Early Thursday morning we set out for Chandigarh which is located north of Delhi in the state of Punjab. So to beat the Delhi rush hour, we packed up the car and left around 6am. I was eager to get out of Delhi because the dust was really starting to get to me and from what I heard, Chandigarh is a less polluted and more orderly. Unfortunately I had to wake Mia out of a dead sleep, but I think the commotion of going somewhere got her excited. I figured that since she was in good spirits she would gobble down breakfast with no problems, but she refused everything including her fall back comfort foods which worried me. But it was still early so I gave her time. We stopped off at a rest stop and got coffee and I tried McDonald's (tasted the same) and tried to get her to eat again but no luck. Normally I never have to try hard to get her to eat so now I was feeling really uneasy. However the art of distraction always seems to work and I got her to eat some chips while she watched shrek. I wasn't totally happy with her choice in food but I needed to get something in her tummy.
The drive wasnt bad but a lot of stop and go through busy farm towns. One thing I noticed is that there are people just randomly standing around on the side of the road doing absolutely nothing. And any little thing like a flat tire or something in the road would draw a crowd of people just wanting to see what was going on. We got into a little fender bender and pulled off to the side of the road and our driver yelled at the guy for a minute then got back into the car and we drove off. If this happened in the states, cops would have been called, insurance claims made etc. But none of that happened and we were back on our way. One thing I find funny here is the way people use their car horns, its never quiet, there are horns honking every second. Most of the time its just drivers letting other cars know to move over or that they are passing, no one gets angry if they get honked at. But the ironic thing ia that on the back of every truck it always says "blow horn". I find that funny because when are people here not honking?
After we got into Chandigarh, we took a little detour to see my in-laws condo that is under construction. We walked through the model and Mia got to stretch her legs and run around. I was so glad to see her so happy and back to normal. We got back into the car and ten minutes later we were at Jas' aunts house. Mia downed lunch and we all took a long afternoon nap. She was in such a good mood, she didn't even cry when we had to give her a shower. I really felt like she had finally adjusted! I have even seemed to adjust to the bathroom situation, but I definitely miss my shower. I have actually figured out all of the knobs and that if you take a shower it will just be cold water. If you want hot water, you need to fill up a big bucket and then use a smaller bucket to dump the water over you head. Its not my ideal way of bathing, but I would rather have hot water!
That evening we went out for more shopping and then for dinner. All seemed to be going well until Mia had to use the bathroom. Finding a clean public restroom is very rare, so you can only image how panicked I became when we couldn't find one right away. I almost wish Mia was not potty trained for this trip because this has been an extremely frustrating situation. After walking around, we found a restaurant the kindly let us in just to use the washroom. I thought all was well after that....once again I was wrong. After running around a bit, Mia came over to me crying and said that she had an accident...and it was #2. (Thankfully I had been keeping pullups on her). I calmed her down and explained that it was ok and we would change her at the restaurant. Well we didn't even make it that far and she said she had to go again, so we ran into a hotel and used their washroom. Once I opened her pull up I saw that she had a case of "Delhi belly". Not good, but cleaned her up and we were ready to go. I didn't even get my foot out of the front door and she started crying again and she bolted for the bathroom. I rushed her in there but it was too late. Lets put it this way, we managed to turn a hard to find, clean bathroom into a nasty one! Poor Mia, she kept saying sorry that she had an accident and I wanted to cry cause it was breaking my heart that she was not feeling good. And of course the one time that I needed a spare outfit I didn't have it! Urghhh! But I managed to clean up her clothes and she seemed happy once again, so we went to dinner.
I really had no appetite after our little episode, but Mia ate like food was going out of style. On our way home we stopped off at the Chemist (AKA the pharmacist) and got something for her tummy. As of now she seems to be feeling better. What a day!
Another adventure awaits us tomorrow because we have a 3 hour drive north to the city of Amritsar to see the Golden Temple!
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