It;s tiring being healthy in India

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  Pushkar, Rajasthan, India
Thursday, November 27, 2008

I can attribute the gradual undoing of my feasting down to two things. For those who have been aware of my health issues you will be happy to know that by Pushkar my cold has been reduced to a mere annoyance, and my rash is disappearing fast. I'm doing alright, for India. I'm trying out loads of new foods and living the high life, every day. Oh it's good, it's so good. Eating out for breakfast, lunch and dinner ensures that your plate is always piled high with delicacies. I'm a dedicated eater too, I'll admit it, and good restaurants are always cheap and easily accessible.

As we travel towards Pushkar I alight from the train and guzzle freshly cooked pakoras at a train station. Later, at our hotel in Pushkar I am served a delicious chocolate ball (or chocolate boll) with ice-cream and chocolate sauce, by Benny and Bicky, the delightfully fun men who run the hotel. I've eaten spicy aubergine and potato curry for dinner, and drank a couple of glasses of chai just for good measure as we watch Lagaan on the rooftop restaurant.
We've already received our Pushkar Passports - a red and yellow strings tied around my right wrist. We have had puja down on Pushkar Lake, a peaceful and picturesque lake dedicated to Lord Brahma. We throw offerings of red colour, yellow colour, sugar, rice and fresh flowers into Pushkar Lake, Holy Lake, and say a pray for my mother my father my brother my siser my self. It's a lovely ceremony, and we make a donation to pay for the Brahmin's to live quietly in pray by the Lake. It's heaven right there in Pushkar.

But I wake in the middle of the night with a burning oesphagus and a churning stomach. My stomach has had enough of the gorgeous Indian food I've been plying it with - rich curries, spicy chillies, greasy naan overflowing with paneer, spicy chai, buttery biscuits, creamy nut sauces, acidic broth and litres and litres of water. Plus I've been drinking full cream cow's milk, white sugar, white flour, milk chocolate and everything else I shouldn't. There's been a dearth of fresh vegetables, salad and fruit and I've also been sneaking soft drinks.
I spend the night vomiting in a marble bathroom that smells like sewage and mosquito repellant. The next day I lie curled on my cold bed, thinking of the daunting 6 weeks that stretch ahead of me. I'm tired of buses and trains and dust and hotel unpacking. I'm mising the beautiful city of Pushkar, and the only Brahmin temple in the land as I can't bring myself to leave the hotel. Benny and Vicky chat to me whenever I stumble out of my door and mumble for water, and I'm too down to chat back. It's a waste of a day. I watch a terrible American movie on TV and consider how I'm going to cope with the food for the rest of my trip. I need to find a balance between the rich Indian fare and the dry bland food that Indians label 'continental food'. For a foodie such as myself I just can't stomach eating the crunchy substance that passes as Western bread, or sticking to the typical salad combination of tomato/cucumber/red onion above delicious curries with layers of flavours and steaming dishes of biryani.

I know I had a whinge when I had a bit of a cold. But this is just fact now, alright?
My sickness doens't last long. The next day we have to catch a bus to Jaipur but it shouldn't last too long. I'm still over the whole thing but I'm feeling better, just a little nauseous. When the bus arrives we find that the seats have been double-booked until Ahjmer, and we'll have to cling inside the bus. I hang back and offer to sit on the steps in case I need to make a dash for it and vomit behind the nearest bush. We are literally jam-packed into this bus. It's incredible how many people they can force abroad. I stand awkwardly on the step with only one little man between me and certain doom. I decided to see if I can sit down and as I turn around my sunglasses fly out the door. I give them up for lost but my doorway buddy yells out to driver and bounds out and down the highway to rescue them. The whole bus guffaws when someone else gets out, looks down the road, throws up his arms and yells out 'sunglasses!'

I just can't help but love this place. The trip has gone so fast, and I'm sad to think that I'm almost halfway through my time here. I'm looking forward so much to meeting the women of Kolkata, but I'm sad to be leaving the people in my tour group. The food, health and hygiene issues have been so minor compared to the amazing things I am seeing and the joy I am getting out of seeing all these cities.

But it's not finished just yet... We soon arrive at Jaipur, a busy hustling city and the capital of Rajasthan. I miss out on the Amber Fort in favour of the TV in our hotel room (arggghhh it's bad I know) where I watch cooking shows and news updates. I woke this morning to find many messages on my phone - Mumbai has been under attack. It's really awful news and many people, including our leader, are angry about it. Attacks like this cost the tourism industry millions, and India is a country that values it's tourism industry so much. I'm grateful that I'm not anywhere near Mumbai, and it's lovely to get loving messages from family and friends. We don't hear much about it except when we seek out news - everything is in Hindi and there are not usually TV's in the hotel rooms. We spy papers occasionally and feel down thinking about what's gone on down there.

Whilst I am in Jaipur I go to watch an actual Bollywood movie (in Hindi). It's glamarous, hilarious and over-the-top, and the crowd LOVES it. There's energy and excitement in the crowd, and we have a great time trying to figure out the storylines. The touts in Jaipur are more aggressive than anywhere else we have been, and spend a lot of time standing in front of you and spreading their wares across you, trying to entice you to buy. It's hard and slow walking down the main street. I buy some beautiful jewellery and do some inefficient haggling. I'm so bad at haggling.

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