The Taj Mahal really is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. I spent a sunny day walking along the reflecting pool, sitting in the shade of the trees in the garden, basically chilling at the Taj. I met up with Ted, my dear friend from last summer’s Hindi class in Madison. I wore a salwar suit, and had at least a half dozen groups of Indians come up to ask for a picture with me. How funny! That must be how celebrities feel, always bothered to have a picture or a handshake.
We had a long train ride from Delhi to Goa, the tropical paradise state hugging India’s southwestern coast. For 41 hours, my travel companion Daniel and I got to know two young Australian women, one just fresh off the plane from Perth and the other here since last May.
We stayed outside Colva, a sleepy tourist village in central Goa. Palm trees, white sand, fresh seafood, beautiful Arabian sea to swim in… Yes, it was quite a different place from dirty Varanasi! I rented a bicycle and rode around the darling country roads. I wore tacky beach wear, and lay beneath big umbrellas to read on the beach…Until the 23, when I came down with a fever. I felt awful with a cough and fatigue. I did not, unfortunately, improve over the next few days and ended up having “the worst christmas of my life.” I was alone, in a hotel room, with a high fever, with nothing but cashew nuts for Christmas dinner. No christmas tree, no family, no mulled wine… sigh. Thankfully I had borrowed a laptop and DVDs from neighbors in the guesthouse, and had Johnny Depp take my mind off my pitiful holiday by watching that holiday classic, Pirates of the Caribbean.
Since the doctors in Goa were on holiday for Christmas (Goa is full of Christians, a remnant of the Portugese influence), I waited until the 26 to seek medical advice. As my fever climbed ever higher, I wanted to see one right away on the 26. The guesthouses’s owners thought that since the 26 was a Sunday, no doctor would be working that day, either. Thankfully one was open for business, and I was diagnosed with the flu. Last summer, when I had at least half a dozen shots against Hepatitis and Rabies, I apparently overlooked that annual classic, the flu shot. Let’s hear it for antibiotics. Today, the 29, I am feeling like a new human being. I’ve learned my lesson though, from being cheated of my precious vacation days by the flu. An ounce of prevention!
On the other side of India the tidal waves bettered the shores of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. Colva beach apparently had a surge of water, which pushed itself all the way up to the steps of the beach shack restaurants which line the edge of the sand dunes. Normally, it would take one at least 2-3 minutes to walk from the water to the beach shack. I only heard second hand about this, as I was busy getting an antibiotics shot in the behind at the time.
And, as I returned to the guesthouse with my bag of medicine, I was very thankful for being where I was when the tidal waves hit. Some of my friends on the Wisconsin program were on Sri Lanka or in Thailand during this time, and I’m hoping very much for their well-being. Even with my lousy Christmas and sickness during vacation, I feel very lucky to be alive.