A Vacation!

This past weekend, Luis, Diego and I headed out of town for a weekend getaway. It seemed a bit odd to be taking a vacation, because, to some degree, life in Mumbai feels like a very extended vacation to me - as if I'm just on holiday from my normal life. But it was nice to get out of the city (I thought only people from NYC said things like that...), to see a different part of India, and to have some family time with no distractions.

We went to a town called Lonavala, which is east and south of Mumbai, and is 2,500 ft above sea level. Lonavala is about 100km outside of Mumbai and it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get there by car. Of course, almost an hour of that was to drive across Mumbai! Once we were out of the city, the rest of the drive was along a 4-lane divided highway. Except for the occasional sign in Hindi, it felt a lot like driving the interstates in the US. With Anwar driving, both Diego and I could watch the scenery go by. The view out the window was so green and lush and hilly and free of people and building.

The expressway we were on was a toll-road. Two things that cracked us up were the signs that requested you have exact change at the toll booth - but there was no sign telling you what the toll was. Then, we got to the booth and the toll was Rs. 71! I'm guessing that not many people actually had exact change. The second thing was that all of the toll booths were positioned the same - meaning that when we were headed East, the toll collector was on the right side of the car (same side that the driver is on); but on the way home, headed West, the toll collector was on the left side of the car. At these booths, there was an extra guy standing there, outside of the booth, who could lean in and across your car in case you didn't have someone in the passenger seat to hand over the toll.

We arrived in the town of Lovalana around dusk. The website for our resort, The Upper Deck, indicated that we should park at a school parking lot and they'd send a car. We did that. But as we waited for the car to arrive, we decided that we'd rather just have Anwar drive us to the resort. We didn't want to unpack the car or take Luis's car seat out only to have to install it in their car. When the driver arrived, he said that Anwar could drive us up - that we should follow him. About 5 minutes later, we were driving on a very narrow, gravelly road that had an intense incline. Turns out we were basically driving up the side of a mountain on what could be compared to a poorly-maintained Fire Road in the US. As it got darker and darker and the road got steeper and more gravelly - and the drop off got bigger and bigger, I just stopped looking out the window and instead gazed at Luis.

We got settled into our cottage and put Luis to bed. Diego asked at the reception desk if there was a babysitter available, so that we could go up to the restaurant and have dinner - there wasn't. Diego and I have learned that there is an amazing list of things available here if you are just willing to ask. So I walked back up to the reception area and asked if there was someone available to stand outside our cottage to listen out for Luis (and, presumably, come and get us at dinner if he started to cry). That, the guy at reception said, was available. Ten minutes later, a guy showed up. We went to dinner and he stood - the whole time - while we were gone.

Saturday morning we woke up (rather, Luis woke us up) at about 6:30. It turns out, he was just in time for the sunrise. It was beautiful coming up between the hills. Having arrived after dark, we weren't quite sure where we were. On Saturday morning, we realized that we were someplace very beautiful. We were nestled in a bunch of hills/mountains (depending on your perspective), sitting almost on the top of our own hill. During the monsoon season, the rain water just pours down the side of the hill and over time has eroded all vegetation. The raw rock reminded me a bit of Sedona, AZ - though it wasn't very red. For a moment, I actually wondered if we were still in India...

After breakfast for Luis, we had a bit of a walk around the resort. Diego was pleasantly surprised by the dew on the grass - something we haven't seen in a long time.

I loved the fog that was coming up between the hills to the south of us.

They had a small observation deck that kind of made you feel like you were standing on top of the world.

Saturday was spent leisurely napping and swimming in the pool and reading and walking about and eating and napping and swimming in the pool. The last time Luis saw a pool was early August - and he cautiously loved it. This weekend, he had a great time splashing around in the water. In the morning, looking out at the pool, it had the look as if it hadn't actually been swum in in a long, long time. It was clean and beautiful and pristinely maintained. But not used. Diego and I were joking about this as we headed off to the pool in our bathing suits with hats and floats and towels in hand. As soon as we were in the water, all kinds of things came to life: the waterfall at one end of the pool, the jacuzzi at another end (though it bubbled a lot, it did not have hot water), the towel boy arrived. I told Diego that I wouldn't be surprised if the manager came out to take our picture. About 10 minutes later, he did!

We let Luis crawl around on the grass - a first for him. He liked it and spend several minutes marvelling at the green stuff that he pulled up by the fistful. We also let him crawl around on almost every other flat surface we could find outside - and even the stairs. Luis really seemed to enjoy the fresh air outdoors. Diego and I DEFINITELY enjoyed it.

That evening, we took another walk about to enjoy the sunset. It actually set behind the hill, but still gave us a very nice view. Dinner on Saturday was much like the night before - we enjoyed the buffet dinner up at the "lodge" while a man stood on the porch of our cottage and listened to Luis sleep. There was a radio station playing at dinner, mostly love songs from the '80s. It was fun to hear old familiar music that we hadn't heard in so long. When Air Supply came on though, Diego thought it was time to head back to our room!

Sunday, Luis was up at 5a and we were up by about 5:45a. Luis seemed to shave about 15% off of every sleep time he had (naps and nights). Which meant that Diego and I didn't get quite as much sleep as we had hoped to get. But, since Luis was his fun, cheerful self, it was hard to complain. We met Anwar back at the car at 10a and were on the road to Mumbai shortly there after. The trip home was easy. And despite showing every sign of being tired (yawning, eye rubbing, fussing, etc.), Luis managed to stay awake the whole time. Of course, Sunday evening, he was in bed, asleep before 6p (and then slept until after 7a on Monday).

It was a great weekend. Getting away was nice. Seeing a different side of India was great. Having all of that time as a family with no distractions was a gift. But the most unexpected thing that happened was how we felt when we got back to Mumbai: that we were home. It was wonderful to have that feeling about our apartment here.