The Hampi Disaster

Hampi was my worst nightmare. I guess all trips have to one bad point and I definitely found mine! The first day was actually fairly nice, we rented bikes and went around to all sorts of different temples with palm trees, huge rocky boulders, and endless rice fields as our backdrop. The view reminded us of the set of Jurassic Park, and the entire day we were humming the theme song tune as we peddled. The day was long and sunny, and we stupidly brought only 1 litre of water between the two of us, so the nice day ended with an exhausted, sun stoked Misha. But we made it back alright and we ended our evening with a nice mango lassi and a game of shebesh, at one of the local Israeli hangouts called "Shesbesh".

Day two was the beginning of the end...
I woke up still feeling naseous from the day before and had some breakfast at the restaurant in our guest house. I had no desire to eat, but forced myself to get it down... and that was the last meal I was to have for a week. by 12:00 I was unable to move from the bed, and by 2:00 p.m. the vommiting started. I threw up consistantly every 20 minutes from then onwards, and by 8:00 p.m. I reached a point where I was throwing up consistently for 20 minutes straight with no break... this is when we called the doctor. He came, gave me a shot, and gave me some pills and powders to take in an hour or so and took off. The shot made me fell better for probably half an hour, and then I was back to feeling the worst nasea of my life. I had to play the don't move or I will throw up game, so I laid still until 10:00 so I could take the pill the doctor left for me... I tried with everything I had to keep the pill down, but it was up 15 minutes. I eventually fell asleep and only woke up 3-4 times to throw up in the night.

Day Three...
I woke up hoping I was better???
I sat up slowly, and..... VOMIT.
I knew it was time to go to the hospital. The Killer Indian Sun makes dehydration very dangerous threat, especially for a whitey like me:) it took all my courage to stand up, and I had to walk 1 km in the heat to the boat to cross the river. Then I had to wait for the boat to have enough people to go... it is a very small motor boat ... so it barely took anytime but still I was kinda in a hurry:) Then I had to get in this rocky boat, with a plastic bag around my mouth and the worst nausea in the world. Once we crossed the river I had to walk up this huge ancient flight of stairs carved into the rock to reach my rigsaw. We had to drive 10km to reach the hospital but it took us 30 minutes because rigshaw's don't go fast! The entire time I have a vomit bag around my mouth, and I was "using" it.... the hospital was in Hospet and this city honestly had some of the nastiest smells I have come across in India.
When we reached the hospital the doctor just kept saying "She is in very bad condition, she is in very bad condition."
But I was hooked up to an IV and given lots of anti nausea medication and eventually I was able to drink some water and keep it down. I was in the hospital 1night 2days, and was very weak when I left. The doctor way over charged me for my medical care, and the entire thing cost mee like 300$... which is nothing at home, but very expensive for India. I am defiently a "Budget" traveller, so the issue of paying the doctor became a huge nightmare, we couldnt get money out... and we couldnt go to a bank because it was a holiday... which they neglected to tell us the day before when we arrived at the hospital...actually at first we thought we could pay with credit card because that is what sammy was told. SO I had to leave my passport in some sketchy desk door until the next day when we could produce the cash. I had to call my mommy like a baby and ask her to send me some money, and I cried on the phone like a 2 year old. :(
When I was discharged we had to faces the harshness of India once more, the sun, the constant hounding for money ( either in the form of a tip, charity, or just being grossly overcharged) ... we missed our train so we had to spend a minimum of 2 night/ 3 days in hospet, and this place was butt fuck nowhere India. The only way to leave when we wanted was by plane, but considering how shakey my tummy still was, it was much better than the 30 hour train ride we were trying to take.

I was so miserable and home sick and I can't explain it. Even though I was no longer loosing fluids I was barely able to drink anything, and defiently was not able to eat. The many smells of hospet were like an attack on my stomach, and I couldn't even be near food with out that vomit feeling coming back. Sam and I almost killed each other as we were trapped in the awful place, with nothing to do and a very grumpy, exhausted, crying misha. I was so desperate to go home, because the thought of having india food again made me just want to die... but luckily I was just too far away, and it would have been next to impossible for me to get to Canada. So I had no choice but to wait it out... and so glad that I did!

We ended up spending a lot more money than we intended on that week, in hopes to make me slightly more comfortable, and it was well worth it. Once we reached Beautiful Darjeeling I was a new person... and we rested here for 2 days, until beginning the greatest adventure of my life - Our Trek on the Himalayan Mountains! It was even sweeter because we both felt like we earned it! Sammy did a very good job of taking care of me the entire time! And he called my mom lots of times to make sure she wasn't too worried about me. THOUGH - I really think I owe my recovery to ENSURE though, it was a miracle when we found that beautiful tin of vanilla meal replacement powder, and it was truly my saving grace!
More craziness to come...
M.