Why I went to India and didn't leave the hotel.

Almost as soon as we moved here, Ben was told that he needed to attend a conference in Mumbai sometime in July.  Not one to miss out on an opportunity to travel, I asked if I could go with him, and to my delight, and somewhat surprise, he said yes.  

Plans were made.  We arranged for Hema (the fake name of our helper/nanny) to stay with the kids so that I could go with Ben on this exciting, albeit short trip to India.

The entire preparing process was a pain, from having to submit our visa applications more times that I can count, and the price of said visa being raised at the last minute, to issues with finding flights to passport expiration issues.  

As soon as Ben said yes, I started researching places to go, see and eat.  I asked for recommendations of things to do/buy.  My plan was to spend the entire day that we were going to be in Mumbai playing tourist; soaking in the wonders of India.  

However, when we didn't arrive to our hotel until two in the morning, I rethought the entire thing.  I need to sleep.  On any given day, I require 8-9 hours.  Less than that I will be somewhat barely functional, and grumpy.  Yes, it is one of the things that I am pretty high maintenance about.  

I digress, back to my point.  

Ben and I went to bed at two, woke up for breakfast, and I kissed him goodbye at seven-thirty in the morning.  

As soon as he left, I laid down, thinking a nice short nap would be perfect.  At noon I woke up.  I have not napped that long in years.  

At that point I wanted to go to the gym for a run. 

(I am training for a half marathon...did I tell you?  More on that later, like another day, this is getting long.)  

The gym had an amazing view, and the entire time, I watched rain come down.  Crazy, monsoon rain. 

 I just wanted to stay inside.  

I mean, would it really be that bad if I just stayed at the hotel?  I had a book to read and Ben told me I should go to the spa (yes, my friends those words actually came out of his mouth- "Why don't you go to the spa, make a vacay day out of it?").  When he first told me, I thought I was going to be super tourist, so I didn't think much of it, but as I was running and watching the monsoon rains come down, and the floods come up, the words kept going through my head-  "go to the spa, go to the spa..." over and over.  So I did. 

I had the most perfect, wonderful, quiet, relaxing, recharging day I have had in a long time.

We left the next morning at six-thirty.  I told you, it was a short trip.

At the airport, hanging out, without kids. 

The jasmine necklace given to us on arrival.  I love the smell of jasmine.

And the bathroom.  Oh, what a bathroom, oh what a room.

The view from our hotel room.

We had a window seat which I laid down on and listened to the sounds of the ocean, and felt the warmth of the sun (the rain eventually stopped).  It was fabulous.

The toilet seat was heated, and had a built in bidet.  LOVE.

Room Service.  

High tea in the afternoon, with a book.

I love high tea.

I had to take a picture of this bathroom in the airport.  I walked into the stall expecting a seat.  

Luckily, the next stall over had a seat, but no toilet paper.  And the facets didn't work, so I didn't touch anything until I could find another bathroom to wash my hands.

There you have it.  The adventure in a hotel in India.

I want to go back and do the whole tourist thing, but Ben does not.

I will have to find a travel companion.

A little side story, Ben told me that in training for his job, when searching someone, if you feel like you owe them dinner after, you did a thorough search.  No less than four women security officers owe me dinner at the Colombo airport, just sayin'.