(No) Tigers, a Taj and the Ganga

Prior to our weekend in Delhi for the 25^th anniversary at the temple we spent a week doing a little bit of traveling with Farshad and Yeeteng.  After flying up to Delhi we took a very crowded train up to Ramnagar to go to Corbett Tiger Reserve.  Upon reaching Ramnagar we found out that our hotel that we had booked was a further 16 kilometers away and the safari driver who had met us to arrange for our morning safari and drop us at our hotel did not want to take us that far so we called the hotel to arrange a pickup.  They came 45 minutes later, and 5 minutes after we left we ran out of gas.  We then waited an hour for their friends to come by with gas they had siphoned out of their motorbike to give us and then thankfully made it to the hotel.  It is MUCH colder up north than it is in Pune, especially at night.  So a few hours later we woke up to go on our safari at the tiger reserve.  The safari driver who booked our passes for us booked them for Indian price and upon meeting us realized that half of us were not Indian.  He said Naveed would be fine passing as Indian if he just kept his mouth shut and told me to wear Indian clothes and cover my face with a shawl as if I were sleeping when we went through the inspection gate.  Luckily we sneaked through just fine and drove around the park for over four hours.  We unfortunately did not see any tigers but saw lots of paw prints and some deer, peacocks, lemurs and monkeys and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. 

After our safari we took a bus to Haridwar with the intention of then getting another bus to Rishikesh which is where we planned to spend the next two nights.  Upon arriving in Haridwar we found millions and millions of pilgrims coming to the Ganges and the banks of the river were set up with thousands upon thousands of white cloth tents for the pilgrims to stay in.  There was a massive traffic jam and long lines for the bus so we gave up, hired a taxi to take us the rest of the way and got the heck out of there!  It was madness!  We spent 2 days in Rishikesh, which is a beautiful town divided by the Ganges flowing in between and surrounded by mountains.  Unfortunately both Naveed and I got sick with a flu-ish bug while we were there so we spent most of our time sleeping and being sick… We did get to go white water rafting one morning though which was a lot of fun. 

We were then supposed to take the train from Haridwar to Agra and had a waitlisted ticket which normally you can still get on with because people cancel but because of the 100 million pilgrims we did not move up on the waitlist enough to feel confident that we’d make the train so we had to hire a car to drive us to Agra through the night instead.  Visited the Taj Mahal and rested a lot to recover from being sick so we’d be ready for the celebrations on the weekend.  The next day we had booked a train to Delhi called the Toofan Express.  Upon arriving at the train station we found that the train was delayed by 3 hours.  After speaking to three different people who worked for the railways and hearing “toofan express is VERRRRRY BAD…. It’s a verrrrry bad train!” we got a little afraid.  It was then showing on the monitor that it was going to be delayed a further 2 hours so we decided again to hire a car to drive us to Delhi instead since all the other trains were booked that day.  We will always wonder about the Toofan Express and what about it made 3 Indians tell us that it was verrrry bad. 

Love,

The Wandering Two

On the train to Ramnagar from Delhi

A tiger was here

Our safari vehicle, I was convinced a tiger was going to eat us...

peacocks!

 

Beautiful Corbett

Ready for white water rafting with feverish Naveed

Clearly excited...

Rafting on the Ganga

Nearing the end of the trip

Beautiful Rishikesh

The Taj Mahal

25th Anniversary Celebration of the Lotus Temple

Last weekend we were fortunate enough to attend the celebration of the 25^th anniversary at the House of Worship in New Delhi.  The celebration last for two days and was full of wonderful dancing and music, inspirational speeches, videos on the history and impact of the temple and prayers. Mr. Sahba, the architect of the temple, was also there to say a few words about the occasion.  Over 5000 Baha’is from all over India and the world attended the event and we ran into a few friends that we had served with in Haifa; everyone was dressed in their most colorful and beautiful traditional outfits.  I was also able to see some of my relatives from Dubai which was great.  Having now been to three of the Houses of Worship, I can say that the one that took my breath away the most is the Lotus Temple, particularly at night when it’s all lit up, it really is a magnificent sight.

After the weekend at the temple, we spent 2 more days shopping and sightseeing (but mainly shopping) in Delhi.  There’s an amazing underground bazaar where you can buy practically anything.  The shopkeepers were pretty pushy, some even came up and put belts around my waist to try to sell them to me while others lit wallets on fire to prove to me that they were real leather.  So I bought a wallet…and a belt…

We will update later about the rest of our trip prior to our time in Delhi soon.  Time is going by so fast and we have just over 2 weeks left here in Pune and they’re going to be very busy.  Our Join the Fight Fortnight leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1^st is in full swing with awareness events, fundraisers and bootcamps planned for every day. 

Love,

The Wandering Two

The beautiful Lotus Temple

From Maharashtra!

Me with my dear crew mate Gajanan from Haifa

Inside the temple, so beautiful

Olivia with the Baha'is from Ramtekedi

Banghra dance performance, the crowd loved it!

Olivia in her beautiful sari, the second day

The Streets of Pune

The following are some pictures of the Tadiwala and Ramtekedi slums which are two of the main communities that Deep Griha and more specifically DISHA work in.  We love how colorful life is here, no matter the circumstances.

We leave tomorrow for a week up to Corbett Tiger Reserve, Rishikesh for some trekking in the foothills of the Himalayas, Agra to see the Taj Mahal and then to Delhi for the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Baha'i Lotus Temple.

Love,
The Wandering Two

Smiles in Ramtekedi

Ramtekedi

The things that will serve as drums... Ramtekedi

There always seems to be washing hung out to dry. Ramtekedi

The rooftops of Ramtekedi

Rickshaw = cool place to hang out. Ramtekedi.

Just the usual Pune traffic

Car vs. Cow. Cow always wins.

See....

The rooftops of Tadiwala

Tadiwala

There are always flowers being sold on every street. Tadiwala

On the way to the market. Tadiwala

More flowers in Tadiwala.

Goa!

Just got back from a lovely trip to Goa with the gang.  We spent one day at Baga and Calangute beaches and then two days at Palolem beach which was really beautiful.  We enjoyed the beach time and went on a boat trip to see dolphins and didn’t end up seeing any but still had fun.  We also ate lots of delicious fresh seafood.  The Diwali fireworks went on and on all week but now the festival is over (except for a few remaining crackers being shot off at random times) and we’re back to work and busy busy!

On the way there, might look comfy, except there were two of us back there on Indian roads...

Sunset at Calangute Beach

Beautiful Palolem

Some monkeys on the drive down

More of Palolem Beach

Om

About to head off on the boat trip

On the boat

Just jumping around

Insanely large snake on the road while driving home