Tales from India

Well hello blogland!! It has been a while but I can confirm I am alive and well in India and am yet to be kidnapped by a handsome Maharajah!!

So here are some random things from my India experience so far!

Traffic in India is CRAZY. Seriously why fit 3 lanes of traffic into a 3 lane highway when you can fit 5. I have sat in enough traffic jams surrounded by beeping cars, auto rikshaws and rikshaws to last me a life time!!

Indian weddings are amazing, spectacular, not to mention long affairs. Komals wedding certainly knocked the socks off of all the one day weddings I have been to in the UK!!

We were adopted into Komals family and were treated so well. The family is enormous, aunts,uncles, cousins, granny, brother and sisters in law all very lovely and welcoming and always on hand to explain wedding rituals and ettiquette to us.

I have learnt that the Sikhs love to party, lots of alcohol and lots of banghra dancing!! I even managed to pick up a few Bollywood moves myself.

Speaking of Bollywood at the reception there was a Bollywood actress there called Neha Dupia who was a friend of the family. Komals cousin was desperate to get a photo with her so he used us tourists as an excuse to introduce himself to her. He never did manage to get a photo I think after the point the she refused to give him her business card his confidence was a little dented!

The event where we all got our hands painted with henna the girls told me that the darker the henna the more your mother in law will love you. That evening we went to Komals who was really peed off that hers hadn't darkened enough whilst mine was ridiculously dark!

At one of the receptions this little Indian granny walked past me and kept giving me the ok sign so I smiled. She took that as an invitation to come over pat my saree, check out the mehndi on my hands and then rather unexpectedly she pinched both my cheeks twice!!!! Very random and slightly embarassing in front of all these people!!

In terms of the travelling we have spent some time in the Rajastan desert where we stayed in these old Havelis which are basicially houses built around a courtyard and painted with lavish frescos. They were beautiful but clearly built for midgets. I swear I have lost numerous brain cells by failing to duck whilst entering our bedrooms.

A couple of nights ago we stayed in mud huts overlooking the desert. They were extremely comfortable swinging seats and four poster beds. I definitiely could get used to that.

Yesterday we visited the Amber Fort in Jaipur which is a fascinating fort containing three different palaces which were used depending on the time of year. It was full of Indian tourists and every now and then one of them would ask me to get in a photo with their child only to find myself getting completely mobbed as about 30 other indians tried to get in the picture. A little scary, perhaps they thought I was a Bollywood star!!! Not!

Last night a couple of us went to see a Bollywood movie at the cinema. It was predominantly in Hindi with a couple of sentances thrown in in English. Thankfully our guide came with us and was able to translate!! The movie was ridiculously lavish and set in the Bahamas. So far removed from actual Indian society it was untrue. My favourite part was when Kylie Minogue made an appearance and did a bit of singing and dancing. Think Kylie may have had a bit of work done since I last saw her!!

As for the Indian food it is nice but having Indian food three times a day is just far too much. I don't think I will want to eat Indian for the next year once I get back from this trip!!

Anyway that's it from me blogland. I have some ridiculously amazing photos from the wedding which I can't wait to share but that will have to wait till I get back!! 

Anyway people I have got to dash there is a McDonalds calling my name and there is not a curry in sight!!!

Over and out blogland!!!

Comments

[Melanie Hughes]

Great to hear about your trip. Sounds totally amazing, can't wait to see some photos and some LO's from this trip. Are you going to get some luscious material to use in your album or cover it?? Very jealous.

Mel x

[Debbie]

Sounds amazing - look forward to the wedding photos

[Tcake]

Hi ... glad to hear that you had a fantastic time...looking forward to the pictures.
Teresa x