At the Mercy of India

Crap almighty, am I in rough shape right now. Actually, I should say I "was" in rough shape, as I'm exponentially better than I was 4 hours ago. I'm just coming through my first case of "Delhi Belly", food poisoning that as much as 70% of visitors to India will get.

It started this morning around 6am, a sudden need to go to the toilet. By 10 I was going twice an hour, with nothing solid coming out of me. I nearly vomited a few times, not too sure how I managed to keep that down. Then it peaked at about noon - I thought I was doing better, I was drinking lots of water to keep hydrated, and I had to pee. Standing over the toilet though was too hard, and I had to find a way to sit down, which was a challenging process, exhausting me further. Suddenly I was pooing again, and, fortunately sitting now, I grew super dizzy. Then I got hot, so incredibly hot I had to take off all the clothes I was wearing. Sweat was now quite literally dropping off my body onto the floor, and the dizziness got worse. My vision became blurred, the room went eerily white, my ears started ringing, and if it weren't for the wall I probably would have fallen clear off the toilet. Half blind, I sorted out cleaning myself up, and I managed to slide along the wall back into bed. Within minutes however, I started to perk up. In fact, by 2 o'clock I was able to move around the hotel, now sometime after 4 I'm sitting here using the computer, feeling completely drained of all energy but moderately healthy otherwise.

Yes, India I think is going to be just that kind of country. Right now Shannon and I are in Agra, a city never recommended by other travelers for more than a quick stop at the Taj Mahal. The trip here was epic - I never imagined, despite what I'd heard and read, of a country so dedicated to giving you a hard time. Things started off OK, with a pre-paid taxi taking us from the Delhi airport to the bus station. It took an hour, but was mostly painless. Upon arrival, 5 men sprung on us to "help" us out. As I handed our driver the payment slip, he immediately said "This is the wrong bus station." Pardon? You drove us for an hour, and only now mention this is the wrong station?

We searched the station for an hour and learned it was indeed the wrong one. After organizing another rickshaw ride to the correct one (not an easy process), we saw a large "... Bus Terminal" surrounded by garbage. If this was the right station, which the sign said, things were in a total state of malfunction. There were buses but not ticket office, and things looked nasty for us. Shannon and I walked a few hundred meters though, and miracle of miracles, stumbled on the train station. This turned out fairly well, we got our tickets for 1/4 of the price we expected to pay, and hopped on a "sleeper" car to Agra.

The train wasn't too bad, though packed with people undressing Shannon with their eyes most of the time. The one moment it did get out of hand was when a transvestite Indian person came begging for money. The effort this transvestite had gone to was not too impressive, and everyone around us was nearly as uncomfortable as we were. I say nearly, since this person spent most of the time hounding us. We said "no" at first, then ignored them, but this person got between us and started touching us. Again, we said "no" and put our bags in the way. The trans-v got a little more aggressive now, reaching at my face, so I stated rather angrily, "I have no money". He/she then said something along the lines of "sure you do, you tuck it down here" and reached for my money belt, grabbing my crotch. Wow, did I get angry. I stopped short of jumping up, but I gave the person an infuriated "F%$K OFF" look and told them to leave. He/she tried some more for money, but did eventually wonder off, bringing a sigh of relief from everyone sitting around us.

Anyway, I'm losing energy here, and I think it's time to head to the hotel. First though, gotta book some bus tickets - 12 hours tomorrow night from Agra to Jodhpur. We're gonna splurge on a nicer car though, and hopefully no transients will come bothering us. Till the next blogging opportunity, take care.