Travel Along With Me

We woke extremely early again to meet our taxi outside the gate of the hotel. The taxi took us to Haridwar where we were to catch a ride with a tour guide to Rajaji National Park. We got there with no problems. We had a little time to eat some breakfast that we had brought while we waited for our tour guide to arrive.

Our tour guide was Sanjeev Mehta, a gentleman full of passion for animals and photography. He brought his camera along with us to the Park. When we got there we all rode in the back of a jeep throughout our safari ride (a 5 hour tour). There was a beautiful sunrise happening as we began our trip through the woods. The tour guide would have the driver stop as he saw animals that he wanted us to see and to tell us about. He was very knowledgeable and wanted us to have a good time.

We saw all kinds of animals while we were on the jeep ride: wild elephant, peacocks, spotted dear, vulchors, an eagle, tiger tracks – no tiger though, etc. There were a couple places we stopped where we were allowed to get out of the jeep and climb an observation tower.

Once the safari was over our tour guide said that he would see what he could do to let the kids ride on one of the captured elephants that they cared for there at the Park. He took us to see those elephants and while we admired them he worked his magic with the care-takers of the elephants. When he came back over to us he told us that they would let the kids ride the elephant for 100 rupees. We agreed and the kids rode on one of the elephants. They were thrilled. It was one of the things they wanted to do most when we told them that we were going to go on a safari when we came to India.

As we were leaving the National Park we saw a baby elephant coming up the road hauling a lot of leaves on its back. We found out that the baby elephant was an orphaned elephant that our tour guide had legally adopted. We stopped the jeep and the tour guide walked up to the baby elephant and it wrapped it trunk around him and they hugged. It was sweet to see.

When we got back to the tour guides office we collected our belongings and he directed us to the bus stand so that we could purchase a ride back to Delhi to catch our flight back home. We got to the bus station just in time to load our stuff before it was to leave.

It was a long trip back to Delhi (about 5 hours). The bus driver drove like a maniac! He swerved in and out of traffic and would pass other busses and trucks leaving only inches between them. You could definitely not rest on that ride. One thing that we found humorous while we were riding the bus was that at stops that the bus took, salesmen would get onto the bus and stand in the front of the bus and give a “commercial” about their product and then walk up and down the bus to collect money from people that wanted to purchase their product. The men sold a little bit of everything: food, table cloths, tooth cleaner, pencils, etc. It was comical to Tilak and I.

When we arrived in Delhi at the bus stop we decided we had enough time to go to the All American Café to eat supper before we went to the airport. We found a rickshaw driver to take us to the restaurant and then pick us up and take us to the airport.

We enjoyed our meal at the restaurant though we were all beginning to feel exhausted from our long day. After we ate we were picked up by our taxi driver and brought to the airport. Llyn and Carter had to go to the domestic airport and we had to go to the international airport. We were dropped off first and we said our good byes to Llyn, Carter and to India.

I was relieved as we walked into the airport. I was ready to head back home. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in India but I was ready to be in my cozy home and in my cozy bed and be closer to our family and friends again.

The airport was so chaotic. Not that I should have been surprised by that. Everything was sort of chaotic in India. There were few staff to direct one where to go. There were people everywhere. We got there around 8:00pm and we had just 2 hours before our plane was to leave. We had to exchange our money back to American money, check our luggage, go through security and then go through customs and each of those places had very long lines! We got through all the lines and to our terminal just as it was making its first boarding call. I sighed a sigh of relief. I surely did not want to miss our flight.

When we got on our plane Texil seemed really sleepy and sluggish. Once the plane took off we realized why. He was sick and he threw up everywhere! We tried to get the “barf bag” out of the pocket in front of him but were too slow. Only half made it into the bag. Thank God we were all sitting next to one another on this flight and he did not throw up on someone else. We cleaned him up and gave him another “barf bag” in case he was to get sick again. We then used one of our blanket that the airline gave to us to clean up the seat and floor. I was able to get a bunch of wet wipes from a flight attendant and things were cleaned up in a matter of time. What a start to our 36 HOUR TRIP HOME!!

When we got to Paris for our lay over we learned that our flight back to VA had been cancelled. Tilak waited in long lines to reschedule our flight while I entertained the kids. It ended up that we had to take a trip to Canada and then to VA as there were no other flights into Washington DC airport that day. The airport gave us food vouchers and we had a 5 hour wait until our flight left for Canada. We slept, ate, played games, slept some more, got on the internet café computers and finally boarded our plane to Canada.

On our flight to Canada we were served yummy food and wine and we watched TV and chit-chatted with people. It was pleasant. Once we arrived in Canada we waited in long lines again to go through customs, etc. It was -14 degrees outside and it was snowing. Once we got to our terminal we watched the snow out the window, read and ate snacks while we waited for our flight to leave. I was praying that the flight would not get cancelled due to the weather. Thank God it did not and we loaded the plane on time. It was a very small plane. Only about 20 passengers on it.

When we arrived in Washington DC airport we were all tired of traveling but we still had to rent a car and drive another couple hours home. Tilak and I tried very hard to keep each other awake and we finally made it home! It was wonderful to walk into our home and collapse in our beds! We stayed in our beds mainly for the next couple of days while our bodies were getting used to USA time again.

We our thankful for the wonderful journey that we had in India!!!!

We woke and ate breakfast and decided to go on a hike to a waterfall that was supposed to be nearby. The walk ended up being a LONG one but a beautiful one. The road we walked was tree-filled and green. There was very little traffic. It ran alongside of the Ganges River. We saw a military graduation happening along the Ganges. We also saw some beautiful trees with spiral vines that hung from them.

We finally found the trail head that led us to the mountain waterfall. The waterfall was not as big as we were expecting but we enjoyed it anyway. The kids played in it and several of us dipped our toes into it.

On our hike back to our hotel we stopped at a little restaruant that had given us directions on our way there. The lady that owned it was very hospitable and friendly. She made us some wonderful hot ginger lemon tea and we sat there to talk for awhile.

When we returned to town we shopped again for gifts for family and friends. We spent time with the orphanage kids and we had a great supper.

We went to satsang that evening with the orphanage children. We were all sad that it was our last night with them. They sang us a beautiful good-bye song. I held back tears. A couple of the children drew pictures for me in my journal. We got their names and the address so that we could write to them.

After satsang Ankita and Lolita came back to our hotel with us. They had written us a beautiful letter to say goodbye. I had tears running down my face as I read it. We gave them big hugs and said that we love and will miss them and that they made our hearts full while we were there.

We all slept in until a little after 9:00am. We all got ready and had breakfast at Dev Raj restaurant. We then took the long walk to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram (the one the Beatle’s stayed at) to finish exploring only this time we were with Llyn and Carter. We tried to schedule a tour with a guide that was listed in our Lonely Planet book but he was unavailable to help us. We stopped at some shops along the way to pack a lunch to picnic while we were there. Once again we saw many monkeys on the way and we stopped to feed them.

The gates were open to the ashram when we got there. We took our time and explored everything. The grounds were beautiful and green with plants and trees. The buildings were stone or concrete. We walked through the old buildings imagining what it must have been like before the place was abandoned. We picnicked at the top of one of the buildings that had a deck that overlooked the city of Rishikesh. We had two more buildings to explore before we left so after we ate we did just that. One of these two buildings was full of old papers – some from the 70’s. We tried to find some with the Beatle’s name on them but had no luck.

At the last building we explored there were domes on the top of it with ladders that you could climb to get down into the domes. Everyone was taking turns climbing and looking at the view and into the domes when an Indian man speaking Hindi showed up and began yelling at us all. Most of his words were in Hindi so we could not understand him. We did however understand that he was trying to charge us 80,000 rupees for trespassing and having cameras with us. We immediately were suspiscious of him and asked for his identification and told him we would not pay any money unless a police officer told us we had to. He pulled out some tattered paper from his wallet that I doubt was a real identification and told us to leave the premises right away. We began to leave and the man followed us yelling the whole way.

We saw some other westerners on our way out and we quickly explained to them what was going on and so they followed us as we were leaving so that they would not get into any trouble either. When we got to the front gate it had been closed and locked! We were scared at what to do next because the man had gone into one of the buildings, put on a uniform shirt and was still hollering things at us in such a hateful manner. The other westerners told us to follow them and they took us out an alternate way. Thank God the crazy man did not follow us past the exit. We were scared at the time but laughed about it all once we got down the road a ways. We figure the man must have been a park ranger and was trying to scam us for money.

We walked back into town and did some shopping, walking along the Ganges and ate supper.

We also went to the aarti ceremony along the Ganges that evening. Llyn and Carter enjoyed the experience and we enjoyed it again as well. It is beautiful to sit and sing with a bunch of strangers. All of us with peace in our hearts.

When we returned to the hotel I took the kids to play with the kids from the orphanage for awhile.

We went to bed after a full day looking forward to tomorrow which would be our last full day in Rishikesh.