Afterglow

Ciao all,

We are back. And happy to be. In spite of some minor annoyance which I will eloquently illuminate in due course. But let's start where I left off.

Leaving McLeod Ganj was one of the hardest things to do. The peace and quiet we found there, the fresh air and overwhelming natural beauty, had easily made it the highlight of our trip. As far as I was concerned, it could only go downhill from there. I did not want to go back to dirty cities and annoying Indians and the thought of Delhi was actually quite frightening. I was still a bit under the weather and had more or less had enough of traveling and just wanted to go home. But on the other hand, I did not want to leave India before at least seeing Shruti (my Indian colleague) and congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. It was bad enough that we could not stay for the wedding itself, as a traditional Hindu wedding would have been the perfect end to our trip, and Delhi did seem to have a lot to offer.

And it did. The Red Fort was a bit of a disappointment, but the Jain temple across from it was cute (at least from the outside), Humayun's tomb (an architectural ancestor of the Taj Mahal) and the Bahai Lotus Temples were very enjoyable. I was not really able to give it my all anymore, but I guess that if we had done Delhi in the beginning I would have enjoyed it a lot more. Shruti was quite busy, so we met her at a shopping centre where she and Elisabetta (her friend and student who had come over to be her bridesmaid). We spent a nice, quiet evening together, topped off by a delicious meal cooked by her lovely mother. The next day we went shopping and bought about 4 billion cheap books, as well as the last souvenirs we were still looking for.

We then took the night train to Mumbai, put our bags in the cloakroom and did all the things we still wanted to do there but had not had a chance when we were there before. I did not particularly like Mumbai initially but the fact that it was now raining constantly pretty much confirmed my negative verdict of this city. The famous Mumbai laundrettes (where rows and rows of people are doing the whole town's washing in ankle-deep dirty water but manage to everything clean and back to their respective owners - while most of them are illiterate and keep track of everything in their heads!!) were a sight to be seen but Mahalaxmi Temple and Haji Ali's mosque on rock in the ocean were a bit disappointment. I did enjoy our boat trip to Elephanta Island to have a look at the 2,000-year-old rock temples there. After that we were caught by bookshop again and lured into buying another truckload of books.

At this point, we were both really ready to go home and it seemed like our wish was to be fulfilled easily. All we had to do was spend the night at the airport in order to catch our early morning flight back to Helsinki. Reality had something else in store for us and the way back turned out to be quite horrible. Having arrived at the airport, I suddenly fell ill. I was shaking uncontrollably, felt ice cold, had a very high fever and burst out in the heaviest diarrhoea I have ever had. I was very happy I had fallen in love with a yak hair sweater when I was in McLeod Ganj because it was the only thing that could keep me warm. There were, of course, no beds and after a night of shaking (which I fortunately got under control as the night wore on), running up and down to the bathrooms and sleeping on the floor because that was the most comfortable position I could find, we were just happy we had made it. Olaf was also suffering from the same explosive diarrhoea but fortunately not from the other systems I had. But then it turned out that our flight was delayed four hours, which meant more waiting but also that we would miss our connecting flight in Helsinki. I felt like crying, screaming and running to the bathroom at the same time. In the end, it was not too bad because FinnAir booked us into a relatively good airport hotel in Helsinki and we could fly back early in the morning. And a good night sleep in a wonderful bed was exactly what I needed and did cheer me up a lot. But not as much as the idea of being out of India and in a civilised country again though!!!

No seriously, India had a lot of positive sides, we ate very well, saw beautiful temples, forts and palaces, did a lot of shopping, were amazed by the countryside and fell in love with the Himalayas. But it was also dirty, smelly and filled with Indians who (like those beautiful errant cows who do not know any better) are apparently not bothered by living - literally - in their shit and garbage and do their number twos everywhere except in the public washrooms or even in the open sewers. It is incomprehensible. Oh, and 99 per cent of them are really annoyingly persistent. In the 26 days we were there, I met just one person who wanted to talk to me to share experiences and cultures and did not just want to sell me something (except for Shruti and her mother of course).

I still have not recovered and am getting a bit worried by it. I have been suffering from this explosive diarrhoea for nearly a week now and I had expected a return to normalcy to take care of that rather quickly. So, I called the doctor today and got prescription for a smorgusboard of pills which I am all taking. Let us hope it helps because I am really fed up with it and will not be able to go to the bathroom whenever I need to anymore next week when my courses start again. Yesterday, I started working in the office again. Now that Veronica has left, Caroline and I are sharing her responsibilities and I am going to be working in the office about 3 days a week for about a month until we find a replacement for her. Right now, I could not be happier. But if I do not get this under control those other 2 days a week will be damn near impossible to manage. Fingers crossed!

We went out for a very nice welcome back aperitivo on Thursday with Louisa, Jen, Caroline, Kate, Loic, Gerry, Felix and some more of Olaf's colleagues. That was great but the enormous amounts of alcohol were not too good for my belly. Plus, I am not used to drinking alcohol anymore. I have lost about 5 kgs now and am just under my perfect and have got used to eating much less. If only I was not feeling so lousy, I would be jumping for joy and back in the pool showing off my perfect body!!

A selection of pictures of our trip is online on Olaf's profile page on Facebook. For those who are not on Facebook, these links should work. If not, please let me know.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50422&l=8982c&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50426&l=4a251&id=672566816
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=50434&l=f54aa&id=672566816

The ones taken in Khajuraho are quite graphic. Please enjoy the shock and take it in good humour. Let me know what you think of the pictures!

Fedor