From Burg Khalifa to an Indian Wedding

Our day started early as we had the first booking to go to the top of the Burg Khalifa Tower, the tallest tower in the world. Construction started in 2004 and finished in 2009. It was fun viewing all the media visual timelines and we were proud seeing that the CN Tower was the tallest tower for 33 years. We thought it was rather uncanadian to be participating so fully in the "look at me" wars. It was also interesting to note that much of the testing for the wind forces was done in Ontario. 

We arrived at the airport quite early for our flight, but while relaxing in the luxurious, spacious, and SILENT Dubai airport, with NO announcements, we almost missed our flight...they had even taken down the boarding walkway to the plane. The flight was uneventful, but let's just say we really missed our Airbus 380! 

Seeing Doris' smiling face when we walked out of the plane into Bangalore, was a welcome relief. Our trip back to our Ashram reminded me very much of the driving in Guatemala - the constant beeping of horns really a conversation among the crowd of pedestrian cars somehow finding their way down this highway. 

We had our first authentic Indian meal which was delicious. The only difficulty we encountered was eating with our hands and more specifically only with our right hands. It is considered to impolite to eat to use your left as that hand is traditionally used for other bodily functions!

However the highlight of our day was not the fireworks going off in the street right in front of our Ashram or lingering on the verandah after a great meal, but rather getting invited to an Indian wedding. I was taking a picture of the beautiful flowers when this man invited us to the wedding..."you come". He paraded us up to the stage to introduced us to the bride and groom where we joined in the ceremony complete with family pictures! We then were invited to eat and I tried to decline but that was impossible. We ate off big green palm leaves and at least we knew to eat with our right hands! I took a double dose of grapefruit seed extract after that! On the way out, we were quite impressed with the room full of men in loin cloths...we still don't know what that was all about.