Hi all, my name’s Dale. I’m a friend of Chris and Laura’s from way back and I’m going to India.
Here’s a little background for my trip:
My grandmother was the daughter of a Scottish Protestant minister stationed in India during the first half of the 20th Century. She was born and raised in Seoni, India, at the Mission Compound, which was built by my great grandfather. The compound still stands today and includes a school, an orphanage, a hospital and a church (obviously). Seoni also happens to be the town from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book.
I grew up listening to my grandmother’s stories of crafty monkeys, spitting camels and her pet cobra-killing mongoose, and it’s long been a dream of mine to visit India.
Today, I’m flying into Dehli (reportedly one of the worst airports in the world) with my mother, Margie, father, Kim and sister, Dana. Dana is living in Dublin right now, which is currently under a cloud of volcanic ash, so we’re hoping she makes it without too much of a delay.
We’ll be staying in Dehli for for four days before attending the wedding of the granddaughter of two orphans who grew up in the Mission Compound.
After the wedding we’ll be heading to Jaipur for a day, then to Agra to see the Taj Mahal (these two cities along with Delhi are referred to as the Golden Triangle).
We’ll then be taking a train down to Seoni, where we’ll be staying in a nearby tiger reserve at night (where my great-grandfather hunted tigers before they had “nature reserves”) and visiting the Mission Compound during the day.
After Seoni we’ll be taking a train up to Mumbai where we’ll check Bollywood out for a couple days before we head back to Vancouver.
Rock on!
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