Friday the 20th Alex, Kelly, Grace, and Myself took a taxi to Jaipur. It was a 5 1/2 hr ride that ended up being the death of us all... We arrived at Hotel Amer View on Friday night and so it began.. My stomach started hurting... I spent the night in and out of the bathroom. Saturday i decided to be a trooper and attempt to see the wonders of Jaipur.. I made it to the Amer Fort where I rode an elephant up the 17th century grounds. The palace sits on top of the Amer city and it is surrounded by Boundary walls. The fort's view includes the city and the Sagar Lake (which is one of their main water sources). Jaipur itself is only 8-10km long. Amer Fort/Palace..
Our ride up the Amer Fort
You can see the boundary walls in the background that I was talking about..
Sunder (Beautiful) woman living inside a closet in the fort
Grace, Alex, Myself, and Kelly
Ariel view of the forts along with the Sagar Lake I wrote about
I made it up without any issues so we moved on to the Jaigarh Fort. This was a 17th century Army Palace. It protected the king Mirza Raja Jaisingh (1621-1667). He had eight wives that all lived with him. His main wife was Maharani Chandrawatiji. Within the walls was also a summer palace known as Lalit Mandir. As I mentioned before Jaipur's main water source was the Sagar Lake.. Camels and Elephants would travel down the mountain side cobble paths 1.5km to the lake where they would transport water back up to the palace. The palace was protected by gun point... the walls had little peep holes that armed men would stand and guard. This fort also holds the largest cannon known as Cannon Jaivana. it will strike up to 32 miles away and it was built in 1720 weighing 50tons.
After here we traveled to Jal Mahal known as the "water palace." It was built in the 18th century and is literally in the center of the Sagar Lake. It floats when the Monsoon Season hits. All along the water side were vendors selling their goods. Some jewelry, foods, wooden crafts, toys, etc.. The area was filled with children playing barefoot and bottomless :) so cute but so sad..
Man selling spices for so very little money
Colorful Bracelets!
Hindi Man that performed the Haulman ritual on us...
Our strings right before our Bindi's
Then things got bad... We traveled to the Galta Temple. A sage lived there named Galva. He lived inside the temple and performed penance. Galta Kund was built inside the 18th century there were two main temples.. Ram and Vishnu. There are 7 sacred tanks that feed natural spring water flowing from a rock that resembles a cows mouth. The water is said to have "curative" powers because of the cows mouth. As we entered the Temple a older Hindi man who lived inside the temple asked us to follow him. He took us to a tiny temple where he gave up evil spirits to the Haulman "temple god." He rubbed perfume on our hands, wrapped colorful string around or wrist, and drew a bindi (Dot on the center of my head). He then Blessed us with Peacock feathers (just kept hitting us on the head), it was sort of amusing.
After all of this I attempted to walk up the stairs to the top of the temple... lets just say what I did next had to be sacrilegious. I threw up all over the temple.... yikes......... Here is this Catholic girl puking all over a sacred Hindi Temple. From here I still decided to be a trooper I continued into town were we decided to go shopping.. what was I thinking?!?! I was so week I basically collapsed on a street corner. Our driver Jassi picked me up and took me back to the hotel.. I napped for a few hrs on and off and then was up the remainder of the night sick from both ends... at 1am he took me to the hospital.
I checked into the emergency room... what a site!! 1 nurse, 1 doctor, no patients, 2 gurneys... they decided they wanted to admit me... as the nurse began looking for a vein I began looking for supplies.. she was about to open the needle when I stopped here and asked her for gloves.. Yes she was not wearing gloves.. she looked at me oddly and with a huff walked and got gloves. I then was transferred to a private room.. on the way I experienced a man sleeping in the elevator (odd). My room consisted of 2 beds, a table and a bathroom. The nurse didn't speak any english and I was so out of it... I couldn't even sit straight the pains were so bad.. She started giving me Iv's and meds... omg what a nightmare... I had no idea what she was giving me... I kept asking her what is it? what is it? next thing I knew I was on the bathroom floor throwing up again... the pills were in the toilet and she was rubbing my back. I got back in bed and she gave me a shot in my arm.. (even today I don't know what the shot was, but I am alive). I traveled the 5 1/2 hrs back with Jassi and the girls.. We never made it to Agra (which is where we were supposed to go Sunday) to see the Taj Mahal. We stopped numerous times on the way home where i experienced numerous bathrooms.. yuck (some holes in the ground).
Monday morning I went to the hospital here in Delhi were I received yet another IV and more medications.. This visit was a lot better! The doctor spoke English, did a full exam, explained everything, and got me on the right path! I am still going to the bathroom very frequently (I'm sure you are all REALLY enjoying this blog) but I am doing better. Today is the first day I managed to keep a piece of toast down! Wahhoo and gatorade :)
I haven't been to placement in 2 days I am terrible sad about it.. I feel like I've come to India to get sick and see the inside of bathrooms :( I have a flight booked to Calcutta this Friday at 550pm I really hope I am feeling better by then.. I can not miss out on seeing Mother Teresa's tomb, the Mother House, and where she lived and worked!
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