09:55 – The first question there is of course where is home? That we won’t go into! Today is Tuesday, on Saturday night we went out with some rich people to a fancy hotel where a glass of wine cost ten dollars and a beer six; Western prices. I got a mango juice, according to Jeanie who saw the menu juice wasn’t even on the menu! We didn’t pay, there was never even a issue, the man who picked me up in his Ford SUV was paying for everything, or at least I believe it’s he that paid. I don’t really like that we went out on Friday and Saturday with Indian’s and both times they paid, both times there was no offer by the Westerners we were with to even help with the bill. At least I enjoyed the company of both sets of Indian’s, and to be honest found them far more interesting than their expat counterpart. One vast difference between the expats here and those in Laos is the first question is now what you do and who you work for, in fact it never really comes up in conversation where all too often in Laos it is the base of any conversation and one is very much judged by his response.
Sunday evening was once again Jeanie and I. We slept for four hours in the afternoon and then went for a little walk. I had ventured to the shop below the hotel and brought three different bags of Indian sweets so by the time dinner came around I wasn’t in the slightest bit hungry. The monsoon has arrived and with it much cooler weather, allowing for such things as evening walks! It now stays below 35c all the time and there is often a fair amount of beautiful cloud cover! With my stomach feeling very full but a parched throat I suggested we go to a juice place we’d patronised previously. The fruit here leaves something to be desired, the mangos taste funny, the apple and pineapples are puny and the oranges have skin as thick as an old work horse. Jeanie got a grape juice and I decided on an apple juice. I already knew I didn’t like her grape from the previous visit.
Both of our drinks tasted a bit funny, perhaps that should have been the warning. Jeanie could not even drink hers, she had perhaps two mouthfuls which was more than I could have managed before giving up. I finished mine although realized it was far from the best juice we’ve tasted. Upon leaving it was unanimously decided not to return there. We then went to The Veg a new semi street restaurant that’s become a favourite. The kitchen is inside, taking up most of the inside space but it’s clean and the staff seem quite efficient. Then they have plastic chairs outside coved by a tarp for when it rains. The place has very tasty and cheap chow mein with a large plate costing a mere twenty rupees. As I’ve said I was full and took a far less substantial mushroom and cheese wrap where Jeanie got the mushroom chow mein.
All that night I was restless; not ready for bed at ten when Jeanie nodded off, I watched a bit of telly till eleven; then tossed and turned for awhile before finally falling off to sleep. By five, I was awake and standing outside on the balcony wondering what to do with myself. It was not long before I was on the toilet but didn’t think much of that first visit. Soon after there was another visit; and then again while reading the paper. It occurred to me that I would not be walking Jeanie to her class for the first time, and with the way my stomach felt I told her not to expect me to walk her back either. I spent the next four hours on and off the toilet with nothing but water running out of me. I also had to throw up four times before noon and they revealed that definitely my system was clean as it was pure water each time.
Getting ill in India is nothing special, nearly everyone has the pleasure at one point or another. Perhaps because on my previous visit I avoided such a fate I thought I would be so lucky this time! Having had a few major illnesses over the years I was able to rule out some unpleasantness like typhoid fever and giardia. By the time Jeanie returned I was not feeling well but feeling a lot better, at least the bulk of the action appeared over. The one irony was on the first day I was actually interested in watching TV I found our TV not working, until 19:00 last night there was no cable, so the much needed mindless distraction I could not have. The general discomfort of my stomach along with a slight fever made my entire body ache and I was extremely fidgety. Unable to sleep I also couldn’t sit up for any length of time yet my back and hips hurt due to lying mindlessly in bed all day! It was not till late evening, when I’d become bored of TV as Wimbledon’s coverage moved to doubles, hardly a main stage event, that I was able to sit for awhile and read.
Jeanie diligently looked after me and sadly our less than friendly local chemist didn’t have any sleeping aids, as I was worried about a second night of discomfort. I’d taken a dissolvable aspirin over two stages earlier and was keen to try that again, I knew I was feeling better and knowing that the aspirin was helping without making me feel unjustly better I was keen to try again. Our chemist also didn’t have this and instead sold her 500mg tablets. I’d managed to get down a small bag of ready salted crisps up to that point but that was to end soon. Without thinking I took one tablet of aspirin and almost immediately could feel it’s effect on my empty stomach, exactly what I’d hoped to avoid! Within ten minutes of taking the pill I only got as far as the sink…after that I felt much better!
And so it is I managed to get a good nights sleep, falling off at ten I didn’t get up till just gone six. Although I will have to stop writing in a minute as my eyes are hurting quite a bit and I need the toilet I have a good amount of confidence that by this time tomorrow I’ll be fit and fresh eating puri from across the road!
