Well, we were warned that this trip would not be about rest and relaxation! After waking up at 3:15 AM, we drove to the airport with some tired travellers and many boxes and suitcases, plus a Sefer Torah that Ralphy got for us from his shul. We flew to Delhi and transferred planes to a flight for Manipur, one of the 7 states that make up India. It was not a direct flight so we finally made it to the Infal airport at around 2PM.
We were exhausted but of course, Ari Z. was very excited that we landed at an airport that you had to walk down stairs to get out of the plane!! He said that any airport that has approximately 1 flight arriving every day is his kind of airport!!. We were taken with 8 cars to our hotel, the Classic Grande of Infal, which just opened in November 2015.
Infal is a city of 1 million people which is the closest place we could stay to where we were driving to on Monday.
We were able to get to the Ema Market in town after we dropped off our luggage. Normally, this market is a collection of 3 buildings that look like open parking garages which contains hundreds of vendors selling everything from foodstuffs to all types of clothing. However, the area suffered an earthquake recently that damaged the buildings- the vendors are forced to sell on the street which creates a greater difficulty for passing motorists! We made some quick purchases and headed back to the hotel. During dinner, the Aris entertained us with great stories and a powerpoint presentation of some of their travels around the world.
We all headed to bed early to rest up which promised to be a great day on Monday but turned out to be an unforgettable one. I write this Monday evening and I am falling asleep while typing so despite the fact that I want to write about our memorable day visiting the Bnai Menashe, i will have to put it off until tomorrow night. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!!