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Published: December 22nd 2011
Dinner
Amy and I enjoying dinner on the rooftop - I didn't eat much!After thoroughly enjoying the Taj Mahal we headed for Agra Fort. Agra Fort was built in the 1600s and lies along the Yamuna river. To get to Agra Fort it is just over 5 kilometers from the Taj. India has both cycle rickshaws and moto rickshaws, both popular ways to get around with the moto rickshaws being the most popular and also what we have taken for most of our trips. As we've learned more about India we've discovered that the cycle rickshaws are the poorest individuals of India, so we thought it would be best to give them some business. These people earn their money! For $2 (we could have haggled for cheaper, but it was kind of our way of donating), they would peddle Amy and I to the Fort and back - a roundtrip journey of over 11km. But it isn't just 11km, it is 11km through the traffic filled streets, up and down hills, and all of them are far skinnier than either of us - it is actually quite impressive how they can peddle us around! However, while riding I oscillated between feeling awful and helpful. You feel helpful because you have chosen to give them
Cycle Rickshaw
This is how arrived at Agra Fort. They earn their money! business - which they genuinely appreciate and desperately need the money. That helpful feeling quickly fades as you think about how much effort they are putting forth and how little they get for it. In the end, we took the ride to the Fort, gave them the full price and let them know they did not need to bring us back. We are hoping they found some more business for the ride back and thus they would end up getting much more money than we originally agreed upon for the trip to Agra Fort and back. If not, their cycle ride back was much easier than when they were towing us!
Agra Fort itself was impressive just for the sheer size of the complex. I would say it was about 800 meters square, maybe larger. As you walked around you could see the areas that were used to protect the fort. There was a platform around the outer wall for soldiers to be the first line of defense. If that area was breached the fort was surrounded by a moat that would make it difficult for the invaders to reach the inner walls of the fort. From the fort
Agra Fort
Carvings all over the structure. the Taj Mahal sat on the city skyline.
After Agra Fort we went to Fatehpur Sikri, another large fort about 30 miles from Agra. I'm glad we went to Fatehpur Sikri after Agra Fort as it makes Agra Fort look small and not as impressive as I originally thought. As the bus approached the site we could see portions of Fatehpur Sikri that have not been excavated or rebuilt. I can only imagine how large it really was back in its prime. Today I would say the fort is close to one mile square, meaning that it is probably four times the size of Agra Fort. Given its proximity to the Taj Mahal, it is definitely worth a trip to see it. If you wanted you could probably do both the Taj Mahal and Fatehpur Sikri in the same day (maybe even Agra Fort as well if you were really pushing it).
As we rode the bus from Fatehpur Sikri back to Agra, my stomach started to rumble and feel a little iffy. We got back to our hotel, had some delicious dinner and then layed around for a bit. My stomach continued to not feel wonderful, but
Fatehpur Sikri
Just 30 miles or so from Agra, another huge fort. was not getting worse. That all changed at 10:45, when I was woken up with some pretty serious urges to go to the bathroom along with nausea and the sensation I needed to throw-up. This started what was probably the worst 18 hours of my life.
Between 10:45pm and 2am I did not sleep and was in the bathroom three times. Time for a Cipro (which we picked up in Central American fearing "Delhi Belly"). My 4th time in the bathroom at 3am was the absolute worst. Just after getting off the toilet I turned around to go back to bed and as I did I threw-up with absolutely no warning - it just came flying out - luckily towards the toilet. As I continued my throwing up for the next several minutes I am sure I woke up the entire hotel as the noises that came out of me were in no way human. Amy and I have since tried to mimic the noises and fail to do so - I think it is a cross between a goat screaming and a dog barking. Time for another Cipro, since I threw up my first one. I decided to
Fatehpur Sikri
Amy and I in one of the mosques. take half a Cipro and then take the other half when we had to get up at 5am to catch a train - oh yes - after the night of throwing up and water stools we have a 6am train to catch. I wish that was the end of the story, but it gets worse...We arrived at the train station at 5:45am and our train is delayed 5 hours. Nothing like sitting in a 40 degree train station after barely sleeping and throwing up with diarrhea all night. After a few hours I decide I cannot take it and I need to lay down so I try to get a "retiring" room at the train station. As it turns out, no one speaks English at Agra Fort train station, so getting a retiring room is a failure. Back to just sitting outside in the freezing cold, feeling miserable. I should add, that Amy is also not feeling well either, she is nauseous and we are thinking just a few hours behind me (fearing what happened to me last night will happen to her on the train). But, the trooper that she is, she sets out to try to secure a
Amy and I at train station
This was the morning after the all night illness - waiting for our train that was ultimately delayed 13 hours. retiring room for us. Her luck may have been worse than mine. She comes back after being not treated very nicely with tears in her eyes and she is at her breaking point - exhausted, sick, and feeling nauseous. We are both so beat down and exhausted we are absolutely miserable.
Then the train delays really start. In hindsight, I can only believe that the people running the scheduling and alerts of delays at Agra Station are probably the most incompetent people in the world. From our original delay of 5 hours we were then told the train would be late by another 30 minutes (so 5 hours 30 minutes). Just as the train was supposed to arrive at 11:30, they told us it would now arrive at 11:45. Okay - I can deal with that. Wait, another delay. This time the train will be here at noon. This happens again and again and again, 15 minutes before the train is expected it is delayed another 15 or 30 minutes. Literally, I bet the train arrival time changed at least 20 times. After throwing up your latest dinner, having perfuse diarrhea, and then waiting in the freezing cold for
Amy at Agra Fort
Taj in the background hours on end - this game they play is absolute torture! They cannot convince me for one second that a train that is on an end to end jourey of 24 hours was always stuck 15 minutes away. Someone knew that the train was in a town far away and would not be arriving for hours. If we would have been given that information there is no doubt we would have went and found a hotel to stay at, if only for a few hours. After 13 hours of delays our train finally arrived and we departed around 7pm. I never thought I would be so happy to get on an Indian train! I instantly fell asleep and we arrived at our destination, Jodhpur, at 5am. We went to our selected guesthouse, which was full, but they let us sleep in a livingroom type area until someone checked out.
Now, it is not just the sickness and train ride that makes things difficult. When you have Delhi Belly you cannot eat and you become really weak and constantly exhausted. If you eat something, it literally comes out of you within minutes and I'm sure you gain no nutrition from
Menrangarh Fort
As seen from the rooftop of our guesthouse. it and it just isn't worth the effort. For the first 30 hours of my sickness I had a total of two crackers and 1 liter of water. The second day I did try some toast and yogurt, with no luck. On my third day of this sickness I finally went to a pharmacist to get a different medication in hopes that it will work. I'm supposed to take it with meals - we'll see how it works. It sure is tough to eat when you know what follows a few minutes later.
On the plus side, our guesthouse is absolutely wonderful (Yogi's guesthouse). It is located in a Haveli (an old mansion), that is 500 years old. It is funny to think that there is probably not a building in the United States that is 500 years old and there are dozens just in this city. The furniture and decorations all match the 500 year old theme and our room is wonderful with hot, clean water that is far better than the shower we took in Agra that made me dirtier! We are at the base of the Mehrangarh Fort, a behemouth of a fort that towers over
More Weapons
I would love to have one of these! the city of Jodhpur. Another plus is that Amy ended up not getting the same thing I have - at least so far. Also, Jodhpur is much warmer than the rest of India we have visited, so that has been a pleasant surprise.
After suffering through three days of sickness and I think Amy getting a little stir crazy, we decided I would brave a trip to the Mehrangarh Fort. I put on my sea sickness bands to try to alleviate my nausea and we headed to the streets to find a rickshaw. The ride up was quite bumpy and my stomach was none too happy, but I somehow managed. At the fort you can take an elevator up a few levels or walk - I took the elevator as I was too weak and exahusted to walk - Amy walked. To our surprise the fort was rather developed with an audio tour and multiple places to stop that were like little museums displaying artifacts from centuries ago - it was great to see all of the clothing, carriages, and weapons associated with the fort. After an hour or two of walking around and enjoying the views over Jodhpur
Menrangarh Fort
Rooftop view at night. (known as the blue city) we headed back down. Another bumpy ride and queasy stomach and we made it back to the hotel without me having an incident - whew!
Today was the first in four days that I have not had major issues after eating - it has been a huge relief! I'm still not out of the woods as my nausea and stomach issues go in waves, but I am much better than I was the past few days! I hope it continues since we have to catch a train to Jaipur tomorrow morning at 6am (I pray for no delays)!
One last thing, as you read the blog and look at the pictures please note three things. First, please excuse spelling and grammar mistakes, I'm using a simple program that has neither grammar nor spell check. Second, our clothes, we both brought a total of two long sleeve shirts and often times we wear both at the same time. You'll notice that in almost all pictures I am in a blue shirt. Despite what you see in all the pictures, we do wash our clothes! Third, there are probably more pictures in each blog than
Amy at Menrangarh Fort
This is the backside of what you see from our rooftop. show along with the text, just click on one of the pictures and you can scroll through all the pictures without the text of the blog.
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