Goodbye India ...hello Thailand

The purpose of our trip to India was first and foremost to develop a good working relationship with a medical equipment manufacturing company in New Delhi. This was accomplished. We have now ordered 60 large pressure cookers and specialized surgical instrument baskets for distribution in Benin, West Africa this March. We are working closely with Mercy Ships and the Ministry of Health in Benin to select clinics and hospitals and train their staff on the principles of sterilization and how to use this system. Now we are just hoping that they will get them made and shipped on time.

In between meetings with the company (and being sick for a couple of days), we tried to explore as much as possible, after all, it would be a shame to be in India and not see a bit of the country!

On one of our days off we toured some of the most popular sites in New Delhi.

The Red Fort, built between 1639-1648. There is so much history it gets confusing who built what and when

The Mughal emperors lived here for nearly 200 years

Always impressed by the architecture. This was a public meeting hall

Humayun's Tomb, built 1565-1572, commissioned by Humayun's 1st wife, Empress Begum for her husband. As we were looking at this it crossed my mind to say to Olive "she loved her husband so much she built this tomb to remember him by" and then I remembered that Shah Jahan built the Tag Mahal out of his love for his wife. The Taj is far grander. I held my tongue!

India Gate - a war memorial similar in architecture to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris

The Lotus Temple - a Bahai temple noted for its flowerlike shape. I think we toured at least one place of worship for all major religions that are represented in India

Akshardham Temple - a modern (2005) Hindu temple with intricate ornate designs (no cameras allowed on the site)

Raj Ghat - a memorial dedicated to MG who died in Delhi

The place where MG was cremated

We met a very friendly and entertaining rickshaw driver (Akbar) who offered to take us into the extremely busy and narrow lanes of the Chandni Chowk market area. Although he wanted to show us all the market had to offer, we requested to just go to the Spice Market. What a wonderful array of smells, colours and samples of spices and foods

Shop after shop full of sacks of nuts, raisins, cereals, spices, tea and more

Anyone want a date?

Spice mountains

Lentils, beans and rice

  

Feeling chili?

A bird's eye view of one street in this market area. Our driver took us into a narrow lane and up several flights of stairs to get to this vantage point

Hello Thailand - after about a month in a predominantly Hindu country, we have arrived in Chiang Mai where Buddhist temples abound.

Young monks-in-training

A senior and junior monk walking through the temple grounds

We will be staying in Chiang Mai for the next 2 weeks, attending a large conference of medical and dental professionals from all over Asia. SPECT has been invited to make one presentation and to conduct a workshop at this conference.