Another Ladakh trip. but a different setting this round...
Thiksey Monastery Medical Camp
[27 July - 5 August 2022] |
| Our team led by Felicia Tan. |
“Eh Felicia is organizing the medical trip to Ladakh again leh!” Lee Haw Chou lai liao.
“Really ah?! Wah, eh you go pull people, you quickly go pull people let’s go together,” I replied.
“This time round Chang Haw Chong also coming,"Haw Chou said. "Let's see if the dates are good, and let's hope Mike & Suet will be able to come." And they were.
Steady lah!
Lee Haw Chou and Chang Haw Chong are forever the pillars of the orthopods and we were honoured this time round to also have Mike our radio-onco.
Among the other medical team members we have the Chief-organiser Felicia Tan the breast surgeon herself, Yvonne Wong the anaesthestist, Tan Su-Lin our Cambodia-based GP, Meera Magar the gastro-intestinal surgeon from Sushrut Hospital in Phaltan, and Vicky Tan and Shila Das our experienced nurses.
Jeanette Tan was of course, omnipresent.
The volunteers were out in full force, with Paul Fong, Jack Tay, Jay Lamkin, and our indispensable Leow Chin Lee (aka 李太太), Suet and Serene (the Ajumma) Gan.
Such an entourage, this was. The mere thought of it excited me for weeks.
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| Meeting His Eminence Thiksey Rinpoche at Chamba Hotel across Thiksey Monastery |
Day 1: Hello New Delhi... and hello again Leh!
Day 2: ...of Leh Palace and Tsemo Castle
Day 3: Venture to where the Indus & Zangskar rivers meet... to see the Alchi Monastery, and back to Shanti Stupa
Day 4: Through Chang La (Chang Pass) to Pangong Lake in the idiots' footsteps...
Day 5: 开工了！Thiksey Monastery for some serious work... and what a lovely dinner cultural show in Chamba Camp!
Day 6: Ransacking the Leh Pharmacy and work, again.
Day 7: Last day of medical work, a glimpse into Secmol, and meeting His Eminence Thiksey Rinpoche.
Day 8: Fly back to New Delhi and zoom off to Agra!
Day 9: Oh my, the romantic Taj Mahal and the historic Agra Fort!
As the day approached, I dug deep into my memory to gather what Serene and I needed to prepare. The previous trip to Nubra Valley in 2018 was an experience not to be forgotten. It reinforced my notion that the medical needs for the simple good people of Ladakh were slightly different from those of inhabitants of metropolitans cities around the world.
Serene and I have always enjoyed talking to and listening to these down-to-earth Ladakhian town and village folks, but we also knew there was not much more a lowly practitioner like me can do for them.
Day 1: Flew and flew.. with little sleep...
[27th July 2022]
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| 12am on 27th July. Changi Airport Terminal 3. |
"Wah lau, my limo never turned up," kao-beh-ed Chang Haw Chong. "I'm going to be late."
But Haw Chong will never be too late one. He made it in good time. This 2022 Ladakh team was a slightly smaller team compared to the 2018 one. Although we were leaner this round, the great organisation capabilities of Felicia Tan, Vicky and Jeanette would always ensure things get accomplished, with the constantly present Ram Krishnan Pandey, our Indian guide. Our plane’s wheels took off from the runway of Changi airport at 2:35am on 27th July 2022.
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| Sleepless flight for me while Serene snored away |
The mere thought of having an opportunity to meet His Holiness The Dalai Lama, has always been one major highlight, even if it was a split second, a mere handshake.
“But hor, now that he is older,” added Felicia. "He can no longer travel far to Nubra Valley like where we were the last time. So he will be holding his teachings in Thiksey Monastery in Leh. And because of Covid, we may not get to meet him personally.”
Ok lor. 随缘吧。
Indira Gandhi Intermational Airport, New Delhi
Sleep simply could not come to me on this red-eyed flight to New Delhi, tried as hard as I could with eye masks and earbuds. All I remembered was arriving in New Delhi feeling (wah lau eh...) tired. These 3 Covid years have really destroyed Serene and I. Our physical fitness level was bad. This trip up to the mountains above 3500m made us realise the negative impact of a lack of physical fitness on altitude-related symptoms.
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Not everyone was in such a bad physical state as both of us. Our good Jack Tay was the picture of pristine physical health as he breezed through everything- altitude, Indian food, and all. It came as no surprise that he became the official photographer for the team, being everywhere at every moment.
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| The most remarkable Jack always on the go. |
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| "Hey that's R.K.Pandey!" |
Last minute changes
It was never easy to be coordinating for the medical camp. The camp used to be held on the same days as HHDL's teaching days. But this time round for security reasons, the camp was suddenly pushed back two days (31st July - 2nd August), a day before we were scheduled to fly. I was always impressed by Felicia and RK Pandey's adaptability.
"No worries," reassured Felicia. "We can just switch the R&R over."
And so instead of working for three days before we toured, we enjoyed the touring first.
New Delhi
The city was the same, humid and warm on a July morning. Indira Gandhi International Airport was full of travellers. I was surprised quite a significant number of these actually wore masks, expecting most to not be doing so here in India.
The traffic outside was as crowded, and the hard-working ad-hoc workers who were swarming our bus were just as enthusiastic in trying to help haul our luggage onto the bus. It took a stern-looking RK walking towards the bus to be relieved of the constant request for some rupees.
Leh, Ladakh
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| The light green area is the Pakistan-controlled parts of Kashmir while the the southeast State of J&K is the Indian-controlled parts. |
Since we were originally scheduled to start the medical work two days after arriving in India, we flew straight to Leh, Ladakh through the domestic Indigo Airport. One hour and twenty minutes later we arrived at Kushok Bakula Rinpoche Military Airport at Leh, Ladakh, 3500m above sea level. Our very friendly air stewardess actually reminded us not to take photographs with our handphones when we arrived as the security personnel were very sensitive. Understandable. Ladakh, a Union Territory and not a state, is right inside the State of Jammu and Kashmir. This is still a highly volatile area, as Kashmir at the northwest of the State of J&K is still being disputed by India and Pakistan.
Thus we were not surprised when the security personnel asked to check our medical equipment Otoscopes, Ophthalmoscopes, and magnifying glasses because these resembled binoculars which were militarily-sensitive equipment. Other than that, the security checks at the airports were smooth-sailing.
So what is it about Ladakh? Geo-politically, on the right north-most Ladakh borders with Xinjiang of China and the Karakoram pass, on its east it's the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, northeast it borders with the generally-uninhabited Aksai Chin area claimed by the Indian government but which is under China control. On the west it's the State of Jammu & Kashmir under Indian control, northwest with Gilgit & Baltistan, and right down south Himachal Pradesh of India. The Indus River from Tibet runs through Ladakh. Many disputes surrounded this region, baggage from centuries of rules by various kingdoms, with British colonisation being the last one that divided the native rulers. 46% of Ladakhis follow the Islamic faith, 40% are Tibetan Buddhists, and Hindus makeup 12%. The people of this area speak mainly Balti and Ladakhi. Here at Leh, we were very impressed to find mosques juxtaposed with Tibetan Buddhist Monasteries and where the people of different faith mingle freely and harmoniously.The many local buildings in Ladakh are built in the style of customary Tibetan roofs and windows, we felt like we were in Tibet at times.
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Our previous experience taught us that wifi on handphones and internet availability were not a given here. Post-paid Roaming services subscribed from out of India will not work here. SIM cards bought anywhere outside of the State of J&K will also not work. Only a SIM card bought with a passport from the telcoms Airtel or JIO will allow us internet wifi access. Thankfully, at 800rps (S$13.80) for a 20-day pre-paid data SIM with 3.5Gb of daily data was the solution.
Leh Main Market
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Leh Main Market
My last trip to Leh was undertaken in a little more of a rush and I did not see as much of Leh as we would have liked. Somehow having our R&R switched to the front gave us more time, and for some of us, staying in Chospa Hotel right beside the Main Leh Market provided the ease to explore this exciting area on foot.
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| The various destinations within Leh... |
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or continue on for the next day of adventure!
Day 2: Exploring Leh Palace and climbing up Tsemo Castle
[28th July 2022]
So instead of starting work on this day, we started touring Ladakh, which actually turned out to be quite a good idea because we could take it easy while we allow our bodies to acclimatise.
"Today we will visit the Leh Palace and the Tsemo Castle,"said RK Pandey.
It was meant to be a relaxing day of touring the nearby attractions, as part of our acclimatisation. We were all on Diamox and Dexamethasone tablets, obediently. So far aside from some tinglings over the lips and tips of the limbs, most of us were fine. Even early in the morning when we walked out of the hotel, Serene and I still felt some degree of breathlessness.
"Wah, walking up the slope outside the hotel a little bit, also chuan liao," kao-beh-ed Serene.
"Kwenchana!" I reassured her. "Our physical fitness is really bad lah. Never mind. Cheon-cheon-hi!"
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Leh Palace
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| The Leh Palace from the outside looked lat-lat-kut-kut... |
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| An old photo of Leh Palace is on exhibit in the exhibition chamber of the palace |
So what's with Leh Palace? Honestly I could not remember much about Leh Palace. But I knew it was one of the much-visited historical sites in Leh. The Palace that Chang Haw Chong, Lee Haw Chou and I remembered was Stok Palace, the other royal palace in Ladakh, during our previous stay. It was during this trip that I found out more about Leh Palace from Wikipedia:
"Leh Palace also known as Lachen Palkar Palace is a former royal palace overlooking the city of Leh in Ladakh, India. It was constructed circa 1600 by Sengge Namgyal. The palace was abandoned when Dograforces took control of Ladakh in the mid-19th century and forced the royal family to move to Stok Palace. It is nine storeys high; the upper floors accommodated the royal family, while the lower floors held stables and store rooms.Much of the palace is in deteriorated condition, and little survives of its interior decorations. The Palace Museum holds a rich collection of jewellery, ornaments, ceremonial dresses and crowns. Tibetan thangkaor paintings, which are more than 450 years old, with intricate designs still retain the bright colours derived from crushed and powdered gems and stones. Structures around the palace's base include the prominent Namgyal Stupa(Tibetan:གཙུག་གཏོར་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་མ།, Sanskrit: Uṣṇīṣavijayā),the colourfully muralled Chandazik Gompa. (Tibetan:སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས།,Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर/ Avalokiteśvara) and the 1430 Chamba Lhakhang(Tibetan:བྱམས་པ་མགོན་པོ། Sanskrit:मैत्रेय/ Maitreya Buddha) with medieval mural fragments located between the inner and outer walls."
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| Some of the exhibits in Leh Palace |
No wonder, that Stok Palace was where the royal family escaped to, from their original Leh Palace in the 19th century, as it's a really nice abode befitting of royalty. Not bad. At least we have had the experience of having seen and stayed in Stok Palace in 2018. Gazing at Leh Palace's nine storeys, it struck us as a classic model in the traditional Tibetan style of architecture that was exactly the same as that of Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet, though the latter was constructed on a much grander scale.
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| The collection of old scriptures in Leh Palace. I've always loved these collections. |
Castle of Tsemo
Tsemo Castle (also known as Namgyal Tsemo or Leh Fort complex, built by Tashi Namgyal) is an important religious and historical point in Leh. It is located at a walking distance from the Leh Palace. This is now maintained by Archaeological Survey of India. Situated at the highest point in Leh, it used to function as a defense structure during the Namgyal dynasty. What is special is there is a three-storey high gold statue of Maitreya Buddha being housed in Tsemo Castle."Let's... let's climb up there," suggested Mike.
"Huh? Mo-gao-ngor ah... climb?!" see lah, the Ajumma always will complain one.
"Ok onz! Let's go!" I gave her no chance. Hahaha..
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| A nice buddily-climb up towards Tsemo Castle with Mike |
But she did well, this Serene. Mike's advice of 'take in two breaths and exhale one breath' worked very well for both of us. This Tsemo castle is really not a huge climb, though it is at more than 3500m altitude. What I guess was more tiring for Serene and I, was that we were still getting acclimatised to the altitude. Still, it was a nice post-breakfast walk.
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We were very fortunate to have met a young man called Mohammed from Bangalore. He was so expert with the iPhone in taking handphone videos that he captured many wonderful angles of the three of us climbing up.
Leh Palace and the Castle of Tsemo were both such representative architectures of Leh, that it would be a waste not to at least see them. Although, indeed these structures were so dilapidated that in my heart I didn't know how many pieces of tourist tickets they would need to not only restore these invaluable heritages but even to maintain them.
This day ended simply. An easy day for acclimatisation.
Day 3: Seeing the Indus-Zanskar, Circumambulating the Alchi Monastery and the Shanti Stupa.
[29th July 2022]
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| The confluence of the Indus River and Zanskar River - a pano shot by the famous photographer Serene Gan. |
It was raining this day. RK's original plan to drive all the way up to Pangong Lake was postponed because of the weather. So we switched to visiting the Indus-Zanskar Sangam and Alchi Monastery on this day instead.
"You guys can do the water-rafting along Indus river," suggested RK.
"Wow.. that's great!" I would never miss the chance of doing a water rafting.
"Haw Chou says cannot," said Haw Chong during breakfast. Huh? Why cannot? Why ah?
"老板，七月初一勒，老板！" this Haw Chou ah... alamak.. words of wisdom.
But what he said was so true. I totally forgot about the lunar seventh month. I have always been quite pandang when it came to 七月. My ancestors said 'Don't go into the water during the seventh month, otherwise, accidents may happen.', and I have always abided (as much as I could) by that.
So, a two-hour drive to the west of Leh we embarked on, up the mountains, so that we may arrive at the famous confluence of these two rivers.
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So, a two-hour drive to the west of Leh we embarked on, up the mountains, so that we may arrive at the famous confluence of these two rivers.
History of Indus River and Zanskar River
This Indus river hor.. it was really quite something. It had its origin in the Himalayan mountains in Western Tibet as it took a westerly flow and traverses through Ladakh, Punjab, Kashmir and Pakistan. In Sanskrit it was called the Sindhu, and the ancient Persians called it then Hindu, and as history went, the Greek ended up calling it the Indos. And that was where the name of India came from. During ancient times, the word 'India' referred only to the regions around the banks of the Indus. But later the Greek scholars started to refer to the whole Indian subcontinent as 'India'. The Indus gave rise to the Indus Valley Civilisation dating back to 3300 BCE, which we used to read about during school days, but details of which I have totally forgotten.
The Zanskar is one of the tributaries of the Indus. And here somewhere near the Nimmu village, it joins the Indus.
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| From Leh to Indus Zanskar Sangam (The confluence between Indus and Zanskar) |
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| Our good Jack, Su-Lin and Teacher Meera enjoying the magnificent view here. |
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| It was my honour to have a photo here with Jack. |
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| "Why the water muddy muddy one ah?" asked Serene. |
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| The Bike Gang |
or continue on for the rest of the adventure on this day!
Alchi Monastery
This Alchi Monastery, also known as Alchi Chorten, was one of the oldest and most historically famous Buddhist chorten of Tibetan origin here. It was built by the Tibetan Buddhist master Guru Rinchen Zangpo, the great Tibetan Buddhist translator who in the 10th century, spread Buddhism in Ladakh, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh region, and built a total 0f 108 Buddhist monasteries in the region.
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"Wah this Lim Wee How, he must have spun every single one of the prayer wheels," remarked Haw Chong.
"I saw you do that big prayer wheel with the gong,"
True. Coming to Ladakh to find myself spinning the prayer wheels was one of the highlights. Where I went I would be thrilled to be spinning prayer wheels after prayer wheels.
Lunch at Nummu House - where stout tasted like beer
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| Turn every prayer wheel... |
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| Our photographer Paul with his handphone capture. |
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| Our 李大夫 and 李太太 just could not get enough of Thangkas. |
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| And Haw Chong and Paul hardly missed emjoying an educational session with the Thangka painter. |
Lunch at Nummu House - where stout tasted like beer
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| Hungry for some Nimmu food & wine |
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| The old house that is converted to Nimmu House |
Excitedly, Mike and Haw Chou ordered some Indian beer and Indian stout only to discover that here in Ladakh, the stout appeared and tasted exactly like beer.
"Hmmm... the alcohol content is not really that high," remarked Serene, who drank not only the beers, the stout but also the Indian wine that were all produced in this region.
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This Nimmu House was run by a family from Delhi who rented this old Ladkhi house and converted it into not only a restaurant but also a high-class glamping site, with camping tents scattered through its compound of apple and apricot trees, and a beautiful stream running through it.
"Imagine, it is only here in such cool weather, we can all sit out and dine al fresco. If we were back in Singapore, I wouldn't be sitting outside dining under the trees, and by the riverside," accurately pointed out Haw Chou. I totally concurred.
Shanti Stupa
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| Picture by Serene Gan the famous photographer |
The Shanti Stupa was built in 1991 by the Japanese Buddhist Nichidatsu Fujii. I still remembered Shanti Stupa on our very first visit to Ladakh and was looking forward to visiting it again this round. The construction started in 1983, with help from the local Ladakhi Buddhists and under supervision by a Buddhist lama from New Delhi, Kushok Bakula.
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| This year, I started the circumambulation ahead of Haw Chou.. Hahaha! |
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RK really did a great job, with the combination of Alchi Monastery and Shanti Stupa, he once again brought us to experience the religious relics and monuments of this remote land up north of India. It's really not every day that one could visit such a place and see so many parts.
Didn't know why... every time we came to Shanti Stupa I have always felt peaceful and at ease. Today was another lovely peaceful and bright day, with the added bonus of Alchi Monastery and of course the Leh Palace and Tsemo Castle the day before.
Shopping at Zanskar Art, Leh Main Market...
I really didn't know how Serene maintained contact with the boss of this Zanskar ARt shop that sells pashmina, jewelry, and religious artifacts. Well, at least we managed to get some discount here.
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Felicia got Chamba Camp Thiksey people to screen that lovely movie 'The Three Idots' that had the last scene shot in Pangong Tso (Pangong Lake) to prepare those of us going the next day.
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It was such a funny movie. Serene and I enjoyed it crazily, me too although it wasn't my first time watching it.
"4 hours plus drive to Pangong Lake," thought Felicia, "I did it last time. I think this time round I will give that looooong drive a miss."
The rest of us, we were simply excited about going for the trip that we just wanted to go back to Chospa Hotel and knock out early and sleep.
也不知道为什么，我和阿华两个人到了晚上就累坏啦。或许还是高山的症状吧。但是就是一种说不出的疲倦。所以在拉达克，每天晚上都睡得很好。
So what is it about Pangong Lake? Pangong Lake, also known as Pangong Tso in the local Ladakhi language, is a land-locked lake located at an altitude of 4200m above sea level. To get to Pangong Lake, we needed to drive through Chang La (Chan Pass), the second highest pass at 5700m (the highest pass was Khardung La further up northwards which we did during our previous Nubra Valley trip).
[30th July 2022]
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"Wah this Pangong Lake is so peaceful," I said to RK when we arrived at Pangong Tso.
"Oh, you don't know? 84km further east that is where the Indian and Chinese soldiers are fighting fist, rocks and rods in the disputed LAC," revealed RK, to my total surprise.
So Pangong Lake is so well known because 50% of it on the east side is under China control, and 40% on the west side is under India control and the middle 10% is being disputed, and because the Indian army and People's LiberationArmy of PRC had an agreement not to use explosive and guns in these areas, in August 2017 that notorious back-to-basic ferocious fist fight between the PLA and Indian soldiers at the LAC (Line of Actual Control), followed by another one in September 2019, and the latest one in May 2020 as Covid was beginning to grasp the whole world by its horns, were reminders that this region was still pretty touchy. Hmmmm, so this was where those few famous conflicts took place, this Pangong Lake place. Well, not bad. At least we got our chancese to visit all these highly disputed places. That was the wonderful thing about coming to Ladakh. One would be thrown into disputed land whether one liked it or not.
Chang La (5700m)
The few hours' drive in the convoy of cars was really quite a sight to behold. Passing through ChangLa was a reminiscence of our trip through Khardung La. But it was really cold up there at 5700m.
Chang La (5700m)
The few hours' drive in the convoy of cars was really quite a sight to behold. Passing through ChangLa was a reminiscence of our trip through Khardung La. But it was really cold up there at 5700m.
"No one told me it was going to so cold up here!" laughed the self-proclaimed Dr Chang-La.
Fortunately, most of us did bring jackets or at least another layer of outerwear. And thankfully we only stayed at Chang La for a short while.
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"Come let's go and hang the prayer flags," oh this RK Pandey really has good ideas. I just loved the prayer flag idea.
And he and the drivers whipped out several strings of prayer flags and we all had our chances at hanging them up at the second highest pass here, and uttering our various small wishes under our frozen breaths.
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VIDEO
or continue on for the rest of the adventure on this day!
Pangong Tso, finally!
Sonam our driver pointed outside, as we began to catch a glimpse of the turquoise blue of water in the distance.
"Pangong Lake," he said.
The Toyota Picnic cruised along the shores of Pangong Lake, and I was very surprised to find quite a number of visitors already thronging the shore made famous by that 'The Three Idiots' movie. The industrious vendors even had those colourful big-buttock chairs lining the shores for visitors to take their backside shots for a small fee.
Serene and I took our time to walk to the lakeside. Mike and wife were among the first few to have waded into the shallow and freezing cold lake water. Only when Suet shouted out 'Feet Frost!' that we began to suspect that the water was less warm than what it appeared to be.
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But hor.. wading into these freezing waters is like a love-hate relationship, so appropriately demonstrated by Su-Lin. She comically called out that when she was in the water, she wanted out, but once she came out she felt like going back in again. That was it. Serene and I decided that, heck, let's give it a shot and we took off our shoes and socks and joined in the fun.
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| from Chospa Hotel to Thiksey Monastery - a 20 minutes journey by car. |
Finally, we got to start work.
The medical this year was designated to be at Thiksey Monastery, not far from HHDL's teaching ground. As His Holiness's teaching was over the day before, some of us wondered if the people would still come over to the medical camp for consultation. But thankfully we were proven wrong.
We were allocated a building at the periphery of the monastery ground. This one had proper rooms and two workable toilets, one with light, one with flickering light, and this round the rooms were really spacious. Compared to the last round when we were in Diskit, the setup here was really good. I still remembered from my previous trip that the cases I saw were surprisingly mostly eye cases and frankly not many acute cases of URTI nor GE. From what I could recall, in addition to the orthopaedic cases, gastric cases were aplenty, thus this time round, Felicia and Meera should have their hands full. So I was really expecting to be inundated by eye cases (many chronic ones) suffered by old(er) folks, due to the harsh climate condition, and the strong UV light in these parts.
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| Thiksey Monastery. Photo: Chang Haw Chong. |
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I was impressed by how quickly the men set up the curtains and the tables, cleaned up the place, and how efficiently the monastery workers got the tables and chairs cleaned up and the girls got the signages hung up.
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| Setting up the medical camp in Thiksey Monastery |
We completed the setup just around 9am when the medical clinic was declared open.
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"Hmm.. no patients queuing outside yet leh," I stole a look outside and remarked.
But boy was I wrong. When the patients started coming in, they really started coming in groups. Soon we were all lost in work...
The first few cases that came trickling in were old folks for the ortho boys with their Shincorts being put to work right from the start. Very soon, the orthopods were up to their syringes full with their IA shots, and reviewing MRIs brought in by patients asking for second opinions. And Su-Lin was busy over the female GP side while Meera and Felicia was inundated by gastro cases. Our good Yvonne was helping out everywhere.
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| Finally, I had a breather and managed to walk around... until I kena-ed from the orthopods! LOL! |
"Alamak.. I lost my inertia already," joked Mike.
And after that, soon, more patients arrived and the GP tables were swarmed. Eye after eye cases, as expected, started seating themselves just beside our table. Most of these are middle-aged farmers, home-makers, retired military personnel, or shopkeepers who have a variety of eye issues, ranging from simply dry eyes to post-surgery cases with irregular iridectomy scars and Intra-Ocular lenses that seemed to not be doing their jobs anymore.
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| It was so funny. Mike and I were supposed to work side by side, hand-in-hand, but I ended up flying his aeroplane when the patient loads got higher! LOL! |
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| Our good Anaesthetist Yvonne seen here giving the orthopods a great helping hand. |
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| At the Medical Campground of Thiksey Monastery |
"Tonight we have a cultural show at Chamba Camp Thiksey," informed Felicia. "Come enjoy the dinner and the cultural show ok!"
And we did!
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or continue on for the next day of adventure!
Day 6: Ransacking the Chemist & more work...
[1st August 2022]
The day before the three GPs - Mike, Su-Lin and me - we ended up with dangerously low level of eye drops after the onslaught of allergic conjunctivitis, chronic dry eyes, cataracts, and presbyopia cases.
"Mike, tor-long tor-long, today morning we go gai gai at the Pharmacy to see if we can find some more different types of eye drops and buy some more bottles, can?" I begged Mike. "I'm sure the next two days we will still have many eye patients one."
I was delighted to have him along, and RK Pandey went along to foot the bill. Hahaha...
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"Hmm, I don't have what you want," said the Chemist. "You can both come in behind the counter and just browse and see if you can find what you are looking for."
Oh this Chemist was really the champion! This was exactly what we wanted to do!
Mike and I loved that the medicine manufactured in India were so creative - they have all possible combination of constituents - even for eye drops, they would put Naphazoline the vasoconstrictor, together with chlorpheniramine the anti-histamine and hypromellose the mosituriser into one eye drop (EyeNef or Nefaz Eye drops). Or they would add Ciprofloxacin with Chlorphenriamine and Zinc sulphate to reduce redness as Ceflox Eye drop. So imaginative were the drug manufacturers in India that Mike and I had a crazily brain-blowing, eye-opening experience just simply browsing through the pharmacy drugs on display.
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We ended up spending a little bit more time at the chemist, by then 8:50am the patients were starting to stream into the medical camp, and by the time Mike, Serene, RK and I made our way to the camp, there was already a queue of patients outside.
This day saw us giving away many of the reading glasses of various degrees very very kindly sponsored by Shila Das and Jay Lamkin. While Shila and 静莉 busied themselves registering and triaging the patients, Suet was really kept busy sending patients from one station to another. Jack was putting his previous month's experience in running the Maldives medical camp (also with Felicia) to good use in this round's work too. Vicky and Paul were both so full of patients swarming the dispensing table for prescriptions, that it was really quite a scene peering at them from afar from my GP table. Yvonne was so helpful she ended up helping Su-Lin and Mike and me to see many of the GP cases including a whole queue of children.
Funnily our good Mike at one stage even became the official Dentist - seeing dental cases. That was the fun thing about these types of medical camps.
"Remember those days when we were Army Camp Medical Officers?" reminisced Mike. "Those days as the MO you see EVERYTHING under the sun... and there was a famous MO who would prescribe flu tablets 1 tab TDS and Cough syrup 10ml tds." And he was absolutely correct. Right now as doctors here we were also kind of expected to see all types of cases and to manage them in whatever ways we could.
Some of the unsung important persons...
Throughout our work during these three days, the people who we could absolutely not do without were the interpreters from around here in Ladakh. On my first day, I had the honour of having a very knowledgeable 32 year old lady called Dechen Angmo interpret for me. She happened to be working as, I only realised it later, one of the teachers in Secmol.
Dechen Angmo was very fluent with not only the English language, but was also able to impart me a lot of new Ladakhi words for conversing with the locals.
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| Our 32 year old Dechen AngMo. Photo: Jack Tay |
My second day of work was assisted by a young 19 year old Stanzin Lzagar. Despite her tender age, she was mature and was able to understand what I needed to ask and what I needed to instruct the patients to follow. Slightly shy although she was, she was able to laugh heartily when we joked with the patients.
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| Our young 19 year old Stanzin Lzagar. |
Tsering Palkit was a 20+ year old lady who assisted us on the third day at our GP side of the table. There was a period when the interpreters were so busy that they even had to grab our driver Sonam to stand in as a temporary interpreter with his limited English, but Sonam was good. He was super helpful in whatever ways he could be.
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| Sonam our driver, who loves playing Om Mani Padme Hum in his Toyota Picnic. |
All these interpreters were excellent translators and one thing both Serene and I realised about them was - they all were crazy over Korean dramas!
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| with Tsering Palkit |
In fact I remembered once Dechen Angmo laughingly asked me: "Did you just said Kwenchanayo? That is Korean, right?" I must have unknowingly blurted it out during one of my conversation with the patients. Haha..
"You know ah, one of my intepreters told me, during the two year Covid period, her parents bought her a handphone and she suddenly had the whole world opened to her," said Mike.
Thereafter Serene and I began to joke with the young interpreters and had fun by uttering some common Korean words during our work, just to see how their reactions were.
But the person who took the cake, was our driver on our trip from Delhi to Agra. This smiling man broke open his beautiful mouth of teeth and said "Kaja! (Let's go!)" when he heard Serene and I utter the same word as we got off the bus in Delhi!
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| Our driver who was also Korean drama crazy one! |
So we worked another full morning and afternoon session. And by the end of the day, we were all pretty poofed.
Back at Leh Main Market
Honestly we really enjoyed the opportunities to be just right next to Leh Main Market. It seemed that whenever we had a chance, once back at Chospa Hotel, some of us would run out to Leh Market either to eat Momo, or buy Pashmina, or eat German pastries and drink coffee, or looking for Thangka. |
| Mike & Suet say this German cafe very nice so they introduced us to eat here. Lovely! |
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| The Leh Main market was full of people on this summer evening. |
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| 李浩洲说：“这样也算是看到了达赖喇嘛啦！” |
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| 这个 Mike hor... 真的是很厉害。 Tibetan Kitchen 这么难找，都给他找到！ |
[2nd August 2022]
Indeed, today with our stock of medicine running dangerously low, Felicia declared that we would do only the morning session. But as expected, even as we tried to save what few bottles of medicine we have left for those who really needed them. When finally Vicky shouted:
"No more eye drops!"
Wah lau eh... The number of patients seated waiting to have their eyes checked was still considerable, and even when the medicine was finished the patients would still keep coming. Hahaha.... Serene, Mike, Su-Lin and I tried our best to make them happy by dispensing whatever reading glasses we could, and for these, I would write a prescription to have their eye drops bought from the chemist. I found that, even if we did not manage to dispense them the eye drop,. the fact that they get a free pair of reading glasses, was a delightfully gratifying event for many of these old folks.
Luckily for us, we had Jack coming to our station to top up more of the reading glasses, carrying bags and bags of these precious commodities, to keep the patients all happy.
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"Wow, we should have bought, in addition to the reading glasses, sunglasses for the old folks too," said Shila in retrospect, as we realised that many of these mountain folks would do well to have a pair of sunglasses to protect their eyes from preventable eye conditions in these harsh lights.
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In the middle of the session, I even found one piece that had very nicely written Chinese words on it, to 'Give that young man a few encouraging words'. And it turned out that that 20 year old young man was taking anti-depressant but he only took them for one month and then stopped. I was very happy that he came with his grandmother to whom I emphasized that he needs to go back to let the psychiatrist see him and to continue the medication and "trust me his mood will be much better". I had to give the young patient and his grandmother some confidence.
"Wah, here in the remote mountains there are also psychiatric cases one meh?" I wondered outloud to myself and Serene. I guess yes, there would be. But perhaps not as many as what we would see in other parts of the world.
Hmmm.. over the past few years, I wasn't sure but, perhaps exacerbated by the emotional and physical impact of being stifled during Covid, family physicians seemed to see an increase in the number of patients, young ones even, suffering from psychiatric conditions, back home in Singapore. Perhaps it was a global phenomenon.. and even up here in the mountains, people cannot escape being taken victim by it....
Completion of Medical Work and Lunch at Chamba Camp again...
"Hey there is an old lady who may need a Shincort knee injection but she cannot walk up to the camp ground," relayed someone.
"Ok I go!" volunteered Dr Chang-La. Wah this Dr Chang-La was really the champion lah. He would definitely have saved the old lady's life with his treatment, if not, at least she would have been truly thankful to him for the next 6 months.
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| The good man deserving of some good sugar alternatives... |
Post work group photo with Kurta...
李太太 and Suet early early already said that the husbands and wives would take group photos wearing the traditional Kurtas after the medical work and what better place to do that than right here in the lunch spot of Chamba Camp? The ladies were so well-prepared that they have even brought the couple-Kurtas bought a couple of nights ago from Zanskar Art shop to wear here, together with none other than Teacher Meera who had her summer traditional wear to match ours. So we did it, happily, after we had a most filling lunch.
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SECMOL
Sonam Wangchuk's Special School.
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| We were looking at the caricature of us on my phone screen and I suddenly realised that Jeanette looks exactly like Oori Ddal (our daughter) in the cartoon! |
"You know, the inventor in the movie The Three Idiots Phungsuk Wangdu?" mentioned Felicia. "The inventor character in the movie was actually a real person called Sonam Wangchuk and he actually did open a school called Secmol educating students from slightly less-privileged part of society. We will visit this Secmol school."
And we found ourselves at the entrance of Secmol, with a group of eager students and teachers.
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I asked Paul if he would like to live here for a few months.
"Well, it really depends on the circumstances, and on where you (I) decide to contribute towards," was his very carefully thought-through and worded answer.
"Hehehehe... they got to have seated toilets for me instead of the holes on the ground lah," replied Haw Chong to the same question.
"Siao ah! No!" was Serene's immediate answer. This Serene ah, really terrible. I am sure if I were to ask perhaps, Felicia or Jeanette, they would gladly volunteer a few months stay here.
or continue on for the rest of the adventure on this day!
Meeting His Eminence Thiksey Rinpoche
"Let's go to Chamba Hotel opposite Thiksey Monastery after Secmol, shall we?" said Felicia. "His Eminence Thiksey Rinpoche would like to say a thank you to the team."
I remembered the old Rinpoche from the previous visit. He was still looking exactly the same. It was always a great feeling to have blessings and thank you words of appreciation from His Eminence.
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Situated just at the periphery of Leh Main Market near Chospa Hotel, next to the mosque, was this newly refurbished and newly-re-opened restaurant called Montagne. They have only opened a few days ago, and hadn't had their licence for alcohol yet so this evening we all drank fruit juices.
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Star gazing and photographing the Milky Way...
Our good Haw Chong, Paul, Su-Lin and Jack actually went off after the dinner at Montagne, driven off by one of the drivers to a far away dark spot where they were able to shoot the Milky Way. And they emerged with many lovely shots, one of which was this! These people were marvellous. While I was dead alseep, they made the best of their time in the high altitude to practise their passion. And they brought tripods for this very purpose even!
Didn't think time would pass so quickly while we were up there above 3500m. But it did. As soon as our medical camp was done, and as soon as the star-gazing photographers completed their mission beneath the Milky Way, we were almost ready to fly back to Delhi!
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So while the half of the team would remain in Delhi to while away their time shopping, the other half - us - would take a 4 hour plus bus ride to Agra, stay over night, would wake up real early the next day to visit the Taj Mahal and see Agra Fort, and then take another 4 hour plus drive back to Delhi to fly off with the main body back to Singapore.
Sounded like Mission Possible to me, Lee Haw Chou style!
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And this really comfortable bus took us all the way 220km from Delhi to Agra, arriving around 8pm at the lovely Trident Hotel Agra.
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By the time we arrived at Trident Hotel in Agra, we were really pretty tired, but we still had the chance to enjoy a nice buffet-style dinner, and soon after that we knocked out, with the sound of RK's words still ringing in our ears:
"Tomorrow we will meet at 5am in the lobby. Our Agra guide Barber will bring us to Taj Mahal really early to avoid the crowds."
When people talked about the Taj Mahal, they were usually talking about the Mughal Empire, a dynasty spanning 300 years from the 16th century to the 19th century. This powerful empire stretched from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan on the north and west, to Bangladesh and Sikkim on the east side, and to the south, the rest of the Indian subcontinent. Such an expansive empire was epitomized by King Shah Jahan who simply loved to build buildings using white marbles.
The story of Taj Mahal, and the history of Shah Jahan was so long. But Barber summarised it very beautifully:
This Taj Mahal is a mausoleum commissioned by King Shah Jahan in 1632 for his late second wife Mumtaz, and was completed in 1653. This King Shah Jahan's favourite second wife died after giving birth to their fourteenth child. Out of their 14 children, 8 died when young, leaving 4 sons and 2 daughters. One of the daughters got married into another kindgom, and the other daughter stayed back to look after King Shah Jahan till he died. Out of the four remaining sons, one naughty one Aurangzeb asasinated his three other brothers so that he could ascend the throne. The moment he became King, he imprisoned his father Shah Jahan until the old king died 18 years later.
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"So naughty, this son," angrily said Serene, after hearing the story. "I'm going to read all about the King Shah Jahan's story with his favourite wife and also how naughty their son Aurangzeb is."
"No choice, mah," I replied. "in the olden days of the Mughal Empire, it had always been like this. If he hadn't assasinated his brothers, he himself would have been the target."
Although I said that, personally my heart pained for Shah Jahan. Imagine if he had painstakingly grown his family with such care and love, only to have this precious core unit of his life destroyed by his offspring in a flagrant display of disrespect for order in society and family, how devastated would he have been during that 18 years in the palatial prison? And in this modern world, how many Shah Jahans are there, suffering in silence in their own 'palatial prisons', crying regretfully over their own failures in providing proper and correct upbringing for their family members, I wondered.
VIDEO
Barber did such a great job at Taj Mahal that after much discussion, the group decided not to go to see the handicraft factories, but instead, we asked Barber to bring us to visit the Agra Fort at 10am on the same morning..
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Agra Fort - the walled city
This last-minute decision to visit the Agra Fort was a really good one because oh this Agra Fort was such a classic walled-city soaked in centuries of Indian history. It was only by being here personally was I able to feel the heaviness of the burden on its architecture. I was glad that Paul was insistent on going to Agra Fort because had we missed it, it would have been such a waste.
“Would you like to live here?” I asked Serene.
“Siao ah?!?! No.” Standard answer.
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With Agra Fort dusted we finally could say bye-bye to Trident and make our 220km drive back to Delhi.
or continue on for the rest of the adventure on this day!
Back to Delhi, quick shopping at Khan Market, and zoom back home!
Most of us were walking like zombies and dozing off like zombies as the bus sped towards Delhi. RK and Haw Chou discussed a bit and they rightfully concluded that being early in arriving in Delhi and beating all the late afternoon traffic was way better than staying longer in Agra. So we ended up having quite some time at Khan Market for some shopping and some food.
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Such trips to Ladakh and parts of Delhi and Agra never failed to delight us with multiple small and big surprises. Like how Serene and I love to live our lives, we were both thrilled to have once again the chance to interact closely with local people in every part that we travelled to, in ways that human beings do for each other- and the Korean drama craze was the new discovery that seems to unite us and the younger and not-so-young generation of people in India.
Three days of medical work was never enough time, I have always believed. Understandably the organisation also had logistical and manpower constraints. So we would all just make the best of what little time we were given. Each work trip brought new experiences for us. And we grew as much as, we hope, the other parties did. Covid was a terrible period as it stripped humanity of many a normal form of human-to-human contact. With perseverance, right now, a little bit by a little bit, we were starting to claw back that precious interaction between Homo sapiens, not only within a society, within a country, but also cross-borders between nations.
With bigger wars threatening countries of the old Soviet bloc, broadening economic sanctions calculated to break countries' financial spines, and trade-tariff wars between east and west, hovering over a water surface high in tension, all it takes would be just one more single drop of nasty words, or threats of conflict to spill everything over the edge. Post-Covid, as the world emerged from a lock-down, we needed more cooperation and human-ness between people. Not the other way round.
HHDL would say in his famous words - Care for all sentient beings. This is what I could sense between the members of the team, both in subtle forms among persons or in overt manners between loving couples. I was particularly pleasantly impressed by how my good friends and their wives displayed to the world, in actions, and words, what everlasting true love is, and how 老夫老妻 in long-married relationships beat the test of time. Very proud, I was, of the care and concern with which the whole team has showered the people of Ladakh - the workers, the patients, the old folks, and the less-privileged students from less-endowed sections of the society. Mutual respect was the one important principle defining the team members. Although we came from different sectors and different backgrounds, we were all essentially the same.
These take-home messages were, time and again, delivered to me as a reminder, from the relics of palatial monuments in Leh, to the religious chortens in Ladakh; from the peaceful co-existence of people of different faiths in India. to the tolerance that the state government showed in maintaining a palpable level of peace between the conflicting states in Kashmir, and with the PLA of China in Pangong Tso. And finally how Taj Mahal, a UNESCO heritage site, exhibited Shah Jahan's declared love.
Another unforgettable trip, another unforgettable experience, for Serene and I.
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