Flying down the Home Stretch

Hi, Linda here,
Well we finally made it to Heathrow, halfway home and uneventful so far, Shhh...shouldn't say that too loud! The girls have had lots of adventures/mis-adventures and dealt pretty well
We had fun the last day in Mumbai, visited the Ghandi Musem,street shopped some more, Chelsea is quite the pro haggler,explored the Prince of Whales Museum and took pix at the big stone Gate of India, on the shore, that was erected for one of the royal heirs in the late 1800's and through which the Brits marched and loaded onto ships to leave India when they gained independence in '48. Actually, we are ourselves the subject of lots of photos by the locals as we are all dressed the same, light-skinned with lots of blonds, people thrust their kids onto our laps and and line up next to us for pictures, we all now feel we are being hounded by paparazzi, ask Maura,especially, but no one has been immune!
Everyone is looking forward to seeing their families and relating their adventures and the journals should be fun reading. We kept lists, from animals walking down the middle of the road to the ranking of Tomato soup at every lunch and dinner stop! We had a great time, India is such a land of contrasts and many of us are looking forward to returning in the future, its been GREAT !! No regrets and you should all visit this exotic and humbling world!
Linda

July 16-17

Hey! This is Lynn! Yesterday (16 July) we had a 6 hour bus ride from Udaipur to Jodhpur. We arrived in Jodhpur after 4 pm, so it was kind of late and we didnt have much time left in the day to sight see. Jodhpur is the blue city which is the color of the bramhins. We saw the clock tower and walked around at the market. Some people bought bangles and tea/spices. We also went into another textile store and saw beautiful patchwork bed covers and wall hangings. We ate late and that's why I couldnt blog yesterday. (It was also our last dinner with Charon, our bus driver, and Amieet, the driver's assistant.)
Today, we finished our tour with Ragu (our tour guide who wore a polo outfit- his pants were big at the top and tight at the bottom) and saw a burial site for the Marathajias (sp off). After that we saw the fort. Both of the places were very nice. At 11 am we left for the Jodhpur airport and took at small flight at 2 pm to Mumbai (the flight was only like an hour). When we arrived in Mumbai all of our luggage made it and took a bus to the hotel. Tonight is our last full night in India!! Tonight we have free time to pack (and Eva wants to play finger-toe) until dinner at 7ish. Tomorrow we plan on seeing Mumbai and then taking off at 2am the next day for home.

See you all soon!

July 15

Hello everyone, this is Maura. Last night we ate dinner and some of us swam on the rooftop pool. It was very clean and so nice. This morning, first we walked to a beautifully carved Hindu temple called Jagdish. After that we took a tour of the City Palace. It is a museum inside the old palace. We saw miniature paintings and all of the different living quarters. After the Palace we went to a garden. It had fountains all over which were controlled by the water pressure from the 4 lakes in Udipur and also a lotus pond with huge carved elephants. Next, we went to a demonstration on miniature painting and then went shopping.
After lunch we went back to the Palace area and went for a boat ride. We rode around one of the lakes and then docked on one of island resturants and explored. Later we went back to the Palace and some of us went to a crystal museum to see the crystal furniture that one Udipur king ordered but died before being able to see it. We have the afternoon free and will be eating dinner on the rooftop again tonight. Tomorrow it's on to Jodhpur!

Poll Results

Sasha the elephants win!
Udaipur so far is fabulous. The hotel rooms are spacious and charming with curtained four poster beds and pillowed window nooks with a lake view. In fact some of us are sleeping in one of the nooks.

We are on our 2nd camera cards so look out for hours of pictures. Tomorrow we will tour the city but tonight we will swim in the roof top pool after we do some wash! The clothes are getting grungy.

Miriam and Linda

Holy Cow

HOLA! This is Jenn. So, yesterday we took a three hour bus ride to Pushcar (sp?). We all loved it! It was an extremely small town that was just like a market. We went on a tour, led by Bobi, and learned about the town. For instance, it hosts the only Brahma temple in the whole world. That was a lot of fun.
After about two hours, we left Bobi for some free time. Some of us slept, some went on the internet, and the rest went shopping. There were so many great things for such cheap prices! Shopping in markets is always great.
More people took picture with this "exotic" group (our appearances are just so different).
Today, july 14, we took a six hour bus ride to Udapur. We've only been here for a little while, so i don't know much about it. I do like it so far. Most of us went shopping again.
Well, everyone is swell. I guess we'll see you all soon!!!

A Day In The Pink City

What's up? Jenna here. Today we spent the day touring Jaipur, the pink city. Jaipur is known as the pink city because many of the buildings and palaces are made of red and pink sandstone. We started the day by taking an elephant ride up to the Amber Palace. After touring the palace we took a rocky Jeep ride back to the bus. We then drove to the Palace on the Lake, but because of the drought it was more of the Palace on the Mud. We also visited the Jaisingh Observatory, where we viewed many historical tools that were used to tell time, date, and astrological signs. Then we toured the City Palace where we saw the textile museum(great for our fashion fiends, Maura & Lynn) and the art gallery. Throughout the day we visited jewlers and craft shops for souvenirs =D. We finished off the day by having dinner at a restaurant called Dineros. We had an eventful and exciting day, but we are pretty wiped out, today was the first day that was truly too hot to handle.
And now it's time for some somewhat interesting facts!
- Mrs. P's shopping habit is getting out of control
- trying to get a photo of camel while the bus is zooming past is impossible
- avoiding sunburn in the desert is not a easy task
- the quality jewlery here is considerably cheap
- elephants make a lovely mode of transportation

Pizza Hut!

Hi everybody, this is Chelsea blogging!
Today we traveled on a bus... for a long time, on a bumpy road. We made some stops on the way- the deserted city and a bird sanctuary- both of which were beautiful. We also stopped along the way at the driver's request to take pictures of... nothing. We weren't really sure why he wanted pictures on the side of the road. Tonight was very exciting for us... we went to Pizza Hut to celebrate Lynn's birthday! Yay! It was really good, and we all missed such fine American cuisine. Our bus driver also bought us all flowers for the celebration which was really nice, and Maura and Lynn (the two birthday girls) got garlands. It was a very fine day.
Everyone sends their love (Specifically Mrs. P. to Sasha =]).
Bye.

Say no to the Veg Cutlet

hello New Jersey!
Julia here. We are having a fabulous time here in India unfortunately it is still not up to our speed internet wise and even the best of place have the power go out on them, add some rain into the mix and the internet isn't even an option. So I just wanted to let you know that if you don't hear from us here on the blog its because we're unable to get reliable internet access but we will try and get the girls to email you when we can.

so a quick run down of the things we've seen and done since Wednesday:

-Our baggage arrived!! Slowly but surely starting on Wednesday our luggage came, a bit wet for some but nothing a wash and line dry doesn't fix.
-We went on the Pune Challenge-we had to flag down our own rickshaws! and find certain places in Pune. Great fun.
-We saw some tradition Maharashian (I don't thing that's spelled correctly, sorry, the state Pune is located) dancers. They were just amazing! Amy filmed some of it and hopefully we can put it into the blog, once we get home, for all to see.
-International night was a big hit (enough of our bags had come so we had plenty of things to show and share)
-Our saris came on Friday and we all learned how to tie them ( Mrs. P needed loads of help!) before we had a traditional feast and ended the evening with a play, The Giving of a Daughter. An amazing day, that also included mehendi (henna tattoos) and Rangoli, a tradition art practiced by the women of India, the beautiful designs are made of colored chalk and put outside of the front door for good luck.
-We also learned some yoga, which had a few of us bent father that we thought was possible, great for getting a rush of energy!
-Having watched a Bollywood movie (Dhoom 2) we then learned a Bollywood dance. Amazing, beautiful and if you want a work out this is it! We were all a bit sweaty when we were done but we were also laughing.
-We celebrated Maura's b-day at Sangam and on the train. The staff at Sangam baked her a cake and gave her flowers.
-30 hours on the train!!!! It was long and draining but we finally made it -back- to New Delhi.
-We saw lots of amazing sites in Delhi, beautiful buildings and the smallest street in Old Delhi.
-plus all of the wiring in Old Delhi is just -wow- if an electrician from home saw it they'd have a heart attack.
-Animals seen thus far: cows, oxen, water buffalo, goats, horses, mules, donkeys, pigs/boars, camel, elephant, parrots, monkeys, gazelles, chipmunk like creatures and of course lizards. In fact Mrs. P got a midnight call to exterminate a teeny tiny lizard from the girls room, her response "do I have to?"
- the Taj Mahal is more beautiful and detailed than words or pictures can express.
-in India we're the tourist attraction. With our very white skin and our matching clothing children laugh and families want their picture taken with us. We do stand out a bit.
-Today we had nonIndian food much to the delight to many of our stomachs.
-We're ending the day at a very lovely hotel and with a puppet show.

And now I'm off to bed we have an early start tomorrow.

PS the girls are enjoying the shopping very much, it never gets old! Look for really great souvenirs when they get home!

July 3

Hey all, Amy here. We are starting to take turns posting to the blog to get a different perspective on the experience!

Since it is monsoon season, and it rained heavily last night and was forecast again for tonight, the staff was fearful for our safe journey to the old part of the city. We were supposed to spend the morning getting sari's, punjabs, bangles, etc. in the old part, and then travel to the newer part of the city in the afternoon for silver street. However, we just went to the new part and did all of our shopping this morning - suprise the rain never came. Only drizzles! We also went out for lunch. Some of us enjoyed Indian restaurants, but others unfortunately wanted to go to Pizza Hut, Mcdonald's etc. (I don't think they were part of our troop!)

We met with the tailors this afternoon, so he and she will be making our saris and returning them to us. We will then have a change of clothes since we still have no luggage! We will be VERY colorful for the traditional dinner on Thursday night at Sangam.

This afternoon, we also learned more about the new focuses for WAGGS worldwide as well as spritiuality at Sangam. we were given 45 minutes of silence to explore ourselves/the surrondings in silence. It was harder for some of us (EVA!!!) than others. My roommate Gabbie wrote an amazing poem that we will share when we get home about Sangam. I think it moved us all.

Most of us are still healthy, some are experiencing a little discomfort, but nothing too severe.

That's all for now, keep praying for the arrival of luggage!!!!
-Amy

Monday - 7/2

Today was our first full day at Sangam. Participants are in patrols and have scheduled duties each day. My group - Hara - will be the servers for the days meals. Other duties are Flag ceremony, reflections and Snapshot. Snapshot is simply stating in a few words what we did that day. And of course we try to attch a photo. This will be published on the Sangam web site later.

Our packs are still missing so the infamous New Jersey group went shopping at Pune Center. Pune Center is a small dept. store. Basicaly the middle class shop there as they can afford the price of clothes and other items. Most of us purchased skirts, underwear and flip flops.
It is wise to have flip flops or sandles because yu must remove your shoes before entering the Sangam hall or when visiting other facilities in the area like Maher.

Because we had to shop for clothes we missed the Laughter Club session and much of the lecture on Indian culture. The group split into 2 and visthed either Maher or Ishwari. - two social organizations for women. Ishwarie was founded by Sister Mederio for the purpose of training women in the rural area of Phulgaon. The young ladies are taught some practical skills such as sewing that would allow them to be somewhat indepedent -- at least more confident in themselves. One the the benefits coming out of this program is to postpone marriage so that the girls have time to mature and as I said have self-confidence. Many of us purchased items made at the center such as handmade greeting cards.

The trip to Ishwari took about 1.5 hours..The ride was bumpy, hot and of course it was raining. At times I was not sure the bus would be able to ride thru the flooded sections of the rode. I am amazed how people in India drive. Cars, bikes, rike shaws, trucks all compete for the same piece of the rode. You are so close to each other that you can literally touch the next vehicle or have your hand severed if left out of the window.

The day rounded out with three guest speakers on Holistic Living.

Just some random comments...

Because of the rain the electricty here goes out. We had two brief outages while I am typing this post. Yes it has rained A LOT. I think I saw a bit a the sun this morning for maybe 10 minutes.
An umbrella is a must and of course our umbrellas are in out lost packs. We have be borrowing umbrellas from the staff.

Much of the food at our meals is Indian and rather good. It is an experience "trying" the various dishes. Yesterday we had, I think, spinach soup. It was green and I was told it was spinach.
Tonight was the Indian version of the taco!

Did you know that a sign that a women is married is the necklace she wears around her neck.
She will also have a red dot on her forehead.

Tomorrow we will go to Phule Market and purchase materials (cloth) for our saris which will be made for us by a local tailor.

OK the lights went out again and several bats are becoming annoying so I will post this piece before I lose it all together.

Oh.... I apoligize if there are missing letters in words. The keyboard is old and sometimes when I hit a key it does not register.

Arrive in Sangam

We will made it to Sangam. This will be very short post as I have been up since 3:30 India time and traveling by plane, public bus and a rickshaw to about 6 pm (India time and when we arrived at Sangam). Another long travel day and in the rain.

I have to say that we have a number of bumps in the road but people have been very helpful. Today we did not have coins to call Sangam. Someone gave us money and an agent for Hotel reservations at the Mumbia airport allowed us to use his phone (free) to call Sangam several times to arrange for transportation to Pune.

Luggage is still lost so if it does not arrive tomorrow we will purchase some basic stuff to get us by. Staff and fellow scouts have been very helpful ..sharing shampoo, contact solution etc.

So it is really not all that bad. OK I am off to bed ..will fill in trip details later.

June 30th New Dehli

Yes that is right 6/3o- New Dehli not Sangam....not yet anyway.

We are in India... just not in Sangam ..yet. A longggg story but the short of it is.

Left Phila sitting in the airport or on the runway till 11:30 pm. Storms in the area caused that delay and for a slightly longer flight...flying around the rain. Arrived in London and circled that airport for 30 or so minutes. Between the two we missed our connection.

Thought we had flights out or so we were told by Brit Air staff. Not so and that resulted in us
trying to find connecting flights. Spent over 2 hours in security lines to finally get to someone for the connection. a flight was found but not till 9:45 that night. So for the next 7 or 8 hours we toured Heathrow and ate a light lunch/dinner compliments of BritAir. Interesting airport Heathrow is - lot of up scale stores!

Learned from a fellow scout who happended to work at TGI Fridays about the bomb threat and the reason for the heightened security level. So that is why we stood in that long line and people were constantly running to their flights!

Ok so now we are boarded on JetAir - a very nice airline. Sat on the runway again waiting for people to clear security. Leave not at 10 but sometime around 11:30 - least I think that was the time. Long long flight-- 8 plus hours. It is morning and we are circling Mambia. Apparently there is a raging storm below and there is no visibility to land. The airport is closed. Getting low on fuel so the plan is to fly to New Dehli - 1 1/2 hours away and re-fuel. When we get to New Dehli we learn that Mambia is still closed.
We are transported off the plane and learn that our packs are not with us. Where they are is a mystery. Good thing we packed spare clothes!Spent another hour processing lost baggage claims.
End result we are staying in New Dehli and awaiting a flight back to Mambia. The airline has put us up in a very very nice hotel so we can at least sleep vertically! Wow!!!

We are tired and slighty sore from sitting for almost 36 hours. To say the least it has been an adventure!!!

Just learned that we are leaving 4:30 am India time for the airport and to Mambia. Maybe...just maybe we will get to Sangam. Now it would be nice if our packs were there as well.

Wednesday, June 27 - Thursday, June 28

Well some of us are ready, however there are a few members who will burn the midnight oil ...packing, treating their clothes or making swaps. Eva just dropped off part of my uniform - a white blouse which is now soaking in the infamous Everglades Outdoor Protective Clothing Treatment Insect Repellent. Stuff sounds nasty but we are told it works!

I was up past 12 midnight making swaps. Simply forgot about that agenda item. My swap theme is a Daisy.... With my daughter's wedding being all about daisies I thought it was a fitting swap.

Below is a basic outline of the order of events...

Fly out from Philadelphia to London. Quickly change planes and fly from London to Mumbai. From Mumbai we will take a chartered bus to Pune and our first stop - Sangam World Centre. Sangam is one of four World Centres of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

The troop will be attending the following program:

Holistic Living (7 days): July 1-7

Improve your sense of well being through healthy living and eating. Learn yoga and meditation in the safe, serene surroundings of Sangam. Discover thousands of years of Indian culture, philosophy and spirituality as you experience ayurveda, vegetarian cooking, Indian massage and natural medicine.

I think I can speak for Eva,Linda in that we look foward to the "serene" surroundings and especially the Indian massage. Last week, Eva's daughter graduate from high school, my daughter's wedding was on Saturday -June 23 and Linda has been working 10 to 12 hour days.

In addition, to the Holistic Living events, we will experience the excitement of Indian life such as visiting a family in Pune, trying Indian food, visiting an outdoor market and, of course, go sari shopping.

When we leave Sangam on the 7th, we will be on a guide tour for approx. 11 days visiting cities such as Delhi, Agra, Jaipur, Pushkar, and ending in Mumbai.

Spent today -Thursday- running with Linda dropping off last minute materials to parents and buying last minute items. Discovered we had no double A batteries in the house and I needed to have pictures developed for my family album which we share with our host Indian family. No time to put it together now so I leave that for the 15 hour plane ride

Namaste

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