Choices

We’ve had an off week.
We’ve had off days, but I didn’t have yet an off week.
Not a bad one per se, I mean the girls are still amazing as always, and we had some fun, but everything was a little off.
When I say off I mean the decisions we kept on making kept on having bad outcomes. Or more precisely, we kept making the right decision too late.
It started with my grandmas wedding.
Yes, grandma.
It’s a long story but basically after 25 years of being together , bureaucracy and convenience made it worth getting married. So a a bit less than half way through our India trip, grandma sends a ring pic 💍
At this point we already have tickets down under, but obviously I checked how complicated it would be to make our flight earlier to make it to the wedding. It was possible, but 💰
So I explained the situation and checked with grandma (tactfully of course) if she wants us there. She said na it’s a small event don’t bother.
I assumed she was being modest, so I asked my dad (her son)
He also said it’s not worth it. Also out of letting me not feel guilty, out of caring.
I was looking for outside validation for the expense, because I try to be frugal and not usually a big spender.. but this is a once in a lifetime thing! I was willing to put in the effort!
If someone would tell me to…
That’s where I was in the wrong.😑
My gut was telling me to go early, but my surroundings didn’t. And I listened to my elders, which is mostly the right thing to do, right?
But then the day of the wedding came along and FOMO hit.
Hard.
It also made sense mostly. We just finished almost a week in rishikesh and we felt that we were ready mentally. (Sometimes also when you know you’re at the end you prepare yourself to leave)
So the whole 3.5 hour drive to moussoorie all I could think about is that I’m supposed to be in Australia.
I tried to keep my cool with my girls, but a long car trip is hard and harder with trying to entertain little ones the whole way..
Even though I wanted to break down at a lost once in a lifetime moment,
I didn’t.
I surprised myself how controlled I was.
So I thought it was going to make the week good if I had some super inner power 🥰
Like the game the girls and I have that when we see a butterfly 🦋 it’s going to be a good day. So if I could handle that drive I can handle anything, right?
Well god had a different plan I guess..
Our hotel we booked was supposed to be really good, and the room itself was nice, spacious, clean..
But off.
Like the “gym” had about one and a half equipments, the “pool” was a meter by meter and don’t get me started on the food..
So, physically and mentally, this week was simply put- off.
So we made an executive decision to shorten it. Instead of a full week we were there about 4 days, which really was fine because we did all the main attractions that we wanted anyway (which were nice overall, really but again, you guessed it- they were a bit off. They looked at first like they were very advanced and sophisticated theme parks on the internet but they were actually from the 70’s and you had to pay entry and for every individual ride – usually it’s either or…)
I digress.
The point I wanted to make was that we decided to do something we were sure we would definitely NOT do. Spoiler: we went to Delhi for 3 nights.
The whole time we were sure we would stay away from Delhi, it’s scary and not good for kids

But we were wrong.

First of all, it wasn’t as scary, cramped and gross as I remembered it (not even in the airport!)
Second, we said well “spoil” ourselves with a good hotel (and boy was it good! The roseate house in aerocity) and including a gourmet breakfast, proper pool and gym and activities for kids in the afternoon- we spent a fraction than what we would pay in Israel, and if you calculate what we would have spent fro certain activities and food, even for India it was a good price! (We now know a bit about the price ranges here lol)
Like Matan likes to say – sometimes cheap is expensive.
And here expensive turned out cheap.
Third, they have great activities for kids! We went to a place called kidzania (which they also have in other locations in Asia I recommend to look it up)
It’s simply put a kid city! It’s amazing! We planned on being there for 3 or 5 hours and we ended up spending the whole day there! The girls experienced paying for things with money, working to gain money so they can buy things they want – working as firefighters, builders, policewomen, doctors..
And they went to a real (mini) salon to do their nails, went to a club to dance 💃🏻, took driving classes and got their license, learnt how to make candy in a mini factory and many other fun things!
And we also went to the Delhi zoo! Which was a great conclusion for this trip cause we saw lots of animals that we saw in different parts of the trip- elephants from the safari, monkeys from Goa, cows from Mumbai etc.

So if I were to summarize this post into one thing to remember it’s this:

Sometimes when a place looks prefect (like the fresh mountain air of moussoorie) it may be a bit off, and a place everyone tells you to back away from may actually be a great place for you and your family.

From now on I will try to listen to my gut more, because it turned out to be for the best.

And I’m so sorry Savta for missing your wedding 💔

Next time for sure 😂