The Beginning...
So... Chiraag and I set off on the 21st December 2011 to start our big adventure. Our luggage managed to be under the weight limit for our flight, and Dad managed not to cry at the airport (or so he says). We arrived in Baroda - the state of Gujarat - India the next day.
We spent the first week in India staying with Chiraag's grandparents and Uncle and Aunt. It was so lovely to meet all of the family and they were so nice to me! I particularly liked Preeti Mami (Aunty) who told me I looked absolutley lovely in what seemed like every outfit I wore. One of the cousins also took me under her wing and made a real effort to explain everything to me... she even conspired with me to pass messages back and forward with Chiraag when he was supposed to be busy focussing on his brotherly duties. I could actually tell you a particularly touching story about every member of the Patel family, but I wont fit them all in...
I had some trouble with the language - obviously because I dont speak any of it - but Twisha was really good at translating for me (much better than Chiraag), and when she wasn't telling me what people said I often just made it up in my head... My advice for other people in the same position though is not to tell anyone what conversation you are imagining - at one point I thought Chiraag's uncle was teasing him, when in fact he was just planning the rest of the day - I looked pretty stupid. I did have one hilarious moment when Twi translated something her grandpa said to me... except he'd said it in english... she was very impressive with my language skills! She had obviously got so immersed that she didn't know what language was being spoken.
It was really good to get to Baroda as early as we did. It meant I got to know the family, I got all the descriptions of what was going to happen for the wedding, and I even got to be involved in some of the last minute organisation.
The Wedding
My highlights from the wedding were:
The Sangeet (pronounced with a soft g like in great - not a hard one like in jail)
A night of entertainment and dancing for both sides of the family before the wedding ceremony - kind of like the reception, but before the wedding.
The night started with some performances by a dance group doing traditional dances (including one hilarious guy who's whole act was to make birds by twisting up teatowels - but while constantly spinning around on the spot. He made me laugh so much); then Indian stick dancing like you see on tv (which us whiteys sucked at terribly. My excuse is that different people kept doing different moves... but really it was just that I was unco-ordinated); then dinner.
The best part though, was at the end of the night when all of the 'oldies' had gone home. It was just the friends from aus, the cousins from both sides, and the very close family left - we cracked open a few bottles of alcohol, took over the music, and had a good dance. Krunal's cousin showed us some Indian dance moves and one of the professinal dancers showed us the beginning steps of Thriller... Everyone got up and into it and it was so so much fun!
The Vidi
Ceremonies and prayers are held separatly by the families of both the bride and groom to celebrate the coming wedding.
On the morning of the Vidi I spent some time with Twisha and the grandparents while the rest of the family went to Krunal's family's celebrations. I loved having another chance to sit and chat with Twisha - my very wonderful 'future sister in law'.
The Vidi itself was also lovely. It was great to see all Twisha's friends and family having fun and celebrating her, which was really what it was all about. A part of the Vidi was the Pithi, which everyone got very into - much to Twisha's anoyance. You may have seen a Pithi on tv before - it is where the friends and family cover the engaged person with a tumeric paste or powder. In this case Twi had a bright yellow paste... there was not one inch of her that wasn't covered in yellow. It was such a laugh.
The weddingA wedding - dah
The wedding ceremony was amazing and Twisha and Krunal looked great. I've never seen as much gold out of a shop as Twisha was wearing that night. Everyone looked good actually - we were all in our best gear and I'd even have someone do my hair! If you were wondering though, a sari is the most uncomfortable thing I've ever worn...
Krunal and his family arrived in a giant silver carriage pulled by white horses and lead by dancers. It looked amazing when they got to us. When they did some fireworks were set off... I have to say we didn't have the best luck with fireworks that week, and this occasion was no better - I got hit by some debris (luckily cold, not hot) and a palm tree was set on fire. It was an impressive entrance :)
The venue was amazing - with carpets and colours and lights. I've never seen anything like it.
And unfortunatly, at that point I have to stop giving you detail, because after that I spent the whole evening trying to steal Krunal's shes... Explanation: apparently it is a tradition that the friends and cousins of the bride are supposed to steal the grooms shoes and then bribe him to get them back... his side are supposed to protect the shoes. For most of the wedding they were winning, but I felt it was my duty to make a good go at winning for Twi's side (as most of her people were white and sitting politely watching the ceremony). So I prowled around and around the stage, scoping out the movements of the 'enemy' and actually going through old ladies bags - looking for these shoes. In the end my efforts were for naught, but luckily Twisha's cousin stepped up... she got a look at a shoe, grabbed it and sprinted around the back of the crowd at amazing speed (while the ceremony was still going). A few of us got involved in the tackle and in the end we got about $100 out of Krunal :)
The Buddymoon
The day after the wedding, at 5am, we got on a bus to start our India tour - called the Buddymoon. Twisha and Krunal decided not to go on a honeymoon after the wedding, and instead got on a bus with 26 friends and family. You may think it was crazy of them, but I thought Twisha's explanation made a lot of sense - they will be able to got on holidays together for the rest of their lives, but there wont be many opportunities to go on holiday with so many of their close friends...
We had the early start to get us out of Gujrat in time for New Years Eve, and it was well, well worth the 14 hours of driving. As we got into Jaisalmer - the town we were staying at - we we were all so glad; but as we started to drive OUT of town we were worried. By that time we had started to get a little loopy - with the blue party lights on and music over the PA - so when we saw a massive, beautiful castle (literally a castle) a chant started up of "turn, turn, turn, turn...". When we actually did turn into the castle's driveway a disbeliebving cheer went up. This was the nicest, fanciest place I have ever stayed, and probably ever will stay. Chiraag and I even managed to score a suite (by accident, I swear).
This hotel had a New Years Eve party with an AMAZING buffet and an AMAZING view. I'm pretty confident it was my best new years to date... I got a lovely kiss for Chiraag at 12, and there were fireworks, dancing, and even floating lanterns... I loved it.
I'll just give a breif(ish) run-through of where we went and what we did on the buddymoon after that and you can get the rest of the detail from facebook photos when I put them up soon.
Jaisalmer
New Years Eve in the Castle. See above.
A night staying in tents in the desert. Dont think camping - think arabian nights, with double beds and ensuites in each tent; camel rides for sunset; and sheesha in a circular tent that we secretly turned into an 'opium den' by stealing all the extra blankets for the floor. It was freezing but so so much fun.
Ps. I bullied Chiraag into coming on the camel, which he didn't want to do as camel riding is apparently hard on a boy's junk; and he bullied me into letting him get the camel to run. It turns out that it's not as scary as I thought - really fun in fact AND it is more comfortable for boys as the motion is more smooth and not so smack-in-the-balls-ey. I recommend it. On the down side our camel handler sometimes made our camel run by smacking it in the balls... Swings and roundabouts I guess...
Jodhpur
I cant remember! How terrible is that? I'm sure it involved a fort though. And I'm sure I had a good time with the other buddymooners.
Jaipur
Got up early for a camel ride and a tour of Amer fort. Best fort we saw in India. Managed to avoid being tricked into a 'textile exhibit' by our tour guide then ditched him in retaliation. Went for a meal in a fantastic dingy looking restaurant on a rooftop. Chiraag taught Rikki and Ryan (from the buddymoon who suggested the restaurant) how to eat with one hand - indian style; and Rikki had to pee on the roof as there were no toilets. All 4 of us agreed that a lot of the people on the buddymoon would have refused to eat at that place. We loved it.
We then made our way to the City Palace. Worst palace we saw in India :)
Agra
The drive to Agra was terrifying - there was thick fog most of the way and sometimes you couldn't see more that 10m in front of the bus. The bus driver didn't let a little thing like that slow him down though...
Luckily it had mostly cleared up in time for us to see the Taj Mahal! It was huge and beautiful. I couldn't believe the amount of work that must have gone into it - the detail in the marble inlay was amazing!
After that, even though we were all tired, hungry and grumpy we went to the Amer fort. I'm glad we did - it was amazing and interesting with the best guide we'd had on the trip.
New Delhi
Our weakest effort of the buddymoon. By this time a few of us were sick and all of us were tired and sick of the bus. So we only really saw the Lotus temple then hit the hotel. The hotel was very nice though...
And that was the end of the Buddymoon! It was really sad when it ended, as we'd met a whole lot of really great people, many of whom I would want to maintain a real friendship with if we were going back to bperth.
But to be honest I am glad I'm not still on a tour... Trying to organise 28 people is annoying!
After the buddymoon Chiraag and I stayed on in Delhi for a couple of nights. I'm glad we did as we both got well enough to have a look around the old city a little bit and it was nice. It was a bit of culture shock going from the Radisson to our cheap (slightly smelly) hotel - but thats more our kind of travelling and it got us out and about as we had no reason to lounge around indoors anymore.
England
India was amazing, but it was nice to get to familiar, easy England... Except that there was nothing easy about getting to my cousin's house in Sidcup!
It took us two hours to get through Heathrow (about an hour and a half in the immigration line) and then the tube line from the airport was down, meaning we had to make about a million transfers with our two walking packs, two giant suitcases and two peices of hand luggage. I kept wanting to tell random people that we are moving and not just some crazy people who cant pack light...!
We landed at 4.30pm and got to our destination at 9.30pm.
When we finally did get to Ian and Becci's though it was great to see them. We slipped so quickly back into comfortable conversation that it felt like I'd never left. I do love my family.
For the week we've been in England we've mostly just spent time hanging out with family, which is just what I wanted to do. Since I was here last 4 extra cousins have been born and it was lovely to meet them. As lovely it's been though, I have to say - staying with 2 kids full time has reinforced my plan to wait to have my own :)
At this point I'd like to mention that Chiraag has been great with all of the kids. He tells me he's no good with them, but once they get over the first fright (which I'm sure is because he's brown and doesn't smile at them) they all really warmed up to him and he got right into playing. He does it naturally and comfortably when no-one's making him - after our trip to the park he had Ewan and Sophie (3) on his lap watching tv, and then Heather (6) pulled her chair up next to him too. He is so gorgeous.
We also caught up with Mike in London and found out how he's settling in (well, by the sounds of it) and bought a couple of bottles of pretty fancy whisky (Chiraag was uber excited).
At this moment I am in Oxford with some more family, and Chiraag is in Bali - after 20 hours of travel all the way back for Tim and Ryan's bucks week.
So in conclusion - our first month of travels has been fun and interesting.
Next month we will be going to Morocco and then on to Canada!
Love Megan and Chiraag
xxxoxxoxxxxoxooxx
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