Chennai. India - A Quick Trip to Hell and Back, But Worth It;

Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows I dislike India...with a passion.  The place is hot, disgustingly piled up with trash everywhere, it smells, and many of the people are extremely rude.  They continuously grab, push and shove, harass,  scam, cut in lines, shit and piss in the streets, cough without covering their mouths, and during my last trip there, they vandalized Greta on three different occasions (OK, once it was probably a monkey, but twice is too many), and to date. the only country during my trip to hurt her.  So basically, this is not a country I adore, so why go back?  The short answer is medications, prescription name brand medication in India is dirt cheap.

I do not recall if I have announced this in my bog before, but I am a kidney transplant patient, which requires a bit of medication, expensive medication.  In the USA, a one month course of anti-rejection meds costs about $1,400, which is ridiculous.  In Europe, I can get these same meds, without prescription, for about $225 a month.  In India, I can get get these meds for about $120 a month, again without prescription.  Now that I am in SE Asia, I kind of assumed the cost would be somewhere between the India and Europe.  I was wrong, dead wrong.  A one month course of meds is about $900 here in Bangkok.  I had a nurse friend of mine check neighboring countries, and the prices were about the same as Thailand or the drug was unavailable.  So with a quick e-visa (which are now good for a year, and are multi-entry), and a $150 round trip flight, I went off to India for a very long three-night stay to pick up six months of meds.  So did I use the country for medical purposes?  Absolutely.   Do I feel guilty?  Nope,  Why don't I feel guilty?  Well, India has a check-box right on the visa app in the "purpose of visit" section, for medical tourism. The Government actually advertises for Westerners to come to India for cheap meds and surgeries.

Leg Distance:  0 mi (0 km)

Total Distance Traveled by Motorcycle: 36,908 mi (60,371 km)

Countries/Territories Visited: USA, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Slovenia, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China (for 20 seconds), India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam