Our Indian journey begins in Delhi

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Helen Huang

The adventure started off with a day tour to the Taj Mahal. We blissfully sat in the car, thinking that the drive would be around half an hour. But then our tour guide informed us it would be a 2-3 hour drive - we were in pain. 5 hours later, we arrived. First to Agra Fort, where we saw beautiful Mughal architecture in white marble and red sandstone. The heat in India was a whole different level, who knew the human body could produce so much sweat? We had new experiences with bum sweat and some of us struggled big time!

But it was definitely worth it, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Taj Mahal, was amazingly beautiful. We drew crowds with our creative photo posing, and spent copious amounts of time taking selfies with the Taj, much to the exasperation of our heat-exhausted tour guide Subahash, as well as the other tourists, who were desperate to use the space too.

Rest is for the weak, as the next day, we were up at 5:30am to get ready for a 12 hour car ride to Palampur. Driving around India, the cultural shock was real - people balancing bags of rice and bricks on their head, cows and monkeys everywhere, and crazy driving with no road rules! By the time we arrived at Bobby's house, the group was exhausted from sitting on our butts for half the day. But true to all the rumours, the three storey blue house was beautiful, and with Western toilets and hot water.

Over the next couple of days, we familiarised ourselves with the public transport, the layout of the time and the market, and in no time, we were strutting around Palampur as if we were locals.

Our placements have also been great. With some of us at Bobby's dental clinical, Karan hospital and others at Kalyan clinic, we've been on our toes the entire time, being quizzed on our knowledge and asked to apply it in clinical settings. It has definitely been a bit of a shock, with cases and illnesses that are rare in Australia, as well as the medical culture and practices that are completely foreign. The Indian healthcare system is burdened with many of the same problems as our own, but also many different ones. Even though as health students, we hear about them in Australia, it is definitely something different seeing them with our own eyes.

Overall, the experience has been great. For some of us, using a squat toilet for the first time was struggle town. For others, it was the smell that was the most challenging!

But probably the most enjoyable aspect of Indian culture is the food: paneer, potatoes, naan, masala tea and limca everyday.

Even though we've only been here for a couple of days, the friendly locals have helped us out so much, as have Bobby and Amit our In-Country Partners. The camaraderie between all of the girls has also been wonderful, and there will definitely be many more adventures and memories to come over the rest of the trip.