This week I am visiting Iran for the first time in twelve years. It's a great time to be here because a lot of people are out of town. My aunt heard on the radio that 20 million Iranians are traveling right now because it's Persian New Years holiday. The result of the exodus is that we have no traffic, pollution, and a cleaner city to romp around in. Tehran has also developed in the last 12 years as most major cities have around the world. I am really enjoying my Tehran time because of all this and just being with my family. Since most of the "kids" in the family are now living abroad, I get to be the benefactor of their absence and get extra spoiled by my relatives.
Jen, Carla and I went on our last trip in India this last weekend with Ruthu and Gina. We went to the Venice of India – Kerala. This was the perfect trip to end our journey in India. After flying down to Cochin and staying there for a night we spent a relaxing 24 hours on the Vipalsa house boat. We read, watched movies, played cards, had good food and caught up on random things in our lives. Despite our moments of difference, I have really enjoyed all our trips. You learn and share a lot when you travel with people. We shared many firsts times, like river-rafting, and shared and created a lot of memories. I will miss everyone I came to India with and everyone that I have met.
On Monday after work Jen and I made our way through Delhi traffic to go the Jama Masjid mosque. Walking through the long parkway, which was packed with vendors, to the mosque entrance was just as challenging as the Delhi traffic. At the entrance of the mosque some man greeted us and said that we had to wear these ridiculous blue frocks that looked like something you get at a hair salon. They were bright blue plastic with some paisley design. Jen and I were suspicious at first and pushed back. Our friends had been here a couple weeks ago and they didn't have to wear a frock. We were not about to be duped like newbie tourists! We told the guy that we were not going to wear it. We pointed to all the other women walking around without having to wear blue mumus. He insisted that the other women were Muslims and didn’t have to wear it but we had to. It didn’t make sense because how did he know what their religion was or ours for that matter.
After some going back and forth we just put it on because this is this biggest mosque in India and we didn’t want to not see it. When we walked in, I just saw more Indian ladies in their normal attire not wearing a ridiculous frock. I was getting annoyed because Saris show more skin then the long pants and sleeved clothes we were wearing under this huge, plastic sheet. Then I started looking around the plaza and saw pockets of blue Smurfs like women fidgeting with their attire while scrambling around. All the foreign women were wearing them too. This relaxed us a bit and we let the guy who gave us the frock be our unofficial guide. He walked us around and tried to tell us about the mosque but his tour was just as silly as the frocks we were wearing.
The "guide" didn't know anything about the mosque history. So now again, I was back to thinking that this was a scam. The guide who called himself the guide didn’t even know what year the mosque was built! He was more obsessed with making sure the frock was in place. Several times he adjusted my frock. At the end of “the tour” he insisted he walk us out even though we wanted to take more pictures. We ended up taking some pictures but I would never frame them or anything because you can’t see the mosque! The frocks are covering everything including the mosque. Finally he walked us out and got our frocks and asked for 20 rupees each to wash them! We only gave him 20 rupees instead of 40 but I am still not sure if this was a scam. I told people at the office and some people said it was legit some people just laughed. Maybe one of these days, someone will see Jen and I on an episode of Candid Camera. If you do, please let me know.
On the way back from Rishikesh we stopped at Hardiware. Hardiware is a holy city. A lot of people there to give blessing to the river. We each bought one of the little boats of flowers with incense and candle and send our little boats in the Ganga river carrying our wishes.
We went to Rishikesh on Friday for a weekend of bonding with the Ganga river. Rishikesh is a big hippie town by the Ganga river. The Beatles spent a month in an Ashram there so it's famous for that as well. Saturday we went river rafting on the Ganga. This was my first time and I didn’t know what to expect. Eddie, our guide, was very cautious. We had to go through all these safety precautions before we got in the raft.I was a bit worried about tipping over especially because the water was really cold. The first rapid we went on was a 4 on a scale where 6 is the most challenging. Before we got to “The Wall,” Eddie gave us a pep talk on what to expect. He said that there was a possibility that we tip over and give us detailed instructions on what to do when we tipped over. All the precaution talk made me think that we really were gonna tip over. We went through it and we didn’t tip. I think he was just trying to get us psyched about the wall to have a little fun. It wasn’t that bad at all.
