no love from Agra

each time i get sick in india, it seems to get worse and worse. it's a good thing i'm off to nepal today. the first time i had indigestion and was woozy the rest of the night. the second time i had a fever, chills, couldn't move for a day, and was afraid to leave the security of my toilet for the next few.

i should have known better; not to consume every buttery lassi and paneer pakoda i see on the street. but i never learn and i rarely stop myself from sampling the tasty treats found on the streets of india. i joke after each bout that it's almost worth the sickness...but when i'm laying on the floor with india's grimey foot stepping on my neck...all i want is a one-way ticket back home.

this last time i woke up in a hot sweat at 3am a few minutes before my body decided to angrily reject the banana lassi i drank a few hours prior...in the toilet, on the floor, and in the bathroom bucket that indians use to bathe out of. for the first time i understood the panicky feeling one gets when they can't decide which end of their body more urgently needs the toilet. the rest of the night was a blur and by morning i had kicked over my water and was laying next to my security bucket. needless to say, i didnt make the 5 o'clock alarm set for myself the night before...just so i could get a glimpes of the taj mahal at sunrise; when i heard you can see it's reflection in the stretch of pond leading to it, and watch it's colors change from pink to orange to white. by 9am i decided through a hazy fever turned headache, turned earache, that i didn't travel 10,000 miles and two months through india not to see the taj--vomiting or no vomiting...i was going to see this monument to love that took 20 something years and a fleet of thousands of elephants to build. i dragged myself through the dusty streets of Agra and after 3 security checks, layed my tired eyes on the pearly white walls of the taj. i then spent the next 4 hours alternating between sleeping on a park bench and the cobble stone floors leading up to the monument. i have to admit, waking up from my sickly state and turning my head to see the glowing sunlight reflecting from the marble-lined taj made for a pretty spectacular sight. thank you, india, for humbling me once again ... then showing me some sweetness. you are never short of surprises.