I have been living in the outskirts. Today I took a taxi to the city and first I visited the Monkey temple. As the name would suggests it is a temple with a lot of monkeys around (as they are thought to be sacred) and huge Buddha statues and a stupa with the Buddhas eye. I also walked to Kathmandus Durbar Square which is similar to the one above just less construction. Then I walked to Thamel which is downtown and basically a huge market where you can buy anything but mostly mountaineering gears and food. Of course you share the streets with motorcyclist from which you have to jump to the side continously. Finally I took a taxi back to Patan (where I live).

Tomorrow someone should come and pick me up from Anandaban Hospital which will be the first place I start, it is about 40 mins from Kathmandu.

So here I will write my updates probably 1-2 times a week so you are welcome back :) Next posts won’t be that long probably.. I know the pictures are not the best but the good ones are on the real camera... 

Grúziában a nyár

Bár valószínüleg már mindenki lemondott arról, hogy valaha felkerül egy újabb bejegyzés, ezennel jelzem, sose adjátok fel! :) Azt viszont sajnos nem ígérem, hogy Indiának valaha felkerül a második része is, meg azt se nagyon, hogy bármi egyéb az elmúlt egy évböl.. Lehet, hogy azért szünt meg a blog, mert már ennyire integrálódtam a svéd társadalomba, hogy már nem kúriózum, ami itt velem történik (?). Vagy csak egyszerüen sok volt a munka (inkább ez).

Életkép

De csapjunk a lovak közé, mert bár idén nyáron Horvátországban is sikerült megfordulnom egy kajaktúra erejéig, valójában Grúziáról akarok írni. Tiquloval és Zsófival már évek óta beszéltünk róla, hogy meg kéne tekinteni ezt a posztszovjet országot, talán az egész onnan indult, hogy egy ismerösünk beszélt róla. Hát ezen a nyáron ez tényleg megvalósult. Két hét, abból az elsöt mi szervezzük, a másodikat meg egy magyar túraszervezet (tehát ez a kirándulós rész). Mikor bárkinek újságoltam otthon, hogy mire készülünk, az általános reakció az volt, hogy “hát oda meg minek mentek”. Legjobb a nagypapám volt, aki aztán végképp érdeklödö volt, merthogy oda (is) vitték az oroszok fogságba, úgyhogy googlemaps-en meg is néztük, hogy egy azóta Magnetitire keresztelt helyen kellett anno ásnia a magnetitet.

Tbilisi felülröl

No hát egy szép péntek éjjel el is indultunk Budapeströl Kutaisibe, reggel 5-re értünk ide (ez volt egy hete). Innen rögtön Tbilisibe, a fövárosba vettük az irányt egy busszal. Kettöt aludtunk itt egy Airbnb-s helyen, itt még meglepöen komplikációmentesen. Tbilisire nem mondanám, hogy szép, inkább érdekes, más mint bárnilyen egyéb város, ahol eddig voltam, és persze rohadt meleg. Az emberek 99%-a nem beszél angolul, maximum oroszul, még szerencse, hogy Zsófi tud. Minden elég olcsó, a kaják finomak és jó a bor is. A jármüvek rettentö csotrogányok, a templomokba pedig szigorúan ellenörzött ruházatban kehet csak látogatást tenni (mivel ortodoxok). Itt néztünk botanikus kertet, felvonóztunk hegyre, ahol van egy vidámpark, megfordultunk hipszter negyedben.

A harmadik naptól számomra kezdett kicsit lefelé ívelni a dolog, mert beütött a szokásos hasmenés, ha kiteszem az EU-ból a lábam, csak ez most durvábban,  mint eddig bármikor. Azért még megnéztünk egy kolostort Mtskethában, ahol az ortodox kereszténység államvallássá alakult Grúziában. Idefelé tettük meg elsö utazásunkat a helyi tömegközlekedési eszközzel, a marsrutkával, ami egy minibusz (ülésileg abszokút kimaxolt Mercedes sprinter). Ök úgy akkor indulnak el bárhonnan, ha megteltek, viszont nagyon olcsóak (cserébe kényelmetlenek). A grúzok vezetési stílusa közelít az indiaiakéhoz, felfestések abszolút nem érdeklik öket és nyomják, mint az állat, biztonsági öv persze nincs. Elsö alkalommal még érdekes volt ez a marsrutka, de ötödszörre már inkább tortúra. 

A kolostor

Tbilisiböl Kazbegibe (alias Stepantsminda) vettük az útirányt, itt fekszik Grúzia legmagasabb hegye. Ez egy olyan 3 órás út volt kanyargós hegyi utakon a marsutkával, ekkor én már csak a túlélésre játszottam. A következö nap a többiek felmásztak a gleccserhez kb. 3000 m-re, én eközben a szálláson próbáltam nem kiszáradni. Mivel másnap kicsit azért jobban lettem, azért mégiscsak felmentem a közeli kolostorig (taxival), ahonnan jól látszott a Kazbeg hegy.

Kazbegit elhagyva Chiatura felé marsrutkáztunk, de ehhez elöbb vissza kellett buszozni Tbilisibe, úgyhogy aznap olyan 6 órát ültünk eme csodás jármüvön. Chiatura a “felvonóváros”, ahol elvileg 17 felvonó van a szovjet érából, amik az 50-es években épültek, hogy szállítsák a bányászokat a hegyekbe, és ezeket azóta sem újították fel, és még mindig üzemel pár belölük. Legalábbis ezt olvastuk. Hát nem üzemelt. Úgyhogy felvonók helyett eltölthettünk egy fél napot egy irtó lepukkant iparvárosban. Így mondjuk értelmet nyert, hogy miért bámult meg minket mindenki. Valószínüleg nem sok turista jön ide, a város egyetlen hosteljében szálltunk meg. De mire kiderítettük, hogy nem müködnek a felvonók, eltelt vagy másfél óra, mert mindenki csak grúzul tudott.

Úgyhogy aztán innen rövid idön belül tovább is mentünk Kutaisibe, ahol egy irtó forgalmas helyen laktunk egy lakásban, ami “Guesthouse Wineland” néven futott. Hát jó. Mivel itt is 40 fok volt és én még mindig nem voltam a toppon (nem ettem semmit az elmúlt napokban), én otthonmaradtam, amíg a többiek elmentek várostnézni. Egy ponton végül meggyöztek az otthoni tanácsadóim, hogy keressek helyi orvosi segítséget, mivel az általam tesztelt antibiotikumnak nem sok hatása volt. Gondoltam hát jó, végül 500 m-re van egy kórház, odáig hajlandó vagyok elmenni, hogy legalább adjanak valami olyan cuccot ami a grúz baktériumokra jó. Igazából ez a kórházi látogatás inspirálta most a blogot, mert annyira szürreális volt, hogy ezt muszáj leírnom.

Mondtam nekik, hogy már 3 napja szedek egy antibiotikumot (kísérleti alapon) és szerintem nem használ, meg hogy 4 napja hasmenésem van. Meglepö módon tudtak angolul, és mire észbe kaptam, már be is kötöttek egy infúziót, bármennyire is tiltakoztam. Ezen kívül semmi mást nem csináltak, még meg se vizsgáltak, nemhogy esetleg labort vettek volna. Mikor már a harmadik infúzió folyt le, én meg néztem meredten vagy a plafont vagy az elöttem facebookozó orvosokat, megkérdeztem, hogy ok, infuzio biztos szuper, de mitöl fog elmúlni a hasmenésem? Mondják, hát az infúziótól el fog. Érdekes. Közben még azt is megkérdezték, hogy hogy izlik a grúz kaja (miután attól lettem rosszul), meg minden egyes lefolyt infúzió után, hogy, na jobban érzem már magam? Mondom igen, csak nehogy bekössenek még egyet. Úgy tünt amúgy, higy ittez az egyetlen terápia, a körülöttem fekvö emberek mind infuziót kaptak, aztán felálltak és elmentek. Végül az utolsó fél órában este 11 körül Zsófi és Tiqulo is befutott, úgyhogy együtt néztük végig az utolsó cseppek lefolyását. Búcsúzóul az orvos felírta egy papírcetlire, hogy szedjek antibiotikumot (ugyanazt, amit már mondtam neki, hogy szedtem), meg hogy diéta.... Hát köszönöm, egy élmény volt. Az ottartózkodásom igazolásául pedig adtak egy papírt, amin még a nevem is grúzul van.

Én és a kórház

Ezen a ponton elgondolkodtam, hogy lehet, hogy inkább hazajövök egy korábbi repülövel. Végül mégse tettem, hanem csatlakoztunk a túracsoporthoz, de ehhez elöbb Kutaisiböl Zugdidibe kellett elbuszoznunk, ami egy meglepöen szép város. Itt felvett minket a busz, és indultunk Mestiába. Folyt. köv.

Update: azóta a hátizsákos túrát is megjártuk, és itt ülünk a végállomásán egy faluban, csak eddig nem sikerült frissítenem az irományom.

Update2: azóta meg aztán már rég hazajöttünk, csak nem volt hajlandó a program felrakni a dolgot..