ASIANOVERLAND.NET SYDNEY TO LONDON  DAY 108/326/20: DELHI HOSPITAL, INDIA

August 1980 and 7 October, 1980

“ TOP DECK STOP PRESS

At September ‘79 the situation in Iran and Afghanistan is fairly stable, if there are problems contingency routes, by-passing these countries will be used. No departure will be cancelled.”

http://asianoverland.net/Top%20Deck%20Asian%20Overland%20Brochure%201979-80%20Version%202.pdf

More shopping, tourist walks and rickshaw rides for the punters in Delhi today, but I’m starting to get worried about the drive back from Delhi to Turkiye. How do we get there? The Afghanistan war is getting worse, as the radical terrorist mujahadeen/bin laden/al quaeda/taliban are unusually well armed (by the west/Americans as it turns out), and the Russian backed government is having a lot of trouble. Maybe they made a mistake in trying to advance women’s rights and marriage rights in Afghanistan.

And the Iranian revolution is showing no signs of slowing, while security in Iran is getting worse notwithstanding the deal the Carter administration has already made with the Revolutionary Guards to release the hostages. I didn't know at the time, that the CIA had done another secret deal with the Revolutionary Guards to delay the release of the American hostages until after the 1980 November American Presidential elections (the Iran/contra deal), to help Reagan defeat President Carter.

To add fuel to the fire, the western backed Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein has also opened up a southern front with Iran.

As a result of the start of the Iran/Iraq war, no Top Deck buses have managed to get through Iran since Gary Hayes and I brought Knackers through Iran in August, 1980.

We can still travel through Pakistan and monitor the situation there – Pakistan is fairly stable compared to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, as the Americans "control" the Pakistan military. I hesitate to use the words “fairly stable”, as the new Top Deck brochure has used those words to replace the word “safe” under “STOP PRESS”.

For those unfamiliar with Top Deck brochures:

“SAFE”- means that it isn’t

“FAIRLY STABLE” - means that war is in progress, but it’s possible the front could be avoided or you could travel through the front, as Top Deck buses before mine had done in Afghanistan last year.

“CONTINGENCY ROUTES, BY-PASSING THESE COUNTRIES WILL BE USED”- means that the courier/tour leader and driver will try to find a way from/to Europe, but we have no idea how or where, so we can’t nominate any actual contingency routes. (What about the OLD Silk Road???)

“NO DEPARTURE WILL BE CANCELLED“ - means that you’ve lost your money, as most punters do, but we have no idea if, or when, having departed, you will arrive at your destination (London, England in case you've forgotten where we're trying to drive to)).

The border between India and Pakistan is often closed, but when it’s open, the border guards are most fastidious and particular about every detail, a habit drilled into them by the British. Imagine getting to the India/Pakistan border on an overland trip and being turned away because you haven’t had the shots and your health book isn’t up to date!!

My Health Book isn’t up to date with typhoid, tetanus, small pox and yellow fever shots, so I decide to have a haircut at a very fashionable Delhi barber, and go to the Delhi hospital for my vaccine shots. The Delhi Hospital queue is miles long. I manage to jump the queue because I’m a westerner and have a new haircut, really looking the part. I manage to get to the desk where the hospital staff are stamping the health books for the next shot – yellow fever. After I get the stamp in my health book, I have a careful look at the next queue and desk in front of me, where the nurses are injecting syringe needles into the people in front of me and placing the used needles into a glass, then re-using the needles for the next person and so on. About 5 needles in the glass, and about 500 people, including me, in the queue!!

The used syringe needles in the glass have probably been used hundreds or thousands of times before me (second-hand would be good, but hundreds-hand would not be good).

So I inconspicuously slip past the needle queue, and join another queue for the next stamp in my health book, which I get, and I bypass the needle shot again, due to the needles being re-used hundreds of times over and over again. After a while, my health book is full of Delhi Hospital vaccine stamps for typhoid, tetanus, small pox and yellow fever shots, but I have no needle holes in my arm.

With my health book up to date (but no Delhi Hospital shots), I reckon I’ll be ready for anything at the India/Pakistan border, irrespective of the route for our overland drives into the unknown “contingency route”.

I didn't learn until nearly 43 years later (last week) that other Top Deck tour leaders like Ian Hall were much smarter than me, and obtained a copy of the Delhi Hospital stamp to forge their own hospital vaccination stamps and dates in their own health books. Damn!!! I should have asked Ian Hall about health book vaccination stamps when I met him 2 months ago in Baluchistan!!!

Meanwhile, our 1980 Trip Book records the standard situation at the Delhi Telephone office:

“I spent 2 hours at the Telegraph Office, which I thought would be worth a whinge. Only to find Brian had spent an impressive 5 hours there. At least he got through.”

These two stories from the Delhi Hospital and Telephone Office respectively, are probably two good examples of the lasting impact of British colonialism in India, partiicularly Delhi, the capital of the British Raj, and now, the capital of independent India. The Delhi barber shop, on the other hand, is probably unchanged since before the British Raj, the Mughal Empire and the Dehli Sultanate, and is the most efficient, clean and healthy business of the three.

↑ Day 107 ↓ Day 109