Previous Entry | Next Entry

2003-04-30 - Fatehpur Sikri (Day 15)

The soup worked wonders and by the morning I have a healthy appetite and attitude again. Though still having constant grumblings from my stomach, it's clear that the worst of the diarrhea has past.

The night was a bit trying as the hotel seems to be infested with crickets which were crawling under the door for much of the night. I was up a few times killing them and lost count when I had swatted more then 20. By taking the sheets off the bed and stuffing them in the cracks in the door I was able to slow down the invasion somewhat, but in the early morning they got their revenge. Their flying about and landing on me while I was sleeping was one thing, but the real revenge was when a very large cricket crawled in-between the bed and the mattress about 5 inches from my face and at 5:00am started singing. I never realized how loud a cricket really is, never having been that close to a singing one but this one could easily have passed for an air-raid siren. He got chopped in two but still, he had put up a valiant show in remembrance of his fallen comrades.

As I'm still not up for too much running around yet, I decide to make it a web day and try to tie up the loose ends which have been delayed on the site. While at least keeping up with the journal, I haven't been able to give my family peace of mind on my safety which was the plan through the site. In fact just the opposite, with expectations that I will be able to stay in touch through the net, not being able to get online is I'm sure very horrible for them, as well as it is for me. This hotel is supposed to have internet but the manager says that it's been down and there isn't another connection in this city. I'm resolved that I should be back in Delhi where I can give a full update and hope that I can iron out these missing pages so the site will be fully up and ready. Most of the afternoon is spent sitting in the courtyard which is bathed in sunshine and it's truly a pleasant day.

In the late afternoon, the sun starting getting low and I take the opportunity to get out the bike and ride around the ruins some looking for some pictures. All in all there is much less here to see then I had hoped. Of course wherever I stop, people start gathering around, most watching curiously but a very unnerving percentage are asking for money and looking far too covetously at things like the camera. I again feel like I'm just a target and feel constantly rushed to keep moving on to try to stay out of harms way.

I ride up to the movement by the back way and come upon the hotel manager from the first hotel who comes up and asks why I left so early in the morning. I reply that I was very sick. ¡§What could have caused that?¡¨ he asks. Yes, I wonder. Riding up to the front of the monument for a picture in the sunset, I'm immediately surrounded by touts again pushing water and postcards. Not surprisingly Anwar comes over but stays on the background just watching me and doesn't say anything. If there were any questions on the poisoning being intentional, they are gone now. These guys both knew very clearly why I left in such a hurry, and now that I escaped their grasp but am still around are wondering what I plan to do about it.

Back at the hotel I order dinner which the waiter gets wrong and I end up with plain rice and toast with water. Lovely. I go back to working on the site when the cricket invasion begins again. I've put the rug from outside, the bed sheets and a few of my clothes in the cracks around the door and windows but they still manage to come in and I kill more then 40 before finally giving up the cause as hopeless and trying to sleep. The keep landing on me while I sleep but the only alternative is to sleep in the bathroom which seems even less attractive. Every time I get up to kill them I seem to stir them up more, for example when I moved the single framed picture on the wall a good 20 crickets fell out scattering around the room. I figure I'm probably best off just to try to get some sleep.

Previous Entry | Next Entry