Our hotel sits in the edge of the Ganges River. There are monkeys and crazy cows. 3am and everyone was up. I thought about passing out melatonin but couldn’t seem to muster the will to find it in all our stuff. So we all killed time. Todd and I set out to go down by River to watch the sun rise. The river is pretty amazing. It just seems like a huge force of nature moving at a pretty good speed carving out the valley. Somehow the point we picked had the sun crest the top of a mountain in the distance. We walked back and everyone was ready for breakfast. Their food is really pretty good. We had banana pancakes and hash browns. Everything is vegetarian and lots of vegan dishes. It’s all really good.
We opted to walk to town. There are 3 ways to get there. One is by the bank of the river.....huge rocks and spur streams made that seem like a challenging option. We could get a cab....;/ right. Or we could walk along the Indian road and maybe loose some hearing from the horn honking but hopefully not get run over. We chose that. We left the forest by the same unmarked trail we came in on(see pics I’m not joking) and then headed down the road remembering to walk on the opposite side as they drive in the “wrong” side here. It wasn’t long before a playful puppy stopped us. The travel nurse scared the crap out of the kids with telling them not to touch stray dogs, that they all could have rabies,....so it was funny to see everyone scurry away from this cute puppies attempts at getting them to play. I even saw a passing car laugh. Puppy then followed us the whole way to town.
Town is a mix of white water rafting shops and yoga zen master meeting halls. It feels like Mt Shasta....there’s even a “Hippiville”(Austin’s term) aka Berryvale(a healthfood store near my parents home there) It has a unique vibe. I feel like this will be the place I could come when my real midlife crisis hits. We meander through town, some street being filled with water, finally coming to what I’ve been looking for. There is a foot bridge that connects both sides of the river. I was worried Austin would freak at the height so I didn’t even slow down when got to the beginning of it. I didn’t even turn around to give him pause to think about it. We just went. The bridge bobs up and down in the wind and with the passing of motor bikes, that even unnerved me but the kids just sailed across it. Across there was little of interest but some shrines and souvenir hawkers. So we quickly crossed back. We went to a store, there was too many of us to have us all in there so I mistakenly had Todd take Hannah, Sierra, and Jackson. I asked the Shop keeper to remind him to get shampoo and Austin and I sat on the steps. They returned with a tale of Jackson falling down the stairs and 2 things of Pringle’s....this is why I don’t let Todd shop. Anyhow. Then we went to the store next door and got more stuff. Next we went to our intended destination, an orphanage that grows their own food and serves lunch. It was delightful. Cute kids in red coats walked by in a line all telling us “hi” as we passed. It sounded like a happy place. Lunch was great. It was almost all vegan and we ordered too much food. We sat with a view of the river and took turns turning our lips red with the beat soup. We ate lunch. Todd and I basically eating everyone’s extras. We then meandered back to the road and started back to the hotel. The road wonders partway up the valley walls with the river below. Cows and dogs are ever present. We find the strange entrance to the hotel “trail” again and head back down. Determined not to go to bed a 3:00 again we go to the beach. We hang out for a bit playing in the sand until the sun leaves us behind the hill and then return. I ask the hotel to make kids dinner and we sit outside waiting for it. The kids are all barely conscious so I start reading from the India travel guide about the history of India. I’m completely fascinated by what I’m reading and thinking I have the most captive audience ever I look up to find them all passed out on the table asleep.....thankfully dinner comes and they eat it one by one asking to be excused to surely go back to the room and go to bed. Todd and I drink hot chocolate until we’re sure they’re asleep(easiest bedtime ever). Victory, we didn’t go to bed until 7:30.
Our new pet
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