A sad farewell

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We got up and packed our bags as today we must leave the gurudwara.

Our friend came to get us and we went for tea.  We then went to the gurudwara where we thought the morning service was taking place.  However, we soon found this service was a blessing especially for us!  Baba Ji presented us both with beautiful flower garlands and special ceremonial scarves, the same as those usually presented to visiting dignatories.  We then lined up for photos.



Next we were taken to have breakfast with Baba Ji.  It is his birthday today so one of the local hotel owners had brought a special birthday breakfast, which was delicious.


Another blessing for our onward journey and us giving our thanks to Baba Ji and it was time to go.  What an amazing experience this has been!!

We went to our friend's apartment upstairs to say goodby to everyone.  Mum insisted on giving Christine a present, a beautiful pair to beaded Punjabi shoes.  What amazing kindness.

We loaded our bags into the car and off we went to the bus station.
At the station our friend located out bus, ensured there were seats for us and bought us some water for the journey.  We said a sad farewell and agreed to stay in touch about whether it will be possible for us to return for the big gurudwara festival on 17 January.  Just as the bus was starting to pull away our friend ran over and gave us a receipt and said, no money for bus.  He had very kindly paid our bus fare.  The kindness we have been offered by this family is so humbling.  

The 4 hour bus journey seemed to pass quite quickly, if a little bumpy as we were stiing over the back wheels. 

We arrived in Nashik and started our walk towards our accommodation.  It took around an hour and it was very hot.  When we arrived outside a girl came from a house over the road, very excited to see us and immediately wanted a selfie, our contact number and Insta!  

Our friend's who we are staying with arrived.  We dropped our bags and went out for chai.  Whilst there our friend's friend came in and we were briefly introduced. When we went to leave it turned out he had paid for our chai - how kind.

In the evening we ate toasted sandwiches and then went for a walk to the park before retiring to bed.


Note : today we received a message from Steven...the  Christmas postcards we had posted from Dalhousie had arrived at home, sort of!  When we had tried to buy stamps for the cards they have insisted we put them in an envelope, add a return address on the back and stick the stamps on the back!  All a bit odd.  Needless to say the cards were delivered to our flat (the return address) not to our mum and dad!! 
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