India & Southeast Asia

From 6:00 pm yesterday to 10:00 a.m. this morning I managed to lodge myself into a bed compartment of a "16 hour" AC Sleeper Bus bound for Udaipur. Sunrise cracked through the curtains around 5:00 a.m. as the abrupt, diminutive, terrier of a coachman incessantly yapped bus stops and other less useful information in Marathi. The sunlight and rude awakening did, however, make visible a new terrain much divergent from that of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Karnataka. Jagged hills rose and fell, rocky and arid, around the bus as if luring it into some expansive absence or dead-end. Even so, this geography has been home to some of the most detailed and rich human history on the planet. Trying to imagine what sorts of livelihoods were cultivated on it beyond herding goats served as a fun distraction from my lingering fever, which gradually emerged as the proverbial "elephant in the room". By the end of the ride I only desired two things: my hotel bedroom and directions to the nearest doctor. I flagged a tuk-tuk to my hotel -- or, should I say, the base camp of the steep climb to my hotel. A kilometer ascent to Mewargarh Palace (an elaborate name for an $8 per night price tag) was all that stood between me and some shred of stability. I arrived, checked in, assembled my day pack, and began to mentally confront the day's adventures to whatever doctor would prescribe me cheap drugs. I did not consider, however, that today is Eid and the end of Ramadan, meaning none of Udaipur's small medical clinics would be open. Nonetheless, I made my way to the local hospital in the new part of town, where I was directed to sit and receive an excessive number of blood tests amounting to 10,000 rupees, despite the prescriptions not being contingent on the test results. "Sit. Sit. We investigate." I instead paid and escaped with 358 rupees of antibiotic, probiotic, and some mild degree of mental relief. I again caught a ride back to the base camp, climbed to the top, entered and took the stairs to the rooftop kitchen, where a rewarding view, vegetable noodle soup, and pill buffet were intently welcomed. After six weeks on the trail, spending my 23rd birthday here may not be so bad.Read more