Sunday, October 11, 2009

Akshardham

Sunday is the off day around here, we get to sleep in! No physio, only injections in the morning and at night, the doctors all get their day off, and only a couple sisters have to work. My mom and I were woken up around 9 because the "Sunday" doctor wanted to meet with us to check on one thing, then we fell back asleep and finally got up around 11:30. We think I somehow managed to overheat myself by having my shower to hot and there not being any ventilation in the bathroom. My head was going in circles and I couldn't function at all. I turned the air conditioner on as high as it goes and at the lowest temperature. On top of that I turned the fan on the highest speed trying to cool myself down. After lying down for about ten minutes I realized it wasn't helping at all, so I went back into the bathroom and took a cold shower. When I was done with my shower my head wasn't spinning as much, but I definitely still wasn't doing good. It took around two hours to cool me back down. My mom and I had planned on going to a temple called Akshardham, a highly recommended place to go by one of my doctors, with Gabe (a quadriplegic who is around my age) his dad, Matthew and another patients parents that afternoon and I really wanted to go. It was about 2:30 and I still wasn't doing that great, but I was determined to go. My mom had a sister check my vitals, and she gave me clearance to go. Even though I wasn't a hundred percent I decided I wanted to go.
I am
SOO glad I pushed through it and went. It was one of the most spectacular places I have ever seen. All six of us got the "royal treatment." Everything thing there was handicap accessible which is quite the change. Not many places around here are handicap accessible, there is always at least one or two stairs that we have to get over. We got an English speaking guide to walk around with us and tell us about the history and facts about the temple. IMAX theaters are not my favorite at all, especially when the movie is in a different language. They gave us headphones that were supposed to translate everything into English, but it was way too hard to keep up with. After watching the IMAX movie about the story behind the temple we went on a boat ride that totally reminded us of Disneyland's "It's a Small World." The boat ride told us all about the history of India and was interesting if you forgot the fact you felt like you were right at Disneyland. Once we got off the boats, which went smoother than expected considering Gabe and I both had to be transferred out of our chairs into the boat, our guide took us to watch a musical light show. It was incredible. The light show told the story of the yogi, Swaminarayan, whom the temple is dedicated to, and was better than I had expected. There were probably around 10,000 people watching the light show along with us. We got front row seats on a little ledge that looked dead center over all the fountains, the perfect seats. Our guide then took us into a room, the prayer and wishes room, and we got bracelets tied to our right wrists that mean good luck. The most interesting part of the room was when we were each handed a little cup of Ganga water to poor over a statue of the child yogi. While you were slowly pouring the water over the statue (I had my mom do it for me because I couldn't stand) you are supposed to make a wish. It was a experience I won't forget anytime soon, and I am so glad that I pushed myself to go. The bad part of it all was that we weren't allowed to bring our cameras in so I will put up a picture that I found off the Internet to give you an idea of what we saw.

2 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you saw that. I LOVED it...and hate to say it but it was cooler than the Taj Mahal in some ways :)

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  2. How did we miss THAT when I was there!? Were you saving the good stuff for when I left? : ) Sounds fantastic... SO glad you were able to go despite not feeling 100%! NOT having your camera probably helped you be able to take it all in better!

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