Over the last three days:

1. In spite of some initial difficulties (as in: K. carrying both our bags - 12 21k - to the platform on account of me being too weak to move; the train being very long and us not being able to find our car and then our bunks and nobody being able to help us with that etc. etc.) we boarded the train.
2. We had our first train ride in India and it would have been a great experience, far superior to the bus, even in 2nd class (1st had been sold out) if it hadn't been for the fact that I was in no condition to enjoy it. All I could do was weather the storm in my berth, getting up once to pass out in the corridor while trying to reach the toilet and then, after I reached it, making a huge mess out of it and myself. Details and photos for paying subscribers of this blog only!
3. K. endearingly took care of me the whole trip heroically dragging all our stuff out onto the platform without anything missing or stolen while I gathered all my strength to get off the train.
4. I had to be taken to a hospital, supposedly one of the city's finest. So much for our downwards hotel price trend. Luckily this particular hotel is on AIG Belgium.
5. In connection with point 4., we missed our first domestic flight in India and our hotel booking in Kochi.
5. We found out urgencies are really treated urgently here - within minutes of stumbling into the ER I was on IV, my temperature and BP taken, my pulse checked.
6. I noticed standards of care aren't bad but I became allergic to words: 'loose motions?' thrown at me by dozens of nurses over the next few days. I was actually ok after just a couple hours of rest under IV.
7. We noted that our 'deluxe' room (a single ensuite AC room with an extra bed for family) was pretty decent by Polish standards (it was the best they had). The food was usually not but this being India, we knew if we paid someone to bring us goodies from the outside we could order anything. I settled for a cheese sandwich:)
8. We had an interesting talk with a family member of a patient from the room next door. He told us a lot of interesting stuff about India and we discovered we shared a passion for Brussels. Before that talk we only suspected India is a crazy country. Now it's official. But the guy had diamond rings he said were worth €0.5m. I guess we gotta take his word for it.
9. We learnt from the Times of India that 20 indigenous languages will go extinct in India this year and that Maharashtra - Bombay's home state - still has 56 left to enjoy, not counting Mahrati, the official state language with its 14 different dialects. God bless linguistic diversity!
10. We solved puzzles, crosswords, read books and watched movies for the second and third time while I had my IV bottles changed and more drugs pumped into me to whip me back into shape, bored out of our wits.
11. We concluded there must be no unemployment in India. At all. Our room was handled by no less than 20 different people not including doctors (maybe more, some Indian people look indistinguishable from others to me). There was a water bringer, a tea bringer, a lunch and breakfast bringer, a floor sweeper, a bathroom sweeper, a curtain changer, a sheet changer, a TV guy, a quality control lady etc. And they all came in and out with infuriating regularity so like anywhere else in India, also here we were never alone. To top it all off, today no less than three (3) guys came in to check all my light switches. The room has six. And they checked all - thoroughly. I mean and and off. Fortunately they all worked.
12. We got annoyed by erratic and unexplained visits of some of those people like a lady coming in at 5am with a pitcher of some liquid, waking us up, and then coming back at 6am to take it away, untouched, snatching us from our sleep again.
13. We got into a little dispute with a doctor and nurses about the possibility of me leaving the grounds for a few hours to go find the Internet, have some fresh air (well... some air), and, yes. probably a snack too :). Stubborn that I am, the matter was referred to the higher ups. They didn't cave so I got myself discharged against medical advice.
14. We became aware that despite spending €400 on treatment in this fine establishment we were still expected to tip some employees (but not others). We didn't.
15. We learnt that Bombay's Western Suburbs are actually in the north.
16. We were in our first fender bender - our cabbie got distracted while pulling out and dented someone's door. For a while it looked like there might be blood. Then the boys in the car let him go. Why, I still wonder.