Part of the fun (and often frustration) of travel is the randomness of it all. The people, the food, the oddities. One of our hotels was called Cottage Yes Please, which the kids quickly changed to cottage cheese, please. These are some random people on the street, the dumbwaiter that brought our food to a rooftop restaurant, and the beautiful Himalayas as we left Nepal.
We traveled in rickshaws and taxis to get around, which was a scary and exhilarating experience. Personally, I'm glad to still be a living and breathing person. Like someone said, in order to drive in India you need three things: good brakes, a good horn, and good luck. Fortunately, we had all three.
OK, the Taj Mahal. It was the culminating experience for each of us. Chris and I came together in 2001 before we had children. This time we came as a family. It was just as majestic, just as gorgeous as I remember. I've been to a lot of world landmarks and I'm always impressed by them. They are astounding to behold in real life, no matter how many pictures you've seen. This was no exception. The kids will remember it forever. We had mobs of people taking our photos, especially Addie's, but luckily that day she was in good spirits and hadn't tired of it yet.
We traveled by train between cities, as we visited Agra, Jaipur, Ajmer & Pushkar. It was an experience. For the shorter rides, we had regular chairs. For the longer rides, we had first class sleeper cars. I've decided that airline travel would be much more pleasant if the kids had bunkbeds and our own suite to spread out in, along with charging stations, time would fly by. The train stations were always bustling and busy and confusing and stressful and dirty -- but we made it on and off everywhere we needed to go with all children and bags intact.
All in all, this was a wonderful trip and one that has taught us all immensely. We had a great FHE tonight about some of the lessons we learned, about giving and gratitude and some very difficult issues. I'm just so grateful that my children are being exposed to these things while they are young. They have seen very difficult things. They know there is more to life than just them. They are gaining amazing perspective every day. And for that, it's all worth it.
Wow, so many thoughts while reading this...I could picture myself on this adventure with only a husband, but bringing four small to mid-sized children seemed amazing. I also love that those small to mid-sized children had such an awesome experience.
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