Travel HOWTO: shots I gots, and altitude data sites

Hey, speaking of vaccines...

I've tried many different sources for travel medicine in the past. Once, I went to the CDC (not to be confused with cDc). Some experienced travelers I know swear by the CDC for travel immunizations: their prices tend to be low, and who isn't used to the federal government sticking you in the ass already, right? But the one here in LA seemed very poorly managed -- and they won't always have what you need for remote places with exotic bugs. I have also used regular old general prac doctors, and the University of Southern California's travel clinic.

So far, the best experience I had was the place I used when preparing for this most recent trek: Healthy Traveler Clinic in Pasadena, a quick drive from Hollywood. The prices weren't always the absolute cheapest, but they were lightning-fast, always had everything I needed, were super well-organized, and *wired*.

I asked the administering physician, Brian Terry, whether it would be wise to pack altitude sickness meds for certain spots along the trek. I knew Tibet would pose problems, but wasn't sure about some of the sites in Northern India.

So while I'm sitting in the chair where he's just poked me full of rabies shots, he whips out his laptop and logs on to a website I'd never heard of that lists altitudes for darn near every city in the world: fallingrain.com. It takes a while for Dr. Terry to find the small towns I'm headed to (and there are a dozen possible spellings for "Dharamshala") but we do. Based on that data, he determines that altitude sickness will not be an issue anywhere I'm going -- except for Tibet.

More on how much altitude sickness sucks later, but above is a scan of my vaccination card. I think the rabies shots might come in handy more at home in LA than anywhere I might end up going next.

Getting shots and horsing down live typhoid bugs are among my least favorite things in life. But I'm glad I found this clinic, and I'd use them again. They even have a store on-site (and online) where you can buy mosquito netting, emergency mylar blankets, water purification kits, and the like. Plus they give you chocolate candies after they're done jabbing sharp syringes full of toxins into your flesh, which is, you know, thoughtful.

Technorati Tags: China, howto, India, Tibet

Nonprofit offers vaccines to Gaddi villages in India

Avnish Katoch heard "The Gaddi People of Dharamshala" -- part one of a four-part trek series I filed for NPR Day to Day -- and wrote in to share word of a US non-profit he's involved with, "My Himachal." Avnish says they're a "non-political, non-religious organization made up of people of Himachal origin and friends of Himachal Pradesh worldwide." They recently offered an immunization project for a remote Gaddi village in Himachal Pradesh, not far from the ones I visited. Link to Times of India article, and here's more on the MyHimachal.us website. Snip:

There is a large mandir/temple named after their Devta: Manu, the First Man in Hindu mythology. The clouds are low and beautiful, constantly sprinkling us with fine mist. It is full, hectic morning with many children showing up with their parents or grandparents. We immunize approximately 70 children, continue our diet/nutrition survey of the children, and measure their weight & height. Vitamin A & Zn supplements are given. Vaccinations include: MMR, BCG (for tuberculosis), Hepatitis B. AIDS Awareness literature is handed out.

SAHARA’s Kala Jatha theater is very popular and the skits elicit a lot of laughter. Some of the older village men join in with dancing. At the end of the street theater, more music is performed. Villagers do the local Himachal Pradesh dance, called a Nati with members of out Health Mela team joining in to form a large circle dance. The mood is very joyous and festive and the dance seems very symbolic of our connection here, high in the mountains.

Technorati Tags: Dharamshala, Gaddi, India, radio

China pledges "fight to the death" with Dalai Lama

A Beijing official has announced that China's communist government wants to end the "cult" of the Dalai Lama, and will expand crackdown measures throughout Tibet. This seems a significant escalation, and an intensity of tone not evident since the early 1990s. Snip from the Times of London:

China’s new top official in Tibet has embarked on a fierce campaign to crush loyalty to the exiled Dalai Lama and to extinguish religious beliefs among government officials.

Zhang Qingli, was appointed Communist Party secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in May. An ally of Hu Jintao, China’s President, Mr Zhang, 55, has moved swiftly to tighten his grip over this deeply Buddhist region. (...)

In May Mr Zhang told senior party officials in the region that they were engaged in a “fight to the death” against the Dalai Lama. Since then he has implemented several new policies to try to erode the influence of the 71-year-old monk who China’s rulers believe is waging a covert campaign to win independence for his Himalayan homeland.

Ethnic Tibetan civil servants of all ranks, from the lowliest of government employees to senior officials, have been banned from attending any religious ceremony or from entering a temple or monastery. Previously only party members were required to be atheist, but many of them quietly retained their Buddhist beliefs. Patriotic education campaigns in the monasteries that have been in the vanguard of anti-Chinese protests have been expanded.

Ethnic Tibetan officials in Lhasa as well as in surrounding rural counties have been required to write criticisms of the Dalai Lama. Senior civil servants must produce 10,000-word essays while those in junior posts need only write 5,000-character condemnations. Even retired officials are not exempt.

Link to story. Image: HH Dalai Lama, shot by Lobsang Wangyal in Dharamshala, India, on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Uprising of Tibetans in Lhasa. (thanks, David Ahrendts)

Technorati Tags: China, Dharamshala, Tibet

Windies vs. Tiggas

Oxblood Ruffin, a member of Cult of the Dead Cow who's currently in Dharamshala working on the community wireless mesh network there, wrote in about this previous post: "Tigga, Please." Oxblood says:

I was walking down Temple Road today thinking about the "Tigga" thing. And just as I'm drifting with this, two Tiggas go one way and three Windies [Westerners dressed like Indians] pass the other.

Both groups are culturally displaced. But the Windies seem amusing since most of them will eventually go home and lose their kirtas. But the Tiggas can't go home. They're colloidal, unsettled, unassimilated. Their clothes are a cry for belonging, anywhere.

Being a victim of cultural genocide ain't pretty.

Technorati Tags: Dharamshala, India, Tibet