Trip to Sangam

The purpose of the trip was to attend the triennial meeting of FOSI (Friends of Sangam International) with representatives from around the world who are supporting Sangam. We left NZ on 13 January and returned home on 25 January after a short tour in north India.

We spent our last evening in NZ going through all our gear and information, and sharing out the extra “baggage” between us– including many kilos of the FOS metal badges we were taking as a FOSNZ fundraising project. The next morning we checked in and began the 20hr journey to Mumbai via Singapore. Going through immigration at Mumbai Airport the security guard was intrigued by the “metal blobs” on the x-ray of our bags – as we were! After thinking about it, we realised what they were and tried to explain without having to open the bags to show him our supply of FOS metal badges; fortunately he understood and let us carry on.

New Buddha garden developed in January 2010

We finally arrived at our hotel around 1am local time, so our first night in India was a bit short night as we emerged for a very tasty Indian breakfast in the gardens of the hotel before heading off for a really awesome day in Mumbai. Pamela Cooper (an ex-pat NZ GirlGuiding leader) and her shopping friend (and driver Raju) took us for a day of shopping. We finished the day with coffee with the family at one of their local coffee houses (run by an Aussie), then a walk through their village to get some supplies, then up the hill to their home. We had a tour of their apartment and sampled some “street food” which was rather yummy, then sat chatting about life in India for an ex-pat.

The next day we flew to Pune. After a 2½hr delay, we finally arrived and were relieved to be greeted by a Sangam volunteer and a car (and the 3 Aussies, who had been on tour up north); so we were quickly on our way to Sangam with time to settle in before lunch – then in the afternoon we went into MG Road for some retail therapy. It was great being back at Sangam; catching up with the familiar Sangam faces and meeting the new people that have recently taken up residence – it really does feel like “home”!

The next three days we had the FOSI meeting with representatives from around the world, including one via Skype. We covered things like FOS policies, promotional and fundraising activities, membership and different way of supporting Sangam; it was all very “interesting” and was great to share in what we are doing in NZ as well as get ideas from other FOS groups. Aruna took us on a tour of Sangam explaining all the work that had been done over the past three years and outlined some of the exciting future developmental work. On the second day we did a morning visit the community organisations that Sangam works with – I finally got to visit a mobile crèche, which was awesome.

After the meeting everyone slowly started departing for home or on other travels; we had one more day at Sangam, which was spent doing the markets and shops at Laxmi Road and MG Road with Darshana (ex-Sangam Deputy World Centre Manager) and Miriam (from Kenya). It was great fun wandering around the shops and stalls looking at the wares and trying to convince the ever persistent salesperson that one was enough or that that was not the right size, colour or shape.

FOSI Chair with Regional Chairs
left to right: Miriam (Kenya, Africa),
Jane (FOSI Chair),
Annette (Australia, Asia Pacific),
Liz (UK, Europe)

The rest of our trip was a short “tour” in north India, the highlight of which was a very full day in Jaipur. Our guide for the day (Shankar) turned up at 8.30am and introduced himself and briefly explained the programme for the day, which began with an elephant ride up Amber Fort. We then went for another elephant ride in "the jungle" (at Dera Amer) followed by a lovely lunch in a "very British" setting. Next we did some shopping and sightseeing – City Palace Museum, Hawa Mahal (Palace of Winds), Jantar Mantar (observatory), Jal Mahal, block printing, carpet making/weaving, jewellery, etc.

Shankar was excellent! He was very easy to listen to and understand, and had sussed out quite early on what we liked. He was also a very patient man and waited as we searched for bargains and tossed up colour options. We had a lot of laughs - and we think he enjoyed his day too! We later found out that he had missed attending a wedding because he was our guide for the day.

Elephant Safari

We also spent a day in Delhi with a local guide. The sightseeing was a bit disappointing as many of the places we were to see were closed due to preparations for Independence/National Day celebrations three days later (26 January); we couldn't even stop to take a decent picture of India Gate – my photo is obscured by the haze (we were so far away) and army personnel with firearms! Our guide and driver said they had never seen the roads so empty. However, we did get to visit Safdarjung's Tomb (which inspired the design for the Taj Mahal), Lotus Temple (which was one of the few places open and the queues to get in were very long) and Qutab Minar (which the highest stone tower in India built in 1192; 72.5 metres). Then we had a very yummy lunch of the local cuisine before doing a bit more last minute shopping – making sure that everything on the list had been ticked.

Considering all the shopping we did, we both managed to squish everything into our bags and have them weigh in less than 20kg – so avoided having to pay any excess baggage.

It was quite a short trip with different focus to previous trips; it gave us an opportunity to interact with FOS groups and share how we can best support and promote this World Centre we all love so much.