Meltdown of an attempt to integrate plans for leaving from
Delhi to Moscow to continue on to the Kamchatka Big Horn hunt
From: Ravi I Singh <ravi@himalayanhealth.com
To: Judy and Mike Geelhoed <geelhoed@swbell.net
Date: 6/14/01 11:29AM
Subject: Re: The itinerry for Ladakh return trip, in view of disruptionfrom
extension to cover Lingshed
Dr. Glenn,
I just received an e‑mail from Virginia as well, wanting to know your
return date out of Lingshed. I had given the tentative dates on our return
from Lingshed and flight out of Delhi Aug 6. I hope I am not messing up your
Hunting trip or plans with Virginia, please let me know if it is still possible
for you to go to Lingshed because I am unable to make a connection for your
return through Moscow. Lufthansa and many other airlines do not connect this
route as a round trip. Krisbi suggested that you make a separate travel route
from Frankfurt‑Moscow‑Frankfurt and continue on your way back to
Washington. You are welcome to go through a different travel agent if the rates
are lower, we don't have to pay Krisbi more. If you decide to go through Krisbi
then please call them and let them know the exact dates of your return, keeping
in mind your departure out of Delhi on Aug 6.I will not recommend carrying a
Rifle into India. It will lead to a lot of hassles with the customs. You will
need a special import license to bring a weapon into the country, let alone
a hunting Rifle, I would not do it and would not recommend it to any one, especially
you. Sending it through Scott Miller will be a safer and a better idea. As
far the luggage is concerned, I can request Krisbi to ask Lufthansa to allow
Martha Thompson to carry an extra bag as well. This will allow us three extra
bags as check ins out of Washington. You can leave your excessive baggage in
Leh, I will have it transported to Shimla and delivered to you for our Spiti
trip. It will be absolutely safe, do not worry.Our departure date for Spiti
is September 14 from the US. If you wish to attend the Halsten Society program
and leave on the 15th, it will be perfectly fine. I can make arrangements for
you to catch up with us at Shimla or Kaza. I am watching the Nepal situation
very closely and hopefully the situation will improve by the end of September.
I will not like to send you all in a mess. If plans go as scheduled then you
and Dr. Kelly Cobb can leave a day or two earlier from Dharamsala on our way
out of Spiti and meet the Nepal team on the 30th either in Kathmandu or Lukla.
You will reach there before the camp begins. Yes you can only go as far as Namche
and will have to return to Kathmandu on the 8 to take a flight back to Delhi
and the same night fly back to Washington. Your return can also be moved to
October 7th but it may be a rush but we'll get you back into New Orleans or
Washington on the 8th for sure.
AAMC and National Geograhic Society is excellent news. I am working on getting
a press release through Raghu Raj during our Spiti trip and also would like
to ask the Govenrment of Himachal Pradesh to honor you during our next year's
trips.
Ravi
At 11:47 AM 6/13/2001 ‑0500, you wrote:
THE INTEGRATION OF THE OUTBOUND AND RETURN ITINERARIES OF
THE NEXT
TWO (COMBINED)HIMALAYAN HEALTH EXCHANGE MEDICAL MISSIONS
I had a call from Nimi from Krisbi who had given me a price for
one of the tickets for ladakh, although I am not sure she understands all the
changes that may be necessary due to the inclusion of the Lingshed extension
which will require a separation of Virginia's return itinerary
from mine.
I do not know when I am now scheduled to leave from Lei to Delhi in view of
the week added on to my stay in India. But, ironically, I was
waiting to hear from Eurasian Expeditions about the itinerary they were planning
for me in later August, since i had told them about my return given the standard
itinerary of the Ladakh excursion. It seems now,that I would be returning across
the world and another couple of oceans,within hours of departing to make the
reverse of the same trip! If that is the case, and if Virginia is going to
have to travel back independently form me in any event because of the superimposition
of the Lingshed itinerary we have inherited from the Flying Doctors' drop‑out,
I should rather have an itinerary for return from Delhi through moscow, to catch
up with the Eurasian itinerary that same time.
I have not yet had them make up my travel plans since I had not yet heard anything
from Krisbi. But what I will do is get the exact flights needed to mesh these
two trips, and see if it is possible and permissible for me to make a trip to
New York to deliver the gear that I need for the second trip to give to the
other passenger, Scott Miller, who will be going from New York to Moscow and
on to Kamchatka, Siberia. The only alternative would be to carry the gear with
me for the Siberian hunting trip to Delhi, and leave it there‑‑and
that will include a cased and locked rifle; I am uncertain about what the
regulations for such baggage in India are, but I know they are far less "hunter
friendly" than they would be in Russia. On the subject of baggage, I would
like to leave behind one backpack of
my stuff from the Ladakh/Lingshed trip in Delhi on completion of this trip (which
I understand from you would be August 6), because i will
need the same equipment with me when I travel into Spiti (and the other added
extension of this trip also) and Nepal. That would make it
possible for me to carry more medical supplies when i come in to the Spiti trip,
which would mean I can use the extra baggage allowance form Lufthansa to carry
this on my July 17 departure for Delhi. i am concerned about this since i have
just received a very large amount of medical supplies inthe surgical kits and
gowns and disposables category, and I am not sure how much I can carry, but
it will all make a one‑way trip just like the MAP packs and medicines.
With whom can the following kinds of baggage be left in Delhi (or Simla) who
is trustworthy to have it make the critical connections forward for the other
trips?
A) Backpack of trekking climbing clothes and supplies for the Ladakh/Lingshed
and Spiti/Nepal trips;
B) the hunting gear, which Iwill need if I go forward from Delhi to Moscow
in the August 6 return from Lei/Lingshed.
I will also be carrying the very valuable Nonin pulse oximeter as a superb critical clinical device I will later leave as a donation to the most needy clinic that can use it to the best effect, after i have surveyed all the clinics from Dharamsala, Ladakh, Lingshed, Spiti, and Lukla‑‑from this years' treks alone. I had previously written you about the connection time for the departure to Spiti, since the abstracts are being printed for the Boston Haltsed Society Program which will be held Sept. 12‑‑15. i have not yet agreed to participate in a presentation at that program, since i will need to know how this would mesh with the takeoff for Spiti, and whether i would be doing that from Boston directly or after return to Washington. Because, again, of the addition of the Nepal component after the Spiti excursion, I will have to scramble out of Namche Bazar and get, somehow, to New Orleans to the American College of Surgeons whom I am addressing on just such medical missions as I will be prematurely returning from on October 9. I end to know about the arrangements on each end of this extended trip in Sept/Oct in order to make it work without missing commitments and the arrangements so far for the Jul/Aug Ladakh/Lingshed (?Russia) connections are not a promising model for the later smooth integration of the multiple point itineraries meshing.
I have given a lengthy interview to the AAMC Reporter and Jennifer Proctor, along with a lot of supporting printed material, on promoting medical missions‑‑among medical students with the AAMC, as I am doing with physicians in the ACS in October, and may even be doing for the general public through the National Geographic Society. if the proposal suggested by Roger Hair, NGS photojournalist, that I had forwarded to you goes through. I hope that the encouragement that is getting a swelling stream of volunteers to participate will not be fouled by administrative snags, and that I may be able to mesh the dense combined travel itineraries in view of the added components tacked on to the Himalayan Health Exchange individual itineraries. I will try to mesh the itineraries and fax forward the return for Virginia if she is returning independently from Ladakh while I am off in Lingshed. I will then find out if I can have someone else carry my gear to Russia, and rendezvous with them in Moscow, before going on to Kamchatka, and will send to Krisbi through you the return flight needed from Moscow (cheaper) than from Delhi with a long enough advance to get the discounted rate.
I am trying to shuffle all these plans while in the air, visiting my son Michael and his wife Judy on their 8th anniversary, pre‑Father's Day as they are awaiting the birth of the twin boys which will be happening when I am off in Ladakh, and then i am going on to remote Dayton Wyoming to run the Big Horn Wilderness Ultra on June 16 and returning to Boulder on Father's Day and home on Monday June 18 to be giving the Grand Round at Holy Cross Hospital in Maryland on June 19.
I hope we can still pull it all together!
GWG