So I thought I would start my first blog with a re-cap of Simon's and my holiday to India for our Best Friends' wedding in Surat, Gujarat State, India.
We set off on our grand adventure in the early hours of Monday 21st November 2011, flying with AirAsia from Christchurch International headed to Mumbai, India via Kuala Lumpur. The fun began when we landed in KL with less than 2 hours to catch our connecting flight to Mumbai. The transit lounge for AirAsia passengers was crowded and due to the system, where they basically have to check everyone in again, we almost missed our flight. Our luggage was checked all the way through to Mumbai but we people aren't. We arrive in hot humid Mumbai, managed to get a taxi to the train station and sat in the hot air for two hours waiting for our train to Surat. Completely untrusting of everything and anything around us we did dose or move from where were sitting. There was this one lady who became fascinated with my Flight Centre baggage label, she kept turning it over and over and reading it and smiling at me.
Paranoia started to set in on the train ride to Surat wondering how we were going to get to our hotel. Once we arrived at Surat Train Station we disembarked from the train and looked completely lost. Then out of nowhere this face pops round in front of us to say "Hi There you off here?" This gentleman offered to give us a ride to our hotel, Bart was his name, from Belgium, working in the Diamond industry, married to an India lady. Simon was fine, I however started to get more and more freaked out. Along the lines of "we're going to be sold into white slavery". However we made it safely to the Hotel, checked in successfully, had showers and slept. Woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and less freaked out.
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| Our Hotel in Piplod, Surat |
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| Power Lines |
We decided to go for a walk to one of the nearby malls, find water and stuff. It is somewhat a different feeling when you're walking along the road and every tuk tuk and motorcycle driving is slowing down and watching you and not in a stalkery way. It was incredibly hot, such a relief to get water, nice cold water.
After a day to ourselves to orientate about the place we decided to try our hand on the Tuk tuks, we headed out to the front of the hotel to catch one. This is when we learned that they don't really go by road signs, in fact there aren't a lot of them about, the tuk tuk driver had to keep asking for where to go exactly, which wasn't helped by the fact we were given the wrong address by the up and coming bride. We got charged 250Rupees, which is a rip off in Indian sense of things, but we're white. On future tuk tuk rides we got them 100Rs or less, however it did take a bit of haggling.
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| This all of us at Choki Dani |
On the Wednesday there was the start of the whole wedding week, Lagnotri, which is where the sacred invitation is written up an blessed with saffron and kumkum powders. We start out at the Bride's place and then once the invitation is all written up we took a car all the way out to Maroli, about an hour out of Surat, to deliver the contract to the Groom. After this ceremony and lunch we went to a traditional India park, Choki Dani, there was a camel to ride (which I did), a ferris wheel powered by 2 Indians (Simon tried this), monkeys on show and a wee dance thing, where the person got some of us up to dance on stage too. Tea was provided, which was hot hot hot.
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| In the Saree shop |
Thursday was shopping day, us kiwis met up on Ghod Dodd Road, which is where most of the shopping places are for wedding outfits. I hadn't planned on buying a saree but I did in the end. The best part of the day was Simon and Josh getting all panicky about finding something to wear for the wedding. Keisha (Josh's wife) and I asked ourselves how long we could make them wait before there were tears. I think on some level they both learnt how it was for women when someone has a party or gets married. Simon bought his Formal Kurta from a department store G3, where the service was amazing, hand on foot. And the Sarees and Kurtas were amazing. There were little boys Kurta jackets that were just gorgeous, all my nephews almost got one each, they would've looked soooooo ka-ute. Us Girls bought our Sarees from another shop, where when we went back to get my saree, pink of course, the staff and manager wanted a photo with us.
Friday came and it was the start of the wedding ceremonial days. On the Friday there was brunch followed by Harish's ceremonial side of things, Mandap Ropan. While this was happening Bhavisha was getting for the evening's festivities, getting her hair and make up all done, along with getting dressed. Then in the evening there was the Sangeet and Mehendi with loud music and dancing, plus cake for B's birthday.
Saturday we were up early for Bhavisha's Mandap Ropan, which was shorter than Harish's. Then it was time for the Bride to get all prettied up for her big day. Afterwards we were back at the venue for a quick bite to eat and to watch the Jaan (Groom's) procession, where he rode a horse (I had voted for an elephant but no go there), there's a band and dancing in the street. They go down a bit of the street and came back, the Groom is led to the set area of the venue for the official wedding ceremony. The Bride is then led in up the aisle to the Mandap (a heighten stage with four pillars and a fire) to sit beside the Groom.
The ceremony takes a little longer than a church wedding here, there are walks round the fire and blessings made by many of each side of the family. A little more relaxed than one of our weddings here, people chat amongst themselves and come and go. It is a very pleasant and relaxing experience. So very pleased to have been apart of it. After the ceremony the Bride says farewell to her family and then is welcomed by her husband's family, all of which we got to watch and partake in. After this the bride and groom leave. But they game back for dinner.
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| Hard Rock Cafe, Mumbai |
The next day, Sunday, those of us heading on the tour or part of it met back at the venue to catch the ride to the Train station. The fun part was loading all the luggage onto the train in a matter of 5 minutes, making sure we were all sitting in the correct seats and then once we reached Dadar train station in Mumbai trying to get everyone off and all the luggage in about 3 minutes, we did it and no-one or no bag was left behind on the train. We booked into our hotel, the Bawa Regency just a quick walk down from the station. We settled in, had showers etc. It became a consensus that us Kiwi's wanted Hard Rock Cafe for tea. We did try somewhere else first within walking distance but it was closed redecorating. Getting to Hard Rock was a mission but so worth it. We took a bus to get there and then sat down to enjoy burgers and fries and drinks. I have now started my Hard Rock Cafe Glass collection, a pilsner glass from Mumbai (with 2 Hurricane glasses from Singapore & Sentosa).
On Monday Simon and I went down to the Gateway of India with Andrew and his parents (friends of Harish). We stopped in at a Deli cafe/restaurant for lunch which just beautiful, we had a pizza where the base was like puff pastry and literally held together by the toppings, just amazing. At about 5 o'clock that evening we all met up down in the lobby of our hotel to catch our 23 hour train ride to Agra. We trekked to the train station and found the right platform, to find it was running an hour late. But this worked in our advantage as the train made up for lost time and therefore cut the trip down to 22 hours. The hotel in Agra, the Raddisson, was amazing, 5 star, swimming pool, sauna and the food was scrumptious. The purpose of travelling to Agra was to see one of the 7 wonders of the world, the Taj Mahal. We got up early to see the sunrise over the Taj as it changes colour in the light. Such a magnificent sight to see. After the grand tour it was back to the hotel for breakfast, a quick swim before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Delhi for the night.
Our last night in India we were in Delhi, hotel was alright but not as great compared to the others we'd just been in. We went to a mall nearby for tea (McDonalds - where there is only chicken, no red meat) browsed through some of the shops then headed back to watch TV. I was starting to get a little over the bargaining and no road sign, so not knowing where we were going so on our last day in India we spent 11 hours in the airport after checking out at lunch time. We played Barbie Uno, which I bought at G3 in Surat, read a bit, and slept, while we waited to go through to check in.
All in all it was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. A great experience and looking forward to going there again, especially to get my pilsner glasses from Hard Rock in Begalore, Hyderbad & Delhi!!!
