Sylvia's Journal

[another delayed post from Sikkim] We had a rather quick exit from our lovely Gangtok hotel, faster than we had planned because our plane left two hours earlier than we thought. We had to skip our last leisurely breakfast among the orchids.

Instead we received a boxed meal. And then, the car we had thought was fixed, was not. Our guide hastily arranged another car, not quite as comfy, with a railing to hold on to as if we were going for a roller coaster ride. It could have been – 100 km down the Himalayas to West Bengal’s plains where the airport is and, once again a drop in altitude of about 6000 feet.

We did the ride in a little less than 4 hours. Luck had been on our side; the old car held up well, there were no accidents on the road and it was Sunday so the traffic was light. We were told that once in a while there are drunken elephants holding up traffic where the road intersects a nature reserve down in the plains. Our guide told us stories about having to wait for hours to let the elephants rampage at a safe distance. They come out of the forest and go into the village where the local millet brew is fermenting. They like it a lot and then get drunk. The villagers must have gotten wiser and the brew is less accessible now.

We flew back in a very full Spice Jet to Delhi where a different set of clothes was needed: 33 degrees (Celsius) during the day and in the mid twenties in the evening. We met up with our two reporter friends we had met on our way out in Kabul airport. They had made reservations in a lovely Italian restaurant where real wine was served rather than the Indian substitute that didn’t quite make it to our standards for good wine.

The next morning instead of setting out for some sightseeing, Humayoon’s tomb among other things because we didn’t get to it last time, we decided to make a quick stop at a medical facility to have someone examine Axel’s lungs because he continued to have breathing problems. And then things took a different turn. Axel spent the entire day in the emergency room, first for the check out and then, once the doctor decided he needed to be admitted, waiting the rest of the day for a room.

I spent most of the day by his side, experiencing a day in an Indian emergency room. After noontime things started to pick up, one emergency after another rolled in, with tons of relatives, sometimes wailing, sometimes somber, sometimes resigned. One of Axel’s neighbors, someone’s elderly mother, after heroic efforts by at a large cast of medical characters to save her, was eventually wheeled out with a sheet over her face. It was not a peaceful death although I don’t think she was aware of the many tubes and wires that were used to bring life back to her. I am glad it wasn’t my mom.

And so we are prolonging our stay in Delhi, changing our return trip to Kabul to Friday. The doctor suspects a lung infection and an allergic reaction to Kabul’s dust (the latter did not surprise us) and prepared us for at least a 2 day hospital stay. Humayoon’s tomb will have to wait again.

Here’s a picture of Axel’s hospital dinner.