Jaipur

As we putted down the loud, chaotic road in our rickshaw, we no longer cared about the near collisions or almost hitting cows because of how desperately we needing a bed and bathroom as soon as possible. Our rickshaw driver was actually quite nice as he tried pointing out different land marks, and offered to stop at internet shops, like most travelers like to do, however I don’t think he noticed how emaciated his passengers were. Finally we came to a road with many guesthouses and at the sight of the first sign we saw, we all exclaimed “YES” at the same time. I don’t know if he was more shocked at our loud, unified response, or finally hearing yes from us after the countless amount of no’s we gave him, but he nearly ran over a dog and hit a motorcycle pulling into the long alleyway leading to the guesthouse. Making a few turns the scenery quickly changed from tall, crowded buildings to pleasant trees and bushes. Were we still in India, we all thought? Coming to a halt, we were greeted by the guesthouse staff. I’m pretty sure they could tell that we were pretty ill, because they quickly showed us a room with a nice bathroom and a large bed. Completely satisfied with our new home base and tranquil surroundings we, paid the rickshaw driver and began our recovery, or so we thought.

Waking up around sunset, I walked out to see a beautiful courtyard with trees and bushes and grass. I haven’t seen grass in a yard in a very long time, so this was actually quite a treat. This guesthouse really took care of its foliage. There were all types of exotic vines and flowers, with even small stone benches to sit and admire the peaceful surroundings. To top it all off they had a peacock promenading about the courtyard, curiously looking at me, then pecking the ground, then back up at me. What a great place I said aloud to myself as did a slow 360 degree turn. I couldn’t even hear the horns from the street! Something I have desired for so long now. With an ominous gurgle of my stomach, I was suddenly brought back to the reality of my sickness as I was forced to rush back to the bathroom where I would spend most of the night.

The next three days were spent in bed at this lovely guesthouse, we unfortunately were unable to muster the energy to get up and get outside to admire the beautiful courtyard, and when we did, it usually was for the sole purpose of seeking the sustenance of bread and bananas. One day as we were on a quest for nutrients, we saw a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Could it be? American food? We excitedly rushed up the 5 steps to the doorway and entered the air conditioned restaurant. Out of breath and pale, a concerned cashier asked us sincerely if we were okay. With smiles on our faces that we were going to have the closest thing to normal food for us, we shook our heads no and gave our orders. Confused, the cashier rang us up and we had chicken for the first time in a long time.

Despite our valiant efforts to keep our precious American food down, we failed. Over the course of a week I would lose nearly 15lbs and a couple inches off my waist.  I don’t have 15lbs to lose and I hardly have a waist as it is, so looking in the mirror as all of my clothes draped off of my body, belts getting new holes punched in them, and just about every rib showing, I hardly recognized myself. No wonder the people here are all so tiny. There are no nutrients in the food and they don’t eat meat! Something had to change. We needed something to stick to our stomachs instead of going right through us. I usually don’t write home showing of any signs of illness or being hurt because I don’t want to worry my mother more than I already have by traveling thousands of miles away from her reach, but in this time of desperation I needed any advice, help or solution to my problem. She said, “Keep eating those bananas, they should plug you right up and I’ll tell the family to start praying for you guys.”  Sure enough, the very next day I was able to keep everything I ate down. The day after, I began having more energy.  Kelli and Ryan were even doing better. So thank you to all of those who shot up prayers for us. We definitely needed them.

We decided that since we were feeling better, we would take this opportunity to move onto the next town, but before doing so, see what we could on our last day in Jaipur. We were able to get in a rickshaw and do a quick tour of the city. We were able to see one lake that was beautiful. There were sunken temples all throughout it, and large golden rolling hills in the distance. This small glimpse of Jaipur was definitely the highlight of a very low time for us here in India, but honestly we just chalked up Jaipur as our recovery city that we just unfortunately missed out on seeing.

We knew that there was a train leaving for Jaisalmer late at night, however upon our arrival we found out that it was fully booked. Not only was it fully booked, but there wasn’t another train with a single seat for the next three days due to the Camel Festival in Pushkar! We had to leave. We just had to. We had to leave our sickness behind in Jaipur and go onto better things in the next town. We were determined, but how were we going to get on that train? We tried offering more money for the seats. We tried buying tickets from people. We even tried bribing the ticket master! Nothing would work. It was almost time for the train to leave and we were running out of options.

Off in the distance we now heard the train’s horn echoing through the terminal, signaling its departure. We had to act fast. With all of us looking at each other in question, Ryan said, “Let’s just go. Let’s jump on the train and see what happens.” We all smiled at each other knowing that it was times like these that we lived for. This was all part of the adventure. The train began to slowly inch forward. “It’s now or never”, I said with an optimistic grin. As the train began to move faster we were now running for a door. We made sure Kelli was the first to get on. Safely aboard, she threw her bag down and reached out for Ryan as leaped on the moving train. With a 45lb bag on my back, I was straining every frail, sickness tormented muscle in my body to get on this train. With every last bit of energy I had, I hurtled my body towards the railcar opening…