The Terrific3 travel blog

I think this one will be short. It feels late, jet lag got me again last night, and we have to be up at 530am to leave for our leopard safari.

We did a yoga class this morning. It was *Ok.*. Nothing phenomenal but the teacher was nice and tolerant of and amused by my wild boys.

Then we drove about an hour to go to Samode palace, located in a small village. The palace was gorgeous. We did a camel ride there, something I was cautious about too as I’m not really sure how ethical it is to ride camels but I was reassured they’re treated well. Well, my camel bucked a lot and I didn’t last long but the boys loved it! After that, we had a delicious lunch there. The food was amazing. And oh yeah, I may not have been writing much about the delicious food here, but we are definitely eating and loving it. During the safari, there were a couple men who walked along with us in addition to the camel caregiver. One of them told me he was an artist and wanted me to look at and look at his work after. Our driver had warned us that people can be pretty aggressive here selling stuff and told me not to buy anything as quality isn’t good. I did briefly look at his art but it was very religious and not my taste. I did feel for him as I’m sure it’s hard being an artist, and he invested an hour walking with us hoping for a sale he didn’t get. Life can be hard.

After samode palace, we returned to our hotel, had pool time, then got “head” massages which were scalp, neck, back and really good, then the kids played pool and we had dinner. It’s nice that we’ve been having some down time. I had told our tour company this was very important for our family and we don’t just want to run around all day, and they came through, working it in. I suspect tomorrow will be an extremely busy day, and that’s ok, but I’m glad it’s not all days. S, especially, needs down time, but so do we all. It’s not clear to me if S is really enjoying this trip. He’s not sure how to answer when I ask, but he also takes a wile to process experiences. Z and I are really enjoying it.

Alright, good night! Tomorrow will be a week since we left and halfway through our journey. So far, I feel things are going well, we were learning and exploring and having fun, and I’ve been super happy with the hospitality of our tour company and driver and local agents and hotels. There definitely have been some English related misunderstandings but not as much as in Thailand and Bali. This was a British colony, after all, for a long time! I’ve also been impressed at how much India has changed and developed and how robust and organized the tourism industry is now. And how all this restaurants have pizza, pasta, or grilled cheese, something my kids will eat! I’m so glad we came !