Thailand

It's been ages since I last posted. I had a lot of shit going on since I left africa. I'm proud to announce that I'm headed to the University of Pittsburgh in their Internal medicine residency program. Totally stoked about that. I also found an apartment in Pittsburgh, and with all my residency paper-work filled out and about a month's time when I have to start orientation for intern year I figured what else to do with the free time than travel again! This time for purely pleasure as I am all globally worked out. My adventure started in Bangkok, Thailand where I've been for the past 3 days. Sadly, I had to make a deviation from my original plans to backpack down Thailand into Malayasia and Singpore, as I found out my grandmother who lives in pune, India suffered a stroke. Since I am in the region, I made a quick trip to India to visit her at the hospital. The trip to India was pretty hectic. I don't know what it is about India, but out of all the places I've been in the world I still consider India to be the most difficult to travel around. There are probably many reasons behind this. First of all one has to deal with so many elements all chaotiaclly slamming into each other creating nothing much more than chaotic grandeur (if that makes any sense). The heat, the population, the strange and undescrible smell, the noise, language barriers, the constant stares, and the hardships of traveling around and being mobile are things that cross my mind. Also what troubles me is how materialistic India has become. A land known for a religion that preaches non-materialistic living is caught in a quagmire where the world of Bollywood dominates every facet of indian life. From young to old, people are simply addicted to Indian films and it seems to dictate how people perceive the world. What troubles me, is that these films show an image of false reality where glamour and riches predominate. While actors and actress reep the profits 75 percent of the population struggles while a subset of these struggle to even live. It just angers me how this false glamor can brainwash a population.

But I digress.

I visited my grandmother in India, and apparently she suffered a embolic stroke in the the right cortical area. I don't know exactly what branch of the cerebral artery was hit but apparently she went into Atrial Fibrillation which was the supposed source of the embolation-a likely clot in the left atrium. She was pretty much paralyzed on her left side, but is now recovering movement in extremities. She's doing well and the day I left she was discharged from the hospital.

From India, I headed back to Bangkok where I know sit. I am staying in Banglamphu the backpackers haven of Bangkok. Yesterday, I walked around town and saw different areas-Chinatown, various Buddhist temples and of course curiousity brought me to the most notorious seedy area of the world.. patpong. It was very sad seeing young women with sad faces forced into the arena of prostitution--however a very necessary thing to see as I try to understand the pathologies of power. Today I plan to see some more temples and just chill out-- eat some rice and red curry, sushi with green tea and just hang out and enjoy life.

More later.