Get me outta here

Odayama Beach, Varkala, India

UGH, this place. I hate it and we’re here for SIX DAYS. Half an hour to them means…whenever. Internet goes in and out. There are two passwords, this one, or maybe this one… Every third page or so of the book I downloaded says, “cannot load at this time.” Our Booking.com reservation says breakfast was included, but they don’t seem to know anything about that. Josh slammed a cockroach dead with a box of syrupy sweets gifted from his Indian colleague Ayush, which also leaked in his suitcase. Ari has had diarrhea for the last 48 hours and last night puked on the floor.

On the flip side, thank goodness Leo still managed to keep two small packs of Clorox wipes in his backpack, and I happened to have a roll of TP we asked for from the previous hotel in Varanasi. (It was the 3rd time we asked for more toilet paper. I guess they use bidets?) Thank goodness the toilet worked well enough to flush down the pukey mess. Thank goodness Ari didn’t poop his pants on the plane or in the 90-minute taxi ride from the airport. (“Mom, that trick you told me about squeezing your butt to hold your poop in really works!”)

Also on the flip side, there’s no soliciting, no salesmen or saleschildren here. One man on the beach this morning was selling beach sarongs, but he was easily waved off with a smile and a “no, thank you.” I even had to get up and go and ask the umbrella guy how much it would cost to snag one for shade all day (200 rupees). It’s relaxed and quiet here, like we hoped. There are only small, rolling, very swimmable waves on a shallow, sandy beach.

I just hope the cockroaches stay away...