It's been over three weeks since I last posted on this blog and during that time there have been a few notable events. The main one being something I had been looking forward to for 5.5 months, ever since I landed in Delhi on the 3rd March 2010- a visit from my love. After time delayed conversations on skype for 165 days, where speaking too soon could result in 30 seconds of half started sentences and requests of, "no, you speak", I was ready for the real thing. It had been an emotional build up. Having planned the holiday months in advance, having booked all the hotels and transport, I wanted it to be perfect. But alas, in India things don't always go to plan and the week before he (my love) was due to come I was told my visa extension paperwork was not complete and I needed to come to Delhi immediately or I would have to spend our precious few days together in the Ministry of Home Affairs before I was deported. I had visions of seeing Rob for 4 days until my visa expired then being sent home while he had another week's holiday without me. Luckily all it took was a day's work with the assistance of VSO's resident visa expert and I was legally allowed to stay in India during the holiday, which meant I could check into hotels without arousing suspicion.
I got to the new Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport early and during the hour of waiting, anticipation came out in tears. When he (my love), finally walked through the sliding doors we both had a short desperate sob and a clinging hug before I put a flower garland around his neck and we caught the prepaid taxi to our luxurious hotel. People say that VSO gives you a vicious sense of assertiveness. Living, travelling, eating, shopping alone creates self-reliance that is hard to shift. There's no one looking after you, so you have to look after yourself. When Rob offered to carry my bag later on that evening I almost cried. It's those small touches that you don't realise you miss but you do. Like carpets, full length mirrors, duvets, clothes that don't smell of mould, walking bare foot on your bedroom floor, a world without flies. When I woke up in this world trapped in the lunar landscape of the Hilton Garden Inn I turned around and with a shock realised he (the one I'd missed for so long) was in my bed. It took a couple of days to settle back into one another, to become comfortable together again but by the end the last thing I wanted was the go back to jilted conversations and an internet based relationship.
We saw the inside of a mall in Delhi, the lake city of Udaipur, the sandstone fort of Jaisalmer, the desert grains by camel and arrived in Laporiya exhausted to a duvet free environment, one that was also water free and electricity lacking, one with walls dampened by freshly fallen monsoon rains. My love was sick but we celebrated Rakhi with my adopted family a couple of days later, Rob was welcomed into the clan with puja and we took a tractor ride to the farm. 2 days was enough to want to revert back to cold duvets for three days in Jaipur at a business hotel just in time for Rob to have fever again. Saying goodbye we tried to keep things light-hearted, and although that particular day wasn't especially hard for me, it's the days that have followed which prove to be a challenge. The reality of where I'm living and what I've left behind sets in, the loneliness, the routine of endless reading, the struggles of my existence. But as ever, I'll get through it. After Rob left I celebrated my 25th birthday, I worked in the office writing an annual report for a donor organisation. I compared the day to a year ago and I fought the raging inner battle to stay positive.
Photos (top to bottom): The dusky pink sky in Udaipur; Dunes near Jaisalmer; Welcome puja in Laporiya; Playing the part in typical Rajasthani clothes; Heavenly hotels; My birthday card collection.
It's been over three weeks since I last posted on this blog and during that time there have been a few notable events. The main one being something I had been looking forward to for 5.5 months, ever since I landed in Delhi on the 3rd March 2010- a visit from my love. After time delayed conversations on skype for 165 days, where speaking too soon could result in 30 seconds of half started sentences and requests of, "no, you speak", I was ready for the real thing. It had been an emotional build up. Having planned the holiday months in advance, having booked all the hotels and transport, I wanted it to be perfect. But alas, in India things don't always go to plan and the week before he (my love) was due to come I was told my visa extension paperwork was not complete and I needed to come to Delhi immediately or I would have to spend our precious few days together in the Ministry of Home Affairs before I was deported. I had visions of seeing Rob for 4 days until my visa expired then being sent home while he had another week's holiday without me. Luckily all it took was a day's work with the assistance of VSO's resident visa expert and I was legally allowed to stay in India during the holiday, which meant I could check into hotels without arousing suspicion.
I got to the new Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport early and during the hour of waiting, anticipation came out in tears. When he (my love), finally walked through the sliding doors we both had a short desperate sob and a clinging hug before I put a flower garland around his neck and we caught the prepaid taxi to our luxurious hotel. People say that VSO gives you a vicious sense of assertiveness. Living, travelling, eating, shopping alone creates self-reliance that is hard to shift. There's no one looking after you, so you have to look after yourself. When Rob offered to carry my bag later on that evening I almost cried. It's those small touches that you don't realise you miss but you do. Like carpets, full length mirrors, duvets, clothes that don't smell of mould, walking bare foot on your bedroom floor, a world without flies. When I woke up in this world trapped in the lunar landscape of the Hilton Garden Inn I turned around and with a shock realised he (the one I'd missed for so long) was in my bed. It took a couple of days to settle back into one another, to become comfortable together again but by the end the last thing I wanted was the go back to jilted conversations and an internet based relationship.
We saw the inside of a mall in Delhi, the lake city of Udaipur, the sandstone fort of Jaisalmer, the desert grains by camel and arrived in Laporiya exhausted to a duvet free environment, one that was also water free and electricity lacking, one with walls dampened by freshly fallen monsoon rains. My love was sick but we celebrated Rakhi with my adopted family a couple of days later, Rob was welcomed into the clan with puja and we took a tractor ride to the farm. 2 days was enough to want to revert back to cold duvets for three days in Jaipur at a business hotel just in time for Rob to have fever again. Saying goodbye we tried to keep things light-hearted, and although that particular day wasn't especially hard for me, it's the days that have followed which prove to be a challenge. The reality of where I'm living and what I've left behind sets in, the loneliness, the routine of endless reading, the struggles of my existence. But as ever, I'll get through it. After Rob left I celebrated my 25th birthday, I worked in the office writing an annual report for a donor organisation. I compared the day to a year ago and I fought the raging inner battle to stay positive.
Photos (top to bottom): The dusky pink sky in Udaipur; Dunes near Jaisalmer; Welcome puja in Laporiya; Playing the part in typical Rajasthani clothes; Heavenly hotels; My birthday card collection.
Hey Izzy,
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a good time with Rob, but he got the flu hey? was it a case of the delhi belly?!?!
i have been reading your blogs and have always been too jelous to write on them!
Happy birthday though, with you being so far away I completely forgot! bad bad friend Jim!
Hope you had a great day anyway. When are you back, seems like ages since i've seen you!
take care
Jim and Nay.
So glad your visa thing worked out positively and although Rob was ill you did manage to make the most of your time together
ReplyDeleteI can so relate to your comment about having your bag carried - it was actually the best and most unexpected birthday present I ever got - I woke on the morning of my birthday in Mali (where I met Isla by the way) and were packing up our tents when from behind one of our fellow travellers came and swept up my bag carrying it back to our boat for me - can't have the birthday girl carrying her own bags now can we. It was quite touching really, I mean it is just not the done thing not to be able to carry ones own bags on such treks. Just those little things.
Your pictures of the desert make me so envious and quite homesick and love lorn - for me skype has proved impossible given the bandwidth, time delays and the language differences but mostly the phone calls are reasonable quality so my French manages, but they are so expensive mobile to mobile so are heavily rationed. Roll on the winter of 2011 quand je reviens au Sahara! In the meantime I have decided to come visit Rajastan and am piggybacking into my friends holiday plansand joining them in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodpur, Jaislamer, Binaker 23 Nov to 6 Dec - an early birthday present for me :)
There is a Tuareg saying "God made lands full of water so that people could live there and deserts so that they could recognise their soul there" Clearly you know yours. Happy Birthday Isabel, chin up and think of the next landmark in the sand - going home?
Oh god, I just teared up reading your blog. I guess so many details that you mentioned really hit home for me and I thought of how fortunate I am to being doing this sort of thing with my partner by my side and how much support and love I would be missing w/o him. Man oh man, Izzy. Good blog.
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