After being in
Mumbai for a few days, we took a vacation to
Matheran which is a Hill Station or little resort town about a two hour drive from Bombay. The drive itself was quite an adventure, as are all excursions involving vehicles in India :) I'll just say I was happy
Jehan was in a car seat. And it wasn't nearly as scary as a couple of drives last time we were here, especially the drive from New
Dehli to Agra. There were several times I really thought we were going to die then, so this time was a relief.
No motor vehicles are allowed in
Matheran so you get dropped off about 2 km away and either ride a horse, get pulled in a rickshaw, or walk.
Firdosh and I walked with
Jehan. It was quite pretty and cool (compared to Bombay).
The place we stayed had a playground. Too bad
Jehan isn't big enough to play yet.
Our rooms had enclosed porches where
Firdosh and Papa would read their newspapers and we had our tea in the morning.
Some pictures by the pool:
Jehan and Papa having a laugh
This morning was quite nice. We eventually had to go in just after sunrise '
cuz that's when the monkeys come out.
Jehan still wasn't keeping himself upright very well but he had fun sitting anyway.
So the monkeys were really quite a nuisance. When we got there, the people who owned the place said there were two rules: first, don't take food outside because the monkeys will take it. Second, keep your doors locked to keep the monkeys out. They weren't kidding! This monkey
really wanted to get in. He climbed a pole just outside the door and I could see his little fingers trying to pry the door open at the top.
I wonder what they're thinking here... who's in the cage? Don't worry, there's glass between them!
The monkey gave up... for a while.
They made so much noise when the whole troop would run across the roof. It scared me the first couple of times. All that said, the mommies and babies were so cute! I wish I'd been able to get a picture of a baby monkey.
The only time I really went out was to do a little sightseeing. We went to a
cemetery (the most beautiful I've ever seen) to visit the grave of the husband of the lady who owned the place where we were staying (a relative of
Firdosh's dad).
I thought this was a cute picture of
Firdosh and
Jehan one of the places we stopped along the way.
So
Jehan really knows how to draw a crowd. This happened three times while we were there! I know he's cute and here's proof!
Talk about a humiliating method of transportation! There were some steep hills and these poor guys had to push and pull me up and down them. And it took three of them to haul one of me. Finally I just got out and walked (my excuse was to take pictures of course).
Firdosh is so skinny he didn't mind! And he's right, this is how they earn a living so we might as well give them work.
Here's another cute picture after
Firdosh's mummy beat him soundly at
badminton. Who knew? I thought
Firdosh could play any sport, but apparently not as well as his mummy!
Some more pictures I liked:
Here it looks like Firdosh is on his Blackberry, but of course that is a sudoku puzzle thing and not a Blackberry. He spends so much time on the Blackberry that it just seems natural for him so when I see this picture I automatically think that's a Blackberry :)
Poor little Jehan got so tired! He fell asleep while I was changing his diaper.
The last morning we were there was so beautiful! I was jetlagged quite a bit still so I hadn't really gotten up to see the sunrise. It was one of those mornings you only get to experience a few times in your life, unless you're the outdoorsy type which I might have to become :) It was just a little too cool with a strong breeze and hardly anyone was awake yet so it was so quiet. Just me and Jehan and the big beautiful sky! The pictures don't do it justice.
Having my happy little boy there made it all that much better. We had a long discussion about the important things in life.
When we left we rode down from the top of the mountain on a train. There was a sign at the front of the train I wish I'd taken a picture of. It said not to crowd one side of the train as this would make it unstable, and in case of a storm to keep the windows open so the cars don't blow off the tracks. I suddenly wished we were walking! There were some
steep and
long drops and I'm not very good with heights under the best of conditions! Why couldn't they make the tracks a few feet from the edge instead of
right on it!?!?!? I don't get it.
Once he got the flowers he decide that maybe it wasn't too bad.
He was completely fixated on the flowers. The little square things he's sitting on are the candy. We didn't actually unwrap it :)
The coconut made a big mess on the floor. It was yummy!
