The last few days have been rather uneventful, mainly because Phil succumbed to the classic Indian illness yesterday and has stayed in the hotel room for the last 48 hours. It's a shame but the timing could be much worse, at least we are in a comfortable environment where it's easy to find the plain foods required. He is looking a little better now though so is hoping to be back to fighting fitness tomorrow.
Without wishing to go into detail, I think this experience has helped my husband to acknowledge that he does not have a stomach of steel (contrary to his prior belief) and that India offers challenges to the digestive system not available in the UK. Whereas it can be good to be exposed to germs and build up immunity in the UK, many Indian germs (particularly from dirty water) can floor any westerner at a stroke, and we know that we won't be able to avoid this kind of thing entirely whilst living out here. We will build up some resistance over time, but will always have to be careful to an extent.
Having received several mournful emails during the day on Wednesday, I returned home in the evening to find Phil looking washed out, weak and wanting medicine, but refusing to see a doctor (this is standard). To legitimately get the medicine you need in India, you must speak to a doctor to be told what dose to take before it can be issued. I therefore (very valiantly) had a detailed phone conversation with a doctor regarding symptoms and potential cures at the busiest time of day in the lobby of the Taj Lands End hotel on Phil's behalf. Impressively though, this did lead to probiotics and electrolytes being delivered to our room a couple of hours later at the princely sum of 135 rupees. I was impressed.
I've been busy at work this week so my uneventful routine since Tuesday has been Gym > Breakfast > Work > Dinner > Watch Wimbledon > Sleep > Repeat. Although, if I'm honest, the gym only actually appeared in that sequence on one day out of three (better than not at all!). A really excellent consequence of being 4.5 hours ahead is that you can settle down to watch the afternoon session of Wimbledon between dinner and bed, which I used to miss whilst in the UK. Clearly, we have more adventurous plans that watching Wimbledon whilst in India, although I can't deny that I'm enjoying it in the short term. On the topic of tennis, there are various courts and coaching opportunities in Bandra which I'm hoping to use whilst in Mumbai.
The apartment plans are progressing. I spent some of this evening going round the final four places on our short list to work out our requests for changes / additions before the negotiation process begins. The most exciting part of this was getting caught in a traffic jam of a whole herd of cows (six or seven of them!) on the way back to the hotel. Sadly, I didn't take a picture, but it made me smile all the way home.
The hotel continue to impress, this time with an elephant towel sculpture, though this had sadly collapsed on Phil's watch before I got home from work, so I'm hoping that they will make me another one. Here is what once was an elephant:
Our hotel is also very concerned that we must have got bored with the view by now and hence keeps offering to move us so we can look out in the opposite direction. This is kind, although my enthusiasm for packing up and moving to an identical room a few doors away is currently limited, though we may get cabin fever in a few days time and decide to shift.
For now, our adventure plans for this week have stalled (this included Bollywood film at the cinema and further exploration of Bandra food options) but this has actually given me time to review our travel guides and start planning weekends away and listing the places we would like to see. All being well, I should have an Indian bank account by this time next week which will make everything a lot easier.
Phil leaves Mumbai for Singapore on Saturday so the top priority for now is him getting better, and we hope that we'll be able to explore a bit on Saturday (maybe with a South Mumbai visit) before he goes.
That's all for now. The match I'm watching is hotting up and requires my full attention...
Without wishing to go into detail, I think this experience has helped my husband to acknowledge that he does not have a stomach of steel (contrary to his prior belief) and that India offers challenges to the digestive system not available in the UK. Whereas it can be good to be exposed to germs and build up immunity in the UK, many Indian germs (particularly from dirty water) can floor any westerner at a stroke, and we know that we won't be able to avoid this kind of thing entirely whilst living out here. We will build up some resistance over time, but will always have to be careful to an extent.
Having received several mournful emails during the day on Wednesday, I returned home in the evening to find Phil looking washed out, weak and wanting medicine, but refusing to see a doctor (this is standard). To legitimately get the medicine you need in India, you must speak to a doctor to be told what dose to take before it can be issued. I therefore (very valiantly) had a detailed phone conversation with a doctor regarding symptoms and potential cures at the busiest time of day in the lobby of the Taj Lands End hotel on Phil's behalf. Impressively though, this did lead to probiotics and electrolytes being delivered to our room a couple of hours later at the princely sum of 135 rupees. I was impressed.
I've been busy at work this week so my uneventful routine since Tuesday has been Gym > Breakfast > Work > Dinner > Watch Wimbledon > Sleep > Repeat. Although, if I'm honest, the gym only actually appeared in that sequence on one day out of three (better than not at all!). A really excellent consequence of being 4.5 hours ahead is that you can settle down to watch the afternoon session of Wimbledon between dinner and bed, which I used to miss whilst in the UK. Clearly, we have more adventurous plans that watching Wimbledon whilst in India, although I can't deny that I'm enjoying it in the short term. On the topic of tennis, there are various courts and coaching opportunities in Bandra which I'm hoping to use whilst in Mumbai.
The apartment plans are progressing. I spent some of this evening going round the final four places on our short list to work out our requests for changes / additions before the negotiation process begins. The most exciting part of this was getting caught in a traffic jam of a whole herd of cows (six or seven of them!) on the way back to the hotel. Sadly, I didn't take a picture, but it made me smile all the way home.
The hotel continue to impress, this time with an elephant towel sculpture, though this had sadly collapsed on Phil's watch before I got home from work, so I'm hoping that they will make me another one. Here is what once was an elephant:
Elephant with third eye and collapsed trunk, reassembled to look as elephant-like as possible.
Our hotel is also very concerned that we must have got bored with the view by now and hence keeps offering to move us so we can look out in the opposite direction. This is kind, although my enthusiasm for packing up and moving to an identical room a few doors away is currently limited, though we may get cabin fever in a few days time and decide to shift.
For now, our adventure plans for this week have stalled (this included Bollywood film at the cinema and further exploration of Bandra food options) but this has actually given me time to review our travel guides and start planning weekends away and listing the places we would like to see. All being well, I should have an Indian bank account by this time next week which will make everything a lot easier.
Phil leaves Mumbai for Singapore on Saturday so the top priority for now is him getting better, and we hope that we'll be able to explore a bit on Saturday (maybe with a South Mumbai visit) before he goes.
That's all for now. The match I'm watching is hotting up and requires my full attention...
Best wishes to Phil. My sister Emily had repeated tummy troubles during her year in India because she became complacent about what she ate, so it pays to be careful. Hope you get to see some of Murray's match later today.
ReplyDeleteHope the invalid's improving, for your sake as much as his!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark and George. He's quite a bit better now (and also now in Singapore so can recover there!) but we know that we'll have to be careful throughout our time here. It's possible to build up resistance to some bugs, but there are others that we'll never be able to cope with so you just have to keep being careful all the time. Sorry to hear that Emily had a tricky time. It's a fine balance between enjoying local cuisine and not putting yourself at risk. Saying that, healthcare and advice seems to be extremely good which helps. It will be easier when we've got our own apartment in a few weeks' time so can prepare some of our own food. We saw lots of amazing looking street food in South Mumbai yesterday but it would have been a very high risk lunch and definitely best avoided!
ReplyDeleteMurray wasn't shown on the hotel sport channels frustratingly but hoping to catch Robson tomorrow!
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