I got back safely enough, but I wasn't about to that again anytime soon.
A doorway led down some stairs, but we could see bats hanging on the walls. There was another entrance to which our guides motioned us, but after seeing those bats we weren't about to go into any dark doorways. We explored inside, but we couldn't climb to some places because the stairs weren't safe. Marissa and Carolyn came up. They were soon followed by Jerry, Herman, Rita, Francesco and Claudia. I gave our guides 10 Rs for their help. Two young guides had come up with the new people and they led Karen, Antje, Claudia, Francesco, Carolyn, Marissa and I around the fort to a good spot for watching the sun go down. Antje wasn't feeling well and had to find some bushes to relieve herself. It gave one the feeling that it was only matter of time before we would all be sick. We took pictures and talked while we waited. We saw animals and heard what I think were sounds from a nearby temple. There were dark dogs playing downhill from us. The sunset was beautiful.
Afterwards, we hiked down around the palace and talked about E.R. and George Clooney in the fading light. Our way back took us near some residences and we attracted some attention as we passed.
Back in one of the castle courtyards, we rested. The place had been decorated for a big group of people from Colgate-Palmolive that was due to arrive shortly. There were many brightly colored flowers arranged in patterns on the ground for them. A child danced for us to a musician's music. Then we saw a puppet show that was pretty good. There were a good number of flies or gnats flying over our heads. I later heard that when Hans saw these things over Catherine's head, he told her, 'You attract flies.' She told him that he really knew how to talk to the ladies.
I ended up buying a puppet for my friends Toni and Dan and their daugher Lauren.
Our 8:30 dinner was moved up to 8:00. It was a buffet dinner. Since it was again Friday during Lent and I still Catholic I had to avoid meat which was no small sacrifice today. It was hard to find food I liked and the chicken they served looked pretty good. Worse yet -- Hans was at my table. Rachel, Antje, Jergen, Jo and Karen were also at our table. I had vanilla ice cream for dessert even though it's considered risky. We were a bit pressed against the wall, so getting up for the buffet was a little tricky. The Colgate crowd of about 80 arrived. We could see them from above all dressed in the same outfits. From the roof we could see their dancing show.
After a while, we tended to migrate to the blue room where we talked and drank a lot of rum and Pepsi. Jerry drank gin. We took pictures and enjoyed fireworks. Some of us ended up dancing at a party on a lower level. It seemed to be a private party for an interracial couple (white man, black woman) and their small child, but we were welcomed in. It was fun. The stars that night were beautiful.
Eventually, it got late enough that we were disturbing other guests, so the party (or what was left of it) moved to Rachel's room. In the end it was just Rachel, Maritsa, Paul and Jergen. We all expressed how sorry were were for Jergen as he was Hans' roommate. We drank more rum and listened to music on Marc and Marie's walkman. Rachel played a tape of a hilarious song about someone with a detachable penis. Exchanging Hans stories was fun as I jotted down notes on the day's events. Maritsa said Lisa's eyes welled up with tears when Hans made the dairy products comment. It turned out that this was Rachel's second to last tour. I think she was planning to quit her job after just one more tour in Turkey. Jergen left the party for a while to call his father for his birthday.
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I left the party around 1:45. I just didn't feel like drinking any more. I wasn't drunk or even buzzed by that time. For some reason the stuff became really distasteful. I left the rest of my rum in the room. I woke up around 5:16 AM feeling pretty lousy. I felt feverish and had chills. I also had diarrhea. I felt like vomiting, but my stomach was empty. I induced it anyway, and even though practically nothing came up, I felt somewhat better. I returned to bed and was able to sleep.
Jerry showered first. Apparently he had warm water. I was feeling pretty badly now. By the time I tried to shower, the shower was only a trickle and there was no hot water pressure in the bathtub faucet -- only very cold water. Washing myself in it was very unpleasant, but I managed. However, it was still too cold for me the way I was feeling to wash my hair in it. I decided to do that in the bathroom sink which as it turned out only had scalding hot water. I ended up lathering there and rinsing under the bathtub faucet. I skipped shaving today. I felt pretty miserable and blamed the castle for my condition. I took a roll of toilet paper with me just in case I needed it on the road today. All I had for breakfast was some tea and possibly some juice. I couldn't get anything else down, but I did take a banana with me for the road in case I felt better later.
I had hoped all the vitamins and minerals I had brought along would help keep me from getting sick. I was taking a mutivitamin, 500mg of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, 1000mg of calcium, 1500 mg garlic capsules and 200 mg of grape seed extract every day. Sometimes I took echinacea/golden seal capsules.
I had some trouble finding my bag at first when they were loading up the bus and ended up not paying for last night's dinner. I had thought Rachel would collect all that from us. The locals made a last ditch effort to sell us paintings and trinkets as we were boarding the bus. Patel was there and he said he knew I had bought some paintings in the castle after I had told him that I wasn't interested in buying any paintings. I didn't tell him that I didn't like his as much as the ones I did buy. In my present condition these hassles were even less welcome. I sat towards the back on the left side alone and rested on the way to Sariska. Sariska is in Rajasthan 110km from Jaipur. After a while I did end up feeling better, but I still didn't get off at our rest stop. I was trying to save my strength for the bike ride into the tiger sanctuary. I ended up getting into the fetal position across the seats. I heard someone coming up the aisle and stayed down. It turned out to be Hans. While he was standing over me, he said he felt like spitting. I ignored him by pretending to be asleep.
By the time we started the bicycle ride, I was feeling pretty well. It was about midday. The ride was to be broken up into three segments. Those who wanted to would ride bicycles the last 33km to Sariska. Rachel asked us to make sure no woman was ever left bicycling by herself as a precaution. The first leg took us through a village where there were many kids. We got a lot of hellos and waves, but some boys also threw sand and rocks. Someone tried to remove Carol's hat. The bus rode up ahead while the bike truck followed us. There was quite a bit of traffic, and you had to be aware to stay on the left side of the road. Claudia stuck with me during the first leg. I didn't feel so great after the first leg, but I thought I could continue. The second leg had less people. We saw monkeys on the side of the road. Jerry and I stopped to take pictures of some vultures feasting on a dead animal during one of the first two legs -- first leg I think. It looked like a goat. You could actually see the birds dig in with their beaks and rip out flesh.
After the second leg, I was not doing too well, but I didn't want to quit, and I thought I was okay enough to finish. I bought a Limca for 10 Rs on the bus and rested before the last leg. I think we got down to only 10 people for the last leg -- we had started with 24. Marc, Jerry, Katherine and Herman bicycled the last lag. There were plenty of monkeys on the last leg. The gap between riders grew quite a bit, and I was alone for a good part of the way. I wondered if I was the only person who wondered just how freely the tigers moved in the sancuary. By the time I finished I was feeling awful. I wasn't the last to finish.
Around 2:00 PM I was in room 203 shivering with fever wrapped in a blanket in bed. I felt terrible. I would get dizzy when I stood up. I still had diarrhea. Apart from that, the room was beautiful and spacious. The bathroom was so spacious there were windows to it from the main room. I took an anti-diarrhetic and an antibiotic. I was genuinely concerned about my health. The thought occurred to me that I wasn't supposed to die on my vacation. I put on a long-sleeved shirt and jeans and went to see Rachel. I did want to go on the tiger safari, but I wanted to let her know how I was feeling and what she thought. Moving around seemed to make me feel better than when I stayed in bed.
I ended up going in an open jeep in the back with Herman, Rita and Jenny. Maritsa sat with our driver. The safari lasted for about three hours. The sun was out. At first I spent a lot of the time with my eyes closed and resting somewhat slumped over waiting for others to spot animals. Then, I would look. We were in a convoy of jeeps. I had my camera and binoculars which were very useful. Sariska Wildlife Sanctuary has about 26 Bengal tigers in 800 square kilometers, so there wasn't much chance of spotting one. It also has bulls, deer, boar, jackals and birds. Some of the more prominent species include tiger, sambar, chital, nilgai, four-horned antelope, wild boar, hyena and jungle cat. They know how many tigers there are from their unique paw marks in the ground.
The landscape of Sariska is dominated by sharp cliffs of hills and the narrow valleys of the Aravalis. The forests are dry and deciduous. Within the sanctuary there are ruins of medieval buildings. The ruins of the temples of Garh-Rajor of the 10th and 11th centuries are scattered in the jungle. The best time to visit is supposed to be from February through June.
I felt better as we went. We didn't see any tigers, but we saw plenty of deer, wild pigs, spotted deer and peacocks. One of my favorite moments was at a watering hole where we saw many animals come out of the forest to drink.
The sun set on our way back to the Sariska Palace Hotel. It made the landscape look beautiful. At dinner I sat on Rachel's right and only had chicken soup -- more accurately, mostly just the broth from the chicken soup I ordered. The power went out briefly during dinner and candles were lit. I gave Rachel 110 Rs for my camera fee for today, the soup and the water and left early to go to bed. Before going to my room, I went out to see the nice pool I had heard the others talking about earlier. The stars were beautiful. Although I knew better, it would sometimes amaze me that the stars were the same as the ones from home. I did know better, but sometimes India felt so strange and foreign that it gave me the feeling I was on a different world.
I went to bed around 8:00 PM.
According to my Frommers Nepal book, I had all the symptoms of salmonella food poisoning -- 24 hours of fever, chills, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach cramps. I had all of those symptoms to some degree. But I'll probably never know for sure. |
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