Incredible India!

Earlier this month Patrick and I travelled to India to attend a wedding of one of my former colleagues from DC. We took an overnight flight into Chennai (formerly Madras) and after a quick nap went to the wedding hall for the 5:30am (!) service. The ceremony was really exciting, although I didn't entirely know what was going on. It took place in a huge room with a stage at the front where the couple and families sat under an elaborately decorated gazebo. There was a band on the side playing music and chanting, and hundreds of people sitting and talking in chairs in the audience.

My curiosity got the best of me, so I quickly befriended two Americans, who worked at the consulate in Chennai, and peppered them with questions about what was going on. At one point the groom pretended to walk away from the marriage, but then symbolically returned to the bride. At another point the priest dudes washed the bride's father's feet. Then the bride disappeared backstage for a while and came back out in a new outfit. Then the final ceremony involved, instead of exchanging rings, tying a necklace around the bride's neck. After the ceremony there was a receiving line to greet the families on the stage. There were about a million people in line, so I skipped that and went downstairs to the big breakfast, where we were served a variety of vegetarian South Indian foods on a big leaf. Yummy!

Later that night Patrick and I went to the reception, where we paid our respects to the family and enjoyed another delicious Indian meal. I also got to wear my sari which was so exciting! It was a bit hot and itchy and I had a hard time keeping it pinned on, but I felt beautiful.

In Chennai Patrick and I explored the old British fort, stumbled upon a religious parade at one of the famous Hindu temples, visited the shrine and tomb of Saint Thomas, enjoyed more meals on banana leaves, and had a few beers at our hotel - the Madras Cricket Club.

Our next adventure took us down the coast to the Mamallapuram temples. It was neat to see the various temples and shrines and the big boulder, which is naturally occurring.

From there we headed to the charming town of Pondicherry, which is a former French colony. The street names are in French and the language is still widely spoken. The town is most famous for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Visitors are allowed inside to meditate by the altar/fountain thing, and I must say it was quite peaceful. I think Patrick's favorite parts of the trip were riding around in the auto-rickshaws and getting blessed by an elephant outside one of the temples. We also toured the Ghandi memorial, beachside boardwalk, city center park, museum, and an arts & crafts market where I picked up some earrings, bags, and notecards. We stayed in this awesome colonial hotel and our room had a huge terrace and one of those beds that you need a small staircase to climb into - so cool!

It was a great trip and we hope to make it to other parts of India in the future.

More From Luxor

I thought I would post just a few more pictures from Luxor. The sites are truly spectacular. If you can brave the heat and the street merchants, it is totally worth a visit!!

Baksheesh

Go to Luxor and you'll hear the word "baksheesh" right away.

You'll hear it from the scores of educated, employable men whose best prospect is to sell you a ride on a falucca (sail boat), caresh (carriage), or to show you some hidden carving in the tomb of Ramses IV. All of them are trying to be helpful, but ultimately, they are looking for baksheesh, a tip ranging from an Egyptian pound to whatever you want to give, and usually for more than that.



It's troublesome but touching too. So many of these men take great pride in being Egyptian even as the state of their country is far more humble than the history they are trying to help you understand. They deserve more than backsheesh, but a society that is worthy or their energy and efforts.



But it wasn't the pharaohs who built those monuments that have lasted four and five millenia – it was guys like the Egyptians we met, trying to feed their families, depending on the "backsheesh" of someone with so much coin that he had enough left over to bury some of it with him when he died – or in our case, to take a weekend getaway.



Kerry certainly deserves some backsheesh for her sense of humor throughout the trip, exotic though it may have been. I can't imagine any other wife who would smile through having her luggage lost, laugh at being the only woman on a flight from Sharjah with a couple hundred unruly passengers, insist that staying in a hotel where the power goes out intermittently "isn't that bad", and fly back home at 3am only to drive three hours through rush hour traffic in Dubai to get me to work.



So backsheesh all around and thanks and a sigh of relief too that we have a comfy home, interesting jobs, air-conditioning, and can get a good night's rest back in Abu Dhabi after a whirlwind of a weekend.

Snow Falling on Cedars

The really incredible thing about Lebanon is the mountains. And I don't think we feel that way just because we spent the majority of the past year stuck in the topographically-challenged desert. They really are spectacular. When you're standing on the sunny corniche in downtown Beirut, you can see the snow-capped peaks in the distance (I hope you can see in the picture here). Patrick kept comparing Lebanon to California, but the analogy didn't seem to resonate with the Lebanese, pick your own reasons why.

So on our last day in Lebanon, we decided to journey to Faraya to check out the ski resorts. After fighting through through the Beirut traffic again and winding our way up the mountains, we came upon something you might see in Colorado or Vermont - a legit ski slope - rather, several slopes - with mobs of people sporting fashionable skiing apparel and shiny skis and snowboards.


We had previously made the decision not to ski (based on Patrick's terrifying yet hysterical performance at Ski Dubai), so we went over to the Intercontinental to have lunch at the base of the slope. Oddly enough we ran into two women that we'd seen the day before at Byblos (Jbeil), and even more oddly enough, they live in Dubai. They invited us to join them for lunch, which we did and had a lot of fun. We found out that one woman was Welsh and one was Lebanese, and like us they are transplants in the UAE. They were there to ski for the weekend, but from the looks of it, I think they were going to be doing more partying than skiing.

All in all, our trip to Lebanon was wonderful and I would highly recommend it!

Jeita, Jounieh and Jbeil

On our second day in Lebanon Patrick and I hired a driver to take us up the coast. After sitting through a lot of traffic on the way out of Beirut, we traveled first to Jeita to see the famous "grotto," or series of limestone caves with crazy looking stalagmites and stalactites. I thought they were really cool, but Patrick informed me that you can see the same thing in Virginia. Unfortunately the Lower Cave was closed due to the high water levels, so we weren't able to ride through on a boat. However, we walked through the Upper Cave, joined by what seemed like all of the school children in Lebanon.


After Jeita we traveled to the coastal town of Jounieh, where we took the teleferique (gondala thing) to the top of a huge mountain. The scary ride was worth the wonderful views from the top, pictured here.




The top of the mountain is actually a pilgrimage site called Harissa. There's a huge statue of the Virgin Mary, which is referred to as Our Lady of Lebanon. Next to the statue is a modern Maronite cathedral.

From Jounieh we traveled to our final and my favorite destination - Jbeil, also known in Greek as Byblos. Jbeil is basically a fishing village, but it happens to have a spectacular archaeological site, due to the fact that it was founded around 5,000 BC and has been inhabited by all kinds of people throughout history - Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, etc (Patrick would know the rest). We had lunch at a nice Lebanese place on the port and then headed to the ruins for a quick tour. I made sure to stop by the souk to pick up a statue of the Phoenician goddess of fertility. :)

Beirut!

Dear family and friends, Patrick and I have just returned from a wonderful weekend in Lebanon.  We spent our first day touring the capital city, Beirut, which is a bustling, modern city similar to the likes of Paris and NYC. Although many of the buildings were damaged or destroyed in the long civil war, much of the city has been and continues to be rebuilt.


A short walk from our hotel in the Hamra neighborhood took us to the beautiful campus of the American University of Beirut. The university buildings are spread out amongst clusters of cedar trees on a large sloping hill which leads down to the sea.   The street running along the university, La Rue Bliss, is packed with students and small eateries serving coffee, crepes and zaatar sandwiches.

From Hamra we walked downtown to check out some of the sights, such as the bullet-riddled Holiday Inn and the derelict St George Hotel, which are an interesting contrast to the glamorous InterContinental Phoenicia Hotel where we dined for lunch. 


After enjoying some shisha (nargileh) at the Place d'Etoile, we explored the Roman ruins, St George's Cathedral, and Mohammed al-Amin mosque, which people say looks like the younger sibling to the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

 
We also paid tribute at the grave of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, who was assassinated in 2005.

No trip to Beirut is complete without some dining and partying in the Gemmayzeh and Achrafiye neighborhoods.  On our first night we met up with one of Patrick's co-workers for dinner and drinks at the very swanky MYU restaurant.  On another night we enjoyed some delicious sushi and local Al Maza beer.

More to come about our excursions in the mountains of Lebanon...

al-'arabiyyah

Exciting news - I finally got around to signing up for Arabic lessons!  I have had four sessions so far, all of which have focused on learning the alphabet - both the sounds and the characters. 

Some of the sounds are so different from the English language that I have a hard time saying them correctly.  It helps greatly that I share an office with my Arabic-speaking boss and thus have exposure to the different sounds almost every day.

The letters are pretty crazy-looking but I'm close to knowing them all by heart.  It is so exciting to be able to recognize certain letters on store signs when walking around town, or on products from the grocery store, and sometimes to be able to sound out the words.  However, I know that I have a long way to go - when I'm watching TV with subtitles, several Arabic words will appear on the screen, yet they change before I can even pick out two letters.

My class is an interesting mix of people - 2 other Americans, 2 Venezuelans, 1 Norwegian, 1 German, 1 South African, and 1 Ukranian.  Everyone speaks English, but it wouldn't really matter because the class is conducted completely in Arabic.  The instructor, originally from Syria, is great.  

It's definitely an exciting and challenging undertaking.  I hope to continue the classes for some time to come.

Here's an image of the word al-'arabiyyah or "Arabic".