Honey, I'm home!
The experiences were richer than I could have imagined and the journey home was no exception. A couple of days before I left I had another stomach infection, which included vomiting and diarrhea and as I have come to expect from my luck as a traveler, it decided to return with a vengeance for my journey back to England.
At Goa airport I started to feel a little ropey right before my flight and by the time I had made it to Mumbai it was at full force. Whilst waiting for the transfer bus I was going back and forth to the toilet and once on the coach one of the most humiliating things of my life happened. I puked! Luckily I had picked up a sick bag from my flight but even that could not withstand the aggression of my sickness. I managed to miss the bag at one point, making a mess of my hand luggage and then the bag itself gave way, leaking over my clothes and then the coach floor. There was nothing more I could do.
Being alone made it so much worse. When I was ill before, I had a good friend, Asi, looking after me the whole time and my wonderful friends popped in and out to check on me, but this time I was really alone. People turned their heads away from me in disgust, as if it was my fault - some kind of self inflicted sickness.
At the airport terminal I had to clean myself up with one of the little shower heads next to a toilet. Obviously, water went everywhere and the toilet cleaner, when she saw the wet floor, looked absolutely horrified. It was just a bit of water, god knows what she would have done if I had been sick on the floor! She closed those toilets which were closest to where I was sitting and every time I went back she acted as if I was committing some heinous crime. The language barrier didn't help but she didn't even seem to understand my animated hand gestures to indicate what my problem was.
Eventually I found some people to look after me, from my airline, Jet Airways. They took me to a doctor, gave me pills to stop the vomiting and diarrhea and some antibiotics for the stomach infection as well as rehydration salts. All through my plane journey the stewards checked on me and after some nap time (I hadn't slept all the night before due to travelling and had been awake for about 28 hours) and a little plain rice and salad I started to feel a bit more human.
My stomach is still feeling tender but now I am at my new home, in a new town with my wonderful man who I haven't seen for the entire 4 months the little bit of sickness all seems worth it.
I don't think this blog has really done any justice to the experiences I have had in India. I have kept written journals which document things much more vividly and maybe one day I will trawl through and transcribe the best bits to immortalise them online. Just know that for all the good, bad and ugly experiences I wouldn't change a single thing. Every person and every experience that came into my life changed me for the better and taught me lessons I didn't even realise I needed. I guess the key question is would I do it again? The answer is yes, hell yes! It was awesome. Thank you India.
The experiences were richer than I could have imagined and the journey home was no exception. A couple of days before I left I had another stomach infection, which included vomiting and diarrhea and as I have come to expect from my luck as a traveler, it decided to return with a vengeance for my journey back to England.
At Goa airport I started to feel a little ropey right before my flight and by the time I had made it to Mumbai it was at full force. Whilst waiting for the transfer bus I was going back and forth to the toilet and once on the coach one of the most humiliating things of my life happened. I puked! Luckily I had picked up a sick bag from my flight but even that could not withstand the aggression of my sickness. I managed to miss the bag at one point, making a mess of my hand luggage and then the bag itself gave way, leaking over my clothes and then the coach floor. There was nothing more I could do.
Being alone made it so much worse. When I was ill before, I had a good friend, Asi, looking after me the whole time and my wonderful friends popped in and out to check on me, but this time I was really alone. People turned their heads away from me in disgust, as if it was my fault - some kind of self inflicted sickness.
At the airport terminal I had to clean myself up with one of the little shower heads next to a toilet. Obviously, water went everywhere and the toilet cleaner, when she saw the wet floor, looked absolutely horrified. It was just a bit of water, god knows what she would have done if I had been sick on the floor! She closed those toilets which were closest to where I was sitting and every time I went back she acted as if I was committing some heinous crime. The language barrier didn't help but she didn't even seem to understand my animated hand gestures to indicate what my problem was.
Eventually I found some people to look after me, from my airline, Jet Airways. They took me to a doctor, gave me pills to stop the vomiting and diarrhea and some antibiotics for the stomach infection as well as rehydration salts. All through my plane journey the stewards checked on me and after some nap time (I hadn't slept all the night before due to travelling and had been awake for about 28 hours) and a little plain rice and salad I started to feel a bit more human.
My stomach is still feeling tender but now I am at my new home, in a new town with my wonderful man who I haven't seen for the entire 4 months the little bit of sickness all seems worth it.
I don't think this blog has really done any justice to the experiences I have had in India. I have kept written journals which document things much more vividly and maybe one day I will trawl through and transcribe the best bits to immortalise them online. Just know that for all the good, bad and ugly experiences I wouldn't change a single thing. Every person and every experience that came into my life changed me for the better and taught me lessons I didn't even realise I needed. I guess the key question is would I do it again? The answer is yes, hell yes! It was awesome. Thank you India.
