Justin poses with an Indian cowboy at "Rodeo" restaurant in Delhi, where the team celebrated Chanda's birthday.

Journal by Todd Borgie

Delhi is certainly a bustling city. Actually, I am quite impressed with how spread out it is. I have continued to work on visa acquisitions, so much of my time has been spent going to and from embassy row here in Delhi. Embassy row is beautiful! Large, expansive compounds with manicured lawns, flowers and trees. It is not easy to walk from one embassy to the next, as they are so big. It is a pleasant switch from the horns, crowds, and hawkers of Connaught Place.

Although Embassy row is nice, it will be much nicer to finish our business there. Completion of this business will mean that we can freely finish the Asian leg of our journey. All of these visas make me long for the Americas, where visas were never required. All we had to do was show up at a border, and they would stamp us in and out with out any problem.

In Asia, we find ourselves paying hundreds of dollars, per person, to be admitted to countries. What makes matters difficult is that some of these countries require exact dates of arrival and departure. This isn’t so difficult if you are arriving by plane, but when you are trying to project where you are going to be in two months on a vehicle expedition, things are a lot tougher (floods, vehicle problems, Maoist rebels, etc). We are managing, but the logistics become quite complicated. We seek all the flexibility we can but are forced to work within the system when necessary.

Only a few more visas to go, and I will hang up my visa hat, and none too soon.

After doing visa detail, I switched back to working on Parkinson’s Disease awareness. I met with Dr. Maduri Behari today. She is the Head Neurologist at All India Institute of Medicine (AIIMS). I was able to get in touch with her by a contact given to me by our friend, and champion, Mr. Sabharwal.

Ever since we left Bangkok, I had been chasing down Parkinson’s leads in India. I found several organizations, but they had all been in the South of India. I have e-mailed and phoned organizations and doctors all over India, but because of bad or unused e-mail addresses, changed phone numbers, or other limiting complications, I was never able to talk to anyone within the Parkinson’s disease community, that is until now.

Dr. Behari was great; we had a fantastic meeting. She told me of how she decided to become a neurologist, and she discussed the local Parkinson’s organization PRAN (Parkinsonisms and Related Disorders Awareness Network) here (and lamented the fact information about it was not yet available on the net). She told me why so many people wanted to cover it up, and she invited me to her weekly clinic on Saturday. It was great that she took the time to meet with me. You can read more about the interview soon on the Parkinson’s page.

The evening ended with a team meeting to discuss the upcoming schedule, expedition updates, and what needs to be done between now and when we leave Asia.

After the meeting, the team finally got around to celebrating Chanda’s “29th” birthday at a place called Rodeo. The team ate Indian tacos and burritos (no beef available) served by Indians wearing cowboy gear. It was surreal, but a perfect way to celebrate. Now we have celebrated every single team member’s birthday while on the road. If we don’t hurry up and get home, Neil will get a double doozie.

Help support our cause: The LONGITUDE Expedition is the longest journey ever attempted with a focus on Parkinson's Disease. The Drive Around the World team aims to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease research by driving four Certified, Pre-Owned Land Rover Discoverys around the globe following lines of longitude. Readers are encouraged to pledge small amounts of money per expedition-kilometer via a pledge form that can be found on our Parkinson’s page by clicking HERE. One hundred percent of donations received go directly to Parkinson's research, and all who donate $10 or more will be entered into a raffle to win an expedition-equipped Land Rover Discovery.