Our own private waterpark! for a minute...

Did I mention it was bloody hot in India? We were DYING with the heat. The neighbourhood has a pool, altho they don't use chlorine (ick) so it is only ok part of the week (like the first 3 days after they drain and scrub and refill). But by October, the pool is closed for mosquito season, and the Indians think it is cold, but we are still sweating. So we (Belgian friend Christelle, her two sons and me and kids) looked for something to do, and found out about a waterpark not too far away. On our way there we passed a different one that we didn't know about, so we stopped to see the price and check it out. Christelle went to take a look and came back all excited, saying it looked good and there was NO ONE there!! It would be our own private waterslide! YAY! So in we went, for the bargain price of $4 each (!!!) and got dressed and ready.

When we came out of the dressing room, what did we see but about 65 schoolkids all lined up on the edge of the pool (we guess boarding school students on a field trip). OH NO!! so much for that idea. We were in about 10 minutes when they poured off the sides and into the pool. I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but this is a LOUD country. There are so many people and they are all noisy. They blast music at all hours of day and night, everyone shouts and honks, and it is just loud. Well, when all those kids hit the pool, it was LOUD.

And suddenly not much fun. Our kids couldn't get to the front of the line, and when you came down the slide, you slammed into bunches of kids. So we went to the plain pool end to just swim and feel sorry for ourselves.

The manager brought chairs over for us and assured us that they would not stay long, maybe 20 minutes. We thought that was pretty crazy (and really, why would they want the 8 of us to stay at the expense of 65 others??), but no kidding, they were not in the pool more than half an hour! It was so weird - one minute the pool is quiet and empty, the next it is an anthill of kids swarming about, and the next it is quiet and empty again. But that was not the weirdest thing - that honor goes to the outfits worn at the pool. Most of the kids wore

underwear. Clean pairs, I hope, but just underwear. Even the girls wore bottoms only. (?) And the teachers wore their salwar kameez outfits. The WHOLE outfit. In the pool. How bizarre is that?! Then they changed into a dry outfit to go home. So it was not like they didn't come prepared, that is just how they swim.

Anyway, once we had the slide again, it was VERY fun, and we enjoyed ourselves. The only thing we didn't like was the spray that got you as you climbed up the slide. We noticed it was much better right after the power was out. So we asked them to turn down the pressure and they did! One thing we really noticed was how completely unsafe it was - the stairs did not have hand rails, and the very top of the platform where you got onto the tallest slide had no sides at all, and the water was only 2 feet deep so if you DID fall off, you'd break something for sure. But we didn't fall, so oh well :) .

There is no photos of Alex because she did not slide. At all. Whatever.

Doesn't matter, Sam and Isaac and I went down enough times for everybody.

And I of course took lots of pictures, because it is what I do best!

This is the two Sam's, (Christells's Sam is 9, mine is 13) racing down the slide that didn't have much space at the bottom. For an added element of danger :)

This is as close as Alex got.

I am not sure where Miranda is - playing with 2 year old Neik maybe.

Notice the RashGuard - great invention. Everybody loves not having to worry about sunscreen!