Faridabad India 2019

From Goa we flew back to New Dehli to meet up with friends who live in Faridabad.... about one hours drive east of Dehli...and were met at the airport by a smiling Pankaj. Quickly ordering a Uber we started on our journey to their house. Pankaj had come to the airport by the Metro as....and I am sure you can possibly imagine...Dehli is bedlam and it was a whole lot easier. Picking up his car from Faridabad metro station we finally arrived at their house where Kritika was waiting outside to greet us with open arms and plenty of hugs. Inside she had prepared a delicious Indian meal....including a mutton curry, dahl, rice and chapati. We shared the meal with the family, Pankaj, Kritika and their children Saanya and Arnav, it was absolutely delicious...light and very tasty. Then it was time for bed and we were exhausted.

Pankaj and Kritika had given up their bed and bedroom for us to sleep in and we quickly showered, cleaned our teeth and jumped into bed.......only then did we realise that beds in India are not like NZ beds at all.......they are rock hard and, for us, like sleeping on a door!!!!! We did however have good sleeps which constantly surprised us as this outcome was totally unexpected. (If you are reading this Pankaj and Kritika this was not a problem we grew to actually enjoy the firmness)

The following day we met Mama and Papa....Kritika's parents....who we spent quite a lot of joyous times with.
In the Indian culture guests are pampered and are not allowed to pay for anything which we found extremely difficult but of course very lovely. There was always food, snacks and drinks being offered.
Pankaj drove us all to Agra, paid for a personal tour guide to show us around the Taj Mahal and explain its history, paid for all our food and drinks.....we wanted and paid for nothing.

The white marble Taj Mahal, one of the seven splendid wonders of the world, was incredibly impressive. We saw this pure white mausoleum on a dull day and I am not too sure whether that was good or bad but, whatever, the building was remarkable....the carvings etched into every slab of marble were beyond magnificent. The grandiose  symbolism of this mausoleum was actually beyond comprehension and......although the Emperor built it to house the body of his beloved third wife it was paid for completely by the Indian people!!!!

The Taj Mahal is beautiful in its splendour, it is very well looked after and is kept in pristine condition. The white marble etchings are inlaid with precious stones which, when the sun is shining, seemingly makes the building glow. When the marble needs cleaning it is smothered in mud which is allowed to dry and fall off taking any dirt with it. Generations of marble carvers have lived, died and been buried at the Taj Mahal...it has its own cemetery....and this occurs into todays generation as well.
The four columns that stake a claim at each corner of the Taj Mahal  framing it's beauty are, surprisingly, not vertical.... they lean outwards slightly. This was a deliberate move to ensure that in an earthquake all the columns will fall away from the main building rather than on to it....avoiding any unnecessary damage. Yes, even back then they thought of everything.

There is so much history wrapped up here of Emperors and scornful sons and even the foundations of  what was to be a Black Taj Mahal the King was intent on building for himself.

This majestic place based on the edge of the Jumna River, has the sunset as it's natural backdrop.....it's location is perfect. It is very cool naturally and visitors are required to wear protective covers over their shoes to protect the marble floors. Our only surprise here was the disrespectful people who sneakily spend time removing a precious stone here and there for souvenir purposes......why?

Once leaving the Taj Mahal and walking through the terraces to the car park we were besieged by hawkers....it was constant. Arriving at the car their arms holding whatever they were trying to sell were inside the car preventing us from closing the doors. It was a game to them I think but, a few terse words from Papa had them scrambling.

Kritika is a school teacher and in the late afternoon, after school, all these little, local children come to the house to do their homework......one had a special song he sang for us.....they were all just gorgeous.

Different types of food from different areas of India was a must try so it was decided we would go to a Mall to try Northern Indian cuisine. We were joined by our other friends Pawandeep, Sharanjit and their daughter Niki - Mama and Papa too who seemed to really enjoy our company - and dived into all this Indian food we had never heard of or seen before: Rajkachori - a big, crispy ball filled with curd, peas, sprouts, onion, potatoes, Tamarind sauce and mint sauce.....absolutely heavenly.

Pani Puri, Rice Dosa, Rawa Dosa, Idli Rice and Utpam Rice. All these dishes are served with Sambar and coconut sauce and were coming at us from left, right and centre......boy, can our friends eat!!!!!! After that we all piled into Pawandeep's SUV for another food experience - Chocolate Paan which originated in the Uttar Pradesh area of India.

Chocolate Paan are made from a filled Betel Leaf wrapped into a cone shape and dipped in chocolate.....it is an Indian after dinner must-have treat apparently and we were about to try this delicacy. There are many fillings layered into this Betel Leaf...i.e.  chuna (diluted limestonepaste), saunf (fennel), 

gulkand(sweetened and mashed rose petals),elaichi (cardamom), dessicated coconut, hazelnut paste, mouth freshener sprinkles, chocolate...these are just some of the paan fillings and make what is called a meetha or sweet paan. It was an interesting experience and a whole Paan goes in in one mouthful....given we were eating a leaf it was quite difficult to chew but certainly all the 15 different, conflicting flavours came through, exploding in the mouth like a Golden Rain firework!!!! Would we have another Paan?.....the jury is out on that one.....Betel leaf is known to have hallucinogenic properties and Betel nut turns your mouth red and makes you spit!!!!!! Lol.

The following day Pawandeep took us to Swaminarayan Akshardham in Dehli.......a complex showcasing Indian art, wisdom, heritage and values as a tribute to Bhagwan Swaminarayan.

We were quite alarmed by the fact that, because photography was not allowed, we had to hand over our cell phones to a security counter. Any money and valuable jewellery was supposed to be deposited too. As it happens I was allowed to keep my handbag but it was thoroughly emptied and searched before we entered. 

This temple is amazing and is very well done.....it is documented as radiating peace, beauty, joy and divinity and it did just that.

We were the only 2 Europeans there so all our viewings included just the 2 of us and Pawandeep. 

As we travelled through the various halls we learned, through film, light and sound-shows the values of Hindu religion. On a large screen we followed the true story of an 11year old child yogi as we followed his exciting pilgrimage through the Himalayas and India's sacred places, festivals, traditions and values. Finally we went on a boat ride through 10,000 years of indian culture and history.

Swaminarayan Akshardham has 10 gates representing the 10 principal directions described in Indian culture and many many elephant sculptures......148 to be precise. It took just 5years to build....it is awesome to visit and thoroughly recommended. Our cell phones were A OK too.

From here we visited Pawandeep's family home, met his extended family

and friends and ate delicious vegeburgers. We were privileged to be able to meet his very sick mother who had just come home from hospital and are happy to know she is now slowly improving with their love and care. Later on we were joined by Pankaj, Kritika and their children for a delicious meal of Chicken Biryani.

Our last day was spent with Mama and Papa. Papa took Gary for a good haircut and beard tidy....he was beginning to look like a sheepdog if that is at all possible.....and a massage whilst Mama and I went for a full body oil massage together. Afterwards we stopped at a street stall eating curry, rice and Tandooried Naan bread washed down with sweet Lassi.......perfect.

The evening was spent altogether living it up at Pankaj and Kritika's house. Sharanjit brought over a big plate of Golgapa or waterballs. These were punctured at the top, filled with a piece of cooked, spicy potato and beans and topped up with a delicious coriander juice. The idea was to get one into your mouth before the ball started leaking....everyone had great fun and I think little Niki must have eaten at least 10!!!

 
We all danced to loud Bollywood music, ate Chinese takeaways, downed a shot or two and indulged in a few beers. Watching Kritika and Sharanjit dancing traditional Indian dances was very special. Papa and Gary got on like a house on fire and Kritika said she had not seen her father so relaxed and joyful before......such is the power of Gary!!!!!!

Thankyou Pankaj, Kritika, Pawandeep, Sharanjit and your three gorgeous children, Mama and Papa too. You are all beautiful, generous people and you gave us such amazing memories to savour for the rest of our lives.

Tomorrow Pawandeep is taking us to the airport early and, like always, Kritika is packing us a bag of water and snacks to take with us.

Goodbyes are never easy and this one is truly hard......thankyou one and all.....your heartfelt love will travel with us to Nepal and onward.

Goa India 2019

Rising early we left our Athens Penthouse apartment heading for the airport. Needing to be there 3 hours in advance has always seemed ludicrous to us but this time it definitely paid off.
Catching the metro to Piraeus from Kalithea was a challenge well managed this time and our 5 day tickets worked well on our 6th day thanks to a very obliging lady who was cleaning the ticket booths. Hearing an ominous klaxon as we tried to pass through the gate she took our tickets and activated the gate manually from the opposite side. We shall forever be in her debt.

Catching the X96 from Pireas directly to the airport was also a breeze....buying the tickets was a little drawn out but once Papa (the shop owner) started hurtling abuse at his staff they woke up and produced tickets instantly....lol.

Our destination was Goa India - via Istanbul and New Dehli - and we had bought our visas before we left NZ so everything should have been in order.....sadly it was not!
We were the first in the queue for once at check in and that was where we remained for the next hour at least whilst several people decided whether we could enter India or not. We had our visas, we had paid for our visas, we had confirmation of our visas, we thought we had printed out our visas but embedded in the confirmation email was the actual document itself that we hadn't printed!!!!!! (If travelling to India be warned, you need this important document) Finally and thankfully a "tech savvy check-in guy" came to help...found the embedded documents on our cell phones, saved them to a PDF, emailed them to an office a few metres away who printed them out for us both. We collected them, had our passports and boarding cards returned to us and after a lot of worry and stress we were good to go. We shall forever be in that young man's debt too!!!! We were also grateful we had chosen to save the emails on our phones.

It was a great flight to Goa with Air India and we were looking forward to our 2 week stay in a hotel with, at last, a swimming pool. (This was free of charge for us as we had won the trip in Vietnam the previous year.) The Karma Royal Palms hotel sent a car to pick us up and we arrived to great welcomes......Betty and her staff were absolutely lovely.

The hotel was situated in a very small country village a short walk from Benilaum Beach but what we were not prepared for was the rain!!!! After the first couple of days...every day it poured sometimes non stop. Monsoon season certainly lived up to its name.

After a couple of nights we were upgraded to a 2 bedroom villa which was awesome and the hotel and its staff couldn't do enough for us....if the weather had been different it would have been perfect. The Goan food was amazing in the hotel restaurant as were their cocktails at the bar.
I think on two occasions we managed to walk to the beach and had lunch overlooking the stormy seas at Johncy's restaurant (their Marsala potatoes are out of this world) and one day we took a tuk tuk to the markets in Margoa where Gary bought a shirt.

Unfortunately though our experience of Goa was spoiled by all the torrential rain, flooding in the village and resort which also heralded frequent power cuts and wifi drop outs. Added to the above we were enduring unprecedented stress from home and ultimately we became two very sick units. Goa does not leave a great memory for us to share unfortunately but mainly due to circumstances outside our control.

We did however meet some amazing people there though.....Neelu and Jessica thankyou for the lighthearted banter and a day of fun times....Think you met your match in one-eyed Gary...... eh Jessica? Thanks also to all the staff at Royal Palms Hotel who made our stay as comfortable as was possible.

Our next stop is Faridabad...just outside of New Dehli where we plan to meet up with two beautiful families we met in Ao Nang last year. Really looking forward to that one and hopefully no rain!!!!!