After a long journey (thanks to some protesters plugging a mountain highway, we have finally arrived in Pokhera for the night. Apparently when an accident occurs, friends of the victims hold up traffic for 4 hours until they can negotiate a settlement with the driver who caused the accident. SGI is right now looking pretty good. We will not spend much time here as we are suppose to be on the road by 7 tomorrow (which means we will leave the hotel at 7:45). Tomorrow we will be back in Kathmandu.

How to wrangle a rhinoceros:

1) Get on elephant’s back and head to jungle.
2) Find rhino in jungle.
3) Surround rhino with 3 elephants.
4) Slowly (as that is the only speed an elephant moves) encroach rhino from all directions using any means, including moving a medium sized tree. This is done quite easily by elephant’s trunk.
5) Make some noise (such as whistling) to budge rhino.
6) Chase rhino so tourist can take pictures (tourist are on top of elephant’s back).
7) Leave rhino alone in bush.
8) Allow elephant to take a large trunkful of roughage (including a 4” diametered branch) and allow elephant to eat while wandering through jungle looking for other wildlife.

How to wash an elephant:

1) Climb on elephant’s bare back. It will be rather uncomfortable as elephant’s spine sticks out and elephant’s hairs, although spare, are scratchy on bare legs.
2) Hang on for dear life as elephant walks towards river. Beware of horses as elephant gets a thrill out of spooking them.
3) When finally at the river (your bum is very soar at this point), elephant will want to lay down in water. As elephant lays down, move from back to side of elephant. This is easier than it sounds as elephant does everything very slowly. Another option is to jump from elephant’s back into river. The water is nice and warm.
4) Find a rock, preferably one with very rough edges (ie. broken cement with gravel in it). Scrub elephant as hard as you can with rock (the roughest edge) all over. Scrub extra hard on spots where extra dirt has accumulated such as elephant’s hip bones. Elephant will really enjoy this and probably put his or her head in the water to lay it down, but leave trunk 3” out of waters to breath. Elephant enjoys it most when legs and bum are scrubbed.
5) Stand clear of elephant as he or she stands up and lays down on the other side.
6) Repeat #4. Elephant may decide to take a big breath, submerge his or her trunk and blow some bubbles in the water. This is very funny.
7) Climb on elephant. Carefully scramble from side to back of elephant as he or she stands up.
8) Plug your nose and close your eyes as elephant will now take a large trunkful of water and spray it over their back (where you are sitting). Some elephants enjoy doing this more than others. The larger the trunk, the more water, and the harder the blast of water.
9) Once again, brace yourself on elephant’s spiny back and head home.

I love Nepal!

This trip just keeps on getting better and better! Thursday afternoon (I think) we arrived in Kathmandu, Nepal. Kathmandu is like an Asian version of Cusco and has a great vibe (a much welcomed change to Dhaka). The city is generally much more colourful than any we had seen on this trip with buildings of all pastel colours you could imagine. The architecture is also amazing (not plain old cement buildings like Dhaka). After settling into our very authentic (but nice) hotel, we wandered the incense-filled, vendor-lined streets looking at the countless ancient Hindu temples. There are a lot of Buddhist monks in Kathmandu which I guess can be expected since 'religious pilgrimage' was an option on the visa application.
Yesterday, we took a mesmerizing trip from the Kathmandu valley down to the Teri (flatland) region of Nepal. We visited the main research station for pulses. It was a little chaotic and I feel really sorry for the scientist here who are working with very limited resources and a lot of discontinuity within their jobs and programs (all government inflicted). The lentils we have seen so far are growing amongst a lot of weeds (only about 60% ground coverage with crop) or are so deficient of boron there is very little likelihood of any yield.
Last night and tonight, we are staying at a beautiful resort right on the edge of the Royal Chitwan National Park. Last night we saw a cultural presentation that included some 'stick dancing' (a dance the natives do). I looks like it would be quite dangerous to learn. First thing this morning, we went on an elephant safari (rode on elephants through the jungle) and saw 2 rhinos, a stork, an eagle, a couple peacocks, a bunch of deer and some monkeys. After that adventure, Shauna and I rode our elephants (bare back = very scary) to the river and helped the mahutes wash our elephants. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done! After lunch, we all went on a jeep safari through the jungle. We saw more rhinos, birds and a different kind of monkey. I guess I should explain why we are jungle-safaring instead of looking at lentils. Government employees (our Nepali colleagues) are on strike, so are not working. If they are still on strike tomorrow, we are going to rent a vehicle (we can't use the bus that we have been using since it has government plates) and will drive to Pokhera (I may have spelt that wrong). However, we did observe a few lentil fields on the back of our elephants on the way to the jungle this morning ...

Jamie posted some pictures from the airport pre-my departure for this trip around the world. It seems like ages ago already. Thanks Jamie!

Lost in Translation?

Yesterday, when ordering lunch, Blaine ask if he could have his coke in the bottle (cuz that always tastes better). The waiter said "no, that is not allowed". What a classy joint our hotel restaurant was. The day before yesterday I was waiting to use the Internet in the hotel business centre. During my wait, I had 3 men offer me a seat and each time I responded saying "no, I want to stand" (7 days in a van gets to your tailbone). Finally the boss-appearing person said "please sit, it looks bad". I walked out and decided to use the computer later.

So it is 3pm over here on this side of the world, and we are waiting for our flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. My supervisor just got Skype (voice over Internet) working and I volunteered to wake up my parents to try it out. Sorry Mom and Dad! (but it was good to talk to them for a few minutes) I am hoping I am allowed to carry my own suitcase in Nepal ... being doted on once in a while is nice, but the level of it I am experiencing here is more exhausting than doing things myself!

Well Adapted*

This is the term the Bengalees used to describe me relative to the other Canadian students. There are the reasons I am 'well adapted' to Bangladesh:
-I love the food and it is causing me no grief
-I find the culture quite amusing (rather than annoying as some of the others do)
-I love warm/hot weather and much prefer it to cold
-I wear a shari (sari in Bengali) quite well (picture hopefully to come -- ran out of room on my flickr account), actually come to think of it, I did keep tripping over it so maybe I didn't wear it so well
-I have great hair in humid weather that required very little effort (although there was an Indian woman on our trip who told me the last day I needed to comb my hair but I don't think she realized that if I comb my curly hair I would have a 70s style fro)
-I am a morning person on this side of the earth. I have never been a morning person. I figured my body would adjust to circadian time, however, I think my body runs on real time.

If I didn't miss a certain someone back home so darn much, I just might have decided to stay! Although I would find the crazy driving conditions and no female/male hand shaking policy hard accept. Can you imagine how awkward it would be to try to say good bye to a bunch of men you spent the week with, some of who you got to know quite well, and not even be able to touch. Weird.

*For my non-plant breeder/geneticist readers, 'well adapted' is a commonly used plant breeding term for a genotype that grows well in a given environment

Photos of Bangladesh

I have posted some pictures on my flickr site from our trip (go to the flickr badge on the right and click the little hand once or twice Mom). Also, Shauna has posted some pictures and a much more comphrehensive description of our trip (the words underlined are links Mom, click the little hand on them and it will take you there).

Come to Bangladesh – Before the tourist do

That is a slogan on a few tourist posters I have seen here. I figure the posters are quite old since they are faded and the tourists have yet to come! For the past week we have been traveling through some of the most untouched areas one could imagine. I saw the first white person I have seen this morning in Dhaka after 8 days! I am curious to pick up a Lonely Planet guide for Bangladesh to see if they even suggest traveling to the western part of the country as there is not a lot of tourist-type attractions and essentially no infrastructure for backpackers. That is why this trip has been such a unique opportunity. I had an elderly woman tell me (in Bengali) that I was the first white person she had ever seen. That very well could have been the case for most of the people we saw on our journey through the rural regions of Bangladesh. It was a little awkward sometimes, as us ‘white people’ felt as though be were under a microscope. One morning while we were waiting for our departure, we were sitting in a van and had the usual crowd of admirers around us. I believe it was Jesse who made the comment ‘I feel like we are in a fish bowl’. Most of the attention is on Shauna and Myself (being female), however people are also curious about the big white giants that accompany us. That particular morning, there was a crowd of about 10 gazing at me. Just staring out of pure innocent curiosity, not saying much (except maybe asking where I was from) and not attempting to pick me up (contrary to my Latin American experience). One of our Indian colleagues told me that they probably wanted to touch me to see if I was a ghost. After about 7 minutes of intensive staring, they noticed Shauna at the back of the van and moved on to inspect her. Whenever we would stop, we would usually attract a group of inquisitive starers. One particular time we stopped just after sunset (for our Muslim colleagues prayers) and I wandered into a shoe store. One of our Bengali hosts noticed that the store was selling Hindi wedding head gear and asked the shop keeper if we could use them for some photos. I first had my picture taken (with my new ‘husband’ Ashutosh) then Shauna and Jesse had theirs done. By this time, a crowd of about 100 had gathered outside the shop for the entertainment. They were ecstatic to find out that Shauna and Jesse were an actual married couple. Moving back to our vehicles, the crowd followed and surrounded us. I am surprise we were able to get away!
Our last night on the road, we spend along the beach in Kuakata right on the Bay of Bengal. Shauna and I were really excited about going swimming but quickly realized that our shorts, let along our bathing suits would not be appropriate attire for the region especially since the women were dressed even more conservatively as we approached the coast (full head and face coverings). Luckily we were able to buy some material to wrap around our waists (‘Luglis’ I believe they are called which is garments most men wear) and rent a motor boat that took us in off the coast to swim. It was a nice break from the staring crowd (who were still probably trying to watch us from the beach).
Both Shauna and I do not mind the kids staring and their inquisitivity. It is really endearing to think that our visit to their village will probably make a lasting impression in their childhood memories -- the day the white girls visited ...
The staring I got use to. What was harder to get use to was the picture taking. Bengalis love to have their picture taken. I think that is why they do not think anything of taking our pictures without permission. Fortunately most of the population of Bangladesh is not able to afford cameras, however some of the tourist at the beach couldn’t keep their camera lenses to themselves. By yesterday, I decided to just have fun with the photographers we ran into. I gave them the ‘thumbs up’ signal and put on a cheesey smile. Within our traveling group, many of the men also loved to take our pictures. I am pretty sure my picture beside plots will far surpass any of the other tour participants. There was one guy in particular that would take my picture about 10 times a day. I got accustomed to hearing him say “Shally, picture here!”. Again, we decided to have fun with their desire to have our picture and decided to get our picture with many of the characters on the tour.
Tomorrow we fly to Nepal for another week of traveling adventures. We hear that we will be a little more on the beaten path, thus not quite the focus of attention for the locals. I am as excited about that as I am about the tour!
Cheers,
Mr. Shally (that is what one of my hotel receipts says, seriously!)

The last 3 days in Banladesh

Uuuughm. I just spent 45 minutes writing about our last 3 days and accidentally erased it trying to copy it! I hate computers!

In short, since my last post we have been travelling the countryside looking at lots of lentil fields and learning a lot about tropical agriculture. They North American guys in our contingent were all sick with food poisoning, but are now feeling better. I didn't get sick thanks to the tetracycline I am on for malaria. Plot tours are quite amusing here due to a strange mixture of personalities and cultures and I now feel confident diagnosing stemphyllium blight.

We had an amazing experience yesterday when we visited lentil fields in the village of Ghanna. The village had arranged a reception for us where we were showered with Marigold petals by school children while walking to a tent where we addressed about 200 farmers after having marigold necklaces put on us by the cutest little girls ever! It was incredible and is far beyond anything I ever imagined for this trip.

Today we took a day of rest and visited the Mangrove forest where unbenounced to us, we were actually the tourist attraction. I now know what celebrities feel like when avoiding the paparazzi. Blaine was even giving signatures! Luckily we were able to take a boat ride up a peaceful river where there were considerable less people than in the rest of the country. The population density of Bengladesh is completely overwhelming. Imagine 150 million people in southern Ontario. Yeah.

Here's hoping for better health and no Bengali tourist with cameras for the next few days!

Notes from Shally:

-Shally is my Indian name
-Blaine and Jesse are really enjoying the food (Yea), although I am still out eating Blaine by about 2X. This is a small point of concern (for me and my weight management) seeing as Blaine has about 75-100 lbs on me.
-The last leg of our flight, we shared the plane with the Bangladesh national cricket team. This is the equivalent of sharing the plane with the Toronto Maple Leaves.
-I now know the meaning of jet lag. Yesterday morning and early afternoon were good, but late afternoon and evening were a little rough. I fell asleep on the 2 hour ride back to the hotel (about 30 km!), before going for supper and at supper (which was the best Thai food I've ever eaten for not a whole lot of money).
-Shauna has posted some pictures. She is our official photographer.
-We presented yesterday. It was quite amusing. The power kept going off and whenever it did the crowd would yell "just wait 4 minutes, it will come back". The cell phones ringing every 5 minutes was also amusing/annoying. There are some really funny rings. For example, Jesse was presenting and all off a sudden we heard 'ribbit, ribbit'. Jesse thought he was either tripping out on the Malaria drugs or was suffering from extreme fatigue. It was also amusing as the person managing the computer projecting the presentation was quite computer illiterate. Actually, that wasn't so much amusing as it was very aggravating. I am glad I didn't make any glaring mistakes on my presentation (ie. say something different than what was on my slide), as the whole crowd would have corrected me.
-I have never met a group of people who are so concerned and adamant about staying on time, yet are so constantly behind time.
-I believe their is an art to horn honking while driving. Actually, it is more like a language all unto it's own consisting of long, short, loud or soft beeps. I am very happy drivers do not talk on cell phones while driving, even if ever other person in the vehicle is on the phone at the same time.
-Plastic bags are illegal in Bangladesh. I think Latin America should adopt the same policy.

Morning 1 in Bangladesh

So here I am at 6:30 in the morning in the rather rustic business centre of my hotel in Dhaka. I woke up at 5 this morning ready to face the lentil world! Upon arrival at the hotel yesterday morning, we discovered that we did not have today off as expected. Instead we would be sitting through an entire day of presentations. Hearing this while being extremely fatigued (partly due to an unexpected extended layover extending our trip from 35 to 40 hours), we were a little shocked, but I actually woke up this morning feeling quite refreshed. I also had the pleasant surprise to waking up to great hair! I forgot how a little bit of humidity can spring my locks. In about an hour and half, we will head to the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) to commence the workshop.

Looking back over our trip here, I can't say it was all bad despite the long layovers in stuffy, boring airports. We saw a little bit of everything from around the globe including the middle-eastern Muslim ladies in full dress (yet carrying designer hand bags??) to some of the cutest kids ever to some kind of Caucasian explorer with the largest head I have ever seen topped with the largest hat I have ever seen ...

Arrival in Dhaka was interesting. Jamie will be happy to know that the crowds of people gated off at the airport are still there. I had the 'pleasure' of sitting shot gun on the ride to the hotel. I have no idea why a poor country would waste precious resources on painting 3 lanes on a free way when everyone drives in 5! The rickshaws are beautifully decorated and there are quite a few 1 tonne trucks that are painted really nicely. While passing a train, we saw some kids standing on top, wind blowing in their hair (yup the train was going that fast).

At the hotel last night, we met some of the workshop delegates from Pakistan, India and the US. I was disappointed to find out that a few people from Australia and USDA who I thought were going to be here did not come. We had some excellent lentil soup last night and so far the food is totally living up to my anticipatory expectations. I'm off for some breakfast now. Hopefully I have a chance to post before heading on the road (either tomorrow or the next day -- we're not sure since apparently we do not have a schedule).

28 hours down, 8 more to go

so here i am, in transit to the other side of the world. after a brutal 7 hour layover in frankfurt, i am happy to now be travelling with a much better air line than air canada. 9am tomorrow, we will arrive in dhaka, bangladesh where we will have a chance to rest and adjust for about a day and a half (i think) before commencing the travelling workshop on lentil.

since i am referring to 'we', i guess i should introduce who my travel partners are (for my non-UofS readers). Our fearless leader is my supervisor bert. travelling with bert is like travelling with a personal tour guide. His breadth of international experience is already making the trip very interesting (even though all we've seen is the inside of airports). bert is the lentil and bean breeder at the crop development centre and the head of the pulse crop group. bert has a miniature doxen named oskar. i love oskar except he has a bit of bladder control problem. blaine is an msc student who is studying greenness in lentils. blaine and i first bonded over a horrendous plant breeding group project last fall. blaine has never been outside of north america and kinda sticks out like a soar thumb in the airports (i can't imagine how he's going to look in the streets of dhaka. i am not sure what blaine is going to eat on the trip as he is a good 'ol meat and potatoes sk farm boy. the other 2 people i am travelling with are jesse and shauna. jesse is another msc student who is studying milling efficiency in red lentil and shauna is his wife who couldn't pass up the opportunity to join us. shauna is a massage therapist, but unfortunately has already made it very clear that she is not working while we are travelling. too bad since i am already quite stiff from plane-sleeping. the description about blaine also applies to jesse except that jesse visited boliva in highschool.

i can't believe this trip of a life time is actually happening. for a long time, i have wanted to visit south east asia. i think the only way this trip could be any better is if i get to go to an indian wedding. i am dying to see how close bollywood portrays the festivities. i am also curious to see if actually use the strange combinations of swear words like in bollywood films ....