COMING HOME

Breakfast this morning consisted of French toast, cereal, juice, omelets, French fries, eggs, porridge, and noodles. It was a really good buffet! Afterwards we walked around and got some henna on our hands. We got it today, so then we could have designs on us for when we get home. The guy doing it was really talented at it! I got a simple flowery design on my left hand. Mom got a design on her right. And Tara got it on both. We tried to convince dad that a design for his bald head would have looked cool, but sadly it didn’t seem to work.

Next we spent like an hour drying our hands with blow dryers. That was a struggle! It was weird being back in Delhi. I know that I’ve already been here, and walked down the same streets that I am now. It just feels like a different place than it was a month ago. For one thing, I have have gotten really used to the traffic now. I don’t freak out as much when I almost get run over now! 

Next we walked around town, with this really weird guy who just started randomly guiding us around. He took us to a tea shop, down some wedding decoration aisles, and to a jewelry place. We got really badly ripped off on some tea we bought. I guess we weren’t really paying attention to what he said the price was. In the end, we ended up paying 26 dollars for three small boxes of tea! It was terrible. The “guide” finally left us, and we were able to head back to the hotel.

After thirty minutes of avoiding having to do blogging, we left the hotel again for dinner. This would be our last dinner in India (not counting airports and plane rides). Being the last dinner, I had a celebration with a “very cultural” meal of chicken nuggets and Sprite. Everyone else seemed to do a better job on getting something actually Indian. Dad had some spicy soup thing. Tara has some kind of curry. And mom, do I even have to say it anymore? We all know what mom had for dinner. 

A few ours later, we found ourselves off the the airport. Home, here we come!

Sadly this is my last blog! Our trip has come to an end, and all we have grown fond of India’s culture. I think we are all ready for home though. Colorado’s the best place I’ve ever traveled to! Overall I really enjoyed this trip and learned a lot of things. One, being that we are blessed. Most of the time I take running water and a roof over my head for granted. A lot of people here are are struggling to find food, when I just grab it out of the fridge! I realized that we are really really blessed to have what we have. I am even blessed to be here, traveling India. Another, being the fact that no matter what people talk like or look like, they are still children of God. I’ve also got to explore a lot about their beautiful culture. India’s a truly amazing country, and I am excited that I had the ability to explore it. Goodbye India, hello Colorado!

DAY TWO ALLEPPEY

Once again, the morning started out early. Again. It started at 5:30 when our alarm clock went off. We got up and got ready for canoeing! We took a tuk tuk there, and got life jackets on. The other person coming took another half an hour to finally show up. So much for getting up early! I needed it today too. Last night was a horrible nights sleep, with a train track right next to us. The music was just as bad too. It was blasting all night! It was even worse right next to where we were waiting for canoeing. It was SO SO SO loud! Like a concert or something. I think we were right next to the temple playing it.

When she finally showed up, we headed on our way. The first hour or so, it was peaceful we relaxing. We got to see the sun set on the water, and watched as Alleppey woke up. After the hour though, is when it started to get hot and a bit boring. My arms hurt a lot, and I couldn’t fathom another three hours of doing this! It wasn’t any better with Tara throwing a tantrum in her boat either. She was mad because mom wasn’t doing a great job steering, so they were going in circles. I think dad and I did pretty good! I kept us going in front, and dad steered in the back. We had a break for lunch and for tea, before hopping on a support boat for the way back. We needed it! Overall, I think it was really fun. I enjoyed watching Tara throw a tantrum the most though. Definitely.

Next we got ready with showers and packing up. We had to check out of our room by 11:30, and we had to get ready for the airport later too. Once all of that was done, we headed to dinner. Dinner was, again, Italian. Once again, I feel as if I am doing a great job branching out! Tara and I had pasta and bruschetta, dad had some veggie curry thing, and mom had rice. Dinner was awesome! I did find a hair in my noodles, but, oh well...

After a long drive to the airport, we checked in and shopped around for a bit. Tara, dad, and I shared a smash burger meal. With three of our hands in it, we DEFINITELY DESTROYED the burger. It was a wreck! But good, nonetheless. I also bought some chocolate covered blueberries. Those were gone in a matter of minutes.

All that’s left of the night is to board the plane and get into our hotel room. Those are pretty much self explanatory, so I’m gonna sign off now! Goodnight, and STAY TUNED.

THEKKADY DAY ONE (this never posted)

Half of the day was spent driving to Thekkady. It was a terrible drive! Our driver kept violently braking on the turns, it left everyone feeling nasty. After a long torturous ride, we finally made it.

Our home stay is pretty nice. Tara and I share a room again, which is both good and bad. Good, because that means that we have more space having two rooms. Bad, because Tara’s a blanket hog. I’m pretty sure I am gonna have zero sleep tonight. It’s freezing in our room!

Then we walked around for a little bit, to look at the shops and stuff. Tara bought some tea and soaps for her friends. 

Dinner came around and I had noodles (again). Tara had noodles too though, so I don’t feel as bad. Dad had some soup thing. And mom, you know. Mom had rice. 

The last thing we did today was see a fighting show. At first I was wondering why we bought the tickets. All they were doing was stretching and hitting their arms. It was really weird. But a couple minutes into it, they started to do more cool things. Cool things as in jumping through fire hoops, having sword fights, and swinging metal stings around really fast. It was awesome! At one point, they jumped over eight people in total! And when they sword fought, they weren’t playing around. They were hitting so hard that sparks were flying off! It was awesome.

Afterwards we headed home and got in bed. So yup! That pretty much concludes our short day. STAY TUNNED.

ALLEPPEY DAY ONE

I am gonna give you another basic summery about what our first part of the day consisted of. Driving. Again. To Alleppey. It was terrible! Even worse than last time. He would once again slam on the brakes on turns. And then he would accelerate super fast, and then brake hard again. Over and over and over. The people that normally don’t get carsick in the car, were feeling not so hot. The person who usually does get carsick, (aka me), literally died today. Thankfully I didn’t actually get sick, but was too close. Anyway, moving on from that torture.

We arrived at our hotel place and put our luggage in our rooms. Our rooms aren’t very great. I mean there do able though, of course. Tara and I share a room with one bed, and a small bathroom.

Shortly after we head over to the beach! Unlike the last one, this one held little to non trash or dirt. The top part of it was kinda dirty, but not to bad. At first, I thought I was just gonna dip my feet in. But soon, me and dad decided we wanted to go all the way in! I wore a bathing suit under my cloths there, but no woman were in the water. Not one! We decided it would go against their culture to go in there with a swim suit on, so I just went in with my clothes. It was awesome! 

The water was the perfect temperature, and the waves were just huge. When I say huge, I mean HUGE. Like monstrous waves. One moment I’d be laughing and having a good time, and the next I’d be on the ground being scraped up against the sand. It was uncontrollable! Even dad couldn’t stand so well against the waves. Despite the gallon of salt water I’m sure I’ve swallowed, it was still fun. We stayed in there for a long time! Long enough to avoid getting popularity photos like Tara and mom. Almost. They came in the ocean after us.

Our popularity increased on the beach ten fold! Especially for Tara. Wherever she walked boys would unbutton their shirts and strike what they thought was a “cute” pose. It was disgusting though. Bleh. Tara even got like ten selfies so the boys could tell their friends that they have an American girlfriend. Luckily, looking like I’m ten comes in handy for me sometimes.

After rinsing off the sticky sand from the beach, we headed back out for dinner. Well, we didn’t rinse all of the sand off. Even now, when I itch my head, a feel a bunch of grains all stuck in there. It’s even in my ears! And under my fingernails. The most of it was in my pocket though. When I turned it out, a good handful of sand was just sitting in there. I guess that’s what you get, when you are dives into the sand.

For dinner I got chicken curry and bread. The bread was good, but the curry was really spicy! My lips were literally on fire. So I got French fries to go with it. Those were delicious! Dad got curry, and Tara got masala. Mom got an omelet and fries. In case you guys haven’t caught on to her diet, I’ll lay it out for you. What she eats most is rice. Second is eggs. And third is french fries. That is the basic diet of Patricia Lin.

Next we headed home for blogging and bed. Goodnight and STAY TUNED. Also really sry, but I just found out that tuned is spelled T-U-N-E-D. Apparently not T-U-N-N-E-D. Oops. Sorry to all the people who had to deal with that for all my blogs. It’s unfortunate that I found that out the day before we fly on our way back home. Oh well! STAY TUNED.

THEKKADY DAY TWO

Today sadly started at 6 AM in the morning. We got up and got ready to go on a bamboo raft. Unfortunately that entailed hiking for an hour and a half to get there. I found though, that when i thought about lunch the time went quicker. Finally we arrived and pulled out the lunch box they packed for us. They are so gave us a water to in a camo bag. The lunch was... interesting. I mean, it was ok. It smelled exactly like an air plane meal though. Yuck! We had this weird potato bread, and some spicy garbanzo beans. I drank four juice boxes! That was pretty much the extent of my lunch.

After lunch we hopped on a bamboo raft and went around a little bit of this lake. The lake was cool! There was varying sizes of dead tree trunks sticking out of the water. I think a flood hit there or something. We floated around there for a while before heading back. 

When we got back we chilled for a little before heading into town. We got dinner and then shopped around for and headed back. After showers and a gross love movie, we got in bed. That’s all for today. Night! STAY TUNED.

MUNAR DAY THREE

This morning we got up and prepared to take a hike through the tea plantations, and up across several peaks. The hike took four hours! Seeing the views was way worth it though. There was a great view of the town down below, and the peaks mountains further away hidden slightly by fog. Near the top we took a break and ate some of the fruit our guide brought for us. I ate three passion fruits, and one orange. Well, almost one orange. Tara threw one of my slices off the cliff. The passion fruits made up for that slice though. THEY WERE SO GOOD! The taste was pretty good, but their crunchiness was awesome. They also had weird slippery texture, kinda like tapioca! We decided to get some later. They were an easy fruit to eat, because you could just break it open with your hands, without a knife. 

Oh yeah! Mom also wanted me to put some of the things I learned down. Hmmm well. Leeches drink you blood while harvesting tea leaves in the monsoon season. The vast system plays a big role in their culture (especially in marriages). Black tea helps you stay energized, white tea helps with your bodily functions, and green helps with high blood pressure. Oh, and chocolate can help with wrinkles. There’s some random facts you wanted mom!

After that hike, I came down drenched and craving air conditioning. Our air conditioning was cut short, because our drive to lunch was a short one. I got noodles (again! So much for branching out). Tara got chicken masala. Dad got some plate full of dips and rice. And mom got, the second most popular food item she eats. Beside from rice, eggs. So yup! That was lunch.

Next was just a short walk through a food market nearby our lunch place. I find markets in foreign country’s cool! Just picture a small table overflowing with bunches of cilantro, garlic, onions, white carrots, eggs, ect. It’s so... pretty? I don’t know how to describe it. Sadly there wasn’t any passion fruit, so we picked some up of the way to the chocolate factory.

Oh yes. You heard me right! THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. They showed us a mini demonstration on how they make it and stuff, then, lead us over to shop part of the room. Luckily, mom was feeling really generous today, and let Tara and I each get our own box! And dad too, of course. He doesn’t really count though because he just got disgusting dark chocolate. It wasn’t all bad there, but, still. Tara picked out a mix of fruity chocolates, white chocolates, and nut chocolates. I just kept it simple with white and milk chocolate. IT WAS SO GOOD. I’ve been trying to refrain myself from eating any since I got back. I’ve only ate one! One plus six that is...

Now I am back at our place. I just finished rinsing the the dust off of my disgusting feet, from the hike. All that’s left of the day is dinner! I think it’s time to sign off for now. STAY TUNNED.

MUNAR DAY TWO

Ok, so today’s started out with the tea factory! We went and got to see the history of tea + how they made it there. I mean that part was kinda boring, but I was just holding on until the last part of it, when we got to drink tea! I got black tea, and Tara and dad shared two white teas. It was really good! I like black tea better than those teas because it’s more sugary. YUM. 

Afterwards, we went to Echo Point. Sadly we couldn’t go see the view cause it was closed. It wasn’t all bad though! On the way back down we got four containers of chocolate. Unfortunately, three of them were for Tara’s friends, so we gobbled one container up. Later today we found a staple in the bottom of one of the box’s. IT WAS NASTY. It kinda makes me question the quality of this chocolate. Hopefully I didn’t eat a staple!

Next was lunch! I got veggie noodles. It was good! I’ve been trying to avoid vegetables her though, convincing mom that I just want to play it safe with the water and stuff. Secretly, I’m just avoiding green grossness. What I perfect excuse! Am I right?

Ok. Now. The bad part of our day, massages. Most of you are probably like, “Why is that bad? Wouldn’t that be the best part of your day?” Hang on to those questions. I’ll answer them soon enough. Story time!

THE MASSAGE STORY:

We got to the place and they took Tara and I to get massages first. I was already a tiny bit nervous when they separated Tara and I. But that was only the beginning. In my defense, I wasn’t prepared! Mom never told us what kinda massages we were getting. When we went in the room she told me to take off my clothes. It was really weird. And when she said my clothes, she meant all of my clothes. Yuck. After an eternity of awkward messaging, I finally escaped. So yup! That was the horrible, most awkward thing ever.

THE END

Okay sleep time! STAY TUNNED. 

DAY ONE OF MUNNAR

This morning we woke up and headed down to look at the Chinese fishing nets. They were really cool! It was this big tool that you could use to lower huge nets into the water with. India keeps surprising me on how un modern it is here. I feel like I traveled back in time or something. We checked out a little bit of the fish market around there too, which, we all agreed was to smelly to stay for long. 

On the way back from seeing them, I stopped to dip my feet in the Indian Ocean cause it was boiling outside. Did I mention the beach was disgusting? Well it was disgusting. I considered myself brave to be sticking my feet in that water. The sand was filled with trash and dirt, despite the trash cans around, insisting to keep it clean. With each wave I found something different lying at my feet. In the two minutes I had been standing there, I saw an a assortment of objects. Three toothbrushes, one hairbrush, two bottles, and a singular flip flop.  Nasty right? Nevertheless the water felt good, and there were huge waves out there. I might have accidentally gotten more wet than intended, but, oh well.

Next we saw two churches which were cool. I mean, if I’m honest, a little boring. It might have been more interesting if the sun wasn’t just burning me up while we were looking. I was literally drenched by the time we made our way back to our rooms. Oh yeah! I need to tell you about our room! I loved it. Mom and dad have a room, and Tara and I have a room. Both have restrooms, thankfully. And, best of all, a shower that works! ITS AMAZING. We also have a little sitting area, a table, and a small kitchen. Our view is full of lush green plants. I might as well get used to the view because we will be seeing greenery all throughout the south. I might as well get used to the mosquitos too. I already have five bites! Oh well.

Our driver picked us up and started the long drive to Munnar. During the drive we stopped at a really pretty bridge thing, and a spice thing. At the bridge we walked across and got some really cool pictures of the huge river below. It was kind of scary though, because the bridge would swing while you walked! I half expected to be taking a swim today. The spice place a awesome too. This woman showed us the spices they grew there, and facts about them. At the end she took us to her shop, where mom bought some spices. Oh, and we bought chocolate. A LOT of chocolate. YUM. It was only like two dollars for a decent sized box, so why not? Oh, and we saw a waterfall. We didn’t get to stay there long though because it was on a busy road. It was really pretty from what I could see though!

After a lot of driving we finally reached our hotel place. It’s so pretty! We are at the top of this hill, and can see the jungle down around us. I think this place is gonna be my favorite place. There is this awesome swing too, that you soar pretty high over this drop. I kinda feel like I am in a secrete garden or something. It’s pretty awesome! Tara and I HAVE OUR OWN room too! It even has a working shower. I don’t know if the toilet will stay working for long though.  Tara had eggs tonight for dinner, that’s never a good sign...

After dinner we went to bed. Well, almost. I just need to take a shower first. Eventually, we will go to bed. That’s all for today folks! STAY TUNNED.

30 MINUTES LATER=

*intense snoring*

PLANE TO CORELLA

The day started by getting up and taking a cab to the airport. Today, we would be flying south, to Corella! We had a little bit of difficulty getting on, because they needed our initial credit card that we bought our plane tickets on. Unfortunately that had gotten stolen back at home, so we had gotten a new card. They still wouldn’t let us on, so we had to buy new tickets again. It was a struggle, but finally we made it on to the plane. 

We took that plane to Chennai, where we had lunch! YUMMY LUNCH. I had a salad from subway. In India we have been trying to avoid salad, ice cream, juices, fruits, and other vegetables because of their dirty water. I am hoping that this airport is required to meet international standards for their food. Hopefully! If not I will definitely be regretting that choice later...

Then we took a short plane ride to Corella. When we arrived, the hotel guy took us home. During the drive, he explained that doing anything for the next two days might be difficult because of the strike. The strike is when people don’t come to work in a fight to get paid. Apparently there was one a couple days ago that resulted in a lot of arrests. Yikes. Since their will be no one workin* the toll gates, (which are like every mile), it may not be possible to visit things. Even the shops will be closed. Luckily the hotel is providing us with food! The next couple of days are gonna be really interesting. Wether that’s a good interesting or not!!!

We are on our way there right now. I’ll update you in my next blog on my thoughts of the hotel! I am too tired tonight, and we still haven’t taken showers. I haven’t taken a shower in three days. Oops. Oh well. I don’t smell that bad. I blame whatever smell I do have to that pathetic shower. It was just like the last one we had! The one where you have freezing cups of water you wash yourself with. I am NOT doing that again! NOPE. Anyway, STAY TUNNED.

SIDE NOTE: Back home, school started again a couple hours ago. I decided I am just staying in India and never EVER going back to school again. YAY!!!

MORE DRIVING

Today we woke up and started our journey to Ranakpur. Well, we started our journey after a HUGE breakfast that is. We had porridge, toast, fruit, eggs, juice, yogurt, and above all, SOPAPILLAS. They were heavenly. If this is what Indians eat for breakfast, then I am definitely moving here!

After that fattening breakfast, we drove to Ranakpur. During the drive we had many difficulties. Some including: A flat tire, and being pulled over by the police three times. We made it through though!

When we got to our hotel, I was happy to find it was another nice one! It has a basketball hoop, a pool, lots of foliage, a game room, and a buffet. Now we’re talking!!! We checked out the game room for a while. There was a ping pong table, and a weird game no one knew how to play. These two boys taught me us. It was really fun! It’s like a game of pool, but for your hands. 

Now we are just chilling out in our room waiting for dinner, which, is sadly at 7:30. That’s about it for today. STAY TUNED.

(Temporary Backup) HARIYALI DHANI CAMPING

Awww yes. The moment has come for me to tell you about our camping adventure! Er, technically glamping. Aka glamor camping, for those of you that have no idea what that is. It’s basically a tent with running water and a bathroom. Aka, the Huth’s idea of a super fancy resort. It was decently fancy though! But then again, anything that has a bathroom, sink, and bed is considered a blessing from God while we are on vacation. But we are getting ahead of ourselfs, aren’t we? Let’s rewind...

Most our morning was spent driving to the hotel that hosts the glamping. When we got there we waited for an hour or so before we could drive to the glamping place. The hotel was looked pretty nice! This was promising. Maybe if the hotel looked nice... then the glamping spot would be too? I held onto this hope while our van took us the rest of the way there. Well... almost the rest of the way there. We had to switch cars close to the end, because the van wouldn’t do good in the sand. So we sat in the back of jeeps for the rest of the short ride. I felt exactly like I was on an Africa safari! The trees even looked like they were safari trees too. Thy just did. Don’t ask.

When we arrived we were treated with ice cold juice, and got a red dot on our forehead for good luck. (Though it quickly rubbed off later sadly). The camp was awesome! It was nestled in the valley of two big sand hills. There was a lot of sand everywhere! And when I say a lot of sand, I mean A LOT OF SAND. I kinda felt like we needed a beach to tie it all together. Sadly that was hardly the case. Anyway, there are about seven camps of each side to the valley. Each one supplied with a lantern, and a few chairs, on the porch like thing the tent was on. Inside was even better. We have three beds, a writing desk, a small table, and coat holder in one room. In another smaller/sectioned off room, was the bethroom. We actually had a shower that worked! And it was HUGE. OH SO VERY BIG. Unfortunately, this was the only night that we couldn’t of because it would be too cold. Of course. Naturaly it had to be the one good shower. It couldn’t have been any other shower night. It just had to be the night we had a good one.

Shortly afterwards, we went to ride camels! It was really fun. Tara and I rode on one, and dad and mom on the other. I hadn’t realized how tall camels really are until I rode one! When we were first getting on, the camel the thing stood up so fast I literally almost fell off. It was a neat experience though! We hiked around and up this big sandy hill. Then we hiked back down. On the hike back down I had a fun time surfing down the sand. It felt so good on bare feet! Tara and I decided we are gonna take a trip together to the sand dunes, so we can snowboard down. 

Next we went to see a cultural show. It was really cool! We sat down on these cushions with round pillows on the sand. In front of us was a decorated box with peanuts, and a candle. To the side of us they lit a fire in a metal barrel. They came and gave us a couple samples of yummy chicken too. The cultural show mainly consisted of a band playing cool Indian music, and an occasional dance by a woman there. I’d say I loved all of it, but that would be a lie. A VERY BIG LIE. Because whenever the woman started dancing, she would call people up to dance with her. IT WAS BAD. The only other person she called up, besides Tara mom and I, was another Indian woman who knew the dance really well. That just made us look terrible! When she called me up, I just kinda stood there awkwardly and did the Hey Mackiraina. Tara ran away. And mom, well... mom tried, though I am not sure it was much better than my dance...

Ok. Moving on from that awfulness. For dinner... well... where can I start? We had noodles, buttered nan, garlic nan, okra, lamb curry, fried vegetables, chicken, soup, and mutton. IT WAS SO GOOD. I couldn’t even eat it all sadly, and I felt bad when we sent trays of food back to the kitchen. 

That’s it for today! STAY TUNNED.

👍🏻

This morning we woke up and went to see Jain temple. Picture DETAIL when I am talking to you about this temple. Detail is like the definition of this temple. There were so so so so many carefully thought out designs in every nook and cranny. Literally, in every place your eyes landed there was detail, and designs, and more detail. It was pretty cool! That was definitely worth checking out.

We walked around the shops a little bit more before before our driver picked us up to go to Gadisar lake. It was pretty! Kind of. The water was very muddy, and we had a really squeaky old boat. A REALLY squeaky old boat. I was half expecting to be taking a swim this morning... Besides that though, it was okay! How much could I expect from a ride that only costed us 3 dollars?

Then we went and saw Patwon Ki, Haveeli. It was a really old mansion that belonged to five brothers who were bankers and traders. We got to see the five sweets in which they once lived. It was really decorated! There was one room that was filled with colorful mirrors in patterns that covered the ceiling and walls. There was another room that had gold flower decorations throughout. All the rooms were unique and provided a cool glimpse into these five brothers lifestyle. The outside of this building also showed incredible detail, just like the temple. 

After that I ate a very cultural lunch of French fries and Sprite (once again), and then shopped some more. Because who doesn’t love shopping? Actually, I don’t really. Unless it’s for food. I LOVE FOOD. Unless it’s expensive though. Thankfully everything’s like dollar store price here. That makes it extra good!

Currently we are back at our hotel, getting ready to go back to that Italian place. I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH I LOVED THAT PLACE. Tara and I both agree that we are getting two serving of pasta this time each. EACH. OH THE JOYS OF PASTA.

Welp. That’s it for today! STAY TUNED

Actually, four more interesting things I wanted to add that happened after I blogged this:

1. Apparently the Italian place was not sanitary, and we all might have had a close call to getting sick. Oops.

2. The boy working at the hotel was confused at my braces and thought something was wrong with my teeth. It was hilarious!

3. Tara and I showed him pictures of the mountains next to where we live, he was amazed.

4. Tara showed him and his friend Snapchat filters, they had a great time with those. His friend was trying to buy our phones off of us!

Yup, there we go! Now, STAY TUNED.

 

JODHPUR

The day started off with going to see the fort in Japhur. It was supposed to be the biggest fort in India, and for good reason. It was huge! It also kinda looked like something out of Lord of the Rings. We walked around there for a while, listening to an audio thing on the history of the fort. Afterwards we went to see the city palace right down the road. It was beautiful, and really calm compared to the rest of India we have seen so far. The Palace was made out of white marble, and there was a pretty garden + other shrines surrounding it. There weren’t very many people there.

Then we headed back to our hotel to rest for a little bit before heading back out to see the blue city. We hiked up the hill next to the fort, and got to see a really cool view of all the buildings packed together. It was... I can’t really say beautiful... it was beautiful in its own way I guess. 

After that we went and got massages. I LOVE MASSAGES. THEY FELT SO GOOD. That was definitely my highlight of the day! I kinda decided that I need my own personal message person. Anyone up to volunteer?

Next I had a very cultural meal of chicken nuggets. Do I get points for venturing outside my normal eating habits? It was New Year’s Eve, so we got to see a lot of fireworks, and they played music SUPER LOUD. It was like vibrating me. IT WAS AWESOME. Then we went to bed with stomachs full of chicken nuggets. I slept pretty good though, considering that music was blaring and fireworks were going off all night. Happy New Year’s Eve!!!

JAISALNAR

Cue the intro!

Dun dun dunununnnnn. (In a talkshow voice) Hello, and welcome back to RILEEEEEEYS blog! (African drums) Let’s get ready to RUUUUMBLE. (Audience goes wild). (Curtain falls). 

Whoa. That was intense. So hello! Welcome back to Rileys blog... yup. Ok. Hehe, um, it’s get right into it! Today we sadly drove again. For like an other four hours. It was brutal. We are now in Jaslamer! Our hotel is a really nice home stay. MUCH nicer than than our last one. Did I tell you that we had to take a shower by using filling this tiny cup up with freezing water, and pouring it over ourselves. IT WAS HORRIBLE. I actually would hardly call that a shower... This home stay was much nicer. Tara and mom share a room, and dad and I share a room up the stairs form them. At the roof we have another cute little cafe with a good view. I love it here so far! And guess what? We even have hot water!!! What a luxury.

When we got to Jaslamer, (I am pretty sure I am spelling that wrong) we walked around. Did I tell you we are currently staying inside the fort here? Well, we are! It’s pretty cool. We walked around and saw some of the shops inside the fort. They all seemed a little more chill than our other recent ones we have visited so far. That was nice break!

After walking around we got dinner. Let me tell you. We haven’t been getting lunch lately because it’s an inconvenience in our day. Also, like I’ve told you before, it’s hard when our driver keeps taking us to super expensive places. We skipped lunch today, snd I had a miniature breakfast, so I WAS STARVED. By the time we found this cute Italian place (once again, we are really venturing out), I was starved! I ate two things of pasta, three slices of bread, and four pieces of pizza. IT WAS DELICIOUS. SO GOOD. I LOVED IT. The cool thing was, it was all fresh. And when I say fresh, I mean COMPLETELY FRESH. He was running around getting ingredients from the market for the meals we ordered. YUM. 

I felt bad though because one restaurants we said no to, was visible from the roof on which we were eating. Our excuse was that we didn’t feel like Italian. Of course that’s not gonna work now that we are at an Italian place! Oops. Oh well. We could also see our hotel from right next to us. We also said no to having dinner there, and of course the guy who asked us happened to be sitting there now. I am pretty sure he didn’t see us though. Pretty sure...?

Anyway, after that yummy and awkward dinner, we went back to our hotel. Er home stay, technically. We hung out on the roof for a while, and then took a shower and now we are in bed. Awwww. TIME TO SLEEP!!!

Cue the outro!

Riley’s had a great day, now she’s in her home stay, on her bed she now lays, after lots of fun play, craving yummy hamburgers... wait, that doesn’t rhyme?!Hip hip hurray! STAY TUNED.