India - Jaipur (Two men down!)

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Jaipur - Two men down !!

2nd - 10th April

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A taster for some photos at the end of this entry !

The plan was to leave early this morning for a Tiger sanctuary not far south of Jaipur, however as I’d still felt pretty rough and weak last night as we were going to bed (having eaten one spoonful of steamed rice and a banana for dinner) I agreed with John to ring him at 06:15 to confirm if our plan was still on. I didn’t sleep very well, my stomach still sounded and felt like a Witches Cauldron, I still hurt and ached and so I rang John to say I wasn’t ready to leave….to which he responded ok, just as well, because he’d been up half the night going to the toilet..so we agreed to stay another day and to check in with each other a bit later this morning.

We both spent most of the day lying on our beds. Come evening Sylvia and I rang room service for her dinner and a basic scrambled egg on toast diet for me. My stomach still rumbled and John was in a worst state now than me and couldn’t face anything….so we extended our stay yet further. We agreed to check in with each other at 10 the following morning to see how we were doing.

The following morning John was still suffering with cramps badly and I was still feeling rough, however I was also hungry and so Sylvia and I went out for some breakfast at our trusted Megh Nivas restaurant not far from us. I over-ate as I seemed to have lost the ability to judge how much I could eat…..in reality it was probably more the case that I was hungry but my stomach wasn’t yet ready for that amount of food. We picked up John a few bananas, a fruit we found with Sylvia to be a safe bet when she was ill, and returned. The rest of the day I spent with stomach pain or on the toilet which was exhausting. Finally I’d had enough and so went to sleep after checking in once again with John.

The following morning I rang John again and he was still rough, and I was still struggling too so we decided to call a local Doctor. Whilst we waited for him Sylvie and I popped our for a Megh Nivas breakfast and a few more bananas for John. We returned and the Doctor arrived on time for our scheduled appointment.

After an inspection of John he determined that he had severe Gastro enteritus and offered us both a blood and stool test at the local hospital. I asked if he’d seen similar cases before to which he replied that he had so I asked if he could start treatment as he had done for those and see how we go-He thought that idea good and agreed. Unfortunatley, John was still in the fever stage of the diesease and so had to have two full hyperdermic syringes in the bottom…not one of his favouraite things. I had to have one ! It would have made for quite an amusing, if disturbing, couple of shots for the web-site !! The picture of us both lying face down with our bottoms exposed for the needle…incidentally, not at the same time. We were both also given some antibiotics to take for 5 days and some other medicines to help keep out stomach acidity levels in check.

Initially we both felt very faint not long after our injections and I had to lie down on Johns spare bed for at least 20 mins before I felt confident walking, even to the lift. Finally I left and we met up later for some dinner. The Doctor had advised Apples, Bananas, Steamed rice and Yoghurt as the best things for the time being and so we had a banana Lassie at dinner which is effectively a milk shake made with yoghurt instead of milk, John had some steamed rice and I had an omlette and an orange juice. I subscribe to a what you feel like eating when you’re ill is better than eating too little or nothing. We both managed to get through dinner without too much stomach drama and retired home to our hotel and bed.

Meanwhile Sylvia was keeping a watchful eye on me, reminding me of the need to keep drinking water….something that is not appealing when your stomach already feels like a battlefield.

Wednesday morning - I didn’t sleep too well last night but John felt quite a bit better on first waking and agreed to have breakfast with us at ‘our’ Mergh Nivas…but by the time we saw him, he’d taken a turn for the worse and didn’t look too good. None-the-less we all had breakfast and he enjoyed the ease at which the buttered toast went down. Both still very weak and tired we again retired to the Hotel for the afternoon.

John rang me on Thursday morning to ask how my recovery had and was progressing as he was still feeling very rough. We chatted for a while and decided that if he still felt rough after breakfast that we should call the Doctor out again….he did and so John rang him and he came out. After inspecting John he advised John that he was still running a fever and therefore needed some more injections and tablets. Again he got two full syringes but the second one this time was full of concentrated vitamins and was very painful. In John’s own words it was like being injected with a “Tennis ball”….hmmm. So for the rest of the afternoon he slept and I think I did pretty much the same. In the evening we ate a Megh Nevis again and John managed to eat some soup.

On Friday John started to feel better and had breakfast with Sylvia and I again, this time having an Orange juice and some boiled eggs. Although he was starting to feel better he was still tired and so retired to his room for the afternoon. One of the nice things about our Hotel was a good TV reception with enough American/English comedy/films to keep you entertained and we both found this very helpful and comforting. In the Evening we visited Megh Nivas again and John had some roast potatoes which looked like would be too much to me…but they soon disappeared and John was grateful to have something a bit more solid in his stomach again.

In the middle of all this we had to move Hotels as ours was fully booked. The Hotel manager though, understanding our predicament arranged for us to stay at a better class sister Hotel not far from ours. The only problem was that we could only stay there for one night ! We took their offer up and they kindly moved all our baggage and bike gear for us in a car. The next day we had to move again, but this time to a lesser (and cheaper) Hotel but we would be able to stay there indefinately. ..so we moved again.(They also moved all our luggage again.)

John had agreed with the Doctor for another visit to his surgery on Saturday, if he was well enough, for another check-up so we toddled off in a rick-shaw to see the Doctor. This resulted in the good news that John’s fever had left but he still needed a further antibiotic shot, which he received…in his back-side….ohh, how I wish I’d taken the camera !!!! The Doctor was concerned how long we would wait until we rode our bikes again. John and I had already discussed this and felt we needed two full days of eating properly and feeling ok before we could attempt riding as we had been so weak. He thought our decision a sensible one and asked to see John again for one last time on the Monday before we hoped to leave on the Tuesday.

In the afternoon Sylvia and I had a whole load of things to get done, sending a parcel and postcards, getting our hair-cut to mention but a few. We finally returned to our Hotel and met up with John for dinner. John’s appetite was returning so we all shared in a roast chicken dinner which we enjoyed.

Sunday was Easter Sunday and I wanted to visit an English speaking Church and managed to find one through surfing the Net and a bit of local intelligence. Sylvia accompanied me and we met up with John after the service for breakfast.

John’s strength was now returning and he was starting to sort out some issues via e-mail. We spent the rest of the day making web-updates, writing e-mails or sorting paperwork out.

The Monday was to be our final whole day in Jaipur. After taking breakfast in, yes, you’ve guessed it, Megh Nevis, John and I set off for the Doctors and to get some photos we’d taken made up as Postcards to send home. At the Doctors John still had to have another shot of antibiotics, this now his 6th jab !!! and some additional oral antibiotics and stomach settlers for the following week. We went back to the hotel and met up again with Sylvia and all did a bit more web-work.

In the late afternoon Sylvia and I took a Rick-shaw to a place known as the Monkey temple, which was quite a lot of fun. There were Monkies everywhere for which you could buy bags of nuts to feed them with. The thing was the local goats and cows had got wind of this and also wanted a piece of the action. Being nudged by a cow is quite bizarre. I also had one very persistent male goat nudging me quite aggressively-all very bizarre and funny !! We both also came face to face with some aggressive Monkies as well…who wanted the whole bag of nuts and we both had to stand our ground !!!!! To keep them !!

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Whilst the barbed wire looks severe, it presented no problems for the monkies who actually used this piece wrapped around a lamp post more like a spring !

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Who ? ...I never ate a monkey nut in my life....well...

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An adult Monkey....me thinks the Bond of Monkey world !!!

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How many monkies can you spot in the picture....be honest now !

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...feeding monkey nuts to the .....GOATS !!!

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...and COWS !!!!!

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Doesn't get much more bizzare than this...yes the Monkey was snuggling up to the dog !!!

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Monkies gathering together around sun-down.

In the evening we asked Ikram our very trusted Rick-shaw driver (he’d taken us all over the place and always for a very sensible price…he was also very informative and helpful generally )to find us a high quality Chinese restaurant which he did, The Copper Chimney, not the most enjoyable atmosphere but the food was fine and a change from Megh Nevis !!!

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Ikram, our very trusted Tuk-Tuk driver

Mike
 


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