More stories from Haifa

Seeing as we have now finished with the Turkish leg of our adventure (unless Andrew decides to add anything more!), I thought that I would continue on with some more pilgrimage stories and photos from Haifa...

Andrew sitting outside the Pilgrim Reception Centre soaking up some early morning sunlight!

The first thing that we had to do upon arrival in Haifa before our official pilgrimage programme was due to begin was to register at the Pilgrim Reception Centre located halfway up Mt Carmel, adjacent to the Shrine of the Bab. We began our first excited walk up the mountain at about 7:15am the next morning (Monday 8th January), so eager were we to be there at the opening time of 8:00am. Later on we found that we could manage the walk from our hotel to the Pilgrim Reception Centre within half an hour. Registration was simply a matter of collecting our name badges, a package of information containing our schedule for the next ten days and maps of Haifa and Akka. We then watched a brief audio-visual presentation which also gave us further information about the upcoming programme and some do's and dont's so that everyone could enjoy the experience as fully as possible.

The whole process of Baha'i pilgrimage is very orderly and carefully-planned, from the moment you make your request to come on pilgrimage, to the moment you set foot in Haifa about 3-5 years later! I had made my initial request for pilgrimage some time in 2000 and early in 2005 received an invitation letter saying that my name had come to the top of the waiting list. I was able to add Andrew's name to my request so that we could participate in everything together. With the letter we received a list of about 12 pilgrimage dates that we could select from, covering an eighteen-month span. We were lucky enough to receive our first preference, which thankfully allowed us the time to travel to India and Turkey beforehand.

Over 350 Baha'is from around the world arrive at the Baha'i World Centre every fortnight for their nine-day pilgrimage. This large group is further sub-divided into language groups - the predominant ones being English, Persian, French and Spanish. There are roughly ten of these smaller groups, with approximately 30-35 pilgrims in each one. It is in this smaller group that you make most of your visits to the holy places during pilgrimage. Each group has a pilgrimage guide who takes the group on their scheduled visits and explains some of the history and stories behind each place that is visited.

The Prison Barracks in Akka, where Baha'u'llah was held for 2 years. The cell on the right with the two windows close together facing towards the sea was Baha'u'llah's.

Apart from our scheduled visits to the Shrines of Baha'u'llah and the Bab and other sites such as the prison barracks in Akka, plenty of time was also allowed for individual visits to these places, as well as other places of interest such as the site for the future Baha'i House of Worship in Haifa. We also visited a number of houses that Baha'u'llah stayed in after He was released from the barracks in 1870 until His passing in 1892.

An obelisk marking the site for the future Baha'i House of Worship on Mt Carmel

On the second day of our pilgrimage, we were very warmly welcomed by the nine members of the Universal House of Justice - the democratically-elected international governing body of the Baha'i Faith. Each of these nine members shook hands with every single pilgrim, often stopping for some time to chat, just like old friends! This was a real highlight for me personally - these wonderful people, who occupy such a highly-respected and esteemed position in the Baha'i Faith, talked and mingled with all of us with such genuine warmth, affection and love, that one could not help but be inspired and touched by this seeming contrast of power and status combined with deep humility and sincerity.

The Universal House of Justice building is modelled on the timeless classic Greek architectural style of the Parthenon

On one of the last days of our pilgrimage, we were taken on a tour of the Baha'i administrative buildings that grace Mt Carmel in an arc just to the left of the Shrine of the Bab. Again it was wonderful to be inside these majestic, timeless buildings that are now thoroughly embedded into the mountainous landscape around them. It was interesting to hear that the Universal House of Justice building, the centrepiece of the arc buildings, was actually modelled on the Parthenon - a classic design built to withstand the elements, as well as architectural trends over the centuries! Each of the Baha'i administrative buildings extends for a number of storeys below the surface, so what you see is really just the tip of the iceberg so to speak! All of the Baha'i buildings in Haifa and Akka have been entirely funded by voluntary contributions from Baha'is throughout the world.

The Centre for the Study of the Texts.
Andrew used to call this building, somewhat irreverently, "the doughnut building", but later re-christened it "the polo-mint building"!

One of the other major highlights of pilgrimage, apart from just being surrounding by so much beauty, history and tranquility, was meeting other Baha'is from around the world. There were over 30 nationalities represented amongst the 300 pilgrims, including Baha'is from New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Brazil, Malaysia, Spain, Gabon, Romania, Cameroon, France, USA, El Salvador, Seychelles, South Africa, Vanuatu, Ireland, Shetland Islands, Peru, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Chile, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Russia, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Thailand and New Caledonia, as well as dozens of Aussies! Being amongst people from almost every corner of the planet, united in one purpose, sharing the same beliefs and ideals, we really felt like we were part of a global family. It was something special to be able to cross barriers of language, culture, race, age and circumstance so easily...for us it was a chance to witness the unity and diversity of the Baha'i Faith in action!

The members of our small pilgrim group - Group C. There were Baha'is from Canada, USA, Sweden, Scotland, Ireland, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Australia in our group. Our pilgrim guide, the lady in the light blue jumper on the right, was Ursula Grossman, with Finnish-German heritage.

Almost there...

After almost 45 days of adventuring across 3 different countries, we are just 9 hours away from returning home again. The return leg of our journey back to Perth has been challenging - we left Haifa at 5pm on Wednesday afternoon, spent that night at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv before our early morning flight to Turkey. We arrived in Istanbul at about 9am on Thursday morning, where Shanks and I, despite being severely sleep-deprived at that stage, went in search of the famed Bosphorus cymbals (more about that adventure in another blog!). Then we snatched a few hours of sleep at the hotel we stayed in previously, before setting out to make some last minute purchases (well, you didn't really expect us to leave Turkey without a carpet did you?). At midnight we hopped in a taxi to the airport for our 2:15am flight to New Delhi, arrived there at midday on Friday and once again, without having slept very much at all, had one final Indian market experience (not to mention one final masala dosa!) before heading back to the Baha'i House of Worship for some much needed peace and tranquility. This achieved, we experienced one last crazy rickshaw ride to the airport...there is nothing like a 1 hour rickshaw ride through the streets of Delhi to make you so glad to leave India! Despite our trepidation upon arriving once again at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, our fears were allayed as soon as we saw that there were no unimaginably horrendous queue awaiting us - we even ended up having an hour to spare before boarding!

We landed at Changi Airport at about 4:30am this morning, our third night without uninterrupted sleep! However, being in Changi has a tendency to relax and refresh you straight away - the airport is so clean and visually beautiful, full of little comforts like the famed foot massagers, exotic gardens and of course, the free internet (great for killing time!). We now have about 3 hours left before our flight to Perth...we both have mixed feelings upon our imminent return home. Our travels have provided such wonderful experiences that partly we both feel like just keeping on going. On the other hand, there is never anything quite like home. Shanks is looking forward to returning to his evening musings in the garden and meeting the latest duck/chicken arrivals that hatched while we were away! And we're both looking forward to a looong sleep!

Well, the next post will no doubt be from the comforts of our own home, where we will be able to post lots more photos and magical moments to share with you all.

Trying to leave India...

Leaving India ended up being rather more difficult than we had imagined (and we had already imagined it to be pretty difficult)! Our flight was scheduled to depart at 1:15pm. We managed to check ourselves in on-line the night before, so we weren't in a huge hurry to get to the airport. In fact, before arriving at the airport, we managed an all too brief visit to the Baha'i House of Worship in New Delhi, named the Lotus Temple, and attracting well over 3 1/2 million visitors each year (some photos are below). We spent a quiet hour in prayer and reflection and had a brief look at the impressive information centre, which wasn't there 5 years ago when I first visited. We hope to come back for a few more hours during our stopover on the return leg of our journey back to Perth.

Anyway, we arrived at the airport at around 11:45am. There are no signs telling you what to do or where to go, and it was only previous experience that told us that the first thing we had to do was get our bags scanned. We did this fairly promptly and then proceeded to find our check-in counter. Again, no problem, though the queue here took about half an hour. As we were lining up to check-in, we noticed an alarmingly long line of people waiting to go through the security checks. Hoping the queue would be somewhat diminished by the time we had to line up, we completed the rest of the check-in procedures swiftly. By this time however, the rather long queue had multiplied phenomenally and was now coursing through the entire departures terminal like a gigantic human snake! A little bit startled, but nevertheless good-humoured (after all, we thought, we are in India), we proceeded to try to find the end of the line. This in itself took a good few minutes, as the human snake had doubled and re-doubled on itself in an attempt to create some semblance of order in a fairly chaotic situation. Taking our place at the end of the queue, it was now our turn to observe the looks of sheer bewilderment and horror as fellow travellers also realised the full extent of the queuing scenario that was about to greet them.

The queue was moving fairly slowly and we had just made our way around one coil, when two parts of the line decided to merge into one. Not ones to get too worried by this we kept in line and went with the flow. However, with the finishing line just in sight - the inevitable happened - queue jumpers appeared and decided that instead of lining up at the end they would try to sneak in at the start! Understandably, this incensed a few fellow-queuers - one American lady started yelling at the little sneaks to "Go away", and suitably-chastened, a large party of shame-faced Finnish passengers took their rightful place at the end of the huge line. However, this didn't stop others from trying it on, and finally, with the camel's back well and truly broken, an Englishman decided that he had a cause to champion on behalf of his fellow sufferers who had, like us, patiently stood in line for an hour and a half already. He took his cause up with one family - mum, dad and son, and things, inevitably got quite fiery, with the Englishman refusing to give up, and the man and son raising their voices and getting very upset. The beleaguered Indian airport officials, when called upon to intervene, did nothing - you could see in their eyes that this was a situation that happened frequently and they felt powerless to deal with it. The stoush continued for a good fifteen minutes, until finally the queue-jumping crew were removed to the back of the line. Small victory indeed, as many of the on-lookers themselves had pushed in and were probably hoping that no-one would point the finger at them too.

Anyway, by this time, our plane should have taken off an hour ago, yet we were still in the line. Obviously no procedures to speed up the processing of those passengers whose planes are first to depart. A few times, a lady came around calling for Turkish Airlines passengers. We eagerly identified ourselves to her, but it was no more than a head-counting game and we resigned ourselves to the fact that we may never end up leaving New Delhi after all. By this time, we realised that "foggy conditions" are really just a convenient cover-story for the Indian Airport Authority - delayed flights have got nothing to do with the weather at all - it's all just the complete lack of proper procedures and systems to deal with passenger arrivals and departures!

Finally, when we had been waiting for over three hours, together with another couple travelling on the same flight as us, we were bumped up to the front of the line (much to the annoyance of others!). We cleared the security checks in a flash and raced towards the boarding gates. Two hours after our scheduled departure time we were in the skies, quite happy to be leaving the chaos and confusion of India behind us...and no doubt to happily return again many times in the future!

Photos of the Baha'i House of Worhsip in New Delhi

http://info.bahai.org/article-1-6-0-7.html

One of the paths leading to the Baha'i House of Worship in New Delhi

Thousands of people from all faiths visit the House of Worship every day

A view of the interior of the House of Worhsip

Aerial view of the House of Worhsip, about 1/2 hour from the centre of the city

The House of Worship at night